[31]
When I have
spoken of your house,—in which, however, a chapel has been put up
in such a way that another built it, and you have only got to pull it
down,—then I will see whether it is necessary for me to speak also
of other places. For some people think that it belongs to me to open the
armoury of the temple of Tellus. They say that it is not long ago that it
was open, and I recollect it myself. Now they say that the most holy part of
it, and the place entitled to the greatest reverence, is occupied by a
private vestibule. There are many considerations which influence
me,—namely, this, that the temple of Tellus is put
particularly under my care; and that he who took away that armoury said that
my house, which was declared free by the decision of the pontiffs, had been
adjudged to his brother. I am influenced also at this time of dearness of
provisions, of barrenness of the lands, and of scarcity of the crops, by the
reverence due to Tellus; and all the more, because, on account of this same
prodigy, an atonement is said to be due to Tellus.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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