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Why is it that of all the things dedicated to the
gods it is the custom to allow only spoils of war to
disintegrate with the passage of time, and not to
move them beforehand1 nor repair them?
Is it in order that men may believe that their
repute deserts them at the same time with the
obliteration of their early memorials, and may ever
seek to bring in some fresh reminder of valour?
Or is it rather that, as time makes dim the
memorials of their dissension with their enemies, it
would be invidious and malicious to restore and
renew them? Nor among the Greeks, either, do
[p. 65]
they that first erected a trophy of stone or of bronze2
stand in good repute.
1 That is, to move them away before they fell to pieces; for the ancients used to clear out their temples periodically.
2 AS did the Boeotians after Leuctra: Cicero, De Inventione, ii. 23 (69); cf. Diodorus, xiii. 24. 5-6. Of course this means substituting for the impromptu suit of armour, set on a stake, a permanent replica; but memorials of battles had been popular for many years before this time. Cf. Moralia, 401 c-d.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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