[64]
Now, O judges, mark what followed; things which you have already heard, and which
the Roman people will not hear now for the first time, and which have been reported
abroad among foreign nations to the furthest corners of the earth. The kings, whom I
have spoken of, had brought to Rome a
candelabrum of the finest jewels, made with most extraordinary skill, in order to
place it in the Capitol; but as they found that temple not yet finished, they could
not place it there. Nor were they willing to display it and produce it in common, in
order that it might seem more splendid when it was placed at its proper time in the
shrine of the great and good Jupiter; and
brighter; also, as its beauty would come fresh and untarnished before the eyes of
men. They determined, therefore, to take it back with them into Syria, with the intention, when they should hear
that the image of the great and good Jupiter was dedicated, of sending ambassadors who should bring that
exquisite and most beautiful present, with other offerings, to the Capitol.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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