[93]
What? did you not also at Agrigentum take
away a monument of the same Publius Scipio, a most beautiful statue of Apollo, on
whose thigh there was the name of Myron, inscribed in diminutive silver letters, out
of that most holy temple of Aesculapius? And when, O judges, he had privately
committed that atrocity, and when in that most nefarious crime and robbery he had
employed some of the most worthless men of the city as his guides and assistants,
the whole city was greatly excited. For the Agrigentines were regretting at the same
time the kindness of Africanus, and a national object of their worship, and an
ornament of their city, and a record of their victory, and an evidence of their
alliance with us. And therefore a command is imposed on those men who were the chief
men of the city, and a charge is given to the quaestors and aediles to keep watch by
night over the sacred edifices. And, indeed, at Agrigentum, (I imagine, on account of the great number and virtue of
these men, and because great numbers of Roman citizens, gallant and intrepid and
honourable men, live and trade in that town among the Agrigentines in the greatest
harmony,) he did not dare openly to carry off, or even to beg for the things that
took his fancy.
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