[84]
O ye immortal gods!
What shall we say, when Cleomenes, a Syracusan, is ordered to command the soldiers,
and the ships, and the officers of these very cities? Has not Verres by such an
action taken away all the honour due to worth, to justice, and to old services? Have
we ever once waged war in Sicily, that we
have not had the Centuripans for our friends, and the Syracusans for our enemies?
And I am speaking now only by way of recollection of past time, not as meaning
insult to that city. And therefore that most illustrious man and consummate general,
Marcus Marcellus, by whose valour Syracuse was taken, by whose clemency it was preserved, forbade any
Syracusan to dwell in that part of the city which is called the Island. To this day,
I say, it is contrary to law for any Syracusan to dwell in that part of the city.
For it is a place which even a very few men can defend. And therefore he would not
entrust it to any but the most faithful men; and he had another reason too, because
in that part of the city there is access to ships from the open sea. Therefore he
did not think fit to entrust the keys of the place to those who had often excluded
our armies.
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