[124]
But now what shall I say of the folding-doors of that temple? I am afraid that
those who have not seen these things may think that I am speaking too highly of, and
exaggerating everything, though no one ought to suspect that I should be so
inconsiderate as to be selling that so many men of the highest reputation,
especially when they are judges in this cause, who have been at Syracuse, and who have seen all these things
themselves, should be witnesses to my rashness and falsehood. I am able to prove
this distinctly, O judges, that no more magnificent doors, none more beautifully
wrought of gold and ivory, ever existed in an, temple. It is incredible how many
Greeks have left written accounts of the beauty of these doors: they, perhaps, may
admire and extol them too much; be it so, still it is more honourable for our
republic, O judges, that our general, in a time of war, should have left those
things which appeared to them so beautiful, than that our praetor should have
carried them off in a time of peace. On the folding-doors were some subjects most
minutely executed in ivory; all these he caused to be taken out; he tore off and
took away a very tine head of the Gorgon with snakes for hair; and he showed, too,
that he was influenced not only by admiration for the workmanship, but by a desire
of money and gain; for he did not hesitate to take away also all the golden knobs
from these folding-doors, which were numerous and heavy; and it was not the
workmanship of these, but the weight which pleased him. And so he left the
folding-doors in such state, that, though they had formerly contributed greatly to
the ornament of the temple, they now seemed to have been made only for the purpose
of shutting it up.
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