[63]
When, owing to this man's inordinate avarice,
there was a fleet indeed in name in Sicily,
but in reality empty ships, fit only to carry plunder for the praetor, not to strike
terror into pirates; nevertheless, while Publius Caesetius and Publius Tadius were
sailing about with these ten half-manned ships, they, I will not say took, but led
away with them one ship, laden with the spoils of the pirates, evidently overwhelmed
and sinking with the burden of its freight. That vessel was full of a number of most
beautiful quilts, full of quantities of well-wrought plate, and of coined money;
full of embroidered robes. This one vessel was not taken by our fleet, but was found
at Megaris, a place not far from Syracuse. And when the news was brought to him,
although he was lying in his tent on the shore, with a lot of women, drunk, still he
roused himself, and immediately sent to the quaestor and to his own lieutenant many
men to act as guards, in order that everything might be brought to him to see in an
uninjured state, as soon as possible.
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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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