[75]
When that enemy of all
sacred things, that violator of all religious scruples saw it, he began to burn with
covetousness and insanity, as if he himself had been struck with that torch. He
commands the magistrates to take the statue down and give it to him; and declares to
them that nothing can be more agreeable to him. But they said that it was impossible
for them to do so; that they were prevented from doing so, not only by the most
extreme religious reverence, but also by the greatest respect for their own laws and
courts of justice. Then he began to entreat this favour of them, then to threaten
them, then to try and excite their hopes, then to arouse their fears. They opposed
to his demands the name of Africanus; they said that it was the gift of the Roman
people; that they themselves had no right over a thing which a most illustrious
general, having taken a city of the enemy, had chosen to stand there as a monument
of the victory of the Roman people.
This text is part of:
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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