The Spoils of Syracuse: Works of Art Taken To Rome
A city is not really adorned by what is brought from
without, but by the virtue of its own inhabitants. . . .
The Romans, then, decided to transfer these things to their
own city and to leave nothing behind.
Whether
they were right in doing so, and consulted their
true interests or the reverse, is a matter admitting
of much discussion; but I think the balance of
argument is in favour of believing it to have been
wrong then, and wrong now. If such had been
the works by which they had exalted their
country, it is clear that there would have been
some reason in transferring thither the things by which they
had become great. But the fact was that, while leading lives
of the greatest simplicity themselves, as far as possible removed from the luxury and extravagance which these things
imply, they yet conquered the men who had always possessed
them in the greatest abundance and of the finest quality. Could
there have been a greater mistake than theirs? Surely it
would be an incontestable error for a people to abandon the
habits of the conquerors and adopt those of the conquered;
and at the same time involve itself in that jealousy which is the
most dangerous concomitant of excessive prosperity. For the
looker-on never congratulates those who take what belongs
to others, without a feeling of jealousy mingling with his pity for
the losers. But suppose such prosperity to go on increasing, and
a people to accumulate into its own hands all the possessions
of the rest of the world, and moreover to invite in a way the
plundered to share in the spectacle they present, in that case
surely the mischief is doubled. For it is no longer a case of
the spectators pitying their neighbours, but themselves, as they
recall the ruin of their own country. Such a sight produces
an outburst, not of jealousy merely, but of rage against the
victors. For the reminder of their own disaster serves to enhance
their hatred of the authors of it. To sweep the gold and silver,
however, into their own coffers was perhaps reasonable; for it
was impossible for them to aim at universal empire without
crippling the means of the rest of the world, and securing the
same kind of resources for themselves. But they might have
left in their original sites things that had nothing to do with
material wealth; and thus at the same time have avoided
exciting jealousy, and raised the reputation of their country:
adorning it, not with pictures and statues, but with dignity of
character and greatness of soul. I have spoken thus much as
a warning to those who take upon themselves to rule over
others, that they may not imagine that, when they pillage cities,
the misfortunes of others are an honour to their own country.
The Romans, however, when they transferred these things to
Rome, used such of them as belonged to individuals to increase
the splendour of private establishments, and such as belonged
to the state to adorn the city. . . .