[12]
“That may be, yet men are sometimes
led away from their habits and principles by large sums of money.” Let us
see, then, how great a sum this was which could turn Heius, a man of exceeding
riches, by no means covetous, away from decency, from affection, and from religion.
You ordered him, I suppose, to enter in his account books, “All these
statues of Praxiteles, of Myron, of Polycletus, were sold to Verres for six thousand
five hundred sesterces.” Read the extracts
from his accounts— [The accounts of Heius are read.] I am delighted that
the illustrious names of these workmen, whom those men extol to the skies, have
fallen so low in the estimation of Verres—the Cupid of Praxiteles for
sixteen hundred sesterces. From that forsooth has come
the proverb “I had rather buy it than ask for it.”
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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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