29.18
"There
is one matter about which our religious instincts compel us to make a special
complaint, and we should be glad if you would hear what has happened, and
if you so decide, take steps to clear your State from the taint of sacrilege.
We have seen with what pious care you not only worship your own gods,
but even recognise those of other nations. Now there is in our city a shrine
sacred to Proserpine, and I believe some rumours of the sanctity of that
temple reached your ears during your war with Pyrrhus. On his return
voyage from Sicily he touched at Locri and added to the atrocities which he
had committed against us for our loyalty to you by plundering the treasury of
Proserpine, which up to that day had never been disturbed. He placed the
money on board his fleet, and continued his journey overland. What
happened, senators? The very next day his fleet was shattered by a terrible
storm and the ships which were carrying the sacred gold were all cast ashore
on our coast. Taught by this great disaster that there are gods after all, the
arrogant monarch gave orders for all the money to be collected and carried
back to Proserpine's treasury. In spite of this nothing ever prospered with
him afterwards, he was driven out of Italy and in a foolhardy attempt to
enter Argos by night he met with an ignoble and dishonourable death. Your
commander and the military tribunes had heard of this incident and of
countless others which were related to them not so much to increase the
feeling of dread as to give proofs of the direct and manifest power of the
goddess, a power which we and our ancestors had often experienced.
Notwithstanding this, they dared to lay sacrilegious hands on that inviolate
treasure and to attains themselves and their houses and your soldiers with the
guilt of their unhallowed plunder. We implore you therefore, senators, by all
you hold sacred, not to employ these men in any military service till you have
expiated their crime, lest their sacrilege should be atoned for, not by their
blood alone but also by disaster to the commonwealth.
Even now the wrath of the goddess is not slow to visit your officers
and soldiers. Frequently have they already engaged in pitched battles;
Pleminius leading the one side, the military tribunes the other. They have
fought quite as furiously with one another as they ever fought with the
Carthaginians, and in their frenzy would have given Hannibal an opportunity
of recapturing Locri if we had not sent for Scipio. Do not suppose that
whilst the guilt of sacrilege drove the soldiers mad, the goddess did not
manifest her wrath by punishing the leaders. It is just here where she
manifested it most clearly. The tribunes were beaten with rods by their
superior officer, afterwards he was caught unawares by them and, in addition
to being hacked all over, his nose and ears were sliced off and he was left for
dead. At length, recovering from his wounds, he placed the tribunes in irons
and then, after flogging them and subjecting them to all the tortures that are
inflicted on slaves, he put them to death and after they were dead forbade
them to be buried. In this way is the goddess inflicting retribution upon the
despoilers of her temple, nor will she cease to vex them with every kind of
madness until the sacred hoard has once more been deposited in the shrine.
Once when our ancestors were hard pressed in the war with Croto, they
decided, as the temple was outside the city walls, to carry the treasure into
the city. A voice was heard at night proceeding from the shrine and uttering
a warning: 'Lay no hand upon it! The goddess will protect her temple.'
Deterred by religious fears from moving the treasure, they wanted to build a
wall round the temple. After it had been carried up some distance it suddenly
collapsed. Often in the past has the goddess protected her temple and the
seat of her presence, or else as at the present time she has exacted a heavy
atonement from those who have violated it. But our wrongs she cannot
avenge, nor can any one but you, senators; it is your honour that we invoke
and your protection beneath which we seek shelter. To allow Locri to remain
under that commander and those troops is, as far as we are concerned, the
same as handing us over for punishment to all the rage of Hannibal and his
Carthaginians. We do not ask you to accept what we say at once, in the
absence of the accused or without hearing his defence. Let him appear, let
him hear the charges against him, and let him rebut them. If there be any
single crime that one man can be guilty of towards another, which that man
has failed to commit against us, then we are willing to go through all our
sufferings, if it is in our power to do so, once more, and ready to pronounce
him void of all offence towards gods and men."