and senate of Syracuse; if the
body of the Syracusan people, and not their tyrants, Hippocrates and
Epicydes, who held them in thraldom, had closed the gates against
Marcellus; if they had carried on war with the Roman people with the
animosity of Carthaginians, what more could Marcellus have done in
hostility than he did, without levelling Syracuse with the ground?
Nothing indeed was left at Syracuse except the walls and gutted houses
of her city, the temples of her gods broken open and plundered; her
very gods and their ornaments having been carried away. From many
their possessions also were taken away, so that they were unable to
support themselves and their families, even from the naked soil, the
only remains of their plundered property. They entreated the conscript
fathers, that they would order, if not all, at least such of their
property as could be found and identified, to be restored to the
owners." After they had made these complaints, Laevinus ordered them
to withdraw from the senate-house, that the senate might deliberate on
their requests, when Marcellus exclaimed, "Nay, rather let them stay
here, that I may reply to their charges in their presence, since we
conduct your wars for you, conscript fathers, on the condition of
having as our accusers those whom we have conquered with our arms. Of
the two cities which have been captured this year, let Capua arraign
Fulvius, and Syracuse Marcellus."

31. The deputies having been brought back into the senate-house, the
consul said: "I am not so unmindful of the dignity of the Roman people
and of the office I fill as consul, conscript fathers, as to make a
defence against charges brought by Greeks, had the inquiry related
only to my own delinquency. But it is not so much what I have done, as
what they deserved to suffer, which comes into dispute. For if they
were not our enemies, there was no difference between sacking Syracuse
then, and when Hiero was alive. But if, on the other hand, they have
renounced their connexion with us, attacked our ambassadors sword in
hand, shut us out of their city and walls, and defended themselves
against us with an army of Carthaginians, who can feel indignant that
they should suffer the hostilities they have offered? I turned away
from the leading men of the Syracusans, when they were desirous of
delivering up the city to me, and esteemed Sosis and Mericus as more
proper persons for so important an affair. Now you are not the meane