ought to have been carried on
against the tyrants, the enemies both of the Syracusans and the Roman
people; that the city ought to have been recovered, not captured; and,
when recovered, should have been firmly established under its ancient
laws and liberty, and not distressed by war, when worn out with a
wretched state of bondage. That in the contest between the tyrants and
the Roman general, that most beautiful and celebrated city, formerly
the granary and treasury of the Roman people, which was held up as the
reward of the victor, had been destroyed; a city by whose munificence
and bounty the commonwealth had been assisted and adorned on many
occasions, and lastly, during this very Punic war. Should king Hiero,
that most faithful friend of the Roman empire, rise from the shades,
with what face could either Syracuse or Rome be shown to him, when,
after beholding his half-demolished and plundered native city, he
should see, on entering Rome, the spoils of his country in the
vestibule, as it were, of the city, and almost in the very gates?"
Although these and other similar things were said, to throw odium upon
the consul and excite compassion for the Sicilians, yet the fathers,
out of regard for Marcellus, passed a milder decree, to the effect,
"that what Marcellus had done while prosecuting the war, and when
victorious, should be confirmed. That for the time to come, the senate
would look to the affairs of Syracuse, and would give it in charge to
the consul Laevinus, to consult the interest of that state, so far as
it could be done without detriment to the commonwealth." Two senators
having been sent to the Capitol to request the consul to return to the
senate-house, and the Sicilians having been called in, the decree of
the senate was read. The deputies were addressed in terms of kindness,
and dismissed, when they threw themselves at the knees of the consul,
Marcellus, beseeching him to pardon them for what they had said for
the purpose of exciting compassion, and procuring relief from their
calamities, and to receive themselves and the city of Syracuse under
his protection and patronage; after which, the consul addressed them
kindly and dismissed them.

33. An audience of the senate was then granted to the Campanians.
Their speech was more calculated to excite compassion, but their case
less favourable, for neither could they deny that they deserved the
punishment they had suffered, nor were there any tyrants to whom