He therefore began by
little and little to rail at the hurry of business at Rome, the throng of
people, the flock of suitors: he applauded "retirement and quiet; where,
while they were separate from irksome fatigues, nor exposed to the
discontents and resentments of particulars, all affairs of moment were
best despatched."
Next were heard ambassadors from the Lacedaemonians and Messenians, about
the right that each people claimed to the Temple of Diana Limenetis; which
the Lacedaemonians asserted to be theirs, "founded in their territory, and
dedicated by their ancestors," and offered as proofs the ancient authority
of their annals, and the hymns of the old poets. "It had been in truth
taken from them by the superior force of Philip of Macedon, when at war
with him; but restored afterwards by the judicial decision of Julius
Caesar and Marc Anthony." The Messenians, on the contrary, pleaded, "the
ancient partition of Peloponnesus amongst the descendants of Hercules;
whence the territory where the temple stood, had fallen to their king; and
the monuments of that allotment still remained, engraven in stone and old
tables of brass; but, if the testimony of histories and poets were
appealed to; they themselves had the most and the fullest.
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