• When Caesar robbed the Roman treasury on the Tarpeian hill, the tribune Metellus strove to defend it; but Caesar, drawing his sword, said to him, “It is easier to do this than to say it.” Lucan, Pharsalia , III :⁠— “The tribune with unwilling steps withdrew, While impious hands the rude assault renew: The brazen gates with thundering strokes resound, And the Tarpeian mountain rings around. At length the sacred storehouse, open laid, The hoarded wealth of ages past displayed; There might be seen the sums proud Carthage sent, Her long impending ruin to prevent. There heaped the Macedonian treasures shone, What great Flaminius and Aemilius won From vanquished Philip and his hapless son. There lay, what flying Pyrrhus lost, the gold Scorned by the patriot’s honesty of old: Whate’er our parsimonious sires could save, What tributary gifts rich Syria gave; The hundred Cretan cities’ ample spoil; What Cato gathered from the Cyprian isle. Riches of captive kings by Pompey borne, In happier days, his triumph to adorn, From utmost India and the rising morn; Wealth infinite, in one rapacious day, Became the needy soldiers’ lawless prey: And wretched Rome, by robbery laid low, Was poorer than the bankrupt Caesar now.” ↩