there was a public assembly of the citizens, and Nikias, in the midst of a speech upon state policy, suddenly fell to the ground, and after a short time, as all men were, naturally, silent with surprise, he raised his head, and turning it round he began to speak in deep and trembling tones, which he gradually made shriller and more intense, until, seeing the whole theatre, where the meeting was, silent with horror, he threw off his cloak, tore his tunic, and, half naked, rushed to the gate of the theatre, crying out that he was pursued by the “Mothers.”  As no one dared to touch or stop him, from fear of the gods, but all made way for him, he passed out of the city gate, not omitting any of the cries and trembling of body of a person under demoniacal possession.  His wife, who was in the secret, and her husband’s confederate, first brought her children and prostrated herself as a suppliant before the goddesses, and then under pretence of seeking her wandering husband managed to leave the city without opposition.  Thus they safely reached Marcellus at Syracuse; and when, after enduring many affronts and insolent proceeding from the people of Engyion Marcellus took them all prisoners, and imprisoned them, meaning to put them all to death, Nikias at first stood by weeping, but at length, embracing Marcellus as a suppliant, he begged for the lives of his countrymen, beginning with his own personal enemies, until he relented, and set them all at liberty.  Nor did he touch their city, but gave Nikias ample lands and rich presents.  This story is told by Poseidonius the philosopher.

XXI.  When the Romans recalled Marcellus, to conduct the war in their own country, he removed most of the beautiful ornaments of the city of Syracuse, to be admired at his triumphal procession, and to adorn Rome.  For at that time Rome neither possessed nor knew of any works of art, nor had she any delicacy of taste in such matters.  Filled with the blood-stained arms and spoils of barbarians, and crowded with trophies of war and memorials of triumphs, she was no pleasant or delightful spectacle, fit to feed the eyes of unwarlike and luxurious spectators, but, as Epameinondas called the plain of Boeotia “the Stage of Ares,” and Xenophon called Ephesus “the Workshop of War,” so, in my opinion, you might call Rome at that time, in the words of Pindar, “the Domain of Ares, who revels in war.”  Wherefore Marcellus gained the greater credit with the vulgar, because he enriched the city with statues possessing the Hellenic grace and truth to nature, while Fabius Maximus was more esteemed by the elders.  He neither touched nor removed anything of the kind from the city of Tarentum, which he took, but carried off all the money and other property, and let the statues remain, quoting the proverb:  “Let us,” said he, “leave the Tarentines their angry gods.”  They blamed Marcellus’s proceedings as being invidious for Rome, because he had led not only men, but also gods as captives in his triumph, and also because the people, who before this were accustomed either to fight or to till the ground, and were ignorant of luxury and indolent pleasures, like the Herakles of Euripides,