Note 1171 — Chapter VIII · Rome
Reading edition
Cicero probably regarded the wealth of Superbus as military spoil; cp. de Rep. II. 46 (25), “deinde uictoriis diuitiisque subnixus exsultabat insolenter,” but on a point like this his words are of little weight. Equally valueless as evidence for the state of things in regal Rome are his contemptuous references to artizans, de Off. I. 150 (42), “opifices omnes in sordida arte uersantur: neque enim quidquam ingenuum habere potest officina.”