Vossius remarks that to save his
own character, Caesar says that he found this treasury open. But Caesar
does not say that he found it open. He says that Lentulus left it
open. There was time enough for Metellus to lock the door after
Lentulus ran away. Caesar would have been a fool not to take the money;
and if he wanted it, he would of course break the door open, if he
found it shut. But whether the door was open or shut was unimportant;
the wrongful act, if there was any, consisted in taking the money, and
he would not have been excused for taking it simply because the door
was unlocked. I believe Caesar broke it open (Cicero _Ad Attic._ x. 4;
Dion Cassius, 41. c. 17; and the authorities quoted by Reimarus). I
also believe Caesar when he says that Lentulus left the door unlocked.
The Senate had supplied Pompeius with money for the war out of the
ordinary treasury. When Caesar took Corfinium, he gave to Domitius all
the money that he found there, which was to a large amount, though
this was public money and had been given to Domitius by Pompeius to
pay his soldiers with. (Appianus, ii. 28; Caesar, _Civil War_, i. 23.)
When "that man of greatest purity and integrity," as Cicero calls him,
M. Terentius Varro, commanded for Pompeius in Spain (B.C. 48), he
carried off the treasure from the temple of Hercules at Cadiz. That
man, on whom Cicero vents every term of abuse that his fear and hatred
could supply, restored the stolen money to the god.
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