As gold, under pretence of
 being given to the Jews, was accustomed every year to be exported out of Italy and all the
 provinces to Jerusalem, Flaccus issued an edict establishing a law that it should not be lawful
 for gold to be exported out of Asia. And who is there, O judges, who cannot honestly praise this
 measure? The senate had often decided, and when I was consul it came to a most solemn resolution
 that gold ought not to be exported. But to resist this barbarous superstition were an act of
 dignity, to despise the multitude of Jews, which at times was most unruly in the assemblies in
 defence of the interests of the republic, was an act of the greatest wisdom. “But Cnaeus
 Pompeius, after he had taken Jerusalem, though he was a conqueror, touched nothing which was in
 that temple.” In the first place, he acted wisely, as he did
 in many other instances, in leaving no room for his detractors to say anything against him, in a
 city so prone to suspicion and to evil speaking. For I do not suppose that the religion of the
 Jews, our enemies, was any obstacle to that most illustrious general, but that he was hindered
 by his own modesty. Where then is the guilt? Since you nowhere impute any theft to us, since you
 approve of the edict, and confess that it was passed in due form, and did not deny that the gold
 was openly sought for and produced the facts of the case themselves show that the business was
 executed by the instrumentality of men of the highest character. There was a hundredweight of
 gold, more or less openly seized at Apamea, and weighed out in the forum at the feet of the
 praetor, by Sextus Caesius, a Roman knight, a most excellent and upright man; twenty pounds
 weight or a little more were seized at Laodicea, by Lucius Peducaeus, who is here in court, one
 of our judges; some was seized also at Adramyttium, by Cnaeus Domitius, the lieutenant, and a
 small quantity at Pergamus.