Book 2
3
A man of Delphi myself and an equal participant in our public good name if we maintain it and in ~ our disrepute if we acquire it from the present case, I beg you neither to lock the temple to worshippers nor to give the world a bad opinion of the city as one that quibbles over things sent the god, and tries givers by ballot and jury. No one would venture to give in future if he knew that the god would not accept anything not previously approved by the men of Delphi.
4
As a matter of fact, Apollo has already voted justly about the gift. At any rate, if he hated Phalaris or loathed his present, he could easily have sunk it in the middle of the Ionian sea, along with the ship that carried it. But, quite to the contrary, he vouchsafed them a calm passage, they say, and a safe arrival at Cirrha.
5
By this it is clear that he accepts the monarch’s worship. You must cast the same vote as he, and add this bull to the other attractions of the temple: for it would be most preposterous that a’man who has sent so magnificent a present to our god should get the sentence of exclusion from the sanctuary and should be paid for his piety by being pronounced unworthy even to make an oblation.
