But the people of Syracuse were vexed at the insults heaped upon them by the tyrants. For Mamercus, who valued himself highly as a writer of poems and tragedies, boasted of his victory over the mercenaries, and in dedicating their shields to the gods wrote the following insolent couplet:—
These bucklers, purple-painted, decked with ivory, gold, and amber,
We captured with our simple little shields.
Edition :
Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. 6.
Notes :
The long-term consequence "boasting" needs to be added.
It is not sure wether this refers to the ambush mentioned in 30.3, because Mamercus is not explicitly mentioned there.
