In the year of Rome 646, Cepio, a man so covetous of wealth as to
think both peculation and sacrilege justifiable in the pursuit of it,
was sent into Transalpine Gaul. This general commenced his operations
by attacking Tolosa, now Toulouse. The Roman garrison had been placed
in irons. Cepio was admitted by treachery into the city, which he
delivered up to pillage. Nothing was spared, sacred or profane; all
became the prey of the soldiery. It is said that the consul’s share of
the booty amounted to nearly two millions sterling, principally taken
from the temples. It is to be remembered, when we feel astonished at
this amount of wealth, that Tolosa was an ancient and very flourishing
city, by its position connected with Greece, and sharing considerably
in the Mediterranean trade. Notwithstanding its favourable position for
commerce, during the last eight hundred years, Toulouse has been more
celebrated for its love of the arts and its patronage of the Belles
Lettres than for its industrial or trading enterprise. Historians held
out the sacrilegious plunder of Cepio as a lesson to other conquerors;
for they say he was punished in a striking manner: the Romans were
defeated everywhere, and the life of Cepio proved such a continuous
series of disasters, that when a man was unfortunate, it became a
proverb to say he had “Aurum Tolosanum” (he was possessed of Toulouse
gold).