After this defeat, the inhabitants lost all hope of defending themselves; so that all the Achaians who had retired into Corinth, and most of the citizens, quitted it the following night, to save themselves how they could. The consul having entered the city, abandoned it to be plundered by the soldiers. All the men who were left in it were put to the sword, and the women and children sold; and after the statues, paintings, and richest moveables were removed, in order to their being carried to Rome, the houses were set on fire, and the whole city continued in flames for several days. From that time the Corinthian brass became more valuable than ever, though it had been in reputation long before. It is pretended that the gold, silver, and brass, which were melted, and ran together in this conflagration, formed a new and precious metal. The walls were afterwards desolated, and razed to their very foundations. All this was executed by order of the Senate, to punish the insolence of the Corinthians, who had violated the law of nations, in their treatment of the ambassadors sent to them by Rome. The booty taken at Corinth was sold, and considerable sums raised from it. Amongst the paintings there was a piece drawn by the most celebrated hand in Greece, representing Bacchus, the beauty of which was not known to the Romans, who were at that time entirely ignorant of the polite arts. Polybius, who was then in the country, had the mortification to see the painting serve the soldiers for a table to play at dice upon. It was afterwards sold to Attalus for £3625 sterling. Pliny mentions another picture by the same painter, which the same Attalus purchased for 110 talents. The consul, surprised that the price of the painting in question should rise so high, interposed his authority, and retained it contrary to public faith, and notwithstanding the complaints of Attalus, because he imagined there was some hidden virtue in the prize, unknown to him. He did not act in that manner for his private interest, nor with the view of appropriating it to himself, as he sent it to Rome, to be applied in adorning the city. When it arrived at Rome, it was set up in the temple of Ceres, whither the judges went to see it out of curiosity, as a masterpiece of art; and it remained there till it was burned with that temple.