ON THE COURT RELATING TO CORN.
The Argument.
A great part of this speech is occupied with charges against Verres of
extortion committed with respect to the decuriae or tenths. ’ÄúThe decuriae
formed a
part of the vectigalia of the Romans, and were paid by subjects whose territory,
either by conquest, or by deditio, had become the property of the state.
They consisted as the name denotes, of a tithe or tenth of the produce
of the soil levied upon the cultivators (aratores) or occupiers (possessores)
of the
lands, which from being subject to this payment were called agri decumani
. . . It appears from Cicero (c. Verr. act. ii. lib. iii..) that Romans,
on reducing
Sicily to a province, allowed to the old inhabitants a continuance of their
ancient rights, and that, with some few exceptions, the territory of all
the states was
subjected, as formerly, to the payment of a tithe on corn, wine, oil, and
the fruges minutae.1 It was further determined that place and time of paying
these
tithes to the decumani should ’Äòbe and continue’Äô as settled by the law
of king Hiero (Lex Hieronica), which enacted severe penalties against any
arator
who did not pay his due, as well as against the decumani who exacted more
than their tenth . . . The name of decumani was also applied to the farmers
of
these tributes, who purchased them from the state, and then collected them
on their own account.’Äù In fact ’Äúthe revenues which Rome derived from
conquered countries, consisting chiefly of tolls, tithes, harbour duties,
&c.... were chiefly let out, or, as the Romans expressed it, sold by
the censors in Rome
itself to the highest bidders, (Cic. c. Verr. ii. iii. 7.)... The tithes
raised in the province of Sicily alone, with the exception of those of
wine, oil, and garden
produce, were not sold at Rome, but in the district of Sicily itself, according
to a practice established by Hiero (Cic. c. Verr. ii. iii. 64, 33). The
persons who
undertook the farming of the public revenue, of course, belonged to the
wealthiest Romans. and down to the end of the republic, as well as during
the earlier
part of the empire, the farming of the public revenues was almost exclusively
in the hands of the equites, whence the words equites and publicani are
sometimes used as synonymous, (Cic. c. Verr. i. 51, 52, 71.) . . . The
publicani had to give security to the state for the sum at which they bought
one or
more branches of revenue in a province; and as no one person was rich enough
to give sufficient security, a number of equites generally united together
and
formed a company (socii, societas, or corpus ) which was recognised by
the state, and by which they were enabled to carry on their undertakings
on a
large scale. The shares which each partner in such a company took in the
business were called partes, and if they were small particulae. The responsible
person in each company, and the one who contracted with the state, was
called manceps, but there was also a magister to manage the business of
each
company, who resided at Rome, and kept up an extensive correspondence with
the agents in the provinces, (Cic. c. Verr. ii. 74.) He seems to have held
his
office only for one year; his representative in the province was called
submagister, who had to travel about and superintend the actual business
of collecting
the revenues . . . Nobody but a Roman citizen was allowed to become a member
of a company of publicani; freedmen and slaves were excluded, (Cic. c.
Verr. ii. iii. 39) No Roman magistrate, however, or governor of a province,
was allowed to take any share whatever in a company of publicani, (Cic.
c. Verr.
ii. iii. 57), a regulation which was chiefly intended as a protection against
the oppression of the provincials. . . The actual levying or collecting
of the taxes in
the provinces was performed by an inferior class of men, who were said
operas publicanis dare, or esse in operis societatis, (Cic. c. Verr. ii.
iii. 41..) They
were engaged by the publicani, and consisted of freemen as well as slaves,
Romans as well as provincials.’Äù (Cic. c. Verr. ii. iii. 77)--Smith, Dict.
Ant. pp.
316, 806, vv. Decumae, Publicani.
Verres had broken the law which forbade a governor of a province to hold
shares in a company which farmed the revenue; and as he had therefore a
personal interest in increasing the taxes, he committed unexampled acts
of extortion himself, and protected those who committed similar act. And
in many
other respects he had plundered the cultivators of the public domain, whom
I have called in this translation ’Äúagriculturists,’Äù not using the word
’Äúfarmers,’Äù
by which word I have rendered ’Äúpublicani.’Äù
The medimnus, as we see, (ch. 45, 46), was equal to six modii, and contained
within a fraction of twelve English gallons, or a bushel and a half.
I. Every man, O judges, who, without being prompted by any enmity, or stung
by any private injury, or tempted by any reward, prosecutes another for
the
good of the republic, ought to consider, not only how great a burden he
is liking upon himself at the time, but also how much trouble he is courting
for the
remainder of his life. For he imposes on himself a law of innocence, of
moderation, and of all virtues, who demands from another an account of
his life; and
he does so the more if, as I said before, he does this being urges by no
other motive except a desire for the common good. [2] For if any
one assumes to
himself to correct the manners of others, and to reprove their faults,
who will pardon him, if he himself turn aside in any particular from the
strict line of
duty? Wherefore, a citizen of this sort is the more to he praised and beloved
by all men for this reason also,--that he does not only remove a worthless
citizen
from the republic, but he also promises and binds himself to be such a
man as to be compelled, not only by an ordinary inclination to virtue and
duty, but by
even some more unavoidable principle, to live virtuously and honourably.
[3] And, therefore, O judges, that most illustrious and most eloquent
man, Lucius
Crassus, was often heard to say that he did not repent of anything so much
as having ever proceeded against Caius Carbo: for by so doing he had his
inclination as to everything less uncontrolled, and he thought, too, that
his way of life was remarked by more people than he liked. And he, fortified
as he
was by the protection of his own genius and fortune, was yet hampered by
this anxiety which he had brought upon himself, before his judgment was
fully
formed, at his entrance into life; on which account virtue and integrity
is less, looked for from those who undertake this business as young men,
than from
those who do so at a riper age; for they, for the sake of credit and ostentation,
become accusers of others before they have had time to take notice how
much
more free the life of those who have accused no one is. We who have already
shown both what we could do, and what judgment we had, unless we could
easily restrain our desires, should never, of our own accord, deprive ourselves
of all liberty and freedom in our way of life.
II.[4] And I have a greater burden on me than those who have accused other
men, (if that deserve to be called a burden which you bear with pleasure
and
delight,)--but still I have in one respect undertaken a greater burden
than others who have done the same thing, because all men are required
to abstain most
especially from those vices for which they have reproved another. Have
you accused any thief or rapacious man? You must for ever avoid all suspicion
of
avarice. Have you prosecuted any spiteful or cruel man? You must for ever
take care not to appear in any matter the least harsh or severe. A seducer?
an
adulterer? You must, take care most diligently that no trace of licentiousness
be ever seen in your conduct. In short, everything which you have impeached
in
another must be earnestly avoided by you your self. In truth, not only
no accuser, but no reprover even can be endured, who is himself detected
in the vice
which he reproves in another. [5] I, in the case of one man, am finding
fault with every vice which can exist in a wicked and abandoned man. I
say that there
is no indication of lust, of wickedness, of audacity, which you cannot
see clearly in the life of that one man. In the case of this criminal,
I, O judges, establish
this law against myself; that I must so live as to appear to be, and always
to have been, utterly unlike that man, not only in all my actions and words,
but even
in that arrogance and haughtiness of countenance and eyes which you see
before you. I will bear without uneasiness, O judges, that that course
of life which
was previously agreeable to me of my own accord, shall now, by the law
and conditions I hare laid down for myself, become necessary for me.
III.[6] And in the case of this man you often, O Hortensius, are asking
me, under the pressure of what enmity or what injury I have come forward
to accuse
him. I omit all mention of my duty, and of my connection with the Sicilians;
I answer you as to the point of enmity. Do you think there is any greater
enmity
than that arising from the opposite opinions of men, and the contrariety
of their wishes and inclinations? Can he who thinks good faith the holiest
thing in
life avoid being an enemy to that man who, as quaestor, dared to despoil,
to desert, to betray, and to attack his consul, whose counsels he had shared,
whose
money he had received, with all whose business affairs he had been entrusted?
Can he who reverences modesty and chastity behold with equanimity the
daily adulteries, the dissolute manners of that man, the domestic pandering
to his passions? Can he who wishes to pay due honours to the immortal gods,
by
any means avoid being an enemy to that man who has plundered all the temples,
who has dared to commit his robberies even on the track of the wheels of
the sacred car? 2 Must not he who thinks that all men ought to live under
equal laws, be very hostile to you, when he considers the variety and caprice
of
your decrees? Must not he who grieves at the injuries of the allies and
the distresses of the provinces be excited against you by the plundering
of Asia, the
harassing of Pamphylia, the miserable state and the agony of Sicily? Ought
not he who desires the rights and the liberty of the Roman citizens to
be held
sacred among all men,--to be even more than an enemy to you, when here
collects your scourgings, your executions, your crosses erected for the
punishment of Roman citizens? [7] Or if he had in any particular
made a decree contrary to my interest unjustly, would you then think that
I was fairly an
enemy to him; but now that he has acted contrary to the interests, and
property, and advantage, and inclination, and welfare of all good men,
do you ask why
I am an enemy to a man towards whom the whole Roman people is hostile?
I, who above all other men ought to undertake, to gratify the desires of
the
Roman people, even a greater burden and duty than my strength perhaps is
equal to.
IV. What? cannot even those matters, which seem more trifling, move any
one's mind,--that the worthlessness and audacity of that man should have
a more
easy access to your own friendship, O Hortensius, and to that of other
great and noble men, than the virtue and integrity of any one of us? You
hate the
industry of new men; you despise their economy; you scorn their modesty;
you wish their talents and virtues to be depressed and extinguished. [8]
You are
fond of Verres: I suppose so. If you are not gratified with his virtue,
and his innocence, and his industry, and his modesty, and his chastity,
at least you are
transported at his conversation, his accomplishments, and his high breeding.
He has no such gifts; but, on the contrary, all his qualities are stained
with the
most extreme disgrace and infamy, with most extraordinary stupidity and
boorishness. If any man's house is open to this man, do you think it is
open, or
rather that it is yawning and begging something? He is a favourite of your
factors, of your valets. Your freedmen, your slaves, your housemaids, are
in love
with him. He, when he calls, is introduced out of his turn; he alone is
admitted, while others, often most virtuous men, are excluded. From which
it is very
easily understood that those people are the most dear to you who have lived
in such a manner that without your protection they cannot be safe. [9]
What?
do you think this can be endurable to any one,--that we should live on
slender incomes in such a way as not even to wish to acquire anything more;
that we
should be content with maintaining our dignity, and the goodwill of the
Roman people, not by wealth, but by virtue; but that that man having robbed
every
one on all sides, and having escaped with impunity, should live, in prosperity
and abundance? that all your banquets should be decorated with his plate,
your
forum and hall of assembly with his statues and pictures? especially when,
through your own valour, you are rich in all such trophies? That it should
be
Verres who adorns your villas with his spoils? That it should be Verres
who is vying with Lucius Mummius: so that the one appears to have laid
waste more
cities of the allies, than the other overthrew belonging to the enemy?
That the one, unassisted, seems to have adorned more villas with the decorations
of
temples, than the other decorated-temples with the spoils of the enemy?
And shall he be dearer to you, in order that others may more willingly
become
subservient to your covetousness at their own risk?
V.[10] But these topics shall be mentioned at another time, and they have
already been mentioned elsewhere. Let us proceed to the other matters,
after we
have in a few words, O judges, begged your favourable construction. All
through our former speech we had your attention very carefully given to
us. It was
very pleasing to us; but it will be far more pleasing, if you will be so
kind as to attend to what follows; because in all the things which were
said before, there
was some pleasure arising from the very variety and novelty of the subjects
and of the charges. Now we are going to discuss the affair of corn; which
indeed
in the greatness of the iniquity exceeds nearly all the other charges,
but will have far less variety and agreeableness in the discussion. But
it is quite worthy
of your authority and wisdom, O judges, in the matter of careful hearing,
to give no less weight to conscientiousness in the discharge of your duties,
than to
pleasure. [11] I, inquiring into this charge respecting the corn,
keep this in view, O judges, that you are going to inquire into the estates
and fortunes of all
the Sicilians--into the property of all the Roman citizens who cultivate
land in Sicily--into the revenues handed down to you by your ancestors--into
the life
and sustenance of the Roman people. And if these matters appear to you
important--yes, and most important,--do not be weary if they are pressed
upon you
from various points of view, and at some length. It cannot escape the notice
of any one of you, O judges, that all the advantage and desirableness of
Sicily,
which is in any way connected with the convenience of the Roman people,
consists mainly in its corn; for in other respects we are indeed assisted
by that
province, but as to this article, we are fed and supported by it. [12]
The case, O judges, will be divided under three heads in my accusation:
for, first, I shall
speak of the collectors of the tenths; secondly, of the corn which has
been bought; thirdly, of that which has been valued.
VI. There is, O judges, this difference between Sicily and other provinces,
in the matter of tribute derived from the lands; that in the other provinces,
either
the tribute imposed is of a fixed amount, which is called stipendiarium,
as in the case of the Spaniards and most of the Carthaginian provinces,
being a sort
of reward of victory, and penalty for war; or else a contract exists between
the state and the farmers, settled by the censor, as is the case in Asia,
by the
Sempronian law. But the cities in Sicily were received into our friendship
and alliance, retaining the same laws which they had before, and that being
subject
to the Roman people on the same conditions as they had formerly been subject
to their own princes. [13] Very few cities of Sicily were subdued
in war by
our ancestors, and even in the case of those which were, though their land
was made the public domain of the Roman people, still it was afterwards
restored
to them. That domain is regularly let out to farmers by the censors. There
are two federate cities, whose tenths are not put up to auction; the city
of the
Mamertines and Taurominium. Besides these, there are five cities without
any treaty, free and enfranchised; Centuripa, Halesa, Segesta, Halicya,
and
Panormus. All the land of the other states of Sicily is subject to the
payment of tenths; and was so, before the sovereignty of the Roman people,
by the will
and laws of the Sicilians themselves. [14] See now the wisdom of
our ancestors, who, when they had added Sicily, so valuable an assistant
both in war and
peace, to the republic, were so careful to defend the Sicilians and to
retain them in their allegiance, that they not only imposed no new tax
upon their lands,
but did not even alter the law of putting up for sale the contracts of
the farmers of the tenths, or the time or place of selling them; so that
they were to put
them up for sale at the regular time of year, at the same place, in Sicily,--in
short, in every respect as the law of Hiero directed; they permitted them
still to
manage their own affairs, and were not willing that their minds should
be disturbed even by a new name to a law, much less by an actual new law.
[15] And
so that resolved that the farming of the tenth should always be put up
to auction according to the law of Hiero, in order that the discharge of
that office might
be the more agreeable if, though the supreme power was changed, still,
not only the laws of that king who was very dear to the Sicilians, but
his name also
remained in force among them. This law the Sicilians always used before
Verres was praetor. He first dared to root up and alter the established
usages of
them all, their customs which had been handed down to them from their ancestors,
the conditions of their friendship with us, and the rights secured to them
by our alliance.
VII.[16] And in this, this is the first thing I object to and accuse you
for, that in a custom of such long standing, and so thoroughly established,
you made
any innovation at all. Have you ever gained anything by this genius of
yours? Were you superior in prudence and wisdom to so many wise and illustrious
men who governed that province before you? That is your renown; this praise
is due to your genius and diligence. I admit and grant this to you. I do
know
that, at Rome, when you were praetor, you did transfer by your edict the
possession of inheritance from the children to strangers, from the first
heirs to the
second, from the laws to your own licentious covetousness. I do know that
you corrected the edicts of all your predecessors, and gave possession
of
inheritance not according to the evidence of those who produced the will,
but according to theirs who said that a will had been made. And I do know
too that
those new practices, first brought forward and invented by you, were a
very great profit to you. I recollect, moreover, that you also abrogated
and altered the
laws of the censors about the keeping the public buildings in repair; so
that he might not take the contract to whom the care of the building belonged;
so that
his guardians and relations might not consult the advantage, of their ward
so as to prevent his being stripped of all his property; that you appointed
a very
limited time for the work, in order to exclude others from the business;
but that with respect to the contractor you favoured, you did not observe
any fixed
time at all. [17] So that I do not marvel at your having established
a new law in the matter of the tenths you, a man so wise, so thoroughly
practiced in
praetorian edicts and censorian laws. I do not wonder, I say, at your having
invented something; but I do blame you, I do impeach you, for having of
your
own accord, without any command from the people, without the authority
of the senate, changed the laws of the province of Sicily. [18] The
senate
permitted Lucius Octavius and Caius Cotta, the consuls, to put up to auction
at Rome the tenths of wine, and oil, and of pulse, which before your time
the
quaestors had been in the habit of putting up in Sicily; and to establish
any law with respect to those articles which they might think fit. When
the contract
was offered for sale, the farmers begged them to add some clauses to the
law, and yet not to depart from the other laws of the censors. A man opposed
this,
who by accident was at Rome at that time; your host,--your host, and intimate
friend, I say, O Verres,--Sthenius, of Thermae, who is here present The
consuls examined into the matter. When they had summoned many of the principal
and most honourable men of the state to form a council on the subject;
according to the opinion of that council they gave notice that they should
put the tenths up to auction according to the law of Hiero.
VIII.[19] Was it not so? Men of the greatest wisdom, invested with the
supreme authority, to whom the senate had given the whole power of making
laws
respecting the letting out the farming of the tributes, (and this power
had been ratified by the people, while only one Sicilian objected to it,)
would not alter
the name of the law of Hiero, even when the measure would have been accompanied
by an augmentation of the revenue; but you, a man of no wisdom, of no
authority, without any order from people or senate, while all Sicily objected,
abrogated the whole law of Hiero, to the greatest injury and even destruction
of
the revenue. [20] But what law is this, O judges, which he amends,
or rather totally abrogates? A law framed with the greatest acuteness and
the greatest
diligence, which gives up the cultivator of the land to the collector of
the tenths, guarded by so many securities, that neither in the corn fields,
nor on the
threshing floors, nor in the barns, nor while removing his corn privately,
nor while carrying it away openly, can the cultivator defraud the collector
of one
single grain without the severest punishment. The law has been framed with
such care, that it is plain that a man framed it who had no other revenues;
with
such acuteness that it was plain that he was a Sicilian; with such severity,
that he was evidently a tyrant: by this law, however, cultivating the land
was an
advantageous trade for the Sicilian; for the laws for the collectors of
the tenths were also drawn up so carefully that it is not possible for
more than the tenth
to be extorted from the cultivator against his will. [21] And though
all these things were settled in this way, after so many years and even
ages, Verres was
found not only to change, but entirely to overturn them, and to convert
to purposes of his own most infamous profit those regulations which had
long ago
been instituted and established for the safety of the allies and the benefit
of the republic. In the first instance he appointed certain men, collectors
of the
tenths in name, in reality the ministers and satellites of his desires;
by whom I will show that the province was for three years so harassed and
plundered, O
judges, that it will take many years and a long series of wise and incorruptible
governors to recover it.
IX.[22] The chief of all those who were called collectors, was Quintus
Apronius, that man whom you see in court, concerning whose extraordinary
wickedness you have heard the complaints of most influential deputations.
Look, O judges, at the face and countenance of the man; and from that obstinacy
which he retains now in the most desperate circumstances, you may imagine
and recollect what his arrogance must have been in Sicily. This Apronius
is the
man whom Verres (though he had collected together the most infamous men
from all quarters, and though he had taken with him no small number of
men
like himself in worthlessness, licentiousness, and audacity,) still considered
most like himself of any man in the whole province. And so in a very short
time
they became intimate, not because of interest, nor of reason, nor of any
introduction from mutual friends, but from the baseness and similarity
of their
pursuits. [23] You know the depraved and licentious habits of Verres.
Imagine to yourselves, if you can, any one who can be in every respect
equal to him
in the wicked and dissolute commission of every crimes that man will be
Apronius; who, as he shows not only by his life, but by his person and
countenance, is a vast gulf and whirlpool of every sort of vice and infamy.
Him did Verres employ as his chief agent in all his adulteries, in all
his plundering
of temples, in all his debauched banquets; and the similarity of their
manners caused such a friendship and unanimity between them, that Apronius,
whom
every one else thought a boor and a barbarian, appeared to him alone an
agreeable and an accomplished man; that, though every one else hated him,
and
could not bear the sight of him, Verres could not bear to be away from
him; that, though others shunned even the banquets at which Apronius was
to be
presents Verres used the same cup with him; lastly, that, though the odour
of Apronius's breath and person is such that even, as one may say, the
beasts
cannot endure him, he appeared to Verres alone sweet and pleasant. He sat
next to him on the judgment-seat; he was alone with him in his chamber;
he was
at the head of his table at his banquets; and especially then, when he
began to dance at the feast naked, while the young son of the praetor was
sitting by.
X.[24] This man, as I began to say, Verres selected for his principal agent
in distressing and plundering the fortunes of the cultivators of the land.
To this
man's audacity, and wickedness, and cruelty, our most faithful allies and
most virtuous citizens were given up, O judges, by this praetor, and were
placed at
his mercy by new regulations and new edicts, the entire law of Hiero, as
I said before, having been rejected and repudiated.
[25] First of all, listen, O judges, to his splendid edict. ’ÄúWhatever
amount of tithe the collector declared that the cultivator ought to pay,
that amount the
cultivator should be compelled to pay to the collector.’Äù--How? Let him
pay as much as Apronius demands? What is this? is the regulation of a praetor
for
allies, or the edict and command of an insane tyrant to conquered enemies?
Am I to give as much as he demands? He will demand every grain that I can
get
out of my land. Am I to give all? Yes, and more too, if he chooses. What,
then, am I to do? What do you think? You must either pay, or you will be
convicted
of having disobeyed the edict. O ye immortal gods, what a state of things
is this For it is hardly credible. And indeed. [26] I am persuaded,
O judges, that,
though you should think that all other vices are met in this man, still
this must seem false to you. For I myself, though all Sicily told me of
it, still should not
dare to affirm this to you, if I was not able to recite to you these edicts
from his own documents in those very words--as I will do. Give this, I
pray you, to
the clerk; he shall read from the register. Read the edict about the returns
of property. [The edict about the returns of property is read.] He says
I am not
reading the whole. For that is what he seems to intimate by shaking his
head. What am I passing over? is it that part where you take care of the
interests of
the Sicilians, and show regard for the miserable cultivators? For you announce
in your edict, that you will condemn the collector in eightfold damages,
if he
has taken more than was due to him. I do not wish anything to be passed
over. Read this also which he requires; read every word. [The edict about
the
eightfold damages is read.] Does this mean that the cultivator is to prosecute
the collector at law? It is a miserable and unjust thing for men to be
brought
from the country into the forum, from the plough to the courts of justice;
from habits of rustic life to actions and trials to which they are wholly
unaccustomed.
XI.[27] When in all the other countries liable to tribute, of Asia, of
Macedonia, of Spain, of Gaul, of Africa, of Sicily, and in those parts
of Italy also which
are so liable; when in all these, I say, the farmer in every case has a
right to claim and a power to distrain, but not to seize and take possession
without the
interference of the law, you established regulations respecting the most
virtuous and honest and honourable class of men,--that is, respecting the
cultivators
of the soil,--which are contrary to all other laws. Which is the most just,
for the collector to have to make his claim, or for the cultivator to have
to recover
what has been unlawfully seized? for them to go to trial when things are
in their original state, or when one side is ruined? for him to be in possession
of the
property who has acquired it by hard labour, or him who has obtained it
by bidding for it at an auction? What more? They who cultivate single acres,
who
never cease from personal labour, of which class there were a great number,
and a vast multitude among the Sicilians before you came as praetor,--what
are
they to do? When they have given to Apronius all he has demanded, are they
to leave their allotments? to leave their own household gods? to come to
Syracuse, in order while you, forsooth, are praetor, to prosecute, by the
equal law which they will find there, Apronius, the delight and joy of
your life, in a
suit for recovery of their property? [28] But so be it. Some fearless
and experienced cultivator will be found, who, when he has paid the collector
as much as
he says is due, will seek to recover it by course of law, and will sue
for the eightfold penalty. I look for the vigour of the edict, for the
impartiality of the
praetor; I espouse the cause of the cultivator; I wish to see Apronius
condemned in the eightfold penalty. What now does the cultivator demand?
Nothing
but sentence for an eightfold penalty, according to the edict. What says
Apronius? He is unable to object. What says the praetor? He bids him challenge
the
judges. Let us, says he, make out the decuries. What decuries? Those from
my retinue; you will challenge the others. What? of what men is that retinue
composed? Of Volusius the soothsayer, and Cornelius the physician, and
the other dogs whom you see licking up the crumbs about my judgment-seat.
For
he never appointed any judge or recuperator 3 from the proper body. 4 He
said all men who possessed one clod of earth were unfairly prejudiced against
the
collectors. People had to sue Apronius before these men who had not yet
got rid of the surfeit from his last banquet.
XII. What a splendid and memorable court! what an impartial decision! what
a safe resource for the cultivators of the soil! [29] And that you
may
understand what sort of decisions are obtained in actions for the eightfold
penalty, and what sort of judges those selected from that man's retinue
are
considered to be, listen to this. Do you think that any collector, when
this licence was allowed him of taking from the cultivator whatever he
claimed, ever did
demand more than was due? Consider yourselves in your own minds, whether
you think any one ever did so, especially when it might have happened,
not
solely through covetousness, but even though ignorance. Many must have
done so. But I say that all extorted more, and a great deal more, than
the proper
tenths. Tell me of one man, in the whole three years of your praetorship,
who was condemned in the eightfold penalty. Condemned, indeed! Tell me
of one
man who was ever prosecuted according to your edict. There was not, in
fact, one cultivator who was able to complain that injustice had been done
to him;
not one collector who claimed one grain more as due to him than really
was due. Far from that. Apronius seized and carried off whatever he chose
from
every one. In every district the cultivators, harassed and plundered as
they were, were complaining, and yet no instance of a trial can be found.
[30] Why is
this? Why did so many bold, honourable, and highly esteemed men--so many
Sicilians, so many Roman knights--when injured by one most worthless and
infamous man, not seek to recover the eightfold penalty, which had most
unquestionably been incurred? What is the cause, what is the reason? That
reason
alone, O judges, which you see,--because they knew they should come off
at the trial defrauded and ridiculed. In truth, what sort of triad must
that be, when
three of the profligate and abandoned retinue of Verres sat on the tribunal
under the name of judges?--slaves of Verres, not inherited by him from
his father,
but recommended to him by his mistress. [31] The cultivator, forsooth,
might plead his cause; he might show that no corn was left him by Apronius,--that
even his other property was seized; that he himself had been driven away
with blows. Those admirable men would lay their heads together, they would
chat
to one another about revels and harlots, if they could catch any when leaving
the praetor. The cause would seem to be properly heard: Apronius would
have
risen, full of his new dignity as a knight; not like a collector all over
dirt and dust, but reeking with perfumes, languid with the lateness of
the last night's
drinking party, with his first motion, and with his breath he would have
filled the whole place with the odour of wine, of perfume, and of his person.
He
would have said, what he repeatedly has said, that he had bought, not the
tenths, but the property and fortunes of the cultivators; that he, Apronius,
was not a
collector, but a second Verres,--the absolute lord and master of those
men. And when he had said this, those admirable men of Verres's train,
the judges,
would deliberate, not about acquitting Apronius, but they would inquire
how they could condemn the cultivator himself to pay damages to Apronius.
XIII.[32] When you had granted this licence for plundering the cultivators
to the collectors of the tenths,--that is, to Apronius,--by allowing him
to demand
as much as he chose, and to carry off as much as he demanded, were you
preparing this defence for your trial,--that you had promised by edict
that you
would assign judges in a trial for an eightfold penalty? Even if in truth
you were to give power to the cultivator, not only to challenge his judges,
but even to
pick them out of the whole body of the Syracusan assembly, (a body of most
eminent and honourable men,) still no one could bear this new sort of
injustice,--that, when one has given up the whole of one's produce to the
farmer, and had one's property taken out of one's hands, then one is to
endeavour to
recover one's property and to seek its restitution by legal proceedings.
[33] But when what is granted by the edict is, in name indeed, a
trial, but in reality a
collusion of your attendants, most worthless men, with the collectors,
who are your partners, and besides that, with the judges, do you still
dare to mention
that trial, especially when what you say is refuted, not merely by my speech,
but by the facts themselves? when in all the distresses of the cultivators
of the
soil, and all the injustice of the collectors, not only has no trial ever
taken place according to that splendid edict, but none has ever been so
much as
demanded? [34] However, he will be more favourable to the cultivators
than he appears; for the same man who has announced in his edict that he
will allow
a trial against the collectors, in which they shall be liable to an eightfold
penalty, had it also set down in his edict, that he would grant a similar
trial against
the cultivators, in which they should be liable to a fourfold penalty.
Who now dares to say that this man was unfavourably disposed or hostile
to the
cultivators? How much more lenient is he to them than to the collectors?
He has ordered in his edict that the Sicilian magistrate should exact from
the
cultivator whatever the collector declared ought to be paid to him. What
sentence has he left behind, which can be pronounced against a cultivator
of the soil
It is not a bad thing, says he, for that fear to exist; so that, when the
money has been exacted from the cultivator, still there will be behind
a fear of the court
of justice, to prevent him from stirring himself. If you wish to exact
money from me by process of law, remove the Sicilian magistrate. If you
employ this
violence, what need is there of a process of law? Moreover, who will there
be who would not prefer paying to your collectors what they demand, to
being
condemned in four times the amount by your attendants.
XIV.[35] But that is a splendid clause in the edict, that gives notice
that in all disputes which arise between the cultivator and the collector,
he will assign
judges, if either party wishes it. In the first place, what dispute can
there be when he who ought to make a claim, makes a seizure instead? and
when he
seizes, not as much as is due, but as much as he chooses? and when he,
whose property is seized, cannot possibly recover his own by a suit at
law? In the
second place, this dirty fellow wants even in this to seem cunning and
wily; for he frames his edict in these words--’ÄúIf either wishes it, I
will assign
judges.’Äù How neatly does he think he is robbing him! He gives each party
the power of choice; but it makes no difference whether he wrote--’ÄúIf
either
wishes it," or "If the collector wishes it.’Äù For the cultivator will
never wish for those judges of yours. [36] What next? What sort of
edicts are those which
he issued to meet particular occasions, at the suggestion of Apronius?
When Quintus Septitius, a most honourable man, and a Roman knight, resisted
Apronius, and declared that he would not pay more than a tenth, a sudden
special edict makes its appearance, that no one is to remove his corn from
the
threshing-floor before he has settled the demands of the collector. Septitius
put up with this injustice also, and allowed his corn to be damaged by
the rain,
while remaining on the threshing-floor, when on a sudden that most fruitful
and profitable edict comes out, that every one was to have his tenths delivered
at
the water-side before the first of August. [37] By this edict, it
was not the Sicilians, (for he had already sufficiently crushed and ruined
them by his previous
edicts,) but all those Roman knights who had fancied that they could preserve
their rights against Apronius, excellent men, and highly esteemed by other
praetors, who were delivered bound hand and foot into the power of Apronius.
For just listen and see what sort of edicts these are. ’ÄúA man,’Äù says
he, ’Äúis
not to remove his corn from the threshing-floor, unless he has settled
all demands.’Äù This is a sufficiently strong inducement to making unfair
demands; for
I had rather give too much, than not remove my corn from the threshing-floor
at the proper time. But that violence does not affect Septitius, and some
others
like Septitius, who say, ’ÄúI will rather not remove my corn, than submit
to an extortionate demand.’Äù To these then the second edict is opposed.
’ÄúYou must
have delivered it by the first of August.’Äù I will deliver it then.--’ÄúUnless
you have settled the demands, you shall not remove it.’Äù So the fixing
of the day for
delivering it at the waterside, compelled the man to remove his corn from
the threshing floor. And the prohibition to remove, unless the demand were
settled,
made the settlement compulsory and not voluntary.
XV.[38] But what follows is not only contrary to the law of Hiero, not
only contrary to the customs of all former praetors, but even contrary
to all the rights
of the Sicilians, which they have as granted them by the senate and people
of Rome,--that they shall not be forced to give security to appear in any
courts of
justice but their own. Verres made a regulation that the cultivator should
appear to an action brought by a collector in any court which the collector
might
choose. So that in this way also gain might accrue to Apronius, when he
dragged a defendant all the way from Leontini to Lilybaeum to appear before
the
court there, by making false accusations against the wretched cultivators.
Although that device for false accusation was also contrived with singular
cunning,
when he ordered that the cultivators should make a return of their acres,
as to what they were sown with. And this had not only great power in causing
most
iniquitous claims to be submitted to, as we shall show hereafter, and that
too without any advantage to the republic, but at the same time it gave
a great handle
to false accusations, which all men were liable to if Apronius chose. [39]
For, as any one said anything contrary to his inclination, immediately
he was
summoned before the court on some charge relative to the returns made of
his lands. Through fear of which action a great quantity of corn was extorted
from many, and vast sums were collected; not that it was really difficult
to male a correct return of a man's acres, or even to make an extravagantly
liberal one,
(for what danger could there be in doing that?) but still it opened a pretext
for demanding a trial because the cultivator had not made his return in
the terms
of the edict. And you must feel sure what sort of trial that would be while
that man was praetor, if you recollect what sort of a train and retinue
he had about
him. What is it, then, which I wish you to understand, O judges, from the
iniquity of these new edicts? That any injury has been done to our allies?
That you
see. That the authority of his predecessors has been overruled by him?
He will not dare to deny it.
XVI.[40] That Apronius had such great influence while he was praetor? That
he must unavoidably confess. But perhaps you will inquire in this place,
as the
law reminds you to do, whether he himself has made any money by this conduct.
I will show you that he has made vast sums, and I will prove that he
established all those iniquitous rules which I have mentioned before, with
no object but his own profit, when I have first removed out of his line
of defence
that rampart which he thinks he shall be able to employ against all my
attacks.
I sold, says he, the tenths at a high price. What are you saying? Did you,
O most audacious and senseless of men, sell the tenths? Did you sell those
portions which the senate and people of Rome allowed you to sell, or the
whole produce; and in that the whole property and fortunes of the cultivators?
If
the crier had openly given notice by your order, that there was being sold,
not a tenth, but half the corn, and if purchasers had come with the idea
of buying
half the corn--if then you had sold the half for more than the other praetors
had sold the tenth part of it, would that seem strange to any one? But
what shall
we say if the crier gave notice of a sale of the tenths, but if, in fact,
by your regulation,--by your edict,--by the terms of the sale which you
offered, more than
a half portion Was sold? Will you still think that creditable to yourself,
to have sold what you had no right to sell for more than others sold what
they fairly
could? [41] Oh, you sold the tenths for more than others had sold
them. By what means did you manage that? by innocent means? Look at the
temple of
Castor, and then, if you dare, talk of your innocent means. By your diligence?
Look at the erasures in your registers at the name of Sthenius of Thermae,
and
then have the face to call yourself diligent. By your ability? You who
refused at the former pleadings to put questions to the witnesses, and
preferred
presenting yourself dumb before them, pray call yourself and your advocates
able men as much as you please. By what means, then, did you manage what
you say you did? For it is a great credit to you if you have surpassed
your predecessors in ability, and left to your successors your example
and your
authority. Perhaps you had no one before you fit to imitate. But, no doubt,
all men will imitate you, the investor and first parent of such excellent
methods.
[42] What cultivator of the soil, when you were praetor, paid a tenth?
Who paid two-tenths only? Who was there who did not think himself treated
with the
greatest lenity if he paid three tenths instead of one, except a few men,
who, on account of a partnership with you in your robberies, paid nothing
at all? See
how great a difference there is between your harshness and the kindness
of the senate. The senate, when owing to any necessity of the republic
it is
compelled to decree that a second tenth shall be exacted, decrees that
for that second tenth money be paid to the cultivators, so that the quantity
which is
taken beyond what is strictly due may be considered to be purchased, not
to be taken away. You, when you were exacting and seizing so many tenths,
not by
a decree of the senate, but by your own edicts and nefarious regulations,
shall you think that you have done a great deed if you sell them for more
than
Lucius Hortensius, the father of this Quintus Hortensius, did,--than Cnaeus
Pompeius or Caius Marcellus sold them for; men who did not violate justice,
or
law, or established rules? [43] Were you to consider what might be
got in one year, or in two years, and to neglect the safety of the province,
the well-doing
of the corn interest, and the interests of the republic in future times,
though you came to the administration of affairs when matters were so managed
that
sufficient corn was supplied to the Roman people from Sicily, and still
it was a profitable thing for the cultivators to plough and till their
land? What have
you brought about? What have you gained? In order that, while you were
praetor, some addition might be made to the revenue derived from the tenths,
you
have caused the allotments of land to be deserted and abandoned. Lucius
Metellus succeeded you. Were you more innocent than Metellus? Were you
more
desirous of credit and honour? For you were seeking the consulship, but
Metellus neglected the renown which he had inherited from his father and
his
grandfather. He sold the tenths for much less, not only than you had done,
but even than those had who had sold them before you.
XVII. I ask, if he himself could not contrive any means for selling them
at the best possible price, could he not follow in the fresh steps of you
the very last
praetor, so as to use your admirable edicts and regulations, invented and
devised by you their author? [44] But he thought that he should not
at all be a
Metellus if he imitated you in anything; he who when he thought that he
was to go to that province sent letters to the cities of Sicily from Rome,
a thing
which no one in the memory of man ever did before, in which he exhorts
and entreats the Sicilians to plough and sow their land for the service
of the Roman
people. He begs this some time before his arrival, and at the same time
declares that he will sell the tenths according to the law of Hiero; that
is to say, that in
the whole business of the tenths he will do nothing like that man. And
he writes this, not from being impelled by any covetousness to send letters
into the
province before his time, but out of prudence, lest, if the seed-time passed,
we should have not a single grain of corn in the province of Sicily. See
Metellus's
letters. [45] Read the letter of Lucius Metellus. [The letters of
Lucius Metellus are read.]
XVIII. It is these letters, O judges, of Lucius Metellus, which you have
heard, that have raised all the corn that there in this year in Sicily.
No one would have
broken one clod of earth in all the land of Sicily subject to the payment
of tenths, if Metellus had not sent this letter. What? Did this idea occur
to Metellus
by inspiration, or had he his information from the Sicilians who had come
to Rome in great numbers, and from the traders of Sicily? And who is ignorant
what great crowds of them assembled at the door of the Marcelli, the most
ancient patrons of Sicily? what crowds of them thronged to Cnaeus Pompeius,
the
consul elect, and to the rest of the men connected with the province? And
such a thing never yet took place in the instance of any one, as for a
man to be
openly accused by those people over whose property and families he had
supreme dominion and power. So great was the effect of his injuries, that
men
preferred to suffer anything, rather than not to bewail themselves and
complain of his wickedness and injuries. [46] And when Metellus had
sent these
letters couched in almost a supplicating tone to all the cities, still
he was far from prevailing with them to sow the land as they formerly had.
For many had
fled, as I shall presently show, and had left not only their allotments
of land, but even their paternal homes, being driven away by the injuries
of that man. I
will not indeed, O judges, say anything for the sake of unduly exaggerating
my charges. But the sentiments which I have imbibed through my eyes and
in
my mind, those I will state to you truly, and, as far as I can, plainly.
[47] For when four years afterwards I came into Sicily, it appeared
to me in such a
condition as those countries are apt to be in, in which a bitter and long
war has been carried on. Those plains and fields which I had formerly seen
beautiful
and verdant, I now saw so laid waste and desolate that the very land itself
seemed to feel the want of its cultivators, and to be mourning for its
master. The
land of Herbita, of Enna, of Morgantia, of Assoria, of Imachara, and of
Agyrium, was so deserted as to its principal part, that we had to look
not only for the
allotments of land, but also for the body of owners. But the district of
Aetna, which used to be most highly cultivated, and that which was the
very head of
the corn country, the district of Leontini, the character of which was
formerly such that when you had once seen that sown, you did not fear any
dearness of
provisions, was so rough and unsightly, that in the most fruitful part
of Sicily we were asking where Sicily could be gone? The previous year
had, indeed,
greatly shaken the cultivators, but the last one had utterly ruined them.
XIX.[48] Will you dare also to make mention to me of the tenths? Do you,
after such wickedness, after such cruelty, after such numerous and serious
injuries done to people, when the whole province of Sicily entirely depends
on its arable land, and on its rights connected with that land; after the
cultivators
have been entirely ruined, the fields deserted--after you have left no
one in so wealthy and populous a province--not only no property, but no
hope even
remaining; do you, I say, think that you can acquire any popularity by
saying that you have sold the tenths at a better price than the other praetors?
As if the
Roman people had formed this wish, or the senate had given you this commission,
by seizing all the fortunes of the cultivators under the name of tenths,
to
deprive the Roman people for all future time of that revenue, and of their
supply of corn; and, as if after that, by adding some part of your own
plunder to the
total amount got from the tenths, you could appear to have deserved well
of the Roman people. And I say this, as if his injustice was to be reproved
in this
particular, that, out of a desire for credit to be got by surpassing others
in the sum derived from tenths, he had put forth a law rather too severe,
and edicts
rather too stringent, and rejected the examples of all his predecessors.
[49] You sold the tenths at a high price. What will be said, if I
prove that you
appropriated and took to your own house no less a sum than you had sent
to Rome under the name of tenths? What is there to obtain popularity for
you in
that plan of yours, when you took for yourself from a province of the Roman
people a share equal to that which you sent to the Roman people? What will
be
said if I prove that you took twice as much corn yourself as you sent to
the Roman people? Shall we still expect to see your advocate toss his head
at this
accusation, and throw himself on the people, and on the assembly here present?
These things you have heard before, O judges; but perhaps you have heard
it
on no other authority than report, and the common conversation of men.
Know now that an enormous sum was taken by him on pretences connected with
corn; and consider at the same time the profligacy of that saying of his,
when he said that by the profit made on the tenths alone, he could buy
himself off
from all his dangers.
XX.[50] We have heard this for a long time, O judges. I say that there
is not one of you who has not often heard that the collectors of the tenths
were that
mans partners. I do not think that anything else has been said against
him falsely by those who think ill of him but this. For they are to be
considered
partners of a man, with whom the gains of a business are shared. But I
say that the whole of these gains, and the whole of the fortunes of the
cultivators,
went to Verres alone. I say that Apronius, and those slaves of Venus, who
were quite a new class of farmers first heard of in his praetorship! and
the other
collectors, were only agents of that one man's gains, and ministers of
his plunder. How do you prove that? [51] How did I prove that he
had committed
robbery in the contract for those pillars? Chiefly, I think, by this fact,
that he had put forth an unjust and unprecedented law. For who ever attempted
to
change all the rights of people, and the customs of all men, getting great
blame for so doing, except for some gain? I will proceed and carry this
matter
further. You sold the tenths according to an unjust law, in order to sell
them for more money. Why, when the tenths were now knocked down and
sold,--when nothing could now be added to their sum total, but much might
be to your own gains,--why did new edicts appear, made on a sudden and
to
meet an emergency? For I say, that in your third year you issued edicts,
that a collector might summon a man before the court anywhere he liked;
that the
cultivator might not remove his corn from the threshing-floor, before he
had settled the claims of the collector; that they should have the tenths
delivered at
the water-side before the first of August. All these edicts, I say, you
issued after the tenths had been sold. But if you had issued them for the
sake of the
republic, notice would have been given of them at the time of selling;
because you were acting with a view to your own interest, you, being prompted
by your
love of gain and by the emergency, repaired the omission which had unintentionally
occurred. [52] But who can be induced to believe this--that you,
without
any profit, or even without the greatest profit to yourself, disregarded
the great disgrace, the great danger to your position as a free man, and
to your fortunes,
which you were incurring, so far as, though you were daily hearing the
groans and complaints of all Sicily,--though, as you yourself have said,
you expected
to be brought to trial for this,--though the hazard of this present trial
is not at all inconsistent with the opinion you yourself had formed,--still
to allow the
cultivators of the soil to be harassed and plundered with circumstances
of the most scandalous injustice? In truth, though you are a man of singular
cruelty
and audacity, still you would be unwilling for a whole province to be alienated
from you,--for so many most honourable men to be made your greatest
enemies, if your desire for money and present booty had not overcome all
reason and all consideration of safety. [53] But, O judges, since
it is not possible
for me to detail to you the sum total and the whole number of his acts
of injustice,--since it would be an endless task to speak separately of
the injuries done
to each individual,--I beg you, listen to the different kinds of injustice.
XXI. There is a man of Centuripa, named Nympho, a clever and industrious
man, a most experienced and diligent cultivator. He, though he rented very
large
allotments, (as other rich men like him have been in the habit of doing
in Sicily,) and though he cultivated them at great expense, keeping a great
deal of
stock, was treated by that man with such excessive injustice, that he not
only abandoned his allotments, but even fled from Sicily, and came to Rome
with
many others who had been driven away by that man. He then contrived that
the collector should assert that Nympho had not made a proper return of
his
number of acres, according to that notable edict, which had no other object
except making profit of this sort. [54] As Nympho wished to defend
himself in a
regular action, he appoints some excellent judges, that same physician
Cornelius, (his real name is Artemidorus, a citizen of Perga, under which
name he had
formerly in his own country acted as guide to Verres, and as prompter in
his exploit of plundering the temple of Diana,) and Volusius the soothsayer,
and
Valerius the crier. Nympho was condemned before he had fairly got into
court. In what penalty? perhaps you will ask, for there was no fixed sum
mentioned
in the edict In the penalty of all the corn which was on his threshing-floors.
So Apronius the collector takes, by a penalty for violating an edict, and
not by
any rights connected with his farming the revenue--not the tenth that was
due, not corn that had been removed and concealed, but seven thousand medimni
of wheat--from the allotments of Nympho.
XXII.[55] A farm belonging to the wife of Xeno Menenius, a most noble man,
had been let to a settler. The settler, because he could not bear the oppressive
conduct of the collectors, had fled from his land. Verres gave his favourite
sentence of condemnation against Xeno for not having made a return of his
acres.
Xeno said that it was no business of his; that the farm was let. Verres
ordered a trial to take place according to this formula,--’ÄúIf it should
appear’Äù that there
were more acres in the farm than the settler had returned, then Xeno was
to be condemned. He said not only that he had not been the cultivator of
the land,
which was quite sufficient, but also that he was neither the owner of that
farm, nor the lessor of it; that it belonged to his wife; that she herself
transacted her
own affairs; that she had let the land. A man of the very highest reputation,
and of the greatest authority, defended Xeno, Marcus Cossetius. Nevertheless
Verres ordered a trial, in which the penalty was fixed at eighty thousand
sesterces. Xeno, although he saw that judges were provided for him out
of that
band of robbers, still said that he would stand the trial. Then that fellow,
with a loud voice, so that Xeno might hear it, orders his slaves of Venus
to take care
the man does not escape while the trial is proceeding, and as soon as it
is over to bring him before him. And at the same time he said also, that
he did not
think that, if from his riches he disregarded the penalty of a conviction,
he would also disregard the scourge. He, under the compulsion of this violence
and
this fear, paid the collectors all that Verres commanded.
XXIII.[56] There is a citizen of Morgentia, named Polemarchus, a virtuous
and honourable man. He, when seven hundred medimni were demanded as the
tenths due on fifty acres, because he refused to pay them, was summoned
before the praetor at his own house; and, as he was still in bed, he was
introduced
into his bed-chamber, into which no one else was admitted, except his woman
and the collector. There he was beaten and kicked about till, though he
had
refused before to pay seven hundred medimni, he now promised a thousand.
Eubulides Grosphus is a man of Centuripa, a man above all others of his
city,
both for virtue and high birth, and also for wealth. They left this man,
O judges, the most honourable man of a most honourable city, not merely
only so
much corn, but only so much life as pleased Apronius. For by force, by
violence, and by blows, he was induced to give corn, not as much as he
had, but as
much as was demanded of him, which was even more. [57] Sostratus,
and Numenius, and Nymphodorus, of the same city, three brothers of kindred
sentiments, when they had fled from their lands because more corn was demanded
of them than their lands had produced, were treated thus,--Apronius
collected a band of men, came into their allotments, took away all their
tools, carried off their slaves, and drove off their live stock. Afterwards,
when
Nymphodorus came to Aetna to him, and begged to have his property restored
to him, he ordered the man to be seized and hung up on a wild olive, a
tree
which is the forum there; and an ally and friend of the Roman people, a
settler and cultivator of your domain, hung suspended from a tree in a
city of our
allies, and in the very forum, for as long a period as Apronius chose.
[58] I have now been recounting to you, O judges, the species of
countless injuries
which he has wrought,--one of each sort. An infinite host of evil actions
I pass over. Place before your own eyes, keep in your minds, these invasions
by
collectors of the whole of Sicily, their plunderings of the cultivators
of the soil, the harshness of this man, the absolute reign of Apronius.
He despised the
Sicilians; he did not consider them as men, he thought that they would
not be vigorous in avenging themselves, and that you would treat their
oppression
lightly.
XXIV.[59] Be it so. He adopted a false opinion about them, and a very injurious
one about you. But while he deserved so ill of the Sicilians, at least,
I
suppose, he was attentive to the Roman citizens; he favoured them; he was
wholly devoted to securing their good-will and favour? He attentive to
the Roman
citizens? There were no men to whom he was more severe or more hostile.
I say nothing of chains, of imprisonment, of scourgings, of executions.
I say
nothing even of that cross which he wished to be a witness to the Roman
citizens of his humanity and benevolence to them. I say nothing, I say,
of all this,
and I put all this off to another opportunity. I am speaking about the
tenths,--about the condition of the Roman citizens in their allotments;
and how they
were treated you heard from themselves. They have told you that their property
was taken from them. [60] But since there was such a cause for it
as there
was, these things are to he endured,--I mean, the absence of all influence
in justice, of all influence in established customs. There are, in short,
no evils, O
judges, of such magnitude that bravo men, of great and free spirit, think
them intolerable. What shall we say if, while that man was praetor, violent
hands
were, without any hesitation, laid by Apronius on Roman knights, who were
not obscure, nor unknown, but honourable, and even illustrious? What more
do
you expect? What more do you think I can say? Must I pass as quickly as
possible from that man and from his actions, in order to come to Apronius,
as,
when I was in Sicily, I promised him that I would do?--who detained for
two days in the public place at Leontini, Caius Matrinius, a man, O judges,
of the
greatest virtue, the greatest industry, the highest popularity. Know, O
judges, that a Roman knight was kept two days without food, without a roof
over his
head, by a man born in disgrace, trained in infamy, practiced in accommodating
himself to all Verres's vices and lusts; that he was kept and detained
by the
guards of Apronius two days in the forum at Leontini, and not released
till he had agreed to submit to his terms.
XXV.[61] For why, O judges, should I speak of Quintus Lollius, a Roman
knight of tried probity and honour? (the matter which I am going to mention
is
clear, notorious, and undoubted throughout all Sicily;)--who, as he was
a cultivator of the domain in the district of Aetna, and as his farm belonged
to
Apronius's district as well as the rest, relying on the ancient authority
and influence of the equestrian order, declared that he would not pay the
collectors
more than was due from him to them. His words are reported to Apronius.
He laughed, and marveled that Lollius had heard nothing of Matrinius or
of his
other actions. He sends his slaves of Venus to the man. Remark this also,
that a collector had officers appointed to attend him by the praetor; and
see if this
is a slight argument that he abused the name of the collectors to purposes
of his own gain. Lollius is brought before Apronius by the slaves of Venus,
and
dragged along, at a convenient moment, when Apronius had just returned
from the palaestra, and was lying on a couch which he had spread in the
forum of
Aetna Lollius is placed in the middle of that seemly banquet of gladiators.
[62] I would not, in truth, O judges, believe the things which I
am now saying
although I heard them commonly talked about, if the old man had not himself
told them to me in the most solemn manner, when he was with tears
expressing his thanks to me and to the willingness with which I had undertaken
this accusation. A Roman knight, I say, nearly ninety years old, is placed
in
the middle of Apronius's banquet, while Apronius in the meantime was rubbing
his head and face with ointment. ’ÄúWhat is this, Lollius,’Äù says he;
’Äúcannot
you behave properly, unless you are compelled by severe measures?’Äù What
was the man to do? should he hold his tongue, or answer him? In truth he,
a
man of that bright character, and that age, did not know what to do. Meantime
Apronius called for supper and wine; and his slaves, who were of no better
manners than their master, and were born of the same class and in the same
rank of life, brought these things before the eyes of Lollius. The guests
began to
laugh, Apronius himself roared; unless, perchance, you suppose that he
did not laugh in the midst of wine and feasting, who even now at the time
of his
danger and ruin cannot suppress his laughter. Not to detain you too long;
know, O judges, that Quintus Lollius, under the compulsion of these insults,
came
into the terms and conditions of Apronius. [63] Lollius, enfeebled
by old age and disease, could not come to give his evidence. What need
have we of
Lollius? There is no one who is ignorant of this, no one of your own friends,
no one who is brought forward by you, no one at all who, if he is asked,
will
say that he now hears this for the first time. Marcus Lollius, his son,
a most excellent young man, is present; you shall hear what he says--For
Quintus
Lollius, his son, who was the accuser of Calidius, a young man both virtuous
and bold, and of the highest reputation for eloquence, when being excited
by
these injuries and insults he had set out for Sicily, was murdered on the
way; and the crime of his death is imputed indeed to fugitive slaves; but,
in reality,
no one in Sicily doubts that he must be murdered because he could not keep
to himself his intentions respecting Verres. He, in truth, had no doubt
that the
man who, under the prompting of a mere love of justice, had already accused
another, would be ready as an accuser for him on his arrival, when he was
stimulated by the injuries of his father, and indignation at the treatment
received by his family.
XXVI.[64] Do you now thoroughly understand, O judges, what a pest, what
a barbarian has been let loose in your most ancient, most loyal, and nearest
province? Do you see now on what account Sicily, which has before this
endured the thefts, and rapine, and iniquities, and insults of so many
men, has not
been able to submit to this unprecedented, and extraordinary, and incredible
series of injuries and insults? All men are now aware why the whole province
sought out that man as a defender of its safety, from the effects of whose
good faith, and diligence, and perseverance Verres could not possibly be
saved.
You have been present at many trials, you know that many guilty and wicked
men have been impeached within your own recollection, and that of your
ancestors. Have you ever seen any one, have you ever heard of any one,
who has lived in the practice of such great, such open robberies, of such
audacity, of
such shameless impudence? [65] Apronius had his attendants of Venus
about him; he took them with him about the different cities; he ordered
banquets to
be prepared and couches to be spread for him at the public expense, and
to be spread for him in the forum. Thither he ordered most honourable men
to be
summoned, not only Sicilians, but even Roman knights, so that men of the
most thoroughly proved honour were detained at his banquet, when none but
the
most impure and profligate men would join him in a banquet. Would you,
O most profligate and abandoned of all mortals, when you knew these things,
when you were hearing of them every day, when you were seeing them, would
you ever have allowed or endured that such things should have taken place,
to
your own great danger, if they had taken place without enormous profit
to yourself? Was it the profit made by Apronius, and his most beastly conversation,
and his flagitious caresses, that had such influence with you, that no
care for or thought of your own fortunes ever touched your mind? [66]
You see, O
judges, what sort of conflagration, and how vast a torrent of collectors
spread itself with violence, not only over the fields but also over all
the other property
of the cultivators; not only over the property, but also over the rights
of liberty and of the state. You see some men suspended from trees; others
beaten and
scourged; others kept as prisoners in the public place; others left standing
alone at a feast; others condemned by the physician and crier of the praetor;
and
nevertheless the property of all of them is carried off from the fields
and plundered at the same time. What is all this? Is this the rule of the
Roman people?
Are these the laws of the Roman people? are these their tribunals? are
these their faithful allies? is this their suburban province? Are not rather
all these
things such that even Athenio would not have done them if he had been victorious
in Sicily? I say, O judges, that the evidence of fugitive slaves would
not
have equalled one quarter of the wickedness of that man.
XXVII. In this manner did he behave to individuals. What more shall I say?
How were cities treated in their public capacity? You have heard many
statements and testimonies from some cities, and you shall hear them from
the rest. [67] And first of all, listen to a brief tale concerning
the people of
Agyrium, a loyal and illustrious people. The state of Agyrium is among
the first in all Sicily for honour;--a state of men wealthy before this
man came as
praetor, and of excellent cultivators of the soil. When this same Apronius
had purchased the tenths of that district, he came to Agyrium; and when
he had
come thither with his regular attendants--that is to say, with threats
and violence,--he began to ask an immense sum, so that when he had got
his profit, he
might depart. He said that he did not wish to have any trouble, nut that,
when he had got his money, he would depart as soon as possible to some
other city.
All the Sicilians are not contemptible men, if only our magistrates leave
them alone; but they are many, of sufficient courage, and very economical
and
temperate, and among the very first is this city of which I am now speaking,
O judges. [68] Therefore the men of Agyrium make answer to this most
worthless man, that they will give him the tenths which are due from them,
that they will not add to them any profit for himself, especially since
he had
bought them an excellent bargain. Apronius informs Verres, whose business
it ready was, what was going on.
XXVIII. Immediately, as if there had been some conspiracy at Agyrium formed
against the republic, or as if the lieutenant of the praetor had been assaulted,
the magistrates and five principal citizens are summoned from Agyrium at
his command. They went to Syracuse. Apronius is there. He says that those
very
men who had come had acted contrary to the praetor's edict. They asked,
in what? He answered, that he would say in what before the judges. He,
that most
just man, tried to strike his old terror into the wretched Agyrians; he
threatened that he would appoint their judges out of his own retinue. The
Agyrians,
being very intrepid men, said that they would stand the trial. [69]
That fellow put on the tribunal Artemidorus Cornelius, the physician, Valerius,
the crier,
Tlepolemus, the painter, and judges of that sort; not one of whom was a
Roman citizen, but Greek robbers of temples, long since infamous, and now
all
Corneliuses. The Agyrians saw that whatever charge Apronius brought before
whose judges, he would very easily prove; but they preferred to be convicted,
and so add to his unpopularity and infamy, rather than accede to his conditions
and terms. They asked what formula would be given to the judges on which
to try them? He answered, ’ÄúIf it appeared that they had acted contrary
to the edict,’Äù on which formula he said that he should pronounce judgment.
They
preferred trying the question according to a most unjust formula, and with
most profligate judges, rather than come to any settlement with him of
their own
accord. He sent Timarchides privately to them, to warn them, if they were
wise, to settle the matter. They refused. ’ÄúWhat, then, will you do? Do
you prefer to
be convicted each of you in a penalty of fifty thousand sesterces?’Äù They
said they did. Then he said out loud, in the hearing of every one, ’ÄúWhoever
is
condemned, shall be beaten to death with rods.’Äù On this they began with
tears to beg and entreat him to be allowed to give up their cornfields,
and all their
produce, and their allotments, when stripped of everything, to Apronius,
and to depart themselves without insult and annoyance. [70] These
were the terms,
O judges, on which Verres sold the tenths. Hortensius may say, if he pleases,
that Verres sold them at a high price.
XXIX. This was the condition of the cultivators of the soil while that
man was praetor; that they thought themselves exceedingly well off, if
they might give
up their fields when stripped of everything to Apronius, for they wished
to escaped the many crosses which were set before their eyes. Whatever
Apronius
had declared to be due, that they were forced to give, according to the
edict. Suppose he declared more was due than the land produced? Just so.
How could
that be? The magistrates were bound, according to his own edict, to compel
the payment. Well, but the cultivators could recover. Yes, but Artemidorus
was
the judge. What next? What happened if the cultivator had given less than
Apronius had demanded? A prosecution of the cultivator to recover a fourfold
penalty. Before judges taken from what body? From that admirable retinue
of most honourable men in attendance on the praetor. What more? I say that
you
returned less than the proper number of acres: select judges for the matter
which is to be tried, namely, your violation of the edict. Out of what
class? Out of
the same retinue. What will be the end of it? If you are convicted, (and
what doubt can there be about a conviction with those judges?) you must
be beaten to
death with rods. When these are the rules, these the conditions, will there
be any one so foolish as to think that what was sold were the tenths? Who
believes
that nine parts were left to the cultivator? Who does not perceive that
that fellow considered as his own gain and plunder the property and possessions
and
fortunes of the cultivators? From fear of the gods the Agyrians said that
they would do what they were commanded to.
XXX.[71] Listen now to what his orders were; and conceal, if you can, that
you are aware of what all Sicily well knew, that the praetor himself was
the
farmer of the tenths, or rather the lord and sovereign of all the allotments
in the province. He orders the Agyrians to take the tenths themselves in
the name of
their city, and to give a compliment to Apronius. If he had bought them
at a high price, since you are a man who inquired into the proper price
with great
diligence, who, as you say, sold them at a high price, why do you think
that a compliment ought to be added as a present to the purchaser? Be it
so; you did
think so. Why did you order them to add it? What is the meaning; of taking
and appropriating money, for which the law has a hold on you, if this is
not it,--I
mean the compelling men by force and despotic power against their will
to give a compliment to another, that is to say, to give him money? [72]
Well, what
comes next? If they were ordered to give some small compliment to Apronius,
the delight of the praetor's life, suppose that it was given to Apronius,
if it
seems to you the compliment to Apronius, and not the plunder of the praetor.
You order them to take the tenths; to give Apronius a compliment,--thirty-three
thousand medimni of wheat. What is this? One city is compelled by the command
of the praetor to give to the Roman people out of one district almost food
enough to support it for a month. Did you sell the tenths at a high price,
when such a compliment was given to the collector? In truth, if you had
inquired
carefully into the proper price, then when you were selling them, they
would rather have given ten thousand medimni more then, than six hundred
thousand
sesterces afterwards. It seems a great booty. Listen to what follows, and
remark it carefully, so as to be the less surprised that the Sicilians,
being compelled
by their necessity, entreated aid from their patrons, from the consuls,
from the senate, from the laws, from the tribunals. [73] To pay Apronius
for testing the
wheat which was given to him, Verres orders the Agyrians to pay Apronius
three sesterces for every medimnus.
XXXI. What is this? When such a quantity of corn has been extorted and
exacted under the name of a compliment, is money to be exacted besides
for
testing the corn? Or could, not only Apronius, but any one, if corn was
to be served out to the army, disapprove of the Sicilian corn, which Verres
might have
measured on the threshing-floor, if he had liked? That vast quantity of
corn is given and extorted at your command. That is not enough. Money is
demanded
besides. It is paid. That is too little. For the tenths of barley more
money is extorted. You order thirty thousand sesterces to be paid. And
so from one city
there are extorted by force, by threats, by the despotic power and injustice
of the praetor thirty-three thousand medimni of wheat, and besides that,
sixty
thousand sesterces! Are these things obscure? Or, even if all the world
wished it, can those things be obscure which you did openly, which you
ordered in
open court, which you extorted when every one was looking on? concerning
which matters the magistrates and five chief men of Agyrium, whom you
summoned from their homes for the sake of your own gain, reported your
acts and commands to their own senate at home; and that report, according
to
their laws, was recorded in the public registers, and the ambassadors of
the Agyrians, most noble men, are at Rome, and have deposed to these facts
in
evidence. [74] Examine the public letters of the Agyrians; after
that the public testimony of the city. Read the public letters. [The public
letters are read.]
Read the public evidence. [The public evidence is read.] You have remarked
in this evidence, O judges, that Apollodorus, whose surname is Pyragrus,
the
chief man of his city, have his evidence with tears, and said that since
the name of the Roman people had been heard by and known to the Sicilians,
the
Agyrians had never either said or done anything contrary to the interests
of even the meanest of the Roman citizens; but that now they are compelled
by
great injuries, and great suffering to give evidence in a public manner
against a praetor of the Roman people. You cannot, in truth. O Verres,
invalidate the
evidence of this one city by your defence; so great a weight is there in
the fidelity of these men, such great indignation is there at their injuries,
such great
conscientiousness is there in the way in which they gave their evidence.
But it is not one city alone, but every city, that now being crushed by
similar
distresses pursues you with deputations and public evidence.
XXXII.[75] Let us now, in regular order, proceed to see in what way the
city of Herbita, an honourable and formerly a wealthy city, was harassed
and
plundered by him. A city of what sort of men? Of excellent agriculturists,
men most remote from courts of law, from tribunals, and from disputes;
whom
you, O most profligate of men, ought to have spared, whose interests you
ought to have consulted, the whole race of whom you ought most carefully
to have
preserved. In the first year of your praetorship the tenths of that district
were sold for eighteen thousand 5 medimni of wheat. When Atidius, who was
also
his servant in the matter of tenths, had purchased them, and when he had
come to Herbita with the title of' prefect, attended by the slaves of Verres,
and when
a place where he might lodge had been assigned him by the public act of
the city, the people of Herbita are compelled to give him as a profit thirty-seven
thousand modii of wheat, when the tenths of the wheat had been sold at
eighteen thousand. And they are compelled to give this vast quantity of
wheat in the
name of their city, since the private cultivators of the soil had already
fled from their lands, having been plundered and driven away by the injuries
of the
collectors. [76] In the second year, when Apronius had bought the
tenths of wheat for twenty-five thousand modii, and when he himself had
come to
Herbita with his whole force and his whole band of robbers, the people
was compelled to give him in the name of the city a present of twenty-six
thousand
modii of wheat, and a further gift of two thousand sesterces. I am not
quite sure about this further gift, whether it was not given to Apronius
himself as
wages for his trouble, and a reward for his impudence. But concerning such
an immense quantity of wheat, who can doubt that it came to that robber
of corn,
Verres, just as the corn of Agyrium did? But in the third year he adopted
in this district the custom of sovereigns.
XXXIII. They say that the barbarian kings of the Persians and Syrians are
accustomed to have several wives, and to give to these wives cities in
this
fashion:--that this city is to dress the woman's waist, that one to dress
her neck, that to dress her hair; and so they have whole nations not only
privy to their
lusts, but also assistants in it. [77] Learn that the licentiousness
and lust of that man who thought himself king of the Sicilians, was much
the same. The
name of the wife of Aeschrio, a Syracusan, is Pippa, whose name has been
made notorious over all Sicily by that man's profligacy, and many verses
were
inscribed on the praetor's tribunal, and over the praetor's head, about
that woman. This Aeschrio, the imaginary husband of Pippa, is appointed
as a new
farmer of the tenths of Herbita. When the men of Herbita saw that if the
business got into Aeschrio's hands they should be plundered at the will
of a most
dissolute woman, they did against him as far as they thought that they
could go. Aeschrio bid on, for he was not afraid that, while Verres was
praetor, the
woman, who would be really the farmer, would ever be allowed to lose by
it. The tenths are knocked down to him at thirty-five thousand medimni,
nearly
half as much again as they had fetched the preceding year. The cultivators
were utterly destroyed, and so much the more because in the preceding year
they
had been drained dry, and almost ruined. He was aware that they had been
sold at so high a price, that more could not be squeezed out of the people;
so he
deducts from the sum total three thousand six hundred medimni, and enters
on the registers thirty-one thousand four hundred.
XXXIV.[78] Docimus had bought the tenths of barley belonging to the same
district. This Docimus is the man who had brought to Verres Tertia, the
daughter of Isidorus the actor, having taken her from a Rhodian flute-player.
The influence of this woman Tertia was greater with him than that of Pippa,
or
of all the other women, and I had almost said, was as great in his Sicilian
praetorship as that of Chelidon had been in his city praetorship. There
come to
Herbita the two rivals of the praetor, not likely to be troublesome to
him, infamous agents of most abandoned women. They begin to demand, to
beg, to
threaten; but though they wished it, they were not able to imitate Apronius.
The Sicilians were not so much afraid of Sicilians; still, as they put
forth false
accusations in every possible way, the Herbitenses undertake to appear
in court at Syracuse. When they had arrived there, they are compelled to
give to
Aeschrio--that is, to Pippa--as much as had been deducted from the original
purchase-money, three thousand six hundred modii of wheat. He was not
willing to give to the woman who was really the farmer too much profits
out of the tenths, lest in that case she should transfer her attention
from her
nocturnal gains to the farming of the tributes. [79] The people of
Herbita thought the matter was settled, when that man added,--’ÄúAnd what
are you going to
give out of the barley to my little friend Docimus? What are your intentions?’Äù
He transacted all this business, O judges, in his chamber, and in his bed.
They said that they had no commission to give anything: ’ÄúI do not hear
you; pay him fifteen thousand sesterces.’Äù What were the wretched men
to do I or
how could they refuse? especially when they saw the traces of the woman
who was the collector fresh in the bed, by which they understood that he
had been
inflamed to persevere in his demand. And so one city of our allies and
friends was made tributary of two most debauched women while Verres was
praetor.
And I now assert that that quantity of corn and those sums of money were
given by the people of Herbita to the collectors in the name of the city.
And yet
by all that corn and all that money they could not deliver their fellow
citizens from the injuries of the collectors. For after the property of
the cultivators was
destroyed and carried off, bribes were still to be given to the collectors
to induce them to depart at length from their lands and from their cities.
[80] And so
when Philinus of Herbita, a man eloquent and prudent, and noble in his
own city, spoke in public of the distress of the cultivators, and of their
flight, and of
the scanty numbers that were left behind, you remarked, O judges, the groans
of the Roman people, a great crowd of whom has always been present at this
cause. And concerning the scanty number of the cultivators I will speak
at another time.
XXXV. But at this moment a topic, which I had almost passed over, must
not be altogether forgotten. For, in the name of the immortal gods! how
will you, I
will not say tolerate, but how will you bear even to hear of the sums which
Verres subtracted from the sum total? [81] Up to this time there
has been one
man only since the first foundation of Rome, (and may the immortal gods
grant that there may never be another,) to whom the republic wholly committed
herself, being compelled by the necessities of the times and domestic misfortunes.
He had such power, that without his consent no one could preserve either
his property, or his liberty, or his life. He had such courage in his audacity,
that he was not afraid to say in the public assembly, when he was selling
the
property of Roman citizens, that he was selling his own booty. All his
actions we not only still maintain, but out of fear of greater inconveniences
and
calamities, we defend them by the public authority. One decree alone of
his has been remodeled by a resolution of the senate, and a decree has
been passed,
that these men, from the sum total of whose debts he had made a deduction,
should pay the money into the treasury. The senate laid down this
principle,--that even he to whom they had entrusted everything had not
power to diminish the total amount of revenue acquired and procured by
the valour of
the Roman people. [82] The conscript fathers decided that he had
no power to remit even to the bravest men any portion of their debts to
the state. And shall
the senators decide that you have lawfully remitted any to a most profligate
woman? The man, concerning whom the Roman people had established a law
that his absolute will should be the law to the Roman people, still is
found fault with in this one particular, out of reverence for their ancient
laws. Did you,
who were liable to almost every law, think that your lust and caprice was
to be a law to you? He is blamed for remitting a part of that money which
he
himself had acquired. Shall you be pardoned who have remitted part of the
revenue due to the Roman people?
XXXVI.[83] And in this description of boldness he proceeded even much more
shamelessly with respect to the tenths of the district of Segesta; for
when he
had knocked them down to this same Docimus, for five thousand modii of
wheat, and had added as an extra present fifteen thousand sesterces, he
compelled the people of Segesta to take them of Docimus at the same price
in the name of their city; and you shall have this proved by the public
testimony
of the Segestans. Read the public testimony [The public testimony is read.]
You have heard at what price the city took the tenths from Docimus,--at
five
thousand modii of wheat, and an extra gift. Learn now at what price he
entered them in his accounts as having been sold. [The law respecting the
sale of
tithes, Caius Verres being the praetor, is read.] You see that in this
item three thousand bushels of wheat are deducted from the sum total, and
when he had
taken all this from the food of the Roman people, from the sinews of the
revenue, from the blood of the treasury, he gave it to Tertia the actress?
Shall I call it
rather an impudent action, to extort from allies of the state, or an infamous
one to give it to a prostitute? or a wicked one to take it away from the
Roman
people, or an audacious one to make false entries in the public accounts?
Can any influence or any bribery deliver you from the severity of these
judges?
And if it should deliver you, do you not still see that the things which
I am mentioning belong to another count of the prosecution, and to the
action for
peculation? [84] Therefore I will reserve the whole of that class
of offences, and return to the charge respecting the corn and the tenths
which I had begun to
speak of.
While this man was laying waste the largest and most fertile districts
by his own agency, that is to say by Apronius, that second Verres, he had
others whom
he could send, like hounds, among the lesser cities, worthless and infamous
men, to whom he compelled the citizens to give either corn or money in
the
name of their city.
XXXVII. There is a man called Aulus Valentius in Sicily, an interpreter,
whom Verres used to employ not only as an interpreter of the Greek language,
but
also in his robberies and other crimes. This interpreter, an insignificant
and needy man, becomes on a sudden a farmer of tenths. He purchases the
tenths of
the territory of Lipara, a poor and barren district, for six hundred medimni
of wheat. The people of Lipara are convoked: they are compelled to take
the
tenths, and to pay Valentius thirty thousand sesterces as profit. O ye
immortal gods! which argument will you take for your defence; that you
sold the
tenths for so much less than you might have done,--that the city immediately,
of its own accord, added to the six hundred medimni thirty thousand
sesterces as a compliment, that is to say, two thousand medimni of wheat?
or that, after you had sold the tenths at a high price, you still extorted
this money
from the people of Lipara against their will? [85] But why do I ask
of you what defence you are going to employ, instead of rather asking the
city itself
what you have done. Read the public testimony of the Liparans, and after
that read how the money was given to Valentius. [The public testimony is
read.]
[The statement how the money was paid, extracted out of the public accounts,
is read.] Was even this little state, so far removed out of your reach
and out of
your sight, separated from Sicily, placed on a barren and uncultivated
island, turned as a sort of crown to all your other iniquities, into a
source of plunder
and profit to you in this matter of corn? You had given the whole island
to one of your companions as a trifling present, and still were these profits
from
corn exacted from it as from the inland states? And therefore the men who
for so many years, before you came as praetor, were in the habit of ransoming
their lands from the pirates, now had a price set on themselves, and were
compelled to ransom themselves from you.
XXXVIII.[86] What more need I say? Was not more extorted, under the name
of a compliment, from the people of Tissa, a very small and poor city,
but
inhabited by very hard-working agriculturists and most frugal men, than
the whole crop of corn which they had extracted from their land? Among
them you
sent as farmer Diognotus, a slave of Venus, a new class of collector altogether.
Why, with such a precedent as this, are not the public slaves at Rome also
entrusted with the revenues? In the second year of your praetorship the
Tissans are compelled against their will to give twenty-one thousand sesterces
as a
compliment. In the third year they were compelled to give thirty thousand
medimni of wheat to Diognotus, a slave of Venus, as a compliment! This
Diognotus, who is making such vast profits out of the public revenues,
has no deputy, no peculium at all. Doubt now, if you can, whether this
Venereal
officer of Verres received such an immense quantity of corn for himself,
or exacted it for his master. [87] And learn this also from the public
testimony of
the Tissans. [The public testimony of the Tissans is read.] Is it only
obscurely, O judges, that the praetor himself is the farmer, when his officers
exact corn
from the cities, levy money on them, take something more as a compliment
for themselves than they are to pay over to the Roman people under the
name of
tenths? This was your idea of equity in your command--this was your idea
of the dignity of the praetor, to make the slaves of Venus the lords of
the Sicilian
people. This was the line drawn, these were the distinctions of rank, while
you were the praetor, that the cultivators of the soil were to be considered
in the
class of slaves, the slaves in the light of farmers of the revenue.
XXXIX.[88] What more shall I say? Were not the wretched people of Amestratus,
after such vast tenths had been imposed upon them, that they had nothing
left for themselves, still compelled to pay money besides? The tenths are
knocked down to Marcus Caesius in the presence of deputies from Amestratus
and
Heraclius, one of their deputies, is compelled at once to pay twenty-two
thousand sesterces. What is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of
this
booty? of this violence? of this plundering of the allies? If Heraclius
had been commissioned by his senate to purchase the tenths, he would have
purchased
them; if he was not, how could he pay money of his own accord? He reports
to his fellow citizens that he has paid Caesius this money. Learn his report
from his letters. [89] Read extracts from the public letters. [The
public letters are read.] By what decree of the senate was this permission
given to the
deputy? By none. Why did he do so? He was compelled. Who says this? The
whole city. Read the public testimony. [The public testimony is read.]
By the
same evidence you see that there was extorted from the same city in the
second year a sum of money in a similar manner, and given to Sextus Vennonius.
But you compel the Amestratines, needy men, after you have sold their tenths
for eight hundred medimni to Banobalis, a slave of Venus, (just notice
the
names of the farmers,) to add more still as a compliment, than they had
been sold for, though they had been sold at a high price. They gave Banobalis
eight
hundred medimni of wheat, and fifteen hundred sesterces. Surely that man
would never have been so senseless, as to allow more corn to be given out
of the
domain of the Roman people to a slave of Venus than to the Roman people
itself, unless all that plunder had, under the name of the slave, come
in reality to
himself. [90] The people of Petra, though their tenths had been sold
at a high price, were, very much against their will, compelled to give
thirty-seven
thousand sesterces to Publius Naevius Turpio, a most infamous man, who
was convicted of assault while Sacerdos was praetor. Did you sell the tenths
so
carelessly, that, when a medimnus cost fifteen sesterces, and when the
tenths were sold for three thousand medimni, that is, for forty-five thousand
sesterces, still three thousand sesterces could be given to the farmer
as a compliment? ’ÄúOh, but I sold the tenths of that district at a high
price’Äù he boasts,
forsooth, not that a compliment was given to Turpio, but that money was
taken from the Petrans.
XL.[91] What shall I say next? The Halicyans, the settlers among whom pay
tenths, themselves have their lauds free from taxes. Were not they also
compelled to give to the same Turpio fifteen thousand sesterces, when their
tenths had been sold for a hundred medimni? If, as you are especially anxious
to do, you could prove that these compliments all went to the farmers,
and that none of them reached you, still these sums, taken and extorted
as they were by
your violence and injustice, ought to ensure your conviction; but, as you
cannot persuade any one that you were so foolish as to wish Apronius and
Turpio,
two slaves, to become rich at your own risk and that of your children,
do you think that any one will doubt that through the instrumentality of
those
emissaries all this money was really procured for you? [92] Again,
Symmachus, a slave of Venus, is sent as farmer to Segesta, a city exempt
from such
taxes; he brings letters from Verres, to order the cultivators to appear
in a court of some other city than their own, contrary to every resolution
of the senate,
to all their rights and privileges, and to the Rupilian law. Hear the letters
which he sent to the Segestans. [The letters of Caius Verres are read.]
Now learn by
one bargain made with an honourable and respected man, how this slave of
Venus insulted the cultivators of the soil; for there are other instances
of this
sort. [93] There is a man of the name of Diocles, a citizen of Panormus,
surnamed Phimes, an illustrious man, and of high reputation as an agriculturist,
he
rented a farm in the Segestan district, (for there are no traders in that
place,) for six thousand sesterces; after having been assaulted by this
slave of Venus,
he settled with him to give him sixteen thousand, six hundred, and sixty-four
sesterces. You may learn this from Verres's own accounts. [The items entered
under the name of Diocles of Panormus are read.] Anneius Brocchus also,
a senator, a man of a reputation, and of a virtue with which you are all
acquainted,
was compelled to give money also besides corn to this same Symmachus. Was
such a man, a senator of the Roman people, a subject of profit to a slave
of
Venus, while you were praetor?
XLI.[94] Even if you were not aware that this body excelled all others
in dignity, were you not at least aware of this, that it furnished the
judges? Previously,
when the equestrian order furnished the judges, infamous and rapacious
magistrates in the provinces were subservient to the farmers; they honoured
all who
were in their employ; every Roman knight whom they saw in the province
they pursued with attentions and courtesies; and that conduct was not so
advantageous to the guilty, as it was a hindrance to many if they had acted
in any respect contrary to the advantage or inclination of that body. This
sort of
principle was somehow or other diligently reserved among them as if by
common consent, that whoever had thought any Roman knight deserving of
any
affront, was to be considered by their whole order as deserving of every
possible misfortune. [95] Did you so despise the order of senators,
did you so
reduce everything to the standard of your own insults and caprices, had
you so deliberated and fixed it in your own mind as an invariable rule,
to reject as
judges every one who dwelt in Sicily, or who had been in Sicily while you
were praetor, that it never occurred to you that still you must come before
judges
of the same order? in whose minds, even if there were no indignation from
any personal injury done to themselves, still there would be this thought,
that they
were affronted in the affront offered to another, and that the dignity
of their order was contemptuously treated and trampled on, which, O judges,
appears to
me not to be endured with patience, for insult has in it a sting which
modest and virtuous men can with difficulty put up with. [96] You
have plundered the
Sicilians, for indeed the provincials are accustomed to obtain no revenge
amid their wrongs. You have harassed the brokers, for they seldom come
to Rome,
and never of their own accord. You gave up a Roman knight to the ill-treatment
of Apronius. To be sure; for what harm can they do you now, when they
cannot be judges? What will you say when you treat senators also with the
greatest violence? what else can you say but this, ’ÄúGive me up that senator
also,
in order that the most honourable name of senator may appear to exist not
only to excite the envy of the ignorant, but also to attract the insults
of the
worthless.’Äù [97] Nor did he do this in the case of Anneius alone,
but in the instance of every senator, so that the name of that order had
not so much
influence in procuring honour as insult for its members. In the case of
Caius Cassius, a most illustrious and most gallant man, though he was consul
at that
very time, in the first year of his praetorship, he behaved with such injustice,
that, as his wife, a woman of the highest respectability, had lands in
Leontini,
inherited from her father, he ordered all her crops to be taken away for
tenths. You shall have him as a witness in this cause, O Verres, since
you have taken
care not to have him as a judge. [98] But you, O judges, ought to
think that there is some community of interests, some close connection
existing between
the members of our body; many offices are imposed on this our order, many
toils, many dangers, not only from the laws and courts of justice, but
also from
vague reports, and from the critical character of the times; so that this
order is, as it were, exposed to view, and set on an eminence, in order,
as it seems, to be
the more easily caught by every blast of envy. In so miserable and unfair
a condition of life, shall we not retain even the honour of not appearing
vile and
contemptible in the eyes of our own magistrates, when we appear before
them to obtain our rights?
XLII.[99] The men of Thermae sent agents to purchase the tenths of their
district. They thought it was much better for them, that they should be
purchased
by their own state at ever so high a price, than that they should get into
the hands of some emissary of his. A man of the name of Venuleius had been
put up
to buy them. He did not cease from bidding. They went on competing with
him, as long as the price appeared such as could by any possibility be
borne. At
last they gave up bidding. They are knocked down to Venuleius at eight
thousand modii of wheat. Possidorus, the deputy of Thermae, sends notice
home.
Although it appeared to every one a most intolerable hardship, still there
were given to Venuleius eight thousand modii of wheat, and two thousand
sesterces besides, not to come near them. From which it is very evident
which part was the wages of the farmer, and which the booty of the praetor.
Give me
the letters and testimony of the people of Thermae. [The accounts of the
people of Thermae, and their evidence, are read.] [100] You compelled
the
Imacharans after you had taken away all their corn, after they had been
impoverished by your incessant injuries, miserable and ruined as they were,
to pay
tribute so as to give Apronius twenty thousand sesterces. Read the decree
about the tributes, and the public testimony. [The Resolution of the Senate
about
the tribute to be paid, is read. [The testimony of the Imacharans is read.]
The people of Enna, though the tenths of the territory of Enna had been
sold for
three thousand two hundred medimni, were compelled to give Apronius eighteen
thousand modii of wheat, and three thousand sesterces. I entreat you to
remark what an enormous quantity of corn is extorted from every district
liable to the payment of tenths; for my speech extends over every city
which is so
liable. And I am at present engaged about this class of injuries, O judges,
in which it is not a case of single cultivators being stripped of all their
property, but
of compliments being exacted from the public treasury of each city, for
the farmers, in order that at last they may depart from the lands and cities
glutted and
satiated with this immense heap of gain.
XLIII.[101] Why in the third year of your praetorship did you order the
Calactans to carry the tenths of their land, which they had been accustomed
to pay
at Calacta, to Marcus Caesius the farmer of Amestratus, a thing which they
had never done before you were praetor, and which you yourself had never
ordered in the two years preceding? Why was Theomnastus the Syracusan sent
by you into the district of Mutyca, where he so harassed the cultivators,
that
for their second teethe they were unavoidably forced to buy wheat, because
they had actually none of their own, (a thing which I shall prove happened
also in
the case of other cities.) [102] But now, from the agreements made
with the people of Hybla, which were made with the farmer Cnaeus Sergius,
you will
perceive that six times as much corn as was sown was exacted of the cultivators
Read the accounts of the sowings and the agreements, extracted from the
public registers. Read. [The agreements of the people of Hybla with Cnaeus
Sergius, extracted out of the public registers, are read.] Listen also
to the returns
of the sowings, and the agreements of the men of Mena with that slave of
Venus. Read them out of the public registers. [The returns of the Sowings,
arid the
agreements of the Menans with the servant of Venus, extracted from the
public registers, are read.] Will you, O judges, endure that a great deal
more than
has been produced should be exacted from our allies, from the cultivators
of the domain of the Roman people, from those who are labouring for you,
are in
your service, who are so eager that the Roman people should be fed by them,
that they only retain for themselves and their children enough for their
actual
subsistence, and should be exacted too with the greatest violence, and
the most bitter insults? [103] I feel, O judges, that I must now
set some bounds to the
length of my speech, and that I must avoid wearying you. I will no longer
dwell on one kind of injury alone, and I will leave the other instances
out of my
speech, though they will still make a part of my accusation. You shall
hear the complaints of the Agregentines, most gallant, and most industrious
men; you
shall become acquainted, O judges, with the sufferings and the injuries
of the Entellans, a people of the greatest perseverance and the greatest
industry; the
wrongs of the men of Heraclea, and Gela, and Solentum shall be mentioned:
you shall be told of the fields of the Catanians, a most wealthy people
and most
friendly to us, ravaged by Apronius: you shall be made aware that the cities
of Tyndaris, that most noble city, of Cephalaedis, of Halentia, of Apollonia,
of
Enguina, of Capitia, have been ruined by the iniquity of these farmers;
that actually nothing is left to the citizens of Ina, of Murgentia, of
Assoria, of Elorum,
of Enna, and of Ietum; that the people of Cetaria and Acheria, small cities,
are wholly crushed and destroyed; in short, that all the lands liable to
the payment
of tenths have been for three years tributary to the Roman people, to the
extent of one tenth of their produce, and to Caius Verres to the extent
of all the rest;
that to most of the cultivators nothing at all is left, that if anything
was either remitted to or left to any one, it was only just so much as
remained of that
property by which the avarice of that man had bees satiated.
XLIV.[104] I have reserved the territories of two cities, O judges, to
speak of last, the best and noblest of all, the territory of Aetna and
that of Leontini: I will
say nothing of the gains made out of these districts in his three years;
I will select one year in order that I more easily may be able to explain
what I have
settled to mention. I will take the third year, because it is both the
most recent, and because it has been managed by him in such a way that,
since he knew
that he was certainly going to depart, he evidently did not care if he
left behind him not one cultivator of the soil in all Sicily. We will speak
of the tenths of
the territory of Aetna and Leontini. Give heed, O judges, carefully. The
lands are fertile; it is the third year; [105] Apronius is the farmer.
I will speak a little
of the people of Aetna; for they themselves at the former pleading spoke
in the name of their city. You recollect that Artemidorus of Aetna, the
chief of that
deputation, said, in the name of his city, that Apronius had come to Aetna
with the slaves of Venus; that he had summoned the magistrates before him;
that
he had ordered a couch to be spread for him in the middle of the forum;
that he was accustomed every day to feast not only in public, but at the
public
expense; that, when at those feasts the concert began to sound, and slaves
began to serve him with wine in large goblets, then he used to detain the
cultivators
of the soil, and not only with injustice, but even with insolence, to extort,
from them whatever quantity of corn he had ordered them to supply. [106]
You
heard all these things, O judges, all which I now pass by and leave unnoticed.
I say nothing of the luxury of Apronius, nothing of his insolence, nothing
of
his unexampled profligacy and wickedness; I will only speak of the gain
and profit made out of one district in one year, so that you may the more
easily be
able to form your conjectures of the whole three years and of the whole
of Sicily; but I do not mean to say much about the people of Aetna, for
they have
come hither themselves, they have brought with them their public documents;
they have proved to you what gains were made by that honest man, the intimate
friend of the praetor, Apronius. I pray of you learn this from their own
testimony. Read the testimony of the people of Aetna. [The testimony of
the people
of Aetna is read.]
XLV. What are you saying? Speak, speak, I pray you, louder, that the Roman
people may hear about its revenues, its cultivators of the soil, its allies,
and its
friends. ’ÄúThree hundred thousand medimni; and fifty thousand sesterces.’Äù
Oh, the immortal gods! Does one district in one year years three hundred
thousand modii of wheat, and fifty thousand sesterces besides, as a compliment
to Apronius? Did the tenths sell for so much less than they were really
worth? or, though they had been sold at a sufficiently high price, was
such a quantity of corn and money nevertheless exacted by main force from
the
cultivators? For whichever of these you say was the truth, blame and criminality
will attach to it. [107] For you certainly will not say (what I wish
you would
say) that this quantity never came to Apronius. So I will hold you here,
not only by the public covenants and letters, but also from the private
ones of the
cultivators, so as to let you understand that you were not mere diligent
in executing robberies, than I have been in detecting them. Will you be
able to bear
this? Will any one defend you? Will these men be able to endure this, if
they are inclined to pronounce a sentence favourable to you,--that Quintus
Apronius, at one visit, out of one district, (besides all the money which
was paid him, and which I have mentioned,) should have taken three hundred
thousand modii of wheat, under the name of a compliment? [108] What!
are they the men of Aetna alone who say this? Yes, the Centuripans also,
who are
in occupation of far the largest part of the Aetnaean district, to whose
ambassadors, most noble men, Andron and Artemon, their senate gave commissions
which had reference to their city in his public capacity, concerning those
injuries which the citizens of Centuripa sustained not in their own territories,
but in
those of others. The senate and people of Centuripa did not choose to send
ambassadors; but the Centuripan cultivators of the soil, which is the greatest
body of such men in Sicily, a body of most honourable and most wealthy
men, themselves selected three ambassadors, fellow citizens of their own,
in order
that by their evidence you might be made aware of the calamities, not of
one district only, but of almost all Sicily. For the Centuripans are engaged
as
cultivators of the soil in almost every part of Sicily. And they are the
more important and the more trustworthy witnesses against you, because,
the other
cities ore influenced by their own distresses alone, the Centuripans as
they occupy land in almost every district, have felt the injuries and wrongs
of the other
cities also.
XLVI.[109] But as I have said, the case of the men of Aetna is clear enough,
and established both by public and by private documents. The task allotted
to
my diligence is to be required of me rather in the district of Leontini,
for this reason, because the Leontini themselves have not assisted me much
by their
public authority. Nor, in truth, while that fellow was praetor, did these
injuries of the farmers very greatly affect them, or rather, I might say,
they did them
good. This may, perhaps, appear a marvellous or even an incredible thing
to you, that in such general distress of the cultivators of the soil, the
Leontini, who
were the heads of the corn interest, should have been free from injury
and calamity. This is the reason, O judges, that in the territory of Leontini,
no one of
the Leontini, with the exception of the single family of Mnasistratus,
occupies any land. And so, O judges, you shall hear the evidence of Mnasistratus,
a
most honest and virtuous man. Do not expect to hear any others of the Leontini,
whom not only Apronius, but whom even a tempest in their fields could not
injure. They in truth not only suffered no inconvenience, but even in the
rapine of Apronius they found gain and advantage. [110] Wherefore,
since the city
and embassy of the Leontini has failed me on account of the cause which
I have mentioned, I must devise a plan and contrive a way for myself by
which I
may get at the gain of Apronius, or even at his enormous and wicked booty.
The tenths of the Leontini territory were sold in the third year of Verres's
praetorship for thirty-six thousand medimni of wheat; that is, for two
hundred and twenty-six thousand modii of wheat. A great price, O judges,
a great
price; and I cannot deny it. Therefore it is certain that there must have
been a loss, or at all events not a great gain to the farmers. For this
very often happens
to men who have taken a contract at a high rate. [111] What will
you think if I prove to you that, by this one purchase, there were made
a hundred thousand
modii of profit? what if it was two hundred thousand? what if three? what
if four hundred thousand was the sum? Will you still doubt for whom that
immense booty was acquired? Will any one say that I am unfair if from the
mere magnitude of the gain made I form a conjecture as to the direction
of the
stolen goods and plunder? What if I prove to you, O judges, that those
men who are making four hundred thousand modii of profit would have suffered
a
loss if your iniquity, O Verres, if judges of your retinue had not stepped
in? Can any one doubt, in a case of so much gain and so much iniquity,
that you
made such immense profit by dishonest means? that for such immense gains
you were willing to be dishonest?
XLVII.[112] How then, O judges, am I to arrive at this knowledge of how
much profit was made? Not from the accounts of Apronius, for when I sought
for
them, I could not find them, and when I brought him into court, I made
him deny that he kept any accounts at all. If he was telling lies, why
did he remove
them out of the way, if they were likely to do you no harm? If he really
had kept any accounts at all, does not that alone prove plainly enough,
that it was not
his own business that he was conducting? For it is a quality of tenths,
that they cannot be managed without many papers; for it is necessary to
keep an
account of, and to set down in books the names of all the cultivators,
and with each name the amount of their tenth. All the cultivators made
returns of their
acres according to your command and regulation; I do not believe that any
one made a return of a smaller quantity than he had in cultivation, when
there
were so many crosses, so many penalties, so many judges of that retinue
before his eyes. On an acre of Leontini ground about a medimnus of wheat
is
usually sown, according to the regular and constant allowance of seed.
The land returns about eightfold on a fair average, but in an extraordinarily
favourable
season, about tenfold. And whenever that is the case, it then happens that
the tenth is just the same quantity as was sown; that is to say, as many
acres as are
sown, so many medimni are due. [113] As this was the case, I say
first of all, that the tenths of the territory of Leontini were sold for
many more thousand
medimni than there were thousands of acres sown in the district of Leontini.
But if it was impossible for them to produce more than ten medimni on an
acre, and if it was fair that a medimnus should be paid out of each acre
liable to the payment of tenths, when the land produced a tenfold crop,
which
however very seldom happened, what was the calculation of the farmer if
indeed it was the tenths of the cultivator that were being sold, and no
his whole
property, when he bought the tenths for many more medimni than there had
been acres sown? In the Lecutini district the list and return made of acres
is not
more than thirty thousand.
XLVIII. The tenths were sold for thirty-six thousand medimni. Did Apronius
make a blunder, or rather was he mad? Yes, he would indeed have been mad
if
it had been lawful for the cultivators to give only what was due from them,
and had not rather been compulsory on them to give whatever Apronius
commanded. [114] If I prove that no man gave less for his tenths
than three medimni to the acre, you will admit, I suppose, that, even supposing
the
produce amounted to a tenfold crop, no one paid less than three tenths.
And indeed this was begged as a favour from Apronius, that they might be
allowed to
compound at three medimni an acre. For, as four and even five were exacted
from many people, and as many had not only not a grain of corn, but not
even a
wisp of straw left out of all their crop and after all their year's labour;
then the cultivators of Centuripa, which are the main body of agriculturists
in the
Leontini district, assembled in one place. They sent as a delegate to Apronius,
Andron of Centuripa, a man among the first of his state for honour and
nobility, (the same man whom now the city of Centuripa has sent to this
trial as a deputy and as a witness,) in order that he might plead with
him the cause of
the cultivators of the soil, and beg of him not to exact of the Centuripan
cultivators more than three medimni for each acre. [115] This request
was with
difficulty obtained from Apronius, as a most excessive kindness to those
men who were even then safe. And when this was obtained, this is what was
obtained, forsooth, that they might be allowed to pay three tenths instead
of one. But if your own interest had not been at stake in the matter, O
Verres, they
would rather have entreated you not to be made to pay more than one tenth,
than have begged of a promise not to be made to pay more than three. Now,
that
at the present time I may pass over those rules which Apronius, in a kingly,
or rather in a tyrannical spirit, made with respect to the cultivators,
and that I may
not at present call those men from whom he took all their corn, and to
whom he left nothing not only of their corn, but nothing even of their
property; just
see how much gain is made of these three medimni, which he considered as
a great favour and indulgence.
XLIX.[116] The return of acres in the district of Leontini is thirty thousand.
This amounts to ninety thousand medimni of wheat that is to say, to five
hundred and forty thousand modii of wheat. Deduct two hundred and sixteen
thousand modii of wheat, being what the tenths were sold for, and there
remain three hundred and twenty-four thousand modii of wheat; add to the
sum total of five hundred and forty thousand modii three fiftieths, that
is to say,
thirty-two thousand four hundred modii of wheat, (for three fiftieths besides
were exacted from every one;) this now amounts to three hundred and fifty-six
thousand four hundred modii of wheat. But I said that four hundred thousand
sesterces of profit had been made. For I do not include in this calculation
those who were not allowed to compound at three medimni an acre. But that
by this present calculation I may make out the sum which I promised to
do,
many were compelled besides to pay two sesterces, and many even five, with
each medimnus, and those who had to pay least paid a sesterce with every
medimnus. To take the least of these sums, as we calculated there were
ninety thousand medimni, we must add to that, according to this new and
infamous
example here given, ninety thousand sesterces. [117] Will he now
dare to tell me, that he sold the tenths at a high price, when he took
for himself more than
twice as much as he sent to the Roman people out of the same district?
You sold the tenths of the Leontine district for two hundred and sixteen
thousand
modii of wheat? If you did so according to law, it was a fine price; if
your caprice was the law, it was a low price; if you sold them so that
those were called
tenths which were in reality a half, you sold them at a very low price.
For the yearly produce of all Sicily might be sold for much more, if that
was what the
senate or people of Rome had desired you to do. Indeed, the tenths were
often sold for as much, when they were sold according to the law of Hiero,
as they
have been sold for now under the law of Verres. Let me have the accounts
of the sale of tenths under Caius Norbanus. [The account of the sale of
the tenths
in the Leontine district under Caius Norbanus is read.] And yet, then,
there were no trials about the return of acres; nor was Artemidorus Cornelius
a judge,
nor did a Sicilian magistrate exact from a cultivator whatever the farmer
demanded; nor was it entreated as a favour from the farmer to be allowed
to
compound at three medimni an acre; nor was a cultivator obliged to give
an additional present of money, nor to add three-fiftieths of corn. And
yet a area,
quantity of corn was sent to the Roman people.
L.[118] But what is the meaning of these fiftieths? what is the meaning
of these additional presents of money? By what right, and, what is more,
in what
manner did you do this The cultivator gave the money. How or whence did
he get it? If he had wished to be very liberal, he would have used a more
heaped
up measure, as men formerly used to do in the matter of the tenths, when
they were sold by fair laws, and on fair terms. He gave the money. Where
did he
get it? from his corn? As if, while you were praetor, he had anything to
sell. Something, then, must be taken from his principal, in order to add
this pecuniary
gratuity for Apronius to all the profit which he derived from the lands.
The next thing is, Did they give it willingly or unwillingly? Willingly?
They were very
fond, I suppose, of Apronius. Unwillingly? How, then, were they compelled
to do so, except by violence and ill-treatment? Again; that man, that most
senseless man, in the selling of the tenths, caused additional sums to
be added to every tenth. It was not much; he added two or three thousand
sesterces. In
the three years he made about five hundred thousand sesterces. He did this
neither according to any precedent, nor by any right; nor did he make any
return
of that money; nor can any man ever imagine how he is going to defend himself
against this petty charge.
[119] And, as this is the case, do you dare to say that you sold
the tenths at a high price, when it is evident that you sold the property
and fortunes of the
cultivators, not for the cake of the Roman people, but with a view to your
own gain. As if any steward, from a farm which had been used to produce
ten
thousand sesterces, having cut down and sold the trees, having taken away
the buildings and the stock, and having driven off all the cattle, sent
his master
twenty thousand sesterces instead of ten, and made a hundred thousand more
for himself. At first the master, not knowing the injury that had been
done to
him, would be glad, and be delighted with his steward, because he had got
so much more profit out of the farm; but afterwards, when he heard that
all those
things on which the profit and cultivation of his farm depends have been
removed and sold, he would punish his steward with the greatest severity,
and think
himself very ill used. So also, the Roman people, when it hears that Caius
Verres has sold the tenths for more than that most innocent man, Caius
Sacerdos,
whom he succeeded, thinks that it has got a good steward and guardian over
its lands and crops; but when it finds out that he has sold all the stock
of the
cultivators, all the resources of the revenue, and has destroyed all the
hopes of their posterity by his avarice,--that he has devastated and drained
the
allotments and the Lands subject to tribute,--that he has made himself
most enormous gain and booty,--it will perceive that it has been shamefully
treated,
and will think that man worthy of the severest punishment.
LI.[120] By what, then, can this be made evident? Chiefly by this fact,
that the land of the province of Sicily liable to the payment of tenths
is deserted
through the avarice of that man. Nor does it happen only that those who
have remained on their lands are now cultivating a smaller number of acres,
but also
very many rich men, farmers on a large scale, and skillful men, have deserted
large and productive farms, and abandoned their whole allotments. That
may be
very easily ascertained from the public documents of the states; because
according to the law of Hiero the number of cultivators is every year entered
in the
books by public authority before the magistrates. Read now how many cultivators
of the Leontine district there were when Verres took the government.
Eighty-three. And how many made returns in his third year? Thirty-two.
I see that there were fifty-one cultivators so entirely got rid of that
they had no
successors. How many cultivators were there of the district of Mutyca,
when you arrived? Let us see from the public documents. A hundred and
eighty-eight. How many in your third year? A hundred and one. That one
district has to regret eighty-seven cultivators, owing to that man's ill-treatment,
and
to that extent our republic has to regret the loss of so many heads of
families, and demands them back at his hand, since they are the real revenues
of the
Roman people. The district of Herbita had in his first year two hundred
and fifty-seven cultivators; in his third, a hundred and twenty. From this
region a
hundred and thirty-seven heads of families have fled like banished men.
The district of Agyrium--what men lived in that land! how honourable, how
wealthy
they were? --had two hundred and fifty cultivators in the first year of
your praetorship. What had it in the third year? Eighty,--as you have heard
the Agyrian
deputies read from their public documents.
LII.[121] O ye immortal gods! If you had driven away out of the whole of
Sicily a hundred and seventy cultivators of the soil, could you, with impartial
judges, escape condemnation? When the one district of Agyrium is less populous
by a hundred and seventy cultivators, will not you, O judges, form your
conjectures of the state of the whole province? And you will find nearly
the same state of things in every district liable to the payment of tenths,
and that
those to whom anything has been left out of a large patrimony, have remained
behind with a much smaller stock, and cultivating a much smaller number
of
acres, because they were afraid, if they departed, that they should lose
all the rest of their fortunes; but as for those to whom he had left nothing
remaining
which they could lose, they have fled not only from their farms, but from
their cities. The very men who have remained--scarcely a tenth part of
the old
cultivators of the soil--were about to leave all their lands too, if Metellus
had not sent letters to them from Rome, saying that he would sell the tenths
according to the law of Hiero; and if he had not entreated them to sow
as much land as they could, which they had always done for their own sakes,
when no
one entreated them, as long as they understood that they were sowing, and
labouring, and going to expense for themselves and for the Roman people,--not
for Verres and Apronius. [122] But now, O judges, if you neglect
the fortunes of the Sicilians,--if you show no anxiety about the treatment
the allies of the
Roman people receive from our magistrates,--at all events undertake and
defend the common cause of the Roman people. I say that the cultivators
have been
driven out,--that the lands subject to tribute have been devastated and
drained by Verres--that the whole province has been depopulated and tyrannised
over.
All these things I prove by the public documents of the cities, and by
the private evidence of most unimpeachable men.
LIII. What would you have more? Do you wait till Lucius Metellus, who by
his commands and by his power has deterred many witnesses from appearing
against Verres shall himself, though absent, bear testimony to his wickedness,
and dishonesty, and audacity? I think not. But he, who was his successor,
has
had the best opportunity of knowing the truth. That is true, but he is
hindered by his friendship for him. Still, he ought to inform us accurately
in what state
the province is. He ought, still he is not forced to do so. [123]
Does any one require the evidence of Lucius Metellus against Verres? No
one. Does any one
demand it? I think not What, however, if I prove by the evidence and letters
of Lucius Metellus that all these things are true? What will you say then?
That
Metellus writes falsely? or that he is desirous of injuring his friend?
or that he, though he is praetor, does not know in what state the province
is? Read the
letters of Lucius Metellus, which he sent to Cnaeus Pompeius and Marcus
Crassus, the consuls, those which he sent to Marcus Mummius, the praetor,
those
which he sent to the quaestors of the city. [The letter of Lucius Metellus
is read.] ’ÄúI sold the tenths according to the law of Hiero.’Äù When he
writes that he
had sold them according to the law of Hiero, what is he writing? Why, that
he had sold them as all others had done, except Verres. When he writes
that he
had sold them according to the law of Hiero, what is he writing? Why, that
he had restored the privileges granted to the Sicilians by the kindness
of our
ancestors and taken away by Verres, and their rights, and the terms on
which they became our allies and friends. He mentions at what price he
sold the
tenths of each district. After that what does he write? [124] Read
the rest of the letter.--’ÄúThe greatest pains has been taken by me to
sell the tenths for as
good a price as possible.’Äù Why then, O Metellus, did you not sell them
for as much as Verres? ’ÄúBecause I found the allotments deserted, the
fields empty,
the province in a wretched and ruined condition.’Äù What? And as for the
land that was sown, how was any one found to sow it? Read the letters.
[The letters
are read.] He says that he had sent letters, and that, when he arrived,
he had given a positive promise; he had interposed his authority to prevail
on them, and
had all but given hostages to the cultivators that he would be in no respect
like Verres But what is this about which he says that he took so much pains?
Read--’ÄúTo prevail on the cultivators of the soil, who were left, to sow
as largely as they could.’Äù Who were left? What does this mean--left?
After what war?
after what devastation? What mighty slaughter was there in Sicily, or what
was there of such duration and such disaster while you were praetor, that
your
successor had to collect and recover the cultivators who were left?
LIV.[125] When Sicily was harassed in the Carthaginian wars, and afterwards,
in our fathers' and our own recollection, when great bands of fugitive
slaves
twice occupied the province, still there was no destruction of the cultivators
of the soil; then, if the sowing was hindered, or the crop lost, the yearly
revenue
was lost too, but the number of owners and cultivators of the land remained
undiminished. Then those officers who succeeded the praetors Marcus
Laevinus, or Publius Rupilius, or Marcus Aquillius in that province, had
not to collect the cultivators who were left. Did Verres and Apronius bring
so much
more distress on the province of Sicily than either Hasdrubal with his
army of Carthaginians, or Athenio with his numerous bands of runaway slaves,
that in
those times, as soon as the enemy was subdued, all the land was ploughed,
and the praetor had not to send letters to beg the cultivator to come to
him, and
entreat him to sow as much land as he could; but now, even after the departure
of this most ill-omened pestilence, no one could be found who would till
his
land of his own free-will; and very few were left to return to their farms
and their own familiar household gods, even when urged by the authority
of Lucius
Metellus? [126] Do not you feel, O most audacious and most senseless
of omen, that you are destroyed by these letters? Do you not see that,
when your
successor addresses those agriculturists who are left, he writes this in
express words, that they are left, not after war or after any calamity
of that sort, but
after your wickedness, and tyranny, and avarice, and cruelty? Read the
rest--’ÄúBut still in such quantities as the difficulty of the times and
the poverty of the
cultivators permitted.’Äù The poverty of the cultivators, he says. If I,
as the accuser, were to dwell so repeatedly on the same subject, I should
be afraid of
wearying your attention, O judges; but Metellus cries out, ’ÄúIf I had
not written letters.’Äù That is not enough--’ÄúIf I had not, when on the
spot, assured them.’Äù
Even that is not enough--’ÄúThe cultivators who were left,’Äù he says.
Left? In that mournful word he intimates the condition of nearly the whole
province of
Sicily. He adds, ’Äúthe poverty of the cultivators.’Äù
LV.[127] Wait a little, O judges, wait a little, if you can, for confirmation
of my speech. I say that the cultivators have been driven away by that
man's avarice:
Metellus writes word that those who were left have been reassured by him.
I say that the fields have been abandoned, and the allotments deserted:
Metellus
writes word that there is great penury among the cultivators. When he writes
this, he shows that the allies and friends of the Roman people have been
cast
down, and driven off, and stripped of all their fortunes; and yet if any
calamity had happened to these men by his means, even without any injury
to our
revenues, you ought to punish him, especially while judging according to
that law which was established for the sake of the allies. But when our
allies are
oppressed and ruined, and the revenues of the Roman people diminished at
the same time,--when our supplies of corn and provisions, our wealth, and
the
safety of the city and of our armies for the future is destroyed by his
avarice, at least have a regard to the advantage of the Roman people, if
you have no
anxiety to show your regard for our most faithful allies. [128] And
that you may be aware that man had no consideration for either the revenue
or for our
posterity, in comparison with present gain and booty, see what Metellus
writes at the end:--’ÄúI have taken care of the revenues for the future.’Äù
He says that
he has taken care of the revenues for the future. He would not write that
he had taken care of the revenues, if he had not meant to show this, that
you had
ruined the revenues. For what reason was there for Metellus taking care
for the future of the revenues in respect of the tenths, and of the whole
corn interest,
if that man had not diverted the revenues of the Roman people to his own
profit And Metellus himself, who is taking care of the revenues for the
future, who
is reassembling the cultivators of the soil who are left, what does he
effect but this, to make those men plough, if they can, to whom Verres's
satellite
Apronius has hardly left one plough remaining, but who yet remained on
their land in the hope and expectation of Metellus? What more? What became
of
the rest of the Sicilians? What became of that numerous body of cultivators
who were not only driven away from their farms, but who even fled from
their
cities, from the province, having had all their property and all their
fortunes taken from them? By what means can they be recalled? How many
praetors of
incorruptible wisdom will be required to re-establish, in process of time,
that multitude of cultivators in their farms and their habitations?
LVI.[129] And that you may not marvel that so great a multitude has fled,
as you find, from the public documents and from the returns of the cultivators,
has
fled, know that his cruelty and wickedness towards the cultivators was
so excessive, (it is an incredible statement to make, O judges, but it
is both a fact, and
one that is notorious over all Sicily,) that men, on account of the insults
and licentiousness of the collectors, actually killed themselves. It is
proved that
Diocles of Centuripa, a wealthy man, hung himself the very day that it
was announced that Apronius had purchased the tenths. A man of high birth,
Archonidas of Elorum, said that Dyrrachinus, the first man of his city,
slew himself in the same way, when he heard that the collector had made
a return, that,
according to Verres's edict, he owed him a sum that he could not make good
at the expense of all his property.
Now you, though you always were the most dissolute and cruel of all mortals,
still you never would have allowed, (because the groanings and lamentations
of the province brought danger on your own head,)--you would never, I say,
have allowed men to seek refuge from your injustice in hanging and death,
if the
matter had not tended to your profit and to your own acquisition of booty.
[130] What! would you have suffered it? Listen, O judges; for I must
strive with
all my sinews, and labour earnestly to make all men perceive how infamous,
how evident, how undeniable a crime they are seeking to efface by means
of
money. This is a grave charge, a serious charge,--it is the most serious
one which has been made in the memory of man, ever since trials for peculation
and
extortion were first instituted,--that a praetor of the Roman people has
had collectors of the tenths for his partners.
LVII. It is not the case that a private individual is now for the first
time having this charge brought against him by an enemy, or a defendant
by his accuser.
Long ago, while sitting on his seat of justice as praetor, while he had
the province of Sicily, when he was not only feared (as is common) on account
of his
absolute power, but also on account of its cruelty, (which is his especial
characteristic,) he heard this charge urged against him a thousand times,
when it was
not carelessness which delayed him from avenging it, but the consciousness
of his wickedness and avarice that kept him in check. For the collectors
used to
say openly, and, above all the rest, that one who had the greatest influence
with him, and who was laying waste the most extensive districts, Apronius,
that
very little of these immense gains came to them, that the praetor was their
partner. [131] When the collectors were in the habit of saying this
all over the
province, and mixing up your name with so base and infamous a business,
did it never come into your mind to take care of your own character? Did
it never
occur to you to look to your liberty and fortunes? When the terror of your
name was constantly present to the ears and minds of the cultivators,--when
the
collectors made use, not of their own power, but of your wickedness and
your name to compel the cultivators to come to terms with them,--Did you
think
that there would be any tribunal at Rome so profligate, so abandoned, so
mercenary that any protection from its judgment would be found for you?--when
it
was notorious that, when the tenths had been sold contrary to the regulations,
the laws, and the customs of all men, the collectors, while employed in
seizing
the property and fortunes of the cultivators, were used to say that the
shares were yours, the affair yours, the plunder yours; and that you said
nothing, and
though you could not conceal that you were aware of it, were still able
to bear and endure it, because the magnitude of the gain obscured the magnitude
of
the danger, and because the desire of money had a good deal more influence
over you than the fear of judgment. [132] Be it so; you cannot deny
the rest.
You have not even left yourself this resource, to be able to say that you
heard nothing of this,--that no mention of your infamy ever came to your
ears; for the
cultivators were complaining with groans and tears. Did you not know it?
The whole province was loud in its indignation. Did no one tell you of
it?
Complaints were being made of your injuries, and meetings held on the subject
at Home,--were you ignorant of this? Were you ignorant of all these facts?
What? when Publius Rubrius summoned Quintus Apronius openly at Syracuse
in your hearing, at a great assembly of the people, to be bound over to
stand
a trial, offering to prove, ’Äúthat Apronius had frequently said that you
were his partner in the affair of the tenths.’Äù Did not these words strike
you? did they
not agitate you? did they not arouse you to take care of your own liberty
and fortunes? You were silent; you even pacified their quarrel; you took
pains to
prevent the trial from coming on.
LVIII. O ye immortal gods! could either an innocent man have endured this?
or would not even a man ever so guilty, if it were only because he thought
that
there might be a trial at Rome hereafter, have endeavoured by some dissimulation
to study his character in the eyes of men? [133] What is the case?
A
wager is offered about a matter affecting your position as a free citizen,
and your fortunes. Do you sit still and say nothing? do not you follow
up the
matter? do not you persevere? do not you ask to whom Apronius said it?
who heard him? whence it arose? how it was stated to have happened If any
one
had whispered in your ear, and told you that Apronius was in the habit
of saying that you were his partner, you ought to have been roused, to
have
summoned Apronius, and not to have been satisfied yourself with him, till
you had satisfied the opinion of others with respect to yourself. But when
in the
crowded forum, in a great concourse of people, this charge was urged, in
word and presence indeed, against Apronius, but in reality against you,
could you
ever have received such a blow in silence, unless you had decided that,
say what you would in so evident a case, you would only make the matter
worse?
[134] Many men have dismissed quaestors, lieutenants, prefects, and
tribunes, and ordered them to leave the province, because they thought
that their own
reputation was being injured through their misconduct, or because they
considered that they were behaving ill in some particular. Would you never
have
addressed Apronius, a man scarcely a free man, profligate, abandoned, infamous,
who could not preserve, I will not say an honest mind, but not even a pure
soul, with even one harsh word, and that too when smarting under disgrace
and insult yourself? And moreover, the respect due to a partnership would
not
have been so sacred in your eyes as to make you indifferent to the danger
you were in, if you had not seen the matter was so well known and so notorious
to
every one. [135] Publius Scandilius, a Roman knight, whom you are
all acquainted with, did afterwards adopt the same legal proceedings against
this same
Apronius respecting that partnership, which Rubrius had wished to adopt.
He urged them on; he pressed it, he gave him no respite; security was given
to the
amount of five thousand sesterces; Scandilius began to demand recuperators
or a judge.
LIX. Does not this wicked praetor seem to be hemmed in now within sufficiently
narrow bounds in his own province, yes, and even on his own throne and
tribunal; so that he must either while present and sitting on the bench
allow a trial to proceed affecting his own liberty, or else confess that
he must be
convicted by every tribunal in the world? The trial is on this formula,
’Äúthat Apronius says that you are his partner in the matter of the tenths.’Äù
The province
is yours; you are present, judgment is demanded from you yourself. What
do you do? What do you decree? You say that you will assign judges. You
do
well; though where will there be found judges of such courage as to dare,
in his province, when the praetor himself is present, to decide in a manner
not only
contrary to his with, but adverse even to his fortunes? [136] However,
be it so; the case is evident; there was no one who did not say that he
had heard this
distinctly; all the most respectable men were most undoubted witnesses
of it; there was no one in all Sicily who did not know that the tenths
belonged to the
praetor, no one who had not heard Apronius frequently say so; moreover,
there was a fine body of settlers at Syracuse, many Roman knights, men
of the
highest consideration, out of which number the judges must be selected,
who could not possibly decide in any other manner. Scandilius does not
cease to
demand judges; then that innocent man, who was so eager to efface that
suspicion, and to remove it from himself, says that he will assign judges
from his
own retinue.
LX.[137] In the name of the good faith of gods and men, who is it that
I am accusing? in whose case am I not desirous that my industry and diligence
should be proved? What is it that I sought to effect and obtain by speaking
and meditating on this matter? I have hold, I have hold I say, in the middle
of the
revenues of the Roman people, in the very crops of the province of Sicily,
of a thief, manifestly embezzling the whole revenue derived from the corn,
an
immense sum: I have hold of him; so I say that he cannot deny it. For what
will he say? Security has been entered into for a prosecution against your
agent
Apronius, in a matter in which all your fortunes are at stake--on the charge
of having been in the habit of saying that you were his partner in the
tenths. All
men are waiting to see how anxious you will be about this, how you will
endeavour to give men a favourable opinion of you and of your innocence.
Will
you here appoint as judges your physician, and your soothsayer, and your
crier, or even that man whom you had in your train, in case there was any
affair of
importance, a judge like Cassius, Papirius Potamo, a severe man of the
old equestrian school? Scandilius began to demand judges from the body
of settlers;
then Verres says that he will not entrust a trial in which his own character
is at stake, to any one except his own people. The brokers think it a scandalous
thing for a man to protest against, as unjust to himself, that form in
which they transact their business. The praetor protests against the whole
province as
unjust to him. [138] Oh, unexampled impudence! Does he demand to
be acquitted at Rome, who has decided in his own province that it is impossible
that
he should be acquitted? who thinks that money will have a greater influence
over senators most carefully chosen, than fear will over three judges?
But
Scandilius says that he will not say a word before a judge like Artemidorus,
and still he presses the matter on, and loads you with favourable conditions,
if
you choose to avail yourself of them. If you decide that, in the whole
province of Sicily, no capable judge or recuperator can be found, he requires
of you to
refer the matter to Rome; and on this you exclaim that the man is a dishonest
man, for demanding a trial in which your character is at stake to take
place in a
place where he knows that you are unpopular. [139] You say you will
not send the case to Rome. You say that you will not appoint judges out
of the body
of settlers; you put forward your own retinue. Scandilius says that he
shall abandon the whole affair for the present, and return at his own time.
What do
you say to that? what do you do? you compel Scandilius to do what? to prosecute
the matter regularly? In a shameless manner you put an end to the
long-expected trial of your character; you do not do that--what do you
do, then? [140] Do you permit Apronius to select what judges he chooses
out of
your retinue? It is a scandalous thing that you should give one of the
parties a power of selecting judges from that worthless crew, rather than
give both a
power of rejecting judges from a respectable class. You do neither of those
things--what then? Is there anything more abominable that can be done?
Yes; for
he compels Scandilius to give and pay over that five thousand sesterces
to Apronius. What neater thing could be done by a praetor desirous of a
fair
reputation,--one who was anxious to repel from himself all suspicion, and
to deliver himself from infamy?
LXI. He had been a common topic of conversation, of reproach, of abuse.
A worthless and debauched man had been in the habit of saying that the
praetor
was his partner. The master had come before the courts, had come to trial;
he, upright and innocent man that he was, had an opportunity, by punishing
Apronius, of relieving himself from the most serious disgrace. What punishment
does he devise? what penalty for Apronius? He compels Scandilius to pay
to Apronius five thousand sesterces, as reward and wages for his unprecedented
rascality, his audacity, and his proclamation of this wicked partnership.
[141] What difference did it make, O most audacious man, whether
you made this decree, or whether you yourself made that profession and
declaration
concerning yourself which Apronius was in the habit of making? The man
whom, if there had been shame, yes, if there had even been any fear in
you, you
ought not to have let go without punishment, you could not allow to come
off without a reward. You might see the truth in every case, O judges,
from this
single affair of Scandilius. First of all, that this charge about the partnership
in the tenths was not cooked up at Rome, was not invented by the accuser;
it was
not (as we are accustomed sometimes to say in making a defence for a man)
a domestic or back-stairs accusation; it was not originated in a time of
your
danger, but it was an old charge, bruited about long ago, when you were
praetor, not made up at Rome by your enemies, but brought to Rome from
the
province. [142] At the same time his great favour to Apronius may
be clearly seen; also the, I will not say confession, but the boast of
Apronius, about him.
Besides all this, you can rake as clearly proved this first, that, in his
own province, he would not entrust a trim in which his reputation was at
stake, to any one
out of his own retinue.
LXII. Is there any judge who has not been convinced, from the very beginning
of my accusation respecting the collection of tenths, that he had made
an
attack on the property and fortunes of the cultivators of the soil? Who
is there who did not at once decide, from what I then proved, that he had
sold the
tenths under a law quite novel, and, therefore, no law at all, contrary
to the usage and established regulations of all his predecessors? [143]
But even if I had
not such judges as I have, such impartial, such careful, such conscientious
judges, is there any one whatever who has not long ago formed his opinion
and
his judgment from the magnitude of the injuries done, the dishonesty of
the decrees, the iniquity of the tribunals? Even although a man may be
somewhat
careless in judging,--somewhat indifferent to the laws, to his duty to
the republic, to our allies and friends, what then? Can even such a man
doubt of the
dishonesty of that man, when he is aware that such vast gains were made,--such
iniquitous compromises extorted by violence and terror?--when he knows
that cities were compelled by violence and imperious commands, by the fear
of scourges and death, to give such great rewards, not only to Apronius
and to
men like him, but even to the slaves of Venus? [144] But if any one
is but little influenced by the injuries done to our allies,--if there
be any one who is not
moved by the flight, the calamities, the banishment, and the suicides of
the cultivators of the soil; still I cannot doubt that the man who knows,
both from the
documents of the cities and the letter of Lucius Metellus, that Sicily
has been laid waste and the farms deserted, must decide that it is quite
impossible that
any other than the severest judgment should be passed on that man. Will
there be any one who can conceal from himself, or be indifferent to these
facts? I
have brought before you trials commenced respecting the partnership in
the tenths, but prevented by that man from being brought to a decision.
What is
there that any one can possibly desire plainer than this? I have no doubt
that I have satisfied you, O judges. But I will go further; not, indeed,
in order that
this may be proved more completely to your satisfaction than I feel sure
that it already is, but that he may at last give over his impudence,--may
cease at Last
to believe that he can purchase these things which he himself was always
ready to sell his good faith, his oath, truth, duty, and religion;--that
his friends may
cease to keep continually saying things which may be injury, a stain, and
odium, and infamy to all of us. [145] But what friends are they?
Alas, the order of
senators! wretched, and unpopular, and detested through the fault and unworthiness
of a few! That Alba Aemilius, sitting at the entrance of the market,
should say openly that Verres had gained his cause,--that he had bought
the judges, one for four hundred thousand sesterces, another for five,
the one who
who went cheapest, for three! And when he was answered that that was impossible;
that many witnesses would give evidence, and besides, that I should not
desert the cause,--’ÄúThough,’Äù said he, ’Äúevery one were to make every
possible statement against him, still, unless the matter be brought home
to him so
evidently that no answer can be given, we have gained the cause.’Äù [146]
You say well, Alba. I will agree to your conditions. You think that conjecture
avails
nothing at a trial,--that suspicion avails nothing,--that the character
of one's previous life avails nothing,--nor the evidence of virtuous men,--nor
the authority
or letters of cities. You demand evident proof I do not ask for judges
like Cassius. I do not ask for the ancient impartiality of courts of justice.
I do not, O
judges, implore your good faith, your self-respect, your conscientiousness
in giving judgment. I will take Alba for my judge; that man who is himself
desirous of being considered an unprincipled buffoon: who by the buffoons
has always been considered as a gladiator, rather than as a buffoon. I
will bring
forward such a case about the tenths that Alba shall confess that Verres,
in the case of the corn, and in that of the property of the cultivators
of the soil has
been an open and undisguised robber.
LXIII.[147] He says that he sold the tenths of the Leontine district at
a high price. I showed at the beginning that he ought not to be considered
to have sold
them at a high price' who in name indeed sold the tenths, but who in reality
and by the terms of the sale, and through his law, and through his edict,
and
through the licentiousness of the collectors, left no tenths at all to
the cultivators of the soil. I proved that also, that others had sold the
tenths of the Leontine
district and of other districts also, for a high price; and that they had
sold them according to the law of Hiero; and that they sold them for even
more than you
had, and that then no cultivator had complained. Nor indeed was there anything
of which any one could complain, when they were sold according to a law
most equitably framed; nor did it ever make any difference to the cultivator
at what price the tenths were sold. For it is not the case that, if they
be sold at a
high price, the cultivator owes more, if at a low price, less. As the crops
are produced, so are the tenths sold. But it is for the interest of the
cultivator, that his
crops should be such that the tenths may be able to be sold at as high
a price as possible. As long as the cultivator does not give more than
a tenth, it is for
his interest that the tenth should be as large as possible. [148]
But, I imagine, you mean this to be the chief article of your defence,
that you sold all the
tenths at a high price, but the tenths of the Leontine district, which
produces the most, for two hundred and sixteen thousand modii of wheat.
If I prove that
you could have sold them for a good deal more, but that you would not knock
them down to those who were bidding against Apronius, and that you
adjudged them to Apronius for much less than you might have adjudged them
to others;--if I prove this, will even Alba, not only your oldest friend,
out even
your lover, be able to acquit you?
LXIV. I assert that a Roman knight, a man of the highest honour, Quintus
Minucius, with others like himself, was willing to add to the tenths of
the Leontine
district not one thousand, not two thousand, not three thousand modii of
wheat, but thirty thousand modii of wheat to the tenths of one single district,
and
that he was not allowed to become the purchaser, that the matter might
not escape the grasp of Apronius. [149] You cannot by any means deny
this, unless
you are determined to deny everything. The business was transacted openly,
in a full assembly, at Syracuse. The whole province is the witness, because
men
are accustomed to flock together thither from all parts at the sale or
the tenths. And whether you confess this, or whether it be proved against
you, do you not
see in what important and what evident acts you are detected. First of
all, it is proved that that business and that booty was yours. For unless
it was, why did
you prefer that Acronius (who every one was saying was only managing your
affairs in the matter of the tenths as your agent) should get the tenths
of the
Leontine district rather than Quintus Minucius? Secondly, that an enormous
and immense profit was made by you. For if you would not have been
influenced by thirty thousand modii of wheat, at all events Minucius would
willingly have given thus much as a compliment to Apronius, if he had been
willing to accept it. [150] How great then must we suppose the expectation
of booty which he entertained to have been, when he despised and scorned
such
vast present profit: acquired without the slightest trouble. Thirdly, Minucius
himself would never have wished to have them at such a price, if you had
been
selling the tenths according to the Law of Hiero; but because he saw that
by your new edicts and most iniquitous resolutions he should get a good
deal more
than tenths, on that account he advanced higher. But Apronius had always
even a good deal more permitted to him than you had announced in your edict.
How much gain then can we suppose was made by him to whom everything was
permitted; when that man was so willing to add so large a compliment, who
would not have had the same licence if he had bought the tenths? [151]
Lastly, unquestionably that defence, under which you have constantly thought
that
all your thefts and iniquities could be concealed, is cut from under your
feet; that you sold the tenths at a high price--that you consulted the
interest of the
Roman people--that you provided for plenty of provisions. He cannot say
this, who cannot deny that he sold the tenths of one district for thirty
thousand
modii less than he might have done; even if I were to grant you this, that
you did not grant them to Minucius because you had already adjudged them
to
Apronius; for they say that that is what you are in the habit of saying,
and I am expecting to hear it, and I wish you would make that defence.
But, even if it
were so, still you cannot boast of this as a great thing, that you sold
the tenths at a high price, when you admit that there were people who were
willing to buy
them at a much higher price.
LXV.[152] The avarice, then, and covetousness of this man, his wickedness,
and dishonesty, and audacity, are proved, O judges, are proved most
incontestably. What more shall I say What if his own friends and defenders
have formed the same opinion that I have? What can you have more? On the
arrival of Lucius Metellus the praetor, when Verres had made all his retinue
friends of this also by that sovereign medicine of his, money, men applied
to
Metellus; Apronius was brought before him; his accuser was a man of the
highest consideration, Caius Gallius, a senator. He demanded of Metellus
to give
him a right of action according to the terms of his edict against Apronius,
’Äúfor having taken away property by force or by fear,’Äù which formula
of Octavius,
Metellus had both adopted at Rome, and now imported into the province.
He does not succeed; as Metellus said that he did not wish by means of
such a trial
to prejudge the case of Verres himself in a matter affecting his condition
as a free citizen. The whole retinue of Metellus, grateful men, stood by
Apronius.
Caius Gallius, a man of our order, cannot obtain from Lucius Metellus,
his most intimate friend, a trial in accordance with his own edict. [153]
I do not
blame Metellus; he spared a friend of his--a connection, indeed, as I have
heard him say himself. I do not, I say, blame Metellus; but I do marvel
how he not
only prejudged the case of a man concerning whom he was unwilling that
any previous decision should take place by means of judges, but even judged
most
severely and harshly respecting him. For, in the first place, if he thought
that Apronius would be acquitted, there was no reason for his fearing any
previous
decision. In the second place, if Apronius were condemned, all men were
likely to think that the cause of Verres was involved in his; this at all
events
Metellus did now decide, and he determined that their affairs and their
causes were identical, since he determined that, if Apronius were condemned,
it would
be a prejudging of the case of Verres. And one fact is at the same time
a proof of two things; both that the cultivators gave much more than they
owed to
Apronius because they were constrained by violence and fear; and also,
that Apronius was transacting Verres's business in his own name, since
Lucius
Metellus determined that Apronius could not be condemned without giving
a decision at the same time respecting the wickedness and dishonesty of
Verres.
LXVI.[154] I come now to the letter of Timarchides, his freedman and attendant;
and when I have spoken of that, I shall have finished the whole of my
charge respecting the truth This is the letter, O judges, which we found
at Syracuse, in the house of Apronius, where we were looking for letters.
It was sent,
as it proves itself, on the journey, when Verres had already departed from
the province; written by the hand of Timarchides Read the letter of Timarchides:
’ÄúTimarchides, the officer of Verres, wishes health to Apronius.’Äù Now
I do not blame this which he has written, ’ÄúThe officer.’Äù 6 For why
should clerks
alone assume to themselves this privilege? ’ÄúLucius Papirius the clerk,’Äù
I should like this signature to be common to all attendants, lictors, and
messengers.
7 ’ÄúBe sure and be very diligent in everything which concerns the praetor's
character.’Äù He recommends Verres to Apronius, and exhorts him to resist
his
enemies; Your reputation is protected by a very efficient guard, if indeed
it depends on the diligence and authority of Apronius. ’ÄúYou have virtue
and
eloquence.’Äù [155] How abundantly Apronius is praised by Timarchides!
How splendidly! Whom ought I to expect to be otherwise than pleased with
that
man who is so highly approved by Timarchides? ’ÄúYou have ample funds.’Äù
It is quite inevitable that what there was superfluous of the gain you
both made
by the corn, must have gone chiefly to the man by whose intervention you
transacted that business. ’ÄúGet hold of the new clerks and officers. 8
--Use every
means that offer, in concert with Lucius Vulteius, who has the greatest
influence.’Äù See now, what an opinion Timarchides has of his own dishonest
cunning,
when he gives precepts of dishonesty to Apronius! Now these words, ’ÄúUse
every means in your power ’Äù 9 --Does not he seem to be drawing words
out of
his master's house, suited to every sort of iniquity? ’ÄúI beg, my brother,
that you will trust your own little brother,’Äù your comrade, indeed, in
gain and
robbery, your twin-brother and image in worthlessness, dishonesty, and
audacity.
LXVII. ’ÄúYou will be considered dear to the retinue.’Äù What does this
mean, ’Äúto the retinue?’Äù What has that to do with it? Are you teaching
Apronius?
What? had he come into this retinue at your prompting, or of his own accord?
’ÄúWhatever is needful for each man, that employ.’Äù How great, do you
suppose, must have been the impudence of that man when in power, who even
after his departure is so shameless? He says that everything can be done
by
money: you must give, waste, and spend, if you wish to gain your cause.
Even this, that Timarchides should give this advice to Apronius, is not
so offensive
to me, as the fact of his also giving it to his patron: ’ÄúWhen you press
a request, all men gain their objects.’Äù [156] Yes, while Verres
was praetor, not while
Sacerdos was, or Peducaeus, or this very Lucius Metellus. ’ÄúYou know that
Metellus is a wise man.’Äù But this is really intolerable, that the abilities
of that
most excellent man, Lucius Metellus, should be laughed at, and despised
and scorned by that runaway slave Timarchides. ’ÄúIf you have Vulteius
with you,
everything will be mere child's play to you.’Äù Here Timarchides is greatly
mistaken, in thinking either that Vulteius can be corrupted by money, or
that
Metellus is going to discharge the duties of his praetorship according
to the will of any one man; but he is mistaken by forming his conjectures
from his
own experience. Because he saw that, through his own intervention and that
of others, many men had been able to do whatever they pleased with Verres,
without meeting with any difficulty, he thought that there were the same
means of access to every one. You did very easily whatever you wanted with
Verres,
and found it as easy as child's play to do so, because you knew many of
the kinds of play in which he indulged.
’ÄúMetellus and Vulteius have been impressed with the idea that you have
ruined the cultivators of the soil.’Äù Who attributed the action to Apronius,
when he
had ruined any cultivator? or to Timarchides when he had taken money for
assigning a trial, or making a decree, or giving any order, or remitting
any thing?
or to Sextus the lictor, when he, as executioner, had put an innocent man
to death? No one. Every body at the time attributed these things to Verres;
whom
they desire now to see condemned. [157] ’ÄúPeople have dinned into their
ears, that you were a partner of the praetor's.’Äù Do you not see how clear
the matter
both is and was when even Timarchides is afraid of this? Will you not admit
that we are not inventing this charge against you, but that your freedman
has
been this long time seeking some defence against this charge? Your freedman
and officer, one most intimate, and indeed connected with you and your
children in everything, writes to Apronius, that it is universally pointed
out to Metellus that Apronius had been your partner in the tenths. ’ÄúMake
him see the
dishonesty of the cultivators: they shall suffer for it, if the gods will.’Äù
What, in the name of the immortal gods, is the meaning of that? or on what
account
can we say that such great and bitter hatred is excited against the cultivators?
What injury have the cultivators of the soil done to Verres, that even
his
freedman and officer should attack them with so inimical a disposition
in these letters?
LXVIII. And I would not, O judges, have read to you the letter of this
runaway slave, if I had not wished you to see from it the precepts, and
customs, and
system of the whole household. Do you see how he advises Apronius? by what
means and by what presents he may insinuate himself into the intimacy of
Metellus? how he may corrupt Vulteius? how he may win over with bribes
the clerks and the chief officer? He teaches him what he has himself seen
done.
He teaches a stranger the lessons which he has learnt at home himself.
But in this one thing he makes a mistake, that he thinks there is the same
road to
every one's intimacy. [158] Although I am deservedly angry with Metellus,
still I will say this which is true. Apronius could not corrupt Metellus
with
bribes, as he had corrupted Verres, nor with banquets, nor with women,
nor with debauched and profligate conversation, by which means he had,
I will not
say crept into that man's friendship slowly and gradually, but had in a
very short time got possession of the whole man and his whole retinue.
But as for the
retinue of Metellus, which he speaks of, what was the use of his corrupting
that, when no judges were appointed out of it to judge the causes of the
cultivators? [159] For as for what he writes, that the son of Metellus
was a mere boy, he is greatly mistaken. For there is not the same access
to the son of
every praetor. O Timarchides, the son of Metellus is in the province, not
a boy, but a virtuous and modest youth, worthy of his rank and name. How
that boy
of yours had behaved in the province, I would not say if I thought it the
fault of the boy, and not the fault of his father. Did not you, though
you knew
yourself and your own habits of life, O Verres, take with you your son,
still clad in the robes of a boy, into Sicily, so that even if nature had
separated the
boy from his father's vices and from every resemblance to his family, still
habit and training might prevent his degenerating from them? [160]
Suppose
there had been in him the disposition of Caius Laelius, of Marcus Cato,
still what good could be expected or extracted out of one who has lived
in the
licentious school of his father in such a way that he has never seen one
modest or sober banquet? who since he has grown up has lived in daily revels
for
three years among immodest women and intemperate men? who has never heard
a word from his father by which he might become more modest or more
virtuous? who has never seen his father do anything, which, if he had imitated,
would not have laid him under the most disgraceful imputation of all, that
of
being considered like his father?
LXIX.[161] By which conduct you have done an injury, not only to your son,
but also to the republic. For you had begotten children, not for yourself
alone,
but also for your country; who might not only be a pleasure to you, but
who might some day or other be able to be of use to the republic. You ought
to have
trained and educated them according to the customs of your ancestors, and
the established system of the state; not in your crimes, in your infamy.
Were he
the able, and modest, and upright son of a lazy, and debauched, and worthless
father then the republic would have had a valuable present from you. Now
you
have given to the state another Verres instead of yourself, if, indeed,
he is not worse (If that be possible) in this respect,--that you have turned
out such as
you are without being bred up in the school of a dissolute man, but only
under a thief, and a go-between. 10 [162] What can we expect likely
to turn out
more complete than a person who is by nature your son, by education your
pupil, by inclination your copyist? Whom, however, I, O judges, would gladly
see turn out a virtuous and gallant man. For I am not influenced by his
enmity, if, indeed, there is to be enmity between him and me; for if I
am innocent and
like myself in everything, how will his enmity hurt me? And if, in any
respect, I am like Verres, an enemy will no more be wanting to me than
he has been
wanting to him. In truth, O judges, the republic ought to be such, and
shall be such, being established by the impartiality of the tribunals,
that an enemy shall
never be wanting to the guilty, and shall never be able to injure the innocent.
There is, therefore, no cause why I should not be glad for that son of
his to
emerge out of his father's vices and infamy. And although it may be difficult,
yet I do not know whether it be impossible; especially if (as is at present
the
case) the guardians placed over him by his friends continue to watch him,
since his father is so indifferent to him, and so dissolute. [163]
But my speech
has now digressed more than I had intended from the letter of Timarchides:
and I said, that when that had been read, I would end all I had to say
on the
charge connected with the tenths; from which you have clearly seen that
an incalculable amount of corn has been for these three years diverted
from the
republic, and taken illegally from the cultivators.
LXX. The next thing is, O judges, for me to explain to you the charge about
the purchase of corn, a theft very large in amount, and exceedingly shameless.
And I entreat you to listen while I briefly lay before you my statements,
being both certain, few in number, and important. It was Verres's duty
according to a
decree of the senate, and according to the law of Terentius and to the
law of Cassius about corn, to purchase corn in Sicily. There were two descriptions
of
purchase,--the one the purchase of the second tenths, the other the purchase
of what was furnished in fair proportions by the different cities. Of corn
derived
from the second tenths the quantity would be as much as had been derived
from the first tenths; of corn levied on the cities in this way there would
be eight
hundred thousand modii. The price fixed for the corn collected as the second
tenths was three sesterces a modius; for that furnished in compliance with
the levy, four sesterces. Accordingly, for the corn furnished in compliance
with the levy, there was paid to Verres each year three million two hundred
thousand sesterces, which he was to pay to the cultivators of the soil;
and for the second tenths, about nine millions of sesterces. And so, during
the three
years, there was nearly thirty-six million six hundred thousand sesterces
paid to him for this purchase of corn in Sicily. [164] This enormous
sum of
money, given to you out of a poor and exhausted treasury; given to you
for corn,--that is to say, for what was necessary for the safety and life
of the citizens;
given to you to be paid to the Sicilian cultivators of the soil, on whom
the republic was imposing such great burdens;--this great sum, I say, was
so handled
by you, that I can prove, if I choose, that you appropriated the whole
of this money, and that it all went to your own house. In fact, you managed
the whole
affair in such a way that this which I say can be proved to the most impartial
judge. But I will have a regard for my own authority, I will recollect
with what
feelings, with what intentions I have undertaken the advocacy of this public
cause. I will not deal with you in the spirit of an accuser; I will invent
nothing; I
do not wish any one to take for proved, while I am speaking, anything of
which I myself do not already feel thoroughly convinced. [165] In
the ease of this
public money, O judges, there are three kinds of thefts. In the first place,
he put it out among the companies from which it had been drawn at twenty-four
per
cent interest; 11 in the second place, he paid actually nothing at all
for corn to very many of the cities; lastly, if he did pay any city, he
deducted as large a
sum as ever he chose. He paid no one whatever as much as was due to him.
LXXI. And first I ask you this--you, to whom the farmers of the revenue,
according to the letters of Carpinatius, gave thanks. Was the public money,
drawn
from the treasury, given out of the revenues of the Roman people to purchase
corn, was it a source of profit to you? Did it bring you in twenty-four
per cent
interest? I dare say you will deny it. For it is a disgraceful and dangerous
confession to make. [166] And it is a thing very difficult for me
to prove, for by
what witnesses am I to prove it? By the farmers of the revenue? They have
been treated by him with great honour they will keep silence. By their
letters?
They have been put out of the way by a resolution of the collectors. Which
way then shall I turn? Shall I leave unmentioned so infamous a business,
a crime
of such audacity and such shamelessness, on account of a dearth of witnesses
or of documentary proofs? I will not do so, O judges, I will call a witness.
Whom? Lucius Vettius Chilo, a most honourable and accomplished man of the
equestrian order, who is such a friend of and so closely connected with
Verres, that, even if he were not an excellent man, still whatever he said
against him would seem to have great weight; but who is so good a man that,
even if
he were ever so great an enemy to him, yet his testimony ought to be believed.
[167] He is annoyed and waiting to see what Vettius will say. He
will say
nothing because of this present occasion; nothing of his free will, nothing
of which we can think that he might have spoken either way. He sent letters
into
Sicily to Carpinatius, when he was superintendent of the tax derived from
the pasture lands, and manager of that company of farmers, which letters
I found
at Syracuse, in Carpinatius's house, among the portfolios of letters which
had been brought to him; and at Rome in the house of Lucius Tullius, an
intimate
friend of yours, and another manager of the company, in portfolios of letters
which had been received by him. And from these letters observe, I pray
you, the
impudence of this man's usury. [The letters of Lucius Vettius to Publius
Servilius, and to Caius Antistius, managers of the company, are read.]
Vettius says that he will be with you, and will take notice how you make
up your accounts for the treasury; so that, if you do not restore to the
people this
money which has been put out at interest, you shall restore it to the company.
[168] Can we not establish what we assert by this witness, can we
not
establish it by the letters of Publius Servilius and Caius Antistius, managers
of the company, men of the highest reputation and of the highest honour,
and by
the authority of the company whose letters we are using? or must we seek
for something on which we can rely more, for something more important?
LXXII. Vettius, your most intimate friend,--Vettius, your connection, to
whose sister you are married,--Vettius, the brother of your wife, the brother
of your
quaestor, bears witness to your most infamous theft, to your most evident
embezzlement; for by what other name is a lending of the public money at
usury
to be called? Read what follows. He says that your clerk, O Verres, was
the drawer up of the bond for this usury: the managers threaten him also
in their
letters; in fact, it happened by chance that two managers were with Vettius.
They think it intolerable that twenty-four per cent should be taken from
them, and
they are right to think so. For whoever did such a thing before? who ever
attempted to do such a thing,--who ever thought that such a thing could
be done, as
for a magistrate to venture to take money as interest from the farmers,
though the senate had often assisted the farmers by remitting the interests
due from
them? Certainly that man could have no hope of safety, if the farmers--that
is, the Roman knights, were the judges. [169] He ought to have less
hope now, O
judges, now that you have to decide; and so much the less, in proportion
as it is more honourable to be roused by the injuries of others than by
one's own.
What reply do you think of making to all this? Will you deny that you did
it? Will you defend yourself on the ground that it was lawful for you to
do it?
How can you deny it? Can you deny it, to be convicted by the authority
of such important letters, by so many farmers appearing as witnesses? But
how can
you say it was lawful? In truth, if I were to prove that you, in your own
province, had lent on usury your own money, and not the money of the Roman
people, still you could not escape; but when I prove that you lent the
public money, the money decreed to you to buy corn with, and that you received
interest
from the farmers, will you make any one believe that this was lawful? a
deed than which not only others have never, but you yourself have never
done a more
audacious or more infamous one. I cannot, in truth, O judges, say that
even that which appears to me to be perfectly unprecedented, and about
which I am
going to speak next--I mean, the fact of his having actually paid very
many cities nothing at all for their corn--was either more audacious or
more impudent;
the booty derived from this act was perhaps greater, but the impudence
of the other was certainly not less. [170] And since I have said
enough about this
lending at interest, now, I pray you, give your attention to the question
of the embezzlement of the whole sum in many instances.
LXXIII. There are many cities in Sicily, O judges, of great splendour and
of high reputation, and among the very first of these is the city of Halesa.
You will
find no city more faithful to its duties, more rich in wealth, more influential
in its authority. After that man had ordered it to furnish every year sixty
thousand
modii of wheat, he took money for the wheat, at the price which wheat bore
in Sicily at the time; all the money which he thus received from the public
treasury, he kept for himself. I was amazed, O judges, when a man of the
greatest ability, of the highest wisdom, and of the greatest influence,
Aeneas of
Halesa, first stated this to me at Halesa in the senate of Halesa; a man
to whom the senate by public resolution had given a charge to return me
and my
brother thanks, and at the same time to explain to us the matters which
concerned this trial. [171] He proves to me that this was his constant
custom and
system; that, when the entire quantity of corn had been brought to him
under the name of tenths, then he was accustomed to exact money from the
cities, to
object to the corn delivered, and as for all the corn which he was forced
to send to Rome, he sent that quantity from his own profits and from his
own store
of corn. I demand the accounts, I inspect the documents, I see that the
people of Halesa, from whom sixty thousand modii had bees levied, had given
none,
that they had paid money to Volcatus, and to Timarchides the clerk. I find
a case of plunder of this kind, O judges, that the praetor, whose duty
it was to buy
corn, did not buy it, but sell it; and that he embezzles and appropriates
the money which he ought to have divided among the cities. It did not appear
to me
any longer to be a theft, but a monster and a prodigy; to reject the corn
of the cities, and to approve of his own; when he had approved of his own,
then to put
a price on that corn, to take from the cities what he had fixed, and to
retain what he had received from the Roman people.
LXXIV.[172] How many degrees of offence in one single act of fraud do you
think will be enough, if I insist on them severally, to bring the matter
to a
point where he can go no further? You reject the Sicilian corn; why? because
you are sending some yourself. Have you any Sicily of your own, which can
supply you corn of another sort? When the senate decrees that corn he bought
in Sicily, or when the people order this, this, as I imagine, is what they
mean,
that Sicilian corn is to be brought from Sicily. When you reject all the
corn of Sicily, do you send corn to Rome from Egypt or from Syria? You
reject the
corn of Halesa, of Cephalaedis, of Thermae, of Amestras, of Tyndaris, of
Herbita, and of many other cities. What has happened then to cause the
lands of
these people to bear corn of such a sort while you were praetor, as they
never bore before, so that it can neither be approved of by you, nor by
the Roman
people; especially when the managers of the different companies had taken
corn, being the tenths, from the same land, and of the same year, to Rome?
What
has happened that the corn which made part of the tenths was approved,
and that that which was bought, though out of the same barn, was not approved
of?
Is there any doubt that all that rejection of corn was contrived with the
object of raising money? [173] Be it so. You reject the corn of Halesa,
you have corn
from another tribe which you approve of. Buy that which pleases you; dismiss
those whose corn you have rejected. But from those whom you reject you
exact such sum of money as may be equivalent to the quantity of corn which
you require of their city. Is there any doubt what your object has been?
I see
from the public documents that the people of Halesa gave you fifteen sesterces
for every medimnus--I will prove from the accounts of the wealthiest of
the
cultivators, that at the same time no one in Sicily sold corn at a higher
price.
LXXV. What, then, is the reason for your rejecting, or rather what madness
is it to reject corn which comes from that place from which the senate
and the
people of Rome ordered it to be brought? which comes from that very heap,
a part of which, under the name of tenths, you had actually approved of?
and
besides, to exact money from the cities for the purchase of cow, when you
had already received it from the treasury? Did the Terentian law enjoin
you to buy
corn from the Sicilians with the money of the Sicilians, or to buy corn
from the Sicilians with the money of the Roman people? [174] But
now you see that
all that money out of the treasury, which ought to have been given to these
cities for corn, has been made profit of by that man. For you take fifteen
sesterces for a medimus of wheat; for that is the value of a medimus at
that time. You keep eighteen sesterces; for that is the price of Sicilian
corn,
estimated according to law. What difference does it make whether you did
this, or whether you did not reject the corn, but, after the corn was approved
and
accepted, detained all the public money, and paid none to any city whatever?
when the valuation of the law is such that while it is tolerable to the
Sicilians at
other times, it ought also to be pleasant to them during your praetorship.
For a modius is valued by law at three sesterces. But, while you were praetor,
it
was, as you boast in many letters to your friends, valued at two sesterces.
But suppose it was three sesterces, since you exacted that price from the
cities for
every modius. When, if you had paid the Sicilians as much as the Roman
people had ordered you to pay, it might have been most pleasing to the
cultivators,
you not only did not choose them to receive what they ought, but you even
compelled them to pay what was not due from them. [175] And that
these things
were done in this manner, you may know, O judges, both from the public
documents of the cities, and from their public testimonies; in all which
you will
find nothing false, nothing invented as suited to the times. Everything
which we speak of is entered in the returns and made up in a regular manner,
without
any interpolations or irregularities being foisted into the people's accounts,
but while they are all made up with deliberation and accuracy. Read the
accounts
of the people of Halesa. To whom does he say that money was paid? Speak,
speak, I say, a little louder. ’ÄúTo Volcatius, to Timarchides, to Maevius.’Äù
LXXVI. What is all this, O Verres? have you not left yourself even this
argument in your defence, that they are the managers of the companies who
have
been concerned in those matters? that they are the managers who have rejected
the corn? that they are the managers who have settled the affair with the
cities
for money? and that it is they also who have taken money from you in the
name of those cities? and, moreover, that they have bought corn for themselves;
and that all these things do not at all concern you? It would, in truth,
be an insufficient and a wretched defence for a praetor to say this, ’ÄúI
never touched the
corn, I never saw it, I gave the managers of the companies the power of
approving of rejecting it; the managers extorted money from the cities
but I paid to
the managers the money which I ought to have paid to the people.’Äù [176]
This is, as I have said, an insufficient, or rather, a profligate defence
against an
accusation. But still, even this one, if you were to wish to use it, you
cannot use. Volcatius, the delight of yourself and your friends, forbids
you to make
mention of the manager; and Timarchides, the prop of your household, stops
the mouth of your defence; who, as well as Volcatius, had money paid to
him
from the cities. But now your clerk, with that golden ring of his, which
he procured out of these matters, will not allow you to avail yourself
of that argument.
What then remains for you, except to confess that you sent to Rome corn
which had been bought with the money of the Sicilians? that you appropriated
the
public money to your own purposes? O you habit of sinning, what delight
you afford to the wicked and the audacious, when chastisement is afar off,
and
when impunity attends you! [177] This is not the first time that
that man has been guilty of that sort of peculation, but now for the first
time is he convicted.
We have seen money paid to him from the treasury, while he was quaestor,
for the expense of a consular army; we saw, a few months afterwards, both
army
and consul stripped of everything All that money lay hid in that obscurity
and darkness which at that time had seized upon the whole republic. After
that, he
discharged the duties of the quaestorship to which he succeeded under Dolabella.
He embezzled a vast sum of money; but he mixed up his accounts of that
money with the confusion consequent on the conviction of Dolabella. Immense
sums of money were entrusted to him when praetor. You will not find him
a
man to lick up these most infamous profits nervously and gently; he did
not hesitate to swallow up at a gulp the whole of the public money. That
wicked
covetousness, when it is implanted in a man's nature, creeps on in such
a way, when the habit of sinning has emancipated itself from restraint,
that it is not
able to put any limits to its audacity. [178] At length it is detected,
and it is detected in affairs of great importance, and of undoubted certainty.
And it seems
to me that, by the interposition of the gods, this man too has become involved
in such dishonesty, as not only to suffer punishment for the crimes which
he
has lately committed, but also to be overwhelmed with the vengeance due
to the sins which he committed against Carbo and against Dolabella.
LXXVII. There is in truth also another new feature in this crime, O judges,
which will remove all doubts as to his criminality on the former charge
respecting
the tenths. For, to say nothing of this fact, that very many of the cultivators
of the soil had not corn enough for the second tenths, and for those eight
thousand modii which they were bound to sell to the Roman people, but that
they bought them of your agent, that is, of Apronius; which is a clear
proof that
you had left the cultivators actually nothing: to pass over this, which
teas been clearly set forth in many men's evidence, can anything be more
certain than
this,--that all the corn of Sicily, and all the crops of the land liable
to the payment of tenths, were for three years in your power and in your
barns? [179] for
when you were demanding of the cities money for corn, whence was the corn
to be procured for you to send to Rome, if you had it not all collected
and
locked up? Therefore, in the affair of that corn, the first profit of all
was that of the corn itself, which had been taken by violence from the
cultivators; the next
profit was because that very corn which had been procured by you during
your three years, you sold not once, but twice; not for one payment, but
for two,
though it was one and the same lot of corn; once to the cities, for fifteen
sesterces a medimnus, a second time to the Roman people, from whom you
got
eighteen sesterces a medimus for the very same corn. [180] But perhaps
you approved besides of the corn of the Centuripans, of the Agrigentines,
and of
some others, and paid money to these nations. There may be some cities
in that number whose corn you were unwilling to object to. What then? Was
all the
money that was owed for corn paid to these cities? Find me one--not one
people, but one cultivator. See, seek, look around, if perchance there
is any single
man in that province in which you were governor for three years, who does
not wish you to be ruined. Produce me one, I say, out of all those cultivators
who
contributed money even to raise a statue to you, who will say that everything
that was due for corn was paid. I pledge myself, O judges, that none will
say so.
LXXVIII.[181] Out of all the money which it was your duty to pay to the
cultivators, you were in the habit of making deductions on certain pretexts;
first of
all for the examination, and for the difference in the exchanges; secondly,
for some stealing money or other. All these names, O judges, do not belong
to any
legal demand, but to the most infamous robberies. For what difference of
exchange can there be when all use one kind of money? And what is sealing
money How has this name got introduced into the accounts of a magistrate?
how came it to be connected with the public money? For the third description
of
deduction was such as if it were not only lawful, but even proper; and
not only proper, but absolutely necessary. Two fiftieths were deducted
from the entire
sum in the name of the clerk. Who gave you leave to do this?--what law?
what authority of the senate? Moreover where was the justice of your clerk
taking
such a sum, whether it was taken from the property of the cultivators,
or from the revenues of the Roman people? [182] For if that sum can
he deducted
without injury to the cultivators of the soil, let the Roman people have
it, especially in the existing difficulties of the treasury; but if the
Roman people
intended it to be paid to the cultivators, and if it is just that it should
be, then shall your officer, hired at small wages paid by the people, plunder
the property
of the cultivators? And shall Hortensius excite against me in this cause
the whole body of clerks? and shall he say that their interests are undermined
by me,
and their lights opposed? as if this were allowed to the clerks by any
precedent or by any right. Why should I go back to old times? or why should
I make
mention of those clerks, who, it is evident, were most upright and conscientious
men? It does not escape my observation, O judges, that old examples are
now listened to and considered as imaginary fables I will go only to the
present wretched and profligate time. You, O Hortensius, have lately been
quaestor.
You can say what your clerks did; I say this of mine; when, in that same
Sicily, I was paying the cities money for their corn, and had with me two
most
economical men as clerks, Lucius Manilius and Lucius Sergius, then I say
that not only these two fiftieths were not deducted, but that not one single
coin
was deducted from any one.
LXXIX. I would say that all the credit of this was to be attributed to
me, O judges, if they had ever asked this of me, if they had ever thought
of it. [183] For
why should a clerk make this deduction, and not rather the muleteer who
brought the corn down? or the courier, by whose arrival they heard of its
coming
and made the demand? or the crier, who ordered them to appear? or the lictor
and the slave of Venus, who carried the money? What part of the business
or
what seasonable assistance can a scrivener pretend to, that, I will not
say such high wages should be given him, but, that a division of such a
large sum
should take place with him? Oh they are a very honourable body of men;--who
denies it? or what has that to do with this business? But they are an
honourable body, because to their integrity are entrusted the public accounts
and the safety of the magistrates. Ask, therefore, of those scriveners
who are
worthy of their body, masters of households, virtuous and honourable men,
what is the meaning of those fiftieths? In a moment you will all clearly
see that
the whole affair is unprecedented and scandalous. [184] Bring me
back to those scriveners, if you please; do not get together those men
who when with a
little money scraped together from the presents of spendthrifts and the
gratuities to actors, they have bought themselves a place in some decury,
12 think that
they have mounted from the first class of hissed buffoons into the second
class of the citizens. Those scriveners I will have as arbitrators in this
business
between you and me, men who are indignant that those other fellows should
be scriveners at ale Although, when we see that there are many unfit men
in that
order, an order which is held out as a reward for industry and good conduct,
are we to wonder that there are some base men in that order also, a place
in
which any one can purchase for money?
LXXX. When you confess that your clerk, with your leave, took thirteen
hundred thousand sesterces of the public money, do you think that you have
any
defence left? that any one can endure this? Do you think that even any
one of those who are at this moment your own advocates can listen to this
with
equanimity? Do you think that, in the same city in which an action was
brought against Caius Cato, 13 a most illustrious man, a man of consular
rank, to
recover a sum of eighteen thousand sesterces; in that same city it could
be permitted to your clerk to carry off at one swoop thirteen hundred thousand
sesterces? [185] Here is where that golden ring came from, with which
you presented him in the public assembly; a gift which was an act of such
extraordinary impudence that it seemed novel to all the Sicilians, and
to me incredible. For our generals, after a defeat of the enemy, after
some splendid
success, have often presented their secretaries with golden rings in a
public assembly; but you, for what exploit, for the defeat of what enemy
did you dare to
summon an assembly for the purpose of making this present? Nor did you
only present your clerk with a ring, but you also presented a man of great
bravery, a man very unlike yourself, Quintus Rubrius, a man of eminent
virtue, and dignity, and riches, with a crown, with horse trappings, and
a chain; and
also Marcus Cossutius, a most conscientious and honourable man, and Marcus
Castritius, a man of the greatest wealth, and ability, and influence. [186]
What was the meaning of these presents made to these three Roman citizens?
Besides that, you gave presents also to some of the most powerful and noble
of the Sicilians, who have not, as you hoped, been the more slow to come
forward, but have only come with more dignity to give their evidence in
this trial of
yours. Where did all these presents come from? from the spoils of what
enemy? gained in what victory? Of what booty or trophies do they make a
part? Is it
because while you were praetor, a most beautiful fleet, the bulwark of
Sicily, the defence of the province, was burnt 14 by the hands of pirates
arriving in a
few light galleys? or because the territory of Syracuse was laid waste
by the conflagrations of the banditti while you were praetor? or because
the forum of
the Syracuse overflowed with the blood of the captains? or because a piratical
galley sailed about in the harbour of Syracuse? I can find no reason which
I
can imagine for your having fallen into such madness, unless indeed your
object was to prevent men from ever forgetting the disasters of your
administration. [187] A clerk was presented with a golden ring, and
an assembly was convoked to witness that presentation. What must have been
your face
when you saw in the assembly those men out of whose property that golden
ring was provided for the present; who themselves had laid aside their
golden
rings, and had taken them off from their children, in order that your clerk
might have the means to support your liberality and kindness? Moreover,
what was
the preface to this present? Was it the old one used by the generals?--’ÄúSince
in battle, in war, in military affairs, you....’Äù There never was even
any mention
of such matters while you were praetor. Was it this, ’ÄúSince you have
never failed me in any act of covetousness, or in any baseness, and since
you have
been concerned with me in all my wicked actions, both during my lieutenancy,
and my praetorship, and here in Sicily; on account of all these things,
since I
have already made you rich, I now present you with this golden ring?’Äù
This would have been the truth. For that golden ring given by you does
not prove he
was a brave man, but only a rich one. As we should judge that same ring,
if given by some one else, to have evidence of virtue when given by you,
we
consider it only an accompaniment to money.
LXXXI.[188] I have spoken, O judges, of the corn collected as tenths; I
have spoken of that which was purchased; the last, the only remaining topic,
is the
valuation of the corn, which ought to have weight with every one, both
from the vastness of the sum involved, and from the description of the
injustice done;
and more than either, because against this charge he is provided, not with
some ingenious defence, but with a most scandalous confession of it. For
though it
was lawful for him, both by a decree of the senate, and also by the laws,
to take corn and lay it up in the granaries, and though the senate had
valued that corn
at four sesterces for a modius of wheat, two for one of barley, Verres,
having first added to the quantity of wheat, valued each modius of wheat
with the
cultivators at three denarii. 15 My charge is not this, O Hortensius; do
not you think about this; I know that many virtuous, and brave, and incorruptible
men, have often valued, both with the cultivators of the soil and with
cities, the corn which ought to have been taken and laid up in the granary,
and have taken
money instead of corn; I know what is accustomed to be done; I know what
is lawful to be done; nothing which has been previously the custom of virtuous
men is found fault with ill the conduct of Verres. [189] This is
what I find fault with, that, when a modius of wheat in Sicily cost two
sesterces, as his letter
which was sent to you declares, or at most, three, as has also already
been made clear from all the evidence and all the accounts of the cultivators,
he exacted
from the cultivators three denarii for every modius of wheat.
LXXXII. This is the charge; I wish you to understand, that my accusation
turns not on the fact of his having valued the corn, nor even of his having
valued it
at three denarii but on that of his having increased the quantity of corn,
and consequently the amount of the valuation. In truth this valuation originated,
O
judges, at first not in the convenience of the praetors or consuls, but
in the advantage to the cultivators and the cities. For originally, no
one was so impudent
as to demand money when it was corn that was due; certainly this proceeded
in the first instance from the cultivator or from the city which was required
to
furnish corn; when they had either sold the corn, or wished to keep it,
or were not willing to carry it to that place where it was required to
be delivered, they
begged as a kindness and a favour, that they might be allowed, instead
of the corn, to give the value of the corn. From such a commencement as
this, and
from the liberality and accommodating spirit of the magistrates the custom
of valuations was introduced. [190] More covetous, magistrates succeeded;
who,
in their avarice, devised not only a plan for their own gain, but also
a way of escape, and a plea for their defence. They adopted a custom of
always requiring
corn to be delivered at the most remote and inconvenient places, in order
that, through the difficulty of carriage, the cultivators might be more
easily brought
to the valuation which they wished. In a case of this kind it is easier
to form one's opinion, than to make out a case for blame; because we can
think the man
who does this avaricious, but we cannot easily make out a charge against
him; because it appears that we must grant this to our magistrates, that
they may
have power to receive the corn in any place they choose; therefore this
is what many perhaps have done, not, however, so many out that those whom
we
recollect, or whom we have heard of as the most upright magistrates, have
declined to do it.
LXXXIII.[191] I ask of you now, O Hortensius, with which of these classes
you are going to compare the conduct of Verres? With those, I suppose,
who,
influenced by their own kindness, have granted, as a favour and as a convenience
to the cities, permission to give money instead of corn. And so I suppose
the cultivators begged of him, that, as they could not sell a modius of
wheat for three sesterces, they may be allowed to pay three denarii instead
of each
modius. Or, since you do not dare to say this, will you take refuge in
that assertion, that, being influenced by the difficulty of carriage, they
preferred to give
three denarii? Of what carriage? Wishing not to have to carry it from what
place to what place? from Philomelium to Ephesus? I see what is the difference
between the price of corn at different places; I see too how many days'
journey it is; I see that it is for the advantage of the Philomelians rather
to pay in
Phrygia the price which corn bears in Ephesus, than to carry it to Ephesus,
or to send both money and agents to Ephesus to buy corn. [192] But
what can
there be like that in Sicily? Enna is a completely inland town. Compel
(that is the utmost stretch of your authority) the people of Enna to deliver
their corn at
the waterside; they will take it to Phintia, or to Halesa, or to Catina,
places all very distant from one another, the same day that you issue the
order; though
there is not even need of any carriage at all; for all this profit of the
valuation, O judges, arises from the variety in the price of corn. For
a magistrate in a
province can manage this,--namely, to receive it where it is dearest. And
therefore that is the way valuations are managed in Asia and in Spain,
and in those
provinces in which corn is not everywhere the same price. But in Sicily
what difference did it make to any one in what place he delivered it? for
he had not to
carry it; and wherever he was ordered to carry it, there he might buy the
same quantity of corn which he sold at home. [193] Wherefore, if,
O Hortensius,
you wish to show that anything, in the matter of the valuation, was done
by him like what has been done by others, you must show that at any place
in Sicily,
while Verres was praetor, a modius of wheat ever cost three denarii.
LXXXIV. See what a defence I have opened to you; how unjust to our allies,
how far removed from the good of the republic, how utterly foreign to the
intention and meaning of the law. Do you, when I am prepared to deliver
you corn on my own farm, in my own city,--in the very place, in short,
in which you
are, in which you live, in which you manage all your business and conduct
the affairs of the province,--do you, I say, select for me some remote
and desert
corner of the island? Do you bid me deliver it there, whither it is very
inconvenient to carry it? where I cannot purchase it? [194] It is
a shameful action, O
judges, intolerable, permitted to no one by law, but perhaps not yet punished
in any instance. Still this very thing, which I say ought not to be endured,
I
grant to you, O Verres; I make you a present of it. If in any place of
that province corn was at the price at which he valued it, then I think
that this charge
ought not to have any weight against him. But when it was fetching two
sesterces, or even three at the outside, in any district of the province
which you
choose to name, you exacted twelve. If there cannot be any dispute between
you and me either about the price of corn, or about your valuation, why
are you
sitting there? What are you waiting for? What will you say in your defence?
Does money appear to have been appropriated by you contrary to the laws,
contrary to the interests of the republic, to the great injury of our allies?
Or will you say in your defence, that all this has been done lawfully,
regularly, in a
manner advantageous to the republic, without injury to any one? [195]
When the senate had given you money out of the treasury, and had paid you
money
which you were to pay the cultivators, a denarius for every modius, what
was it your duty to do? If you had wished to do what Lucius Piso, surnamed
Thrifty, who first made the law about extortion, would have done, when
you had bought the corn at the regular price, you would have returned whatever
money there was over. If you wished to act as men desirous of gaining popularity,
or as kind-hearted men would, as the senate had valued the corn at more
than the regular price, you would have paid for it according to the valuation
of the senate, and not according to the market price. Or if, as many do,
a conduct
which produces some profit indeed, but still an honest and allowable one,
you would not have bought corn, since it was cheaper than they expected,
but you
would have retained the money which the senate had granted you for furnishing
the granary.
LXXXV. But what is it that you have done? What presence has it, I will
not say of justice, but even of any ordinary roguery or impudence? For,
indeed, there
is not usually anything which men, however dishonest, dare to do openly
in their magistracy, for which they cannot give, if not a good excuse,
still some
excuse or other. [196] But what sort of conduct is this? The praetor
came. Says he, I must buy some corn of you. Very well. At a denarius for
a modius I
am much obliged to you; you are very liberal, for I cannot get three sesterces
for it. But I don't want the corn, I will take the money. I had hoped,
says the
cultivator, that I should have touched the denarii; but if you must have
money, consider what is the price of corn now. I see it costs two sesterces.
What
money, then, can be required of me for you, when the senate has allowed
you four sesterces? Listen, now, to what he demands And I entreat you,
O judges,
remark at the same time the equity of the praetor: [197] ’ÄúThe four sesterces
which the senate has voted me, and has paid me out of the treasury, those
I
shall keep, and shall transfer out of the public chest into my strong box.’Äù
What comes next? What? ’ÄúFor each modius which I require of you, do you
give
me eight sesterces.’Äù On what account? ’ÄúWhat do you ask me on what account
for? It is not so much on what account that we need think, as of how
advantageous it will be,--how great a booty I shall get.’Äù Speak, speak,
says the cultivator, a little plainer. The senate desires that you should
pay me
money,--that I should deliver corn to you. Will you retain that money which
the senate intended should be paid to me, and take two sesterces a-modius
from me, to whom you ought to pay a denarius for each modius? And then
will you call this plunder and robbery granary-money? [198] This
one
injury,--this single distress, was wanting to the cultivators under your
praetorship, to complete the ruin of the remainder of their fortunes. For
what
remaining injury could be done to the man who, owing to this injury, was
forced not only to dose all his corn, but even to sell all his tools and
stock? He had
no way to turn. From what produce could he find the money to pay you? Under
the name of tenths, as much had been taken from him as the caprice of
Apronius chose; for the second tenths and for the corn that had been purchased
either nothing had been paid, or only so much as the clerk had left behind,
or perhaps it was even taken for nothing, as you have had proved to you.
LXXXVI. Is money also to be extorted from the cultivators? How? By what
right? by what precedent? For when the crops of the cultivator were carried
off
and plundered with every kind of injustice, the cultivator appeared to
lose what he had himself raised with his plough, for which he had toiled,
what his land
and his cornfields had produced. [199] But amid this terrible ill-treatment,
there was still this wretched consolation,--that he seemed only to be losing
what,
under another praetor, he could get again out of the same land. But now
it is necessary for the cultivator--to give money, which he does not get
out of the
land--to sell his oxen, and his plough itself, and all his tools For you
are not to think this. ’ÄúThe man has also possessions in ready money;
he has also
possessions inland, near the city.’Äù For when a burden is imposed on a
cultivator of the soil, it is not the mean and ability of the man that
is to be considered,
whether he has any property besides; but the quality and description of
his land, what that can endure, what that can suffer, what that can and
ought to
produce. Although those men have been drained and ruined by Verres in every
possible manner, still you ought to decide what contribution you consider
the
cultivator ought to render to the republic on account of his land, and
what charges he can support. You impose the payment of tenths on them.
They endure
that. A second tenth. You think they must be subservient to your necessities,--that
they must, besides that, supply you with more if you choose to purchase
it
They will so supply you if you choose. [200] How severe all this
is, and how little, after all these deductions are made, can be left of
clear profit for the
owners, I think you, from your own farming experience, can guess. Add,
now, to all this, the edicts, the regulations, the injuries of Verres,--add
the reign and
the rapine of Apronius, and the slaves of Apronius, in the land subject
to the payment of tenths. Although I pass over all this; I am speaking
of the granary.
Is it your intention that the Sicilians should give corn to our magistrates
for their granaries for nothing? What can be more scandalous, what can
be more
iniquitous than that? And yet, know you that this would have seemed to
the cultivators a thing to be wished for, to be begged for, while that
man was praetor.
LXXXVII. Sositenus is a citizen of Entella; a man of the greatest prudence,
and of the noblest birth in his city. You have heard what he said when
he was
sent by the public authority to this trial as a deputy, together with Artemon
and Meniscus, men of the highest character. He, when in the senate at Entella
he
was discussing with me the injustice of Verres, said this: that, if the
question of the granaries and of the valuation were conceded, the Sicilians
were willing to
promise the senate corn for the granary without payment, so that we need
not for the future vote such large sums to our magistrates. [201]
I am sure that
you clearly perceive how advantageous this would be for the Sicilians not
because of the justice of such a condition, but in the way of choosing
the least of
two evils; for the man who had given Verres a thousand modii for the granary
as his share of the contribution required, would have given two, or, at
most,
three thousand sesterces, but the same man has now been compelled for the
same quantity of corn to give eight thousand sesterces. A cultivator could
not
stand this for three years, at least not out of his own produce. He must
inevitably have sold his stock. But if the land can endure this contribution
and this
tribute,--that is to say, if Sicily can bear and support it, let it pay
it to the Roman people rather than to our magistrates. It is a great sum,
a great and splendid
revenue. If you can obtain it without damage to the province, without injury
to our allies, I do not object at all. Let as much be given to the magistrates
for
their granary as has always been given. What Verres demands besides, that,
if they cannot provide it, let them refuse. If they can provide it, let
it be the
revenue of the Roman people rather than the plunder of the praetor. [202]
In the next place, why is that valuation established for only one description
of
corn? If it is just and endurable, then Sicily owes the Roman people tenths;
let it give three denarii for each single modius of wheat; let it keep
the corn
itself. Money has been paid to you, O Verres,--one sum with which you were
to buy corn for the granary, the other with which you were to buy corn
from
the cities to send to Rome. You keep at your own house the money which
has been given to you; and besides that, you receive a vast sum in your
own name.
Do the same with respect to that corn which belongs to the Roman people;
exact money from the cities according to the same valuation, and give back
what
you have received,--then the treasury of the Roman people will be better
filled than it ever has been. [203] But Sicily could not endure that
in the case of the
public corn; she did indeed bear it in the case of my own. Just as if that
valuation was more just when your advantage was concerned, than when that
of the
Roman people was; or, as if the conduct which I speak of and that which
you adopted, differed only in the description of the injury, and not in
the magnitude
of the sum involved. But that granary they can by no means bear, not even
if everything else be remitted; not even if they were for ever hereafter
delivered
from all the injuries and distresses which they have suffered while you
were praetor, still they say that they could not by any possibility support
that granary
and that valuation.
LXXXVIII.[204] Sophocles of Agrigentum, a most eloquent man, adorned with
every sort of learning and with every virtue, is said to have spoken lately
before Cnaeus Pompeius, when he was consul, on behalf of all Sicily, concerning
the miseries of the cultivators, with great earnestness and great variety
of
arguments, and to have lamented their condition to him. And of all the
things which he mentioned, this appeared the most scandalous to those who
were
present, (for the matter was discussed in the presence of a numerous assembly,)
that, in the very matter in which the senate had dealt most honestly and
most
kindly with the cultivators, in that the praetor should plunder, and the
cultivators be ruined and that should not only be done, but done in such
a manner as if
it were lawful and permitted.
[205] What says Hortensius to this? that the charge is false? He
will never say this.--That no great sum was gained by this method? He will
not even say
that.--That no injury was done to Sicilians and the cultivators? How can
he say that?--What then, will he say,--That it was done by other men. What
is the
meaning of this? Is it a defence against the charge, or company in banishment
that he is seeking for? Will you in this republic, in this time of unchecked
caprice, and (as up to this time the course of judicial proceedings has
proved) licentiousness on the part of men, will you defend that which is
found fault
with, and affirm that it has been done properly; not by reference to right,
nor to equity, nor to law, nor because it was expedient, nor because it
was allowed,
but because it was some one else who did it? [206] Other men, too,
hare done other things, and plenty of them; why in this charge alone do
you use this sort
of defence? There are some things in you so extraordinary, that they cannot
be said of, or meet in the character of, any other man; there are some
things
which you have in common with many men. Therefore, to say nothing of your
acts of peculation, or of your taking money for the appointment of judges,
and other things of that sort which, perhaps, other men also may have committed;
will you defend yourself, also, from the charge which I bring against you
as the most serious one of all--the charge, namely, of having taken money
to influence your legal decisions, by the same argument, that others have
done so
too? Even if I were to admit the assertion, still I should not admit it
as any defence. For it would be better that by your condemnation there
should be more
limited room for defending dishonesty left to others, than that, owing
to your acquittal, others should be thought to have legitimately done what
they have
done with the greatest audacity.
LXXXIX.[207] All the provinces are mourning; all the nations that are free
are complaining; every kingdom is expostulating with us about our covetousness
and our injustice; there is now no place on this side of the ocean, none
so distant, none so out of the way, that, in these latter times, the lust
and iniquity of
our citizens has not reached it. The Roman people is now no longer able
to bear (I have not to say the violence, the arms, and the war, but) the
mourning, the
tears, and the complaints, of all foreign nations. In a case of this sort,
in speaking of customs of this sort, if he who is brought before the tribunal,
when he is
detected in evident crimes, says that others have also done the same, he
will not want examples; but the republic will want safety, if, by the precedents
of
wicked men, wicked men are to be delivered from trial and from danger.
[208] Do you approve of the manners of men at present? Do you approve
of men's
behaving themselves in magistracies as they do? Do you approve, finally,
of our allies being treated as you see that they have been treated all
this time? Why
am I forced to take all this trouble? Why are you all sitting here? Why
do you not rise up and depart before I have got halfway through my speech?
Do you
wish to lay open at all the audacity and licentiousness of these men? Give
up doubting whether it is more useful, because there are so many wicked
men, to
spare one, or by the punishment of one wicked man, to check the wickedness
of many. [209] Although, what are those numerous instances of wicked
men?
For when in a cause of such importance, when in the case of a charge of
such gravity, the defendant has begun to say that anything has frequently
been
done, those who hear him are expecting precedents drawn from ancient tradition;
from old records and old documents, full of dignity, full of antiquity.
XC. For such instances usually have both a great deal of authority in proving
any point, and are very pleasant to hear cited. Will you speak to me of
the
Africani, and the Catos and the Laelii, and will you say that they have
done the same thing? Then, even though the act might not please me, still
I should not
be able to fight against the authority of those men. But, since you will
not be able to produce them, will you bring forward these moderns, Quintus
Catulus
the father, Caius Marcius, Quintus Scaevola, Marcus Scaurus, Quintus Metellus?
who have all governed provinces, and who have all levied corn on the
ground of filling the granary. The authority of the men is great, so great
as to be able to remove all suspicion of wrong-doing. [210] But you
have not, even
out of these men who have lived more recently, one precedent of that authority.
Whither, then, or to what examples will you bring me back? Will you lead
me away from those men who have spent their lives in the service of the
republic at a time when manners were very strict, and when the opinion
of men was
considered of great weight, and when the courts of justice were severe,
to the existing caprice and licentiousness of men of the present age? And
do you seek
precedents for your defence among those men, as a warning to whom the Roman
people have decided that they are in need of some severe examples? I do
not, indeed, altogether condemn the manners of the present time, as long
as we follow those examples which the Roman people approves of; not those
which
it condemns. I will not look around me, I will not go out of doors to seek
for any one, while we have as judges those chiefs of the city, Publius
Servilius and
Quintus Catulus, who are men of such authority, and distinguished for such
exploits, that they may be classed in that number of ancient and most illustrious
men of whom I have previously spoken. [211] We are seeking examples,
and those not ancient ones. Very lately each of them had an army. Ask,
O
Hortensius, since you are fond of modern instances, what they did. Will
you not? Quintus Catulus used corn, but he exacted no money. Publius Servilius,
though he commanded an army for five years, and by that means might have
made an incalculable sum of money, thought that nothing was lawful for
himself which he had not seen his father and his grandfather, Quintus Metellus,
do. Shall Caius Verres be found, who will say that everything is lawful
for
him which is profitable? Will he allege in his defence that he has done
in accordance with the example set by others, what none, except wicked
men, ever
have done? Oh, but it has been often done in Sicily.
XCI. What is that condition in which Sicily is? Why is the law of injustice,
especially defined by a reference to the usages prevalent in that land
which, on
account of its antiquity as our ally, its fidelity, and its nearness to
us, ought to enjoy the best laws of all? [212] However, in Sicily
itself, (I will not go abroad
to look for examples,) I will take examples out of the very bench of judges
before me. Caius Marcellus, I call you as a witness. You governed the province
of
Sicily when you were proconsul. Under your command were any sums of money
extorted, under the name of money for the granary? I do not give you any
credit for this. There are other exploits, other designs of yours worthy
of the highest praise, measures by which you recovered and set up again
an afflicted
and ruined province. For even Lepidus whom you succeeded had not committed
this fraud about the granary. What precedents then have you in Sicily
affecting this charge about the granary, if you cannot defend yourself
from the accusation by quoting any action even of Lepidus, much less any
action of
Marcellus? [213] Are you going to bring me back to the valuation
of the corn, and the exaction of money by Marcus Antonius? Just so, says
he; to the
valuation of Marcus Antonius. For this is what he seemed to mean by his
signs and nods. Out of all the praetors of the Roman people then, and consuls,
and
generals, have you selected Marcus Antonius, and even the most infamous
action done by him, for your imitation? And here is it difficult for me
to say, or
for the judges to think, that in that unlimited authority Marcus Antonius
behaved himself in such a manner, that it is by far more injurious to Verres
to say
that as he, in a most infamous transaction, wished to imitate Antonius,
than if he were able to allege in his defence, that he had never in his
whole life done
anything like Marcus Antonius? Men in trials are accustomed to allege,
in making a defence against an accusation, not what any one did, but what
he did that
was good. In the middle of his course of injustice and covetousness death
overtook Antony, while he was still both doing and planning many things
contrary
to the safety of the allies many things contrary to the advantage of our
provinces. Will you defend the audacity of Verres by the example of Antonius,
as if
the senate and people of Rome approved of all his actions and designs?
XCII.[214] But Sacerdos did the same. You name an upright man, and one
endued with the greatest wisdom; but he can only be thought to have done
the
same thing, if he did it with the same intention. For the mere fact of
the valuation has never been found fault with by me; but the equity of
it depends on the
advantage to, and willingness of the cultivator. No valuation can be found
fault with, which is not only not disadvantageous, but which is even pleasing
to the
cultivator. Sacerdos, when he came into the province, commanded corn to
be provided for the granary. As before the new harvest came in a modius
of wheat
was five denarii, the cities begged of him to have a valuation. The valuation
wee somewhat lower than the actual market price, for he valued it at three
denarii. You see that the same fact of a valuation, through the dissimilarity
of the occasion, was a cause of praise in his instance, of accusation in
yours. In
his instance it was a kindness, in yours an injury. [215] The same
year Antonius valued corn at three denarii, after the harvest, in a season
of exceeding
cheapness, when the cultivators would rather give the corn for nothing,
and he said that he had valued it at the same price as Sacerdos; and he
spoke truly,
but yet' by the same valuation the one had relieved the cultivators, the
other had ruined them. And if it were not the case that the whole value
of corn must be
estimated by the season, and the market price, not by the abundance, nor
by the total amount, these modii and a half of yours, O Hortensius, would
never
have been so agreeable; in distributing which to the Roman people, for
every head, small as the quantity was, you did an action which was most
agreeable to
all men; for the dearness of corn caused that, which seemed a small thing
in reality, to appear at that time a great one. If you had given such a
largess to the
Roman people in a time of cheapness, your kindness would have been derided
and despised.
XCIII.[216] Do not, therefore, say that Verres did the same as Sacerdos
had done, since he did not do it on the same occasion, nor when wheat was
at a
similar price; say rather, since you have a competent authority to quote,
that he did for three years what Antonius did on his arrival, and with
reference to
scarcely a month's provisions, and defend his innocence by the act and
authority of Marcus Antonius. For what will you say of Sextus Peducaeus,
a most
brave and honest man? What cultivator ever complained of him? or who did
not think that his praetorship was the most impartial and the most active
one that
has ever been known up to this time? He governed the province for two years,
when one year wee a year of cheapness, the other a year of the greatest
dearness. Did any cultivator either give him money in the cheap season,
or in the dear season complain of the valuation of his corn? Oh, but provisions
were
very abundant that dear season. [217] I believe they were; that is
not a new thing nor a blamable one. We very lately saw Caius Sentius, a
man of
old-fashioned and extraordinary incorruptibility, on account of the dearness
of food which existed in Macedonia, make a great deal of money by furnishing
provisions. So that I do not grudge you your profits, if any have come
to you legally; I complain of your injustice; I impeach your dishonesty;
I cat your
avarice into court, and arraign it before this tribunal.
But if you wish to excite a suspicion that this charge belongs to more
men and more provinces than one, I will not be afraid of that defence of
yours, but I
will profess myself the defender of all the provinces. In truth I say this,
and I say it with a loud voice, ’ÄúWherever this has been done, it has
been done
wickedly; whoever has done it is deserving of punishment.’Äù
XCIV.[218] For, in the name of the immortal gods, see, O judges, look forward
with your mind's eye at what will be the result. Many men have exacted
large
sums from unwilling cities, and from unwilling cultivators, in this way,
under pretence of filling the granary. (I have no idea of any one person
having done
so except him, but I grant you this, and I admit that many have.) In the
case of this man you see the matter brought before a court of justice;
what can you
do? can you, when you are judges in a case of embezzlement which is brought
before you, overlook the misappropriation of so large a sum? or can you,
though the law was made for the sake of the allies, turn a deaf ear to
the complaints of the allies? [219] However, I give up this point
too to you. Disregard
what is past, if you please; but do not destroy their hopes for the future,
and ruin all the provinces; guard against this,--against opening, by your
authority, a
visible and broad way for avarice, which up to this time has been in the
habit of advancing by secret and narrow paths; for if you approve of this,
and if you
decide that it is lawful for money to be taken on that pretext, at all
events there is no one except the most foolish of men who will not for
the future do what
as yet no one except the most dishonest of men ever has done; they are
dishonest men who exact money contrary to the laws, they are fools who
omit to do
what it has been decided that they may do. [220] In the next place,
see, O judges, what a boundless licence for plundering people of money
you will he
giving to men. If the man who exacts three denarii is acquitted, some one
else will exact four, five, presently ten, or even twenty. What reproof
will he meet
with? At what degree of injury will the severity of the judge first begin
to make a stand? How many denarii will it be that will be quite intolerable?
and at
what point will the iniquity and dishonesty of the valuation be first arraigned?
For it is not the amount, but the description of valuation that will be
approved
of by you. Nor can you decide in this manner, that it is lawful for a valuation
to be made when the price fixed is three denarii, but not lawful when the
price
fixed is ten; for when a departure is once made from the standard of the
market price, and when the affair is once so changed that it is not the
advantage of
the cultivators which is the rule, but the will of the praetor, then the
manner of valuing no longer depends on law and duty, but on the caprice
and avarice of
men.
XCV. Wherefore, if in giving your decisions you once pass over the boundary
of equity and law, know that you impose on those who come after no limit
to
dishonesty and avarice in valuing. [221] See, therefore, how many things
are required of you at once. Acquit the man who confesses that he has taken
immense sums, doing at the same time the greatest injury to our allies.
That is not enough. There are also many others who have done the same thing.
Acquit
them also, if there are any; so as to release as many rogues as possible
by one decision. Even that is not enough. Cause that it may be lawful to
those who
come after them to do the same thing. It shall be lawful. Even this is
too little. Allow it to be lawful for every one to value corn at whatever
price he pleases.
He may so value it. You see now, in truth, O judges, that if this valuation
be approved of by you, there will be no limit hereafter to any man's avarice,
nor any
punishment for dishonesty. [222] What, therefore, O Hortensius, are
you about? You are the consul elect, you have had a province allotted to
you. When
you speak on the subject of the valuation of corn, we shall listen to you
as if you were avowing that you will do what you defend as having been
legitimately
done by Verres; and as if you were very eager that that should be lawful
for you which you say was lawful for him. But if that is to be lawful,
there is
nothing which you can imagine any one likely to do hereafter, in consequence
of which he can possibly be condemned for extortion. For whatever sum of
money any one covets, that amount it will be lawful for him to acquire,
under the plea of the granary, and by means of the highness of the valuation.
XCVI.[223] But there is a thing, which, even if Hortensius does not say
it openly in defending Verres, he still does say in such a manner that
you may
suspect and think that this matter concerns the advantage of the senators;
that it concerns the advantage of those who are judges, and who think that
they will
some day or other be in the provinces themselves as governors or as lieutenants.
But you must think that we have splendid judges, if you think them likely
to
show indulgence to the faults of others, in order the more easily to be
allowed to commit faults themselves. Do we then wish the Roman people,
do we wish
the provinces, and our allies, and foreign nations to think that, if senators
are the judges, this particular manner of extorting immense sums of money
with the
greatest injustice will never be in any way chastised? But if that be the
case, what can we say against that praetor who every day occupies the senate,
who
insists upon it that the republic can not prosper, if the office of judge
is not restored to the equestrian order? [224] But if he begins to
agitate this one point,
that there is one description of extortion, common to all the senators,
and now almost legalized in the case of that order, by which immense sums
are taken
from the allies with the greatest injustice; and that this cannot possibly
be repressed by tribunals of senators, but that, while the equestrian order
furnished
the senators, it never was committed; who, then, can resist him? Who will
be so desirous of gratifying you, who will be such a partisan of your order,
as to
be able to oppose the transference of the appointment of judges to that
body?
XCVII. And I wish he were able to make a defence to this charge by any
argument, however false, as long as it is natural and customary. You could
then
decide with less danger to yourselves, with less danger to all the provinces.
Did he deny that he had adopted this valuation? You would appear to have
believed the man in that statement, not to have approved of his action.
He cannot possibly deny it. It is proved by all Sicily. Out of all that
numerous band of
cultivators, there is not one from whom money has not been exacted on the
plea of the granary. [225] I wish he were able to say even this,
that that affair
does not concern him; that the whole business relating to corn was managed
by the quaestors. Even that he cannot say, because his own letters are
read
which were sent to the cities, written on the subject of the three denarii.
What then is his defence? ’ÄúI have done what you accuse me of; I have
extorted
immense sums on the plea of the granary; but it was lawful for me to do
so, and it will be lawful for you if you take care.’Äù A dangerous thing
for the
provinces for any classes of injury to be established by judicial decision
to a dangerous thing for our order, for the Roman people to think that
these men,
who themselves are subject to the laws, cannot defend the laws with strictness
when they are judges. And while that man was praetor, O judges, there was
not
only no limit to his valuing corn, but there was none either to his demands
of corn. Nor did he command that only to be supplied that was due, but
as much
as was advantageous for himself. I will put before you the sum total of
all the corn commanded to be furnished for the granary, as collected out
of the public
documents, and the testimonies of the cities You will find, O judges, that
man commanded the cities to supply five times as much as it was lawful
for him to
take for the granary. What can be added to this impudence, if he both valued
it at such a price that men could not endure it, and also commanded so
much
more to be supplied than was permitted to him by the laws to require?
[226] Wherefore, now that you have heard the whole business of the corn,
O judges, you can easily see that Sicily, that most productive and most
desirable
province, has been lost to the Roman people, unless you recover it by your
condemnation of that man. For what is Sicily, if you take away the cultivation
of
its land, and if you extinguish the multitude and the very name of the
cultivators of the soil? For what can there be left of disaster which has
not come to
those unhappy cultivators, with every circumstance of injury and insult?
They were liable, indeed, to pay tenths, but they have scarcely had a tenth
left for
themselves. When money has been due to them, it has not been paid; though
the senate intended them to supply corn for the granary according to a
very
equitable valuation, they have been compelled to sell even the tools with
which they cultivate their lands.
XCVIII.[227] I have already said, O judges, that even if you remove all
these injuries, still that the occupation of cultivating land is maintained
owing to the
hopes and a certain sort of pleasure which it gives, rather than because
of the profit and emolument arising from it. In truth every year constant
labour and
constant expense is incurred in the hope of a result which is casual and
uncertain. Moreover, the crop does not command a high price, except in
a disastrous
harvest. But if there has been a great abundance of crops gathered, then
there is cheapness in selling them. So that you may see that the corn must
be badly
sold if it is got in well, or else that the crop must be bad if you get
a good price for it. And the whole business of agriculture is such, that
it is regulated not
by reason or by industry, but by those most uncertain things,--the weather
and the winds. When from agriculture one tenth is extracted by law and
on fair
terms,--when a second is levied by a new regulation, on account of the
necessity of procuring a sufficient supply for ourselves,--when, besides,
corn is
purchased every year by public authority,--and when, after all that, more
still is ordered by magistrates and lieutenants to be supplied for the
granary,--what,
or how much is there after all this of his own crop which the cultivator
or owner can have at his own disposal, for his own profit? [228]
And if all this is
endured,--if by their care, and expense, and labour, they consult your
advantage and that of the Roman people rather than themselves and their
own
profit,--still, ought they also to bear these new edicts and commands of
the praetors, and the imperiousness of Apronius, and the robberies and
rapine of the
slaves of Venus? Ought they also to supply corn which ought to be purchased
of them without getting any payment for it? Ought they also, though they
are
willing to supply corn for the granary without payment, to be forced to
pay large sums too? Ought they also to endure all these injures and all
these losses
accompanied with the greatest insult and contumely? Therefore, O judges,
those things which they have not at all been able to bear, they have not
borne. You
know that over the whole of Sicily the allotments of land are deserted
and abandoned by their owners. Nor is there anything else to be gained
by this trial,
except that our most ancient and faithful allies, the Sicilians, Roman
settlers, and the cultivators of the soil, owing to your strictness and
your care, may return
to their farms and to their homes under my guidance and through my instrumentality.
1 ’ÄúFruges minutae’Äù probably pulse--Riddle's Lat. Dict. in v. Minutus.
2 Thensa was the chariot or car on which the images of the gods were carried in the Ludi Circenses.
3 The recuperatores were a kind of judges, usually appointed by the praetors in some particular kinds of action, and especially in those relating to money.
4 The Latin word here is conventus, which often occurs in these orations;
properly it means any assembly of men, but when the Romans had reduced
foreign countries into the form of provinces, it assumed a nave definite
meaning. Sometimes it was applied to the whole body of Roman citizens who
were
either permanently or temporarily settled in a province. Also in order
to facilitate the administration of justice, a province was divided into
a number of
districts, each of which was called conventus... Roman citizens living
in a province, at certain times of the year, fixed by the proconsul, assembled
in the
chief town of the district, and this meeting bore the name of conventus.
At this conventus litigant, parties applied to the proconsul, who selected
a number of
judges from the conventus to try their causes. The proconsul himself presided
at the trial, and pronounced the sentence according to the views of the
judges
who were his assessors.--Smith, Dict. Ant in v. Conventus.
5 Orellius considers that all the figures and measures in this and the
next chapter are in a state of hopeless corruption and confusion; and they
are certainly
not very easily reconciled with each other. The effect of the oration in
general is not weakened, but we must not suppose that we have the exact
statements
which were addressed by Cicero to the Judges.
6 The Latin is accensus. ’ÄúThe accensus was a public officer who attended
on several of the Roman magistrates. He anciently preceded the consul,
who had
not the fasces.... It was his duty to summon the people to the assemblies,
and those who had law-suits to court; and also, by command of the consul
and
praetor, to proclaim the time, when it was the third hour, the sixth, &c.
Accensi also attended on the governors of provinces, and were commonly
freedmen
of the magistrate on whom they attended.’Äù--Smith, Dict. Ant. in voce.
7 The Latin is viator. ’ÄúViator was a servant who attended upon and executed
the commands of certain Roman magistrates, to whom he bore the same
relation that the lictor did to other magistrates. The name viator was
derived from the circumstance of their being chiefly employed in messages,
either to
call upon senators to attend the meeting of the senate, or to summon people
to the comitia.’Äù--Smith, Dict. Ant. in voce.
8 The Latin is apparitor, which was ’Äúthe general name for the public
servants of the magistrates at Rome,--accensi, carnifex, lictores, scribae,
&c. &c.
They were called apparitores because they were at hand to execute the commands
of the magistrates. Their service or attendance was called apparitio.’Äù
--Smith, Dict. Ant. in voce.
9 The Latin is caede, concide. ’ÄúN.B. caede concide, Cic. proverbially; i.e. use every means in your power "--Riddle's Lat. Dict. in Concido.
10 The Latin is divisor, on which Riddle says, ’Äúa decider a distributor.
There were also divisores at the comitia, through whom the candidates caused
money to be distributed among the tribes, this was a name given by way
of reproach, and not that of an office.’Äù
11 Towards the close of the republic the interest of money became due on
the first of every month; therefore centesimae usurae, which seems to have
been
reckoned the ordinary rate of interest at Rome, was a payment of the hundredth
part of the debt every month, or twelve hundredths, or, as we say, twelve
per
cent every year; binae centesimae were twice as much. Niebuhr is of opinion
that the monthly rate of the centesimae was of foreign origin, and first
adopted at Rome in the time of Sulla. The old yearly rate established by
the Twelve Tables was unciarium foenus, a little over eight per-cent a
year. See
Smith, Dict Ant. p. 525, v. Interest.
12 These decuries were colleges, or guilds, in which the different bodies
of inferior officers, librarians, clerks, lictors, accensi, nomenclators,
&c were
enrolled.
13 Caius Cato was the grandson of Marcus Cato the censor, and nephew of
the younger Scipio Africanus; he had been praetor of Sicily, but was convicted
of having received eighteen thousand sesterces illegally.
14 This has been mentioned before, owing to the way in which Verres had
disabled the fleet for his private gain, excusing towns from providing
ships who
were inclined to pay for the relaxation, and discharging too all the sailors
who chose to buy their discharges, it was so powerless that a small squadron
of
pirates sailed into the harbour of Syracuse and burnt it. Afterwards, a
single pirate ship was taken, the officers of which purchased their pardon
of Verres,
who, not daring to avow it, as the people clamoured for their execution,
brought on the scaffold the captains of those Roman ships which had been
burnt, and
officers who he feared might hereafter bear witness against him, with their
heads muffled up so that they could not be recognised, and had them executed
as
the pirates.
15 A denarius was about eight pence half-penny; a sestertius only fraction over two-pence.