ABOUT THE STATUES
THE ARGUMENT
The subject of this oration is the manner in which Verres had plundered
not only private individuals, but even some temples, of valuable statues,
and other
works of art. Among the instances given some of the most prominent are
the plunder of Heius, a Messanian, of Philarchus, of Centuripa, of several
other
private citizens, of Antiochus, the king; and of the temples of Diana,
Mercury, and Ceres. A French translator in commenting on this oration says,
with
reference to the slighting way in which Cicero speaks of the works of art
thus stolen,--The Romans struggled for some time against the seductive
power of
the arts of Greece, to which for many ages they were strangers. At first
they really did despise them, afterwards they affected to despise them,
but at last they
were forced to bow the head beneath the brilliant yoke of luxury; and Greece,
industrious, learned, and polite, subdued by the admiration which it extorted,
the ignorant, unlettered, and rude barbarians who had conquered her by
force. Faithful to the ancient maxims of the republic, Cicero in this oration
speaks
only with a sort of disdain of the arts and works of the most famous artists.
He even pretends sometimes not to be too well acquainted with the names
of the
most celebrated statuaries; he often repeats, and with a kind of affectation,
that he knows very little of painting or sculpture; and rather prides himself,
as one
may say, on his ignorance. He seems to regard a taste for art as unworthy
of the Romans, and the finest chefs d' oeuvre as children's toys, fit to
amuse the
trifling and frivolous minds of the Greeks, whose name he usually expresses
by a contemptuous diminutive, (Graeculi,) but little calculated to fix
the
attention, or attract the esteem or wishes of a Roman mind. ******
In general there runs through these orations a tone more calculated to
render Verres ridiculous, than to make one feel how much there was in all
his attempts
which was odious and horrible. The orator even permitted himself some pleasantries,
for which his taste has been, perhaps too severely, called in question.
Cicero had no dislike to puns, and has played a good deal on the name of
Verres, which means a boar. He was too eager to acquire the reputation
of a wit. It
is true that the person of Verres was sufficiently inviting as a subject
for ridicule. He was one of those gross men overloaded with fat in whom
the bulk of
body appears to stifle all delicacy of moral feeling. As he had tried to
carry off a statue of Hercules which his people could with difficulty move
upon its
pedestal, Cicero calls this the thirteenth of the labours of Hercules.
And playing continually on the name of Verres, he compares him to the boar
of
Erymanthus. At another time he calls him the dragnet of Sicily, because
the name Verres has some resemblance to the word everriculum, which signifies
a
dragnet.
Hortensius endeavoured to defend Verres from the charge of having stolen
these statues, &c. of which he admits that he had become the possessor,
by
contending that he had bought them. But it was contrary to the laws for
a magistrate to purchase any such articles in his province; and Cicero
shows also
that the prices alleged to have been given are so wholly disproportionate
to their value, that it is ridiculous to assert that the things had been
purchased and
not taken by force.
I. I come now to what Verres himself calls his passion what his friends
call his disease, his madness; what the Sicilians call his rapine; what
I am to call it, I
know not. I will state the whole affair to you, and do you consider it
according to its own importance and not by the importance of its name.
First of all, O
judges, suffer me to make you acquainted with the description of this conduct
of his; and then, perhaps, you will not be very much puzzled to know by
what
name to call it. I say that in all Sicily, in all that wealthy and ancient
province, that in that number of towns and families of such exceeding riches,
there was
no silver vessel, no Corinthian or Delian plate, no jewel or pearl, nothing
made of gold or ivory, no statue of marble or brass or ivory, no picture
whether
painted or embroidered, that he did not seek out, that he did not inspect,
that, if he liked it, he did not take away. [2] I seem to be making
a very extensive
charge; listen now to the manner in which I make it. For I am not embracing
everything in one charge for the sake of making an impression, or of
exaggerating his guilt. When I say that he left nothing whatever of the
sort in the whole province, know that I am speaking according to the strict
meaning of
the words, and not in the spirit of an accuser. I will speak even more
plainly; I will say that he has left nothing in any one's house, nothing
even in the towns,
nothing in public places, not even in the temples, nothing in the possession
of any Sicilian, nothing in the possession of any Roman citizen; that he
has left
nothing, in short, which either came before his eyes or was suggested to
his mind, whether private property or public, or profane or sacred, in
all Sicily.
[3] Where then shall I begin rather than with that city which was above
all others in your affection, and which was your chosen place of enjoyment?
or with
what class of men rather than with your flatterers? For by that means it
will be the more easily seen how you behaved among those men who hate you,
who
accuse you, who will not let you rest, when you are proved to have plundered
among the Mamertines, who are your friends, in the most infamous manner.
II. Caius Heius is a Mamertine--all men will easily grant me this who have
ever been to Messana; the most accomplished man in every point of view
in all
that city. His house is the very best in all Messana,--most thoroughly
known, most constantly open, most especially hospitable to all our fellow-citizens.
That house before the arrival of Verres was so splendidly adorned, as to
be an ornament even to the city. For Messana itself, which is admirable
on account
of its situation, its fortifications, and its harbour, is very empty and
bare of those things in which Verres delights. [4] There was in the
house of Heius a
private chapel of great sacredness, handed down to him from his ancestors,
very ancient; in which he had four very beautiful statues, made with the
greatest
skill, and of very high character; calculated not only to delight Verres,
that clever and accomplished man, but even any one of us whom he calls
the
mob:--one, a statue of Cupid, in marble, a work of Praxiteles; for in truth,
while I have been inquiring into that man's conduct, I have learnt the
names of the
workmen; it was the same workman, as I imagine, who made that celebrated
Cupid of the same figure as this which is at Thespiae, on account of which
people go to see Thespiae, for there is no other reason for going to see
it; and therefore that great man Lucius Mummius, when he carried away from
that
town the statues of the Muses which are now before the temple of Good Fortune,
and the other statues which were not consecrated, did not touch this marble
Cupid, because it had been consecrated.
III.[5] But to return to that private chapel; there was this statue, which
I am speaking of, of Cupid, made of marble. On the other side there was
a Hercules,
beautifully made of brass; that was said to be the work of Myron, as I
believe, and it undoubtedly was so. Also before those gods there were little
altars,
which might indicate to any one the holiness of the chapel. There were
besides two brazen statues, of no very great size, but of marvellous beauty,
in the
dress and robes of virgins, which with uplifted hands were supporting some
sacred vessels which were placed on their heads, after the fashion of the
Athenian virgins. They were called the Canephorae, but their maker was....
(who? who was he? thank you, you are quite right,) they called him Polycletus.
Whenever any one of our citizens went to Messana, he used to go and see
these statues. They were open every day for people to go to see them. The
house
was not more an ornament to its master, than it was to the city.
[6] Caius Claudius, whose aedileship we know to have been a most
splendid affair, used this statue of Cupid, as long as he kept the forum
decorated in
honour of the immortal gods and the Roman people. And as he was connected
by ties of hospitality with the Heii, and was the patron of the Mamertine
people,--as he availed himself of their kindness to lend him this, so he
was careful to restore it There have lately been noble men of the same
kind, O
judges;--why do I say lately, Yes, we have seen some very lately, a very
little while ago indeed, who have adorned the forum and the public buildings,
not
with the spoils of the provinces, but with ornaments belonging to their
friends,--with splendid things lent by their own connections, not with
the produce of
the thefts of guilty men,--and who afterwards have restored the statues
and decorations, each to its proper owner; men who have not taken things
away out of
the cities of our allies for the sake of a four-day festival, under presence
of the shows to be exhibited in their aedileship, and after that carried
them off to
their own homes, and their own villas. [7] All these statues which
I have mentioned, O judges, Verres took away from Heius, out of his private
chapel. Be
left, I say, not one of those things, nor anything else, except one old
wooden figure.--Good Fortune, as I believe; that, forsooth, he did not
choose to have in
his house!
IV. Oh! for the good faith of gods and men! What is the meaning of all
this? What a cause is this? What impudence is this! The statues which I
am
speaking of, before they were taken away by you, no commander ever came
to Messana without seeing So many praetors, so many consuls as there have
been in Sicily, in time of peace, and in time of war; so many men of every
sort as there have been--I do not speak of upright, innocent, conscientious
men,
but so many covetous, so many audacious, so many infamous men as there
have been, not one of them all was violent enough, or seemed to himself
powerful enough or noble enough, to venture to ask for, or to take away,
or even to touch anything in that chapel. Shall Verres take away everything
which is
most beautiful everywhere? Shall it not be allowed to any one besides to
have anything? Shall that one house of his contain so many wealthy houses?
Was it
for this reason that none of his predecessors ever touched these things,
that he might be able to carry them off? Was this the reason why Caius
Claudius
Pulcher restored them, that Caius Verres might be able to steal them? But
that Cupid had no wish for the house of a pimp and the establishment of
a harlot;
he was quite content to stay in that chapel where he was hereditary; he
knew that he had been left to Heius by his ancestors, with the rest of
the sacred things
which he inherited; he did not require the heir of a prostitute. [8]
But why am I borne on so impetuously? I shall in a moment be refuted by
one word. I
bought it, says he. O ye immortal gods, what a splendid defence! we
sent a broker into the province with military command and with the forces,
to buy up
all the statues, all the paintings, all the silver plate and gold plate,
and ivory, and jewels, and to leave nothing to any body. For this defence
seems to me to be
got ready for everything; that he bought them. In the first place, if I
should grant to you that which you wish, namely, that you bought them,
since against all
this class of accusations you are going to use this defence alone, I ask
what sort of tribunals you thought that there would be at Rome, if you
thought that
any one would grant you this, that you in your praetorship and in your
command 1 bought up so many and such valuable things,--everything, in short,
which
was of any value in the whole province.
V.[9] Remark the care of our ancestors, who as yet suspected no such conduct
as this, but yet provided against the things which might happen in affairs
of
small importance. They thought that no one who had gone as governor or
as lieutenant into a province would be so insane as to buy silver, for
that was given
him out of the public fends; or raiment, for that was afforded him by the
laws; they thought he might buy a slave, a thing which we all use, and
which is not
provided by the laws. They made a law, therefore, that no one should
buy a slave except in the room of a slave who was dead. If any slave
had died at
Rome? No, if any one had died in the place where his master was. For they
did not mean you to furnish your house in the province, but to be of use
to the
province in its necessities. [10] What was the reason why they so
carefully kept us from making purchases in the provinces? This was it,
O judges, because
they thought it a robbery, not a purchase, when the seller was not allowed
to sell on his own terms. And they were aware that, in the provinces, if
he who was
there with the command and power 2 of a governor wished to purchase what
was in any one's possession, and was allowed to do so, it would come to
pass
that he would get whatever he chose, whether it was to be sold or not,
at whatever price he pleased. Some one will say, Do not deal with Verres
in that
manner; do not try and examine his actions by the standard of old-fashioned
conscientiousness; allow him to have bought them without being punished
for
it, provided he bought them in a fair way, not through any arbitrary exercise
of power, nor from any one against his will, or by violence. I will
so deal with
him. If Heius had anything for sale, if he sold it for the price at which
he valued it, I give up inquiring why you bought it.
VI.[11] What then are we to do? Are we to use arguments in a case of this
sort? We must ask, I suppose, whether Heius was in debt, whether he had
an
auction,--if he had, whether he was in such difficulties about money matters,
whether he was oppressed by such want, by such necessity, as to strip his
private chapel, to sell his paternal gods. But I see that the man had no
auction; that he never sold anything except the produce of his land; that
he not only
had no debts, but that he had always abundance of ready money. Even if
all these things were contrary to what I say they were, still I say that
he would not
have sold things which had been so many years in the household and chapel
of his ancestors. What will you say if he was persuaded by the greatness
of
the sum given him for them? It is not probable that a man, rich as he
was, honourable as he was, should have preferred money to his own religious
feelings
and to the memorials of his ancestors. [12] That may be, yet men are
sometimes led away from their habits and principles by large sums of money.
Let
us see, then, how great a sum this was which could turn Heius, a man of
exceeding riches, by no means covetous, away from decency, from affection,
and
from religion. You ordered him, I suppose, to enter in his account books,
All these statues of Praxiteles, of Myron, of Polycletus, were sold
to Verres for
six thousand five hundred sesterces. Read the extracts from his accounts--
[The accounts of Heius are read.] I am delighted that the illustrious names
of
these workmen, whom those men extol to the skies, have fallen so low in
the estimation of Verres--the Cupid of Praxiteles for sixteen hundred sesterces.
From that forsooth has come the proverb I had rather buy it than ask
for it.
VII.[13] Some one will say, What! do you value those things at a very
high price? But I am not valuing them according to any calculation of
my own, or
any need which I have for them; but I think that the matter ought to be
looked at by you in this light,--what is the value of these things in the
opinion of those
men who are judges of these things; at what price they are accustomed to
be sold; at what price these very things could be sold, if they were sold
openly and
freely; lastly, at what price Verres himself values them. For he would
never have been so foolish, if he had thought that Cupid worth only four
hundred
denarii, as to allow himself to be made a subject for the common conversation
and general reproach of men. [14] Who then of you all is ignorant
at how
great a price these things are valued? Have we not seen at an auction a
brazen statue of no great size sold for a hundred and twenty thousand sesterces?
What if I were to choose to name men who have bought similar things for
no less a price, or even for a higher one? Can I not do so? In truth, the
only limit
to the valuation of such things is the desire which any one has for them,
for it is difficult to set bounds to the price unless you first set bounds
to the wish. I
see then that Heius was neither led by his inclination, nor by any temporary
difficulties, nor by the greatness of the sum given, to sell these statues;
and that
you, under the presence of purchase which you put forward, in reality seized
and took away these things by force, through fear, by your power and authority,
from that man, whom, along with the rest of our allies in that country,
the Roman people had entrusted not only to your power, but also to your
upright
exercise of it. [15] What can there be, judges, so desirable for
me in making this charge, as that Heius should say this same thing? Nothing
certainly; but let
us not wish for what is difficult to be obtained. Heius is a Mamertine.
The state of the Mamertines alone, by a common resolution, praises that
man in the
name of the city. To all the rest of the Sicilians he is an object of hatred;
by the Mamertines alone is he liked. But of that deputation which has been
sent to
utter his praises, Heius is the chief man; in truth, he is the chief man
of his city, and too much occupied in discharging the public duties imposed
upon him
to speak of his private injuries. [16] Though I was aware of and
had given weight to these considerations, still, O judges, I trusted myself
to Heius. I
produced him at the first pleading; and indeed I did it without any danger,
for what answer could Heius give even if he turned out a dishonest man,
and
unlike himself? Could he say that these statues were at his house, and
not with Verres? How could he say anything of that sort? If he were the
basest of men,
and were inclined to lie most shamelessly, he would say this; that he had
had them for sale, and that he had sold them at the price he wanted for
them. The
man the most noble in all his city, who was especially anxious that you
should have a high opinion of his conscientiousness and of his worth, says
first, that
he spoke in Verres's praise by the public authority of his city, because
that commission had been given to him; secondly; that he had not had these
things for
sale, and that, if he had been allowed to do what he wished, he could never
have been induced by any terms to sell those things which were in his private
chapel, having been left to him and handed down to him from his ancestors.
VIII.[17] Why are you sitting there, O Verres? What are you waiting for?
Why do you say that you are hemmed in and overwhelmed by the cities of
Centuripa, of Catina, of Halesa, of Tyndaris, of Enna, of Agyrium, and
by all the other cities of Sicily? Your second country, as you used to
call it, Messana
herself attacks you; your own Messana I say; the assistant in your crimes,
the witness of your lusts, the receiver of your booty and your thefts.
For the most
honourable man of that city is present, a deputy sent from his home on
account of this very trial, the chief actor in the panegyric on you; who
praises you by
the public order of his city, for so he has been charged and commanded
to do. Although you recollect, O judges, what he answered when he was asked
about
the ship; that it had been built by public labour, at the public expense,
and that a Mamertine senator had been appointed by the public authority
to
superintend its building. Heius in his private capacity flees to you for
aid, O judges; he avails himself of this law, the common fortress of our
allies, by
which this tribunal is established. Although there is a law for recovering
money which has been unjustly extorted, he says that he does not seem to
recover
any money; which though it has been taken from him, he does not so much
care about: but he says he does demand back from you the sacred images
belonging to his ancestors, he does demand back from you his hereditary
household god? [18] Have you any shame, O Verres? have you any religion?
have you any fear, You have lived in Heius's house at Messana; you saw
him almost daily performing sacred rites in his private chapel before those
gods.
He is not influenced by money; he does not even ask to have those things
restored which were merely ornaments. Keep the Canephorae; restore the
images
of the gods. And because he said this, because after a given time he, an
ally and friend of the Roman people, addressed his complaints to you in
a moderate
tone, because he was very attentive to religious obligation not only while
demanding back his paternal gods, but also in giving his evidence on oath;
know
that one of the deputies has been sent back to Messana, that very man who
superintended the building of that ship at the public expense, to demand
from the
senate that Heius should be condemned to an ignominious punishment.
IX.[19] O most insane of men, what did you think? that you should obtain
what you requested? Did you not know how greatly he was esteemed by his
fellow-citizens; how great his influence was considered? But suppose you
had obtained your request; suppose that the Mamertines had passed any severe
vote against Heius, what do you think would have been the authority of
their panegyric, if they had decreed punishment to the man who it was notorious
had
given true evidence? Although, what sort of praise is that, when he who
utters it, being questioned, is compelled to give answers injurious to
him whom he is
praising? What! are not those who are praising you, my witnesses? Heius
is an encomiast of yours; he has done you the most serious injury. I will
bring
forward the rest; they will gladly be silent about all that they are allowed
to suppress; they will say what they cannot help saying, unwillingly. Can
they deny
that a transport of the largest size was built for that man at Messana?
Let them deny it if they can. Can they deny that a Mamertine senator was
appointed by
the public authority to superintend the building of that ship? I wish they
would deny it. There are other points also which I prefer reserving unmentioned
at
present, in order to give as little time as possible to them for planning
and arranging their perjury. [20] Let this praise, then, be placed
to your account; let
these men come to your relief with their authority, who neither ought to
help you if they were able, nor could do so if they wished; on whom in
their private
capacity you have inflicted many injuries, and put many affronts, while
in their city you have dishonoured many families for ever by your adulteries
and
crimes But you have been of public service to their city. Not without
great injury to the republic and to the province of Sicily. They were bound
to supply
and they used to supply sixty thousand modii of wheat to the Roman people
for payment; that was remitted by you of your own sole authority. The
republic was injured because by your means its right of dominion over one
city was disparaged; the Sicilians were injured, because this quantity
was not
deducted from the total amount of the corn to be provided by the island,
but was only transferred to the cities of Centuripa and Halesa, whose inhabitants
were exempt from that tax; and on them a greater burden was imposed than
they were able to bear. [21] It was your duty to require them to
furnish a ship,
in compliance with the treaty. You remitted it for three years. During
all those years you never demanded one soldier. You acted as pirates are
accustomed to
act, who, though they are the common enemies of all men, still select some
friends, whom they not only spare, but even enrich with their booty; and
especially such as have a town in a convenient situation, where they often,
and sometimes even necessarily, put in with their vessels.
X. The town of Phaselis, which Publius Servilius took, had not been in
former times a city of Cilicians and pirates. The Lycians, a Greek tribe,
inhabited it;
but because it was in such a situation as it was, and because it projected
into the sea, so that pirates from Cilicia often necessarily touched at
it when
departing on an expedition, and were also often borne thither on their
retreats, the pirates connected that city with themselves; at first by
commercial
intercourse, and afterwards by a regular alliance. [22] The city
of the Mamertines was not formerly of bad character; it was even a city
hostile to dishonest
men, and detained the luggage of Caius Cato, the one who was consul But
then what sort of a man was he? a most eminent and most influential man;
who
however, though he had been consul, was convicted. So Caius Cato, the grandson
of two most illustrious men, Lucius Paullus and Marcus Cato, and the son
of the sister of Publius Africanus; who, even when convicted, at a time
when severe judgments were in the habit of being passed, found the damages
to which
he was liable only estimated at eighteen thousand sesterces; with this
man, I say, the Mamertines were angry, who have often expended a greater
sum than
the damages in the action against Cato were laid at, in one banquet for
Timarchides. [23] But this city was the Phaselis for that robber
and pirate of Sicily.
Hither everything was brought from all quarters; with them it was left;
whatever required to be concealed, they kept separate and stored away.
By their
agency he contrived everything which he wished put on board ship privately,
and exported secretly; and in their harbour he contrived to have a vessel
of the
largest size built for him to send to Italy loaded with plunder. In return
for these services, he gave them immunity from all expense, all labour,
all military
service, in short, from everything. For three years they were the only
people, not only in Sicily, but, according to my opinion, in the whole
world at such a
time, who enjoyed excuse, relief, freedom, and immunity from every sort
of expense, and trouble, and office. [24] Hence arose that Verrean
festival; hence it
was that he ventured to order Sextus Cominius to be dragged before him
at a banquet, at whom he attempted to throw a goblet, whom he ordered to
be seized
by the throat, and to be hurried from the banquet and thrown into a dark
prison; hence came that cross, on which, in the sight of many men, he suspended
a
Roman citizen; that cross which he never ventured to erect anywhere except
among that people, whom he had made sharers in all his crimes and robberies.
XI. Do you, O Mamertines, dare to come to praise any one? By what authority?
by that which you ought to have with the Senatorial order? by that which
you ought to have with the Roman people? [25] Is there any city,
not only in our provinces, but in the most distant nations, either so powerful,
or so free, or
so savage and uncivilized? is there any king, who would not invite a Senator
of the Roman people to his house and to his home? An honour which is paid
not only to the man, but in the first place to the Roman people, by whose
indulgence we have risen to this order, and secondly to the authority of
this order;
and unless that is respected among our allies, where will be the name and
dignity of the empire among foreign nations? The Mamertines did not give
me any
public invitation--when I say me, that is a trifle, but when they did not
invite a Senator of the Roman people, they withheld an honour due not to
the man but
to his order. For to Tullius himself, the most splendid and magnificent
house of Cnaeus Pompeius Basilicus was opened; with whom he would have
lodged
even if he had been invited by you. There was also the most honourable
house of the Percennii, who are now also called Pompeius; where Lucius
my
brother lodged and was received by them with the greatest eagerness. A
Senator of the Roman people, as far as depended on you as a body, lay in
your
town, and passed the night in the public streets. No other city ever did
such a thing. Yes, say you, for you were instituting a prosecution
against our
friend. Will you put your own interpretation on what private business
I have of my own, by diminishing the honour due to the Senate? [26]
But I will
make my complaint of this conduct, if ever the time comes that there is
any discussion concerning you among that body, which, up to this time,
has been
affronted by no one but you. With what face have you presented yourself
before the eyes of the Roman people? when you have not yet pulled down
that
cross, which is even now stained with the blood of a Roman citizen, which
is fixed up in your city by the harbour, and have not thrown it into the
sea and
purified all that place, before you came to Rome, and before this tribunal.
On the territory of the Mamertines, connected with us by treaty, at peace
with us, is
that monument of your cruelty raised. Is not your city the only one where,
when any one arrives at it from Italy, he sees the cross of a Roman citizen
before
he sees any friend of the Roman people? which you are in the habit of displaying
to the people of Rhegium, whose city you envy, and to your inhabitants,
Roman citizens as they are, to make them think less of themselves, and
be less inclined to despise you, when they see the privileges of our citizenship
extinguished by such a punishment.
XII.[27] But you say you bought these things? What? did you forget to purchase
of the same Heius that Attalic 3 tapestry, celebrated over the whole of
Sicily? You might have bought them in the same way as you did the statues.
For what did you do? Did you wish to spare the account books? This escaped
the notice of that stupid man; he thought that what he stole from the wardrobe
would be less notorious than what he had stolen from the private chapel.
But
how did he get it? I cannot relate it more plainly than Heius himself related
it before you. When I asked, whether any other part of his property had
come to
Verres, he answered that he had sent him orders to send the tapestry to
Agrigentum to him. I asked whether he had sent it. He replied as he must,
that is, that
he had been obedient to the praetor; that he had sent it.--I asked whether
it had arrived at Agrigentum; he said it had arrived.--I asked in what
condition it had
returned; he said it had not returned yet.--There was a laugh and a murmur
from all the people. [28] Did it never occur to you in this instance
to order him
to make an entry in his books, that he had sold you this tapestry too,
for six thousand five hundred sesterces? Did you fear that your debts would
increase,
if these things were to cost you six thousand five hundred sesterces, which
you could easily sell for two hundred thousand? It was worth that, believe
me.
You would have been able to defend yourself if you had given that sum for
it. No one would then have asked how much it was worth. If you could only
prove that you had bought it, you could easily make your cause and your
conduct appear reasonable to any one. But as it is, you have no way of
getting out
of your difficulty about the tapestry. What shall I say next? [29]
Did you take away by force some splendid harness, which is said to have
belonged to
King Hiero, from Philarchus of Centuripa, a wealthy and high-born man,
or did you buy it of him? When I was in Sicily, this is what I heard from
the
Centuripans and from everybody else, for the case was very notorious; people
said that you had taken away this harness from Philarchus of Centuripa,
and
other very beautiful harness from Aristus of Panormus, and a third set
from Gratippus of Tyndarus. Indeed, if Philarchus had sold it to you, you
would not,
after the prosecution was instituted against you, have promised to restore
it. But because you saw that many people knew of it, you thought that if
you
restored it to him, you would only have so much the less, but the original
transaction would be proved against you nevertheless; and so you did not
restore it.
Philarchus said in his evidence, that when he became acquainted with this
disease of yours, as your friends call it, he wished to conceal from you
the
knowledge of the existence of this harness; that when he was summoned by
you, he said that he had not got any; and indeed, that he had removed them
to
another person's house, that they might not be found; but that your instinct
was so great, that you saw them by the assistance of the very man in whose
custody they were deposited; that then he could not deny that you had found
him out, and so that the harness was taken from him against his will, and
without any payment.
XIII.[30] Now, O judges, it is worth your while to know how he was accustomed
to find and trace out all these things. There are two brothers, citizens
of
Cibyra, Tlepolemus and Hiero, one of whom, I believe, was accustomed to
model in wax, the other was a painter. I fancy these men, as they had become
suspected by their fellow-citizens of having plundered the temple of Apollo
at Cibyra, fearing a trial and the punishment of the law, had fled from
their
homes. As they had known that Verres was a great connoisseur of such works
as theirs, at the time that he, as you learnt from the witnesses, came
to Cibyra
with fictitious bills of exchange, they, when flying from their homes as
exiles, came to him when he was in Asia. He has kept them with him ever
since that
time; and in the robberies he committed, and in the booty he acquired during
his lieutenancy, he greatly availed himself of their assistance and their
advice.
[31] These are the men who were meant when Quintus Tadius made an
entry in his books that he had given things by Verres's order to some Greek
painters. They were already well known to, and had been thoroughly tried
by him, when he took them with him into Sicily. And when they arrived there,
they
scented cut and tracked everything in so marvellous a manner, (you might
have thought they were bloodhounds,) that, wherever anything was they found
it
out by some means or other. Some things they found out by threatening,
some by promising; this by means of slaves, that through freemen; one thing
by a
friend, another by an enemy. Whatever pleased them was sure to be lost.
They whose plate was demanded had nothing else to hope, than that Tlepolemus
and Hiero might not approve of it.
XIV.[32] I will relate to you this fact, O judges, most truly. I recollect
that Pamphilus of Lilybaeum, a connection of mine by ties of hospitality,
and a
personal friend of mine, a man of the highest birth, told me, that when
that man had taken from him, by his absolute power, an ewer made by the
hand of
Boethus, of exquisite workmanship and great weight, he went home very sad
in truth, and greatly agitated, because a vessel of that sort, which had
been left
to him by his father and his forefathers, and which he was accustomed to
use on days of festival, and on the arrival of ancient friends, had been
taken from
him. While I was sitting at home, said he, in great indignation, up comes
one of the slaves of Venus; he orders me immediately to bring to the praetor
some
embossed goblets. I was greatly vexed, said he; I had two; I order them
both to be taken out of the closet, lest any worse thing should happen,
and to be
brought after me to the praetor's house. When I got there the praetor was
asleep; the Cibyratic brothers were walking about, and when they saw me,
they
said, Pamphilus, where are the cups? I show them with great grief;--they
praise them.--I begin to complain that I shall have nothing left of any
value at all, if
my cups too were taken away. Then they, when they see me vexed, say, What
are you willing to give us to prevent these from being taken from you?
To
make my story short, I said that I would give six hundred sesterces. Meantime
the praetor summons us; he asks for the cups. Then they began to say to
the
praetor, that they had thought from what they had heard, that Pamphilus's
cups were of some value, but that they were miserable things, quite unworthy
of
Verres's having them among his plate. He said, he thought so too. [33]
So Pamphilus saved his exquisite goblets. And indeed, before I heard this,
though I
knew that it was a very trifling sort of accomplishment to understand things
of that sort, yet I used to wonder that he had any knowledge of them at
all, as I
knew that in nothing whatever had he any qualities like a man.
XV. But when I heard this, I then for the first time understood that that
was the use of these two Cibyratic brothers; that in his robberies he used
his own
hands, but their eyes. But he was so covetous of that splendid reputation
of being thought to be a judge of such matters, that lately, (just observe
the man's
madness,) after his case was adjourned, when he was already as good as
condemned, and civilly dead, at the time of the games of the circus, when
early in
the morning the couches were spread in preparation for a banquet at the
house of Lucius Sisenna, a man of the first consideration, and when the
plate was all
set out, and when, as was suited to the dignity of Lucius Sisenna, the
house was full of honourable men, he came to the plate, and began in a
leisurely way to
examine and consider every separate piece. Some marveled at the folly of
the man, who, while his trial was actually going on, was increasing the
suspicion of
that covetousness of which he was accused; others marveled at his insensibility,
that any such things could come into his head, when the time for judgment
in his cause was so near at hand, and when so many witnesses had spoken
against him. But Sisenna's servants, who, I suppose, had heard the evidence
which had been given against him, never took their eyes off him, and never
departed out of reach of the plate. [34] It is the part of a sagacious
judge, from
small circumstances to form his opinion of every man's covetousness or
incontinence. And will any one believe that this man when praetor, was
able to keep
either his covetousness or his hands from the plate of the Sicilians, when,
though a defendant, and a defendant within two days of judgment, a man
in reality,
and in the opinion of all men as good as already condemned, he could not
in a large assembly restrain himself from handling and examining the plate
of
Lucius Sisenna?
XVI.[35] But that my discourse may return to Lilybaeum, from which I have
made this digression, there is a man named Diocles, the son-in-law of
Pamphilus, of that Pamphilus from whom the ewer was taken away, whose surname
is Popillius. From this man he took away every article on his sideboard
where his plate was set out. He may say, if he pleases, that he had bought
them. In fact, in this case, by reason of the magnitude of the robbery,
an entry of it,
I imagine, has been made in the account-books. He ordered Timarchides to
value the plate. How did he do it? At as low a price as any one ever valued
any
thing presented to an actor. Although I have been for some time acting
foolishly in saying as much about your purchases, and in asking whether
you bought
the things, and how, and at what price you bought them, when I can settle
all that by one word. Produce me a written list of what plate you acquired
in the
province of Sicily, from whom, and at what price you bought each article.
[36] What will you do? Though I ought not to ask you for these accounts,
for I
ought to have your account-books and to produce them. But you say that
you never kept any accounts of your expenses in these years. Make me out
at least
this one which I am asking for, the account of the plate, and I will not
mind the rest at present. I have no writings of the sort; I cannot produce
any
accounts. What then is to be done? What do you think that these judges
can do? Your house was full of most beautiful statues already, before your
praetorship; many were placed in your villas, many were deposited with
your friends; many were given and presented to other people; yet you have
no
accounts speaking of any single one having been bought. All the plate in
Sicily has been taken away. There is nothing left to any one that can be
called his
own. A scandalous defence is invented, that the praetor bought all that
plate; and yet that cannot be proved by any accounts. If you do produce
any accounts,
still there is no entry in them how you have acquired what you have got.
But of these years during which you say that you bought the greatest number
of
things, you produce no accounts at all. Must you not inevitably be, condemned,
both by the accounts which you do, and by those which you do not produce?
XVII.[37] You also took away at Lilybaeum whatever silver vessels you chose
from Marcus Caelius, a Roman knight, a most excellent young man. You did
not hesitate to take away the whole furniture, of Caius Cacurius, a most
active and accomplished man, and of the greatest influence in his city.
You took
away, with the knowledge of every body, a very large and very beautiful
table of citron-wood from Quintus Lutatius Diodorus, who, owing to the
kind
exertion of his interest by Quintus Catulus, was made a Roman citizen by
Lucius Sulla. I do not object to you that you stripped and plundered a
most
worthy imitator of yours in his whole character, Apollonius, the son of
Nico, a citizen of Drepanum, who is now called Aulus Clodius, of all his
exquisitely
wrought silver plate;--I say nothing of that. For he does not think that
any injury has been done to him, because you came to his assistance when
he was a
ruined man, with the rope round his neck, and shared with him the property
belonging to their father, of which he had plundered his wards at Drepanum.
I
am even very glad if you took anything from him, and I say that nothing
was ever better done by you. But it certainly was not right that the statue
of Apollo
should have been taken away from Lyso of Lilybaeum, I a most eminent man,
with whom you had been staying as a guest. But you will say that you bought
it--I know that--for six hundred sesterces. So I suppose: I know it, I
say; I will produce the accounts; and yet that ought not to have been done.
Will you
say that the drinking vessels with emblems of Lilybaeum on them were, bought
from Heius, the minor to whom Marcellus is guardian, whom you had
plundered of a large sum of money, or will you confess that they were taken
by force?
[38] But why do I enumerate all his ordinary iniquities in affairs of this
sort, which appear to consist only in robberies committed by him, and in
losses
borne by those whom he plundered? Listen, if you please, O judges, to an
action of such a sort as will prove to you clearly his extraordinary madness
and
frenzy, rather than any ordinary covetousness.
XVIII. There is a man of Melita, called Diodorus, who has already given
evidence before you. He has been now living at Lilybaeum many years; a
man of
great nobility at home, and of great credit and popularity with the people
among whom he has settled, on account of his virtue. It is reported to
Verres of this
man that he has some exceedingly fine specimens of chased work; and among
them two goblets called Thericlean, 4 made by the hand of mentor with the
most exquisite skill. And when Verres heard of this, he was inflamed with
such a desire, not only of beholding, but also of appropriating them, that
he
summoned Diodorus, and demanded them. He replied, as was natural for a
man who took great pride in them, that he had not got them at Lilybaeum;
that he
had left them at Melita, in the house of a relation of his. [39]
On this he immediately sends men on whom he can rely to Melita; he writes
to certain
inhabitants of Melita to search out those vessels for him; he desires Diodorus
to give them letters to that relation of his--the time appeared to him
endless till
he could see those pieces of plate. Diodorus, a prudent and careful man,
who wished to keep his own property, writes to his relation to make answer
to those
men who came from Verres, that he had sent the cups to Lilybaeum a few
days before. In the meantime he himself leaves the place. He preferred
leaving his
home, to staying in it and losing that exquisitely wrought silver work.
But when Verres heard of this, he was so agitated that he seemed to every
one to be
raving, and to be beyond all question mad. Because he could not steal the
plate himself, he said that he had been robbed by Diodorus of some exquisitely
wrought vessels; he poured out threats against the absent Diodorus; he
used to roar out before people; sometimes he could not restrain his tears.
We have
heard in the mythology of Eriphyla being so covetous that when she had
seen a necklace, made, I suppose, of gold and jewels, she was so excited
by its
beauty, that she betrayed her husband for the sake of it. His covetousness
was similar; but in one respect more violent and more senseless, because
she was
desiring a thing which she had seen, while his wishes were excited not
only by his eyes, but even by his ears.
XIX.[40] He orders Diodorus to be sought for over the whole province. He
had by this time struck his camp, packed up his baggage, and left Sicily.
Verres,
in order by some means or other to bring the man back to the province,
devises this plan, if it is to be called a plan, and not rather a piece
of madness. He
sets up one of the men he calls his hounds, to say that he wishes to institute
a prosecution against Diodorus of Melita for a capital offence. At first
all men
wondered at such a thing being imputed to Diodorus, a most quiet man, and
as far removed as any man from all suspicion, not only of crime, but of
even the
slightest irregularity. But it soon became evident, that all this was done
for the sake of his silver. Verres does not hesitate to order the prosecution
to be
instituted; and that, I imagine, was the first instance of his allowing
an accusation to be made against an absent man. [41] The matter was
notorious over all
Sicily, that men were prosecuted for capital offences because the praetor
coveted their chased silver plate; and that prosecutions were instituted
against them
not only when they were present, but even in their absence. Diodorus goes
to Rome, and putting on mourning, calls on all his patrons and friends;
relates the
affair to every one. Earnest letters are written to Verres by his father,
and by his friends, warning him to take care what he did, and what steps
he took
respecting Diodorus; that the matter was notorious and very unpopular;
that he must be out of his senses; that this one charge would ruin him
if he did not
take care. At that time he considered his father, if not in the light of
a parent, at least in that of a man. He had not yet sufficiently prepared
himself for a trial;
it was his first year in the province; he was not, as he was by the time
of the affair of Sthenius, loaded with money. And so his frenzy was checked
a little,
not by shame, but by fear and alarm. He does not dare to condemn Diodorus;
he takes his name out of the list of defendants while he is absent. In
the
meantime Diodorus, for nearly three years, as long as that man was praetor,
was banished from the province and from his home. [42] Every one
else, not
only Sicilians, but Roman citizens too, settled this in their minds, that,
since he had carried his covetousness to such an extent, there was nothing
which any
one could expect to preserve or retain in his own possession if it was
admired ever so little by Verres.
XX. But after they understood that that brave man, Quintus Arrius, whom
the province was eagerly looking for, was not his successor, they then
settled that
they could keep nothing so carefully shut up or hidden away, as not to
be most open and visible to his covetousness. After that, he took away
from an
honourable and highly esteemed Roman knight, named Cnaeus Salidius, whose
son he knew to be a senator of the Roman people and a judge, some
beautiful silver horses which had belonged to Quintus Maximus. I did not
mean to say this, O judges, for he bought those, he did not steal them;
[43] I
wish I had not mentioned them. Now he will boast, and have a fine ride
on these horses. I bought them, I have paid the money for them. I
have no doubt
account books also will be produced. It is well worth while. Give me then
the account-books. You are at liberty to get rid of this charge respecting
Calidius,
as long as I can get a sight of these accounts; still, if you had bought
them, what ground had Calidius for complaining at Rome, that, though he
had been
living so many years in Sicily as a trader, you were the only person who
had so despised and so insulted him, as to plunder him in common with all
the rest
of the Sicilians? what ground had he for declaring that he would demand
his plate back again from you, if he had sold it to you of his own free
will?
Moreover, how could you avoid restoring it to Cnaeus Calidius; especially
when he was such an intimate friend of Lucius Sisenna, your defender, and
as
you had restored their property to the other friends of Sisenna? [44]
Lastly, I do not suppose you will deny that by the intervention of Potamo,
a friend of
yours, you restored his plate to Lucius Cordius, an honourable man, but
not more highly esteemed than Cnaeus Calidius; and it was he who made the
cause
of the rest more difficult to plead before you; for though you had promised
many men to restore them their property, yet, after Cordius had stated
in his
evidence that you had restored him his, you desisted from making any more
restorations, because you saw that you lost your plunder, and yet could
not
escape the evidence against you. Under all other praetors Cnaeus Calidius,
a Roman knight, was allowed to have plate finely wrought; he was permitted
to be
able from his own stores to adorn and furnish a banquet handsomely, when
he had invited a magistrate or any superior officer. Many men in power
and
authority have been with Cnaeus Calidius at his house; no one was ever
found so mad as to take from him that admirable and splendid plate; no
one was
found bold enough to ask for it; no one impudent enough to beg him to sell
it. [45] For it is an arrogant thing, an intolerable thing, O judges,
for a praetor to
say to an honourable, and rich, and well-appointed man in his province,
Sell me those chased goblets. For it is saying, You do not deserve
to have
things which are so beautifully made; they are better suited to a man of
my stamp. Are you, O Verres, more worthy than Calidius? whom (not to
compare
your way of life with his, for they are not to be compared, but) I will
compare you with in respect of this very dignity owing to which you make
yourself out
his superior. You gave eighty thousand sesterces to canvassing agents to
procure your election as praetor; you gave three hundred thousand to an
accuser
not to press hardly upon you: do you, on that account, look down upon and
despise the equestrian order? Is it on that account that it seemed to you
a
scandalous thing that Calidius should have anything that you admired rather
than that you should?
XXI.[46] He has been long boasting of this transaction with Calidius, and
telling every one that he bought the things. Did you also buy that censer
of Lucius
Papilius, a man of the highest reputation, wealth, and honour, and a Roman
knight? who stated in his evidence that, when you had begged for it to
look at,
you returned it with the emblems torn off; so that you may understand that
it is all taste in that man, not avarice; that it is the fine work that
he covets, not the
silver. Nor was this abstinence exercised only in the case of Papirius;
he practiced exactly the same conduct with respect to every censer in Sicily;
and it is
quite incredible how many beautifully wrought censers there were. I imagine
that, when Sicily was at the height of its power and opulence, there were
extensive workshops in that island; for before that man went thither as
praetor there was no house tolerably rich, in which there were not these
things, even if
there was no other silver plate besides; namely, a large dish with figures
and images of the gods embossed on it, a goblet which the women used for
sacred
purposes, and a censer. And all these were antique, and executed with the
most admirable skill, so that one may suspect everything else in Sicily
was on a
similar scale of magnificence; but that though fortune had deprived them
of much, those things were still preserved among them which were retained
for
purposes of religion. [47] I said just now, O judges, that there
were many censers, in almost every house in fact; I assert also, that now
there is not even one
left. What is the meaning of this? what monster, what prodigy did we send
into the province? Does it not appear to you that he desired, when he returned
to
Rome, to satisfy not the covetousness of one man, not his own eyes only,
but the insane passion of every covetous man, for as soon as he ever came
into any
city, immediately the Cibyratic hounds of his were slipped, to search and
find cut everything. If they found any large vessel, any considerable work,
they
brought it to him with joy; if they could hunt out any smaller vessel of
the same sort, they looked on those as a sort of lesser game, whether they
were
dishes, cups, censers, or anything else. What weepings of women, what lamentations
do you suppose took place over these things? things which may
perhaps seem insignificant to you, but which excite great and bitter indignation,
especially among women, who grieve when those things are torn from their
hands which they have been accustomed to use in religious ceremonies, which
they have received from their ancestors, and which have always been in
their
family.
XXII.[48] Do not now wait while I follow up this charge from door to door,
and show you that he stole a goblet from Aeschylus, the Tyndaritan; a dish
from another citizen of Tyndaris named Thraso; a censer from Nymphodorus
of Agrigentum. When I produce my witnesses from Sicily he may select
whom he pleases for me to examine about dishes, goblets, and censers. Not
only no town, no single house that is tolerably well off will be found
to have
been free from the injurious treatment of this man; who, even if he had
come to a banquet, if he saw any finely wrought plate, could not, O judges,
keep his
hands from it. There is a man named Cnaeus Pompeius Philo, who was a native
of Tyndaris; he gave Verres a supper at his visa in the country near
Tyndaris; he did what Sicilians did not dare to do, but what, because he
was a citizen of Rome, he thought he could do with impunity, he put before
him a
dish on which were some exceedingly beautiful figures. Verres, the moment
he saw it, determined to rob his host's table of that memorial of the Penates
and
of the gods of hospitality. But yet, in accordance with what I have said
before of his great moderation, he restored the rest of the silver after
he had torn off
the figures; so free was he from all avarice! [49] What want you
more? Did he not do the same thing to Eupolemus of Calacta, a noble man,
connected with,
and an intimate friend of the Luculli; a man who is now serving in the
army under Lucius Lucullus? He was supping with him; the rest of the silver
which he
had set before him had no ornament on it, lest he himself should also be
left without any ornament; but there were also two goblets, of no large
size, but with
figures on them. He, as if he had been a professional diner-out, who was
not to go away without a present, on the spot, in the sight of all the
other guests,
tore off the figures. I do not attempt to enumerate all his exploits of
this sort; it is neither necessary nor possible. I only produce to you
tokens and samples
of each description of his varied and universal rascality. Nor did he behave
in these affairs as if he would some day or other be called to account
for them,
but altogether as if he was either never likely to be prosecuted, or else
as if the more he stole, the less would be his danger when he was brought
before the
court; inasmuch as he did these things which I am speaking of not secretly,
not by the instrumentality of friends or agents, but openly, from his high
position, by his own power and authority.
XXIII.[50] When he had come to Catina, a wealthy, honourable, influential
city, he ordered Dionysiarchus the proagorus, that is to say, the chief
magistrate,
to be summoned before him; he openly orders him to take care that all the
silver plate which was in anybody's house at Catina, was collected together
and
brought to him. Did you not hear Philarchus of Centuripa, a man of the
highest position as to noble birth, and virtue, and riches, say the same
thing on his
oath; namely, that Verres had charged and commanded him to collect together,
and order to be conveyed to him, all the silver plate at Centuripa, by
far the
largest and wealthiest city in all Sicily? In the same manner at Agyrium,
all the Corinthian vessels there were there, in accordance with his command,
were
transported to Syracuse by the agency of Apollodorus, whom you have heard
as a witness. [51] But the most extraordinary conduct of all was
this; when
that painstaking and industrious praetor had arrived at Haluntium, he would
not himself go up into the town, because the ascent was steep and difficult;
but
he ordered Archagathus of Haluntium, one of the noblest men, not merely
in his own city, but in all Sicily, to be summoned before him, and gave
him a
chance to take care that all the chased silver that there was at Haluntium,
and every specimen of Corinthian work too, should be at once taken down
from the
town to the seaside. Archagathus went up into the town. That noble man,
as one who wished to be loved and esteemed by his fellow citizens, was
very
indignant at having such an office imposed upon him, and did not know what
to do. He announces the commands he has received. He orders every one to
produce what they had. There was great consternation, for the tyrant himself
had not gone away to any distance; lying on a litter by the sea-side below
the
town, he was waiting for Archagathus and the silver plate. What a gathering
of people do you suppose took place in the sown? what an uproar? what
weeping of women? they who saw it would have said that the Trojan horse
had been introduced, and that the city was taken. [52] Vessels were
brought out
without their cases; others were wrenched out of the hands of women; many
people's doors were broken open, and their locks forced. For what else
can you
suppose? Even if ever, at a time of war and tumult, arms are demanded of
private citizens, still men give them unwillingly, though they know that
they are
giving them for the common safety. Do not suppose then that any one produced
his carved plate out of his house for another man to steal, without the
greatest distress. Everything is brought down to the shore. The Cibyratic
brothers are summoned; they condemn some articles; whatever they approve
of has
its figures in relief or its embossed emblems torn off. And so the Haluntines,
having had all their ornaments wrenched off, returned home with the plain
silver.
XXIV.[53] Was there ever, O judges, a dragnet of such a sort as this in
that province? People have sometimes during their year of office diverted
some part
of the public property to their own use, in the most secret manner; sometimes
they even secretly plundered some private citizen of something; and still
they
were condemned. And if you ask me, though I am detracting somewhat from
my own credit by saying so, I think those were the real accusers, who traced
the robberies of such men as this by scent, or by some lightly imprinted
footsteps; for what is it that we are doing in respect of Verres, who has
wallowed in
the mud till we can find him out by the traces of his whole body? Is it
a great undertaking to say anything against a man, who while he was passing
by a
place, having his litter put down to rest for a little time, plundered
a whole city, house by house; without condescending to any pretences, openly,
by his own
authority, and by an absolute command? But still, that he might be able
to say that he had bought them, he orders Archagathus to give those men,
to whom
the plate had belonged, some little money, just for form's sake. Archagathus
found a few who would accept the money, and those he paid. And still Verres
never paid Archagathus that money. Archagathus intended to claim it at
Rome; but Cnaeus Lentulus Marcellinus demanded him, as you heard him state
himself. Read the evidence of Archagathus, and of Lentulus,-- [54]
and that you may not imagine that the man wished to heap up such a mass
of figures
without any reason, just see at what rate he valued you, and the opinion
of the Roman people, and the laws, and the courts of justice, and the Sicilian
witnesses and traders. After he had collected such a vast number of figures
that he had not left one single figure to anybody, he established an immense
shop in the palace at Syracuse; he openly orders all the manufacturers,
and carvers, and goldsmiths to be summoned--and he himself had many in
his own
employ; he collects a great multitude of men; he kept them employed uninterruptedly
for eight months, though all that time no vessels were made of
anything but gold. In that time he had so skillfully wrought the figures
which he had torn off the goblets and censers, into golden goblets, or
had so
ingeniously joined them into golden cups, that you would say that they
had been made for that very purpose; and he, the praetor, who says that
it was owing
to his vigilance that peace was maintained in Sicily, was accustomed to
sit in his tunic and dark cloak the greater part of the day in this workshop.
XXV.[55] I would not venture, O judges, to mention these things, if I were
not afraid that you might perhaps say that you had heard more about that
man
from others in common conversation, than you had heard from me in this
trial; for who is there who has not heard of this workshop, of the golden
vessels,
of Verres's tunic and dark cloak? Name any respectable man you please out
of the whole body of settlers at Syracuse, I will produce ham; there will
not be
one person who will not say that he has either seen this or heard of it.
[56] Alas for the age! alas for the degeneracy of our manners! I
will not mention
anything of any great antiquity; there are many of you, O judges, who knew
Lucius Piso, the father of this Lucius Piso, who was praetor. When he was
praetor in Spain, in which province he was slain, somehow or other, while
he was practicing his exercises in arms, the golden ring which he had was
broken
and crushed. As he wanted to get himself another ring, he ordered a goldsmith
to be summoned into the forum before his throne of office, at Corduba,
and
openly weighed him out the gold. He ordered the man to set up his bench
in the forum, and to make him a ring in the presence of every one. Perhaps
in truth
some may say that he was too exact, and to this extent any one who chooses
may blame him, but no further. Still such conduct was allowable for him,
for he
was the son of Lucius Piso, of that man who first made the law about extortion
and embezzlement. [57] It is quite ridiculous for me to speak of
Verres now,
when I have just been speaking of Piso the Thrifty; still, see what a difference
there is between the men: that man, while he was making some sideboards
full
of golden vessels, did not care what his reputation was, not only in Sicily,
but also at Rome in the court of justice; the other wished all Spain to
know to half
an ounce how much gold it took to make a praetor's ring. Forsooth, as the
one proved his right to his name, so did the other to his surname.
XXVI. It is utterly impossible for me either to retain in my memory, or
to embrace in my speech, all his exploits. I wish just to touch briefly
on the different
kinds of deeds, done by him, just as here the ring of Piso reminded me
of what had otherwise entirely escaped my recollection. From how many honourable
men do you imagine that that man tore the golden rings from off their fingers?
He never hesitated to do so whenever he was pleased with either the jewels
or
the fashion of the ring belonging to any one. I am going to mention an
incredible fact, but still one so notorious that I do not think that he
himself will deny
it. [58] When a letter had been brought to Valentius his interpreter
from Agrigentum, by chance Verres himself noticed the impression on the
seal; he was
pleased with it, he asked where the letter came from; he was told, from
Agrigentum. He sent letters to the men with whom he was accustomed to
communicate, ordering that ring to be brought to him as soon as possible.
And accordingly, in compliance with his letter, it was torn off the finger
of a
master of a family, a certain Lucius Titius, a Roman citizen. But that
covetousness of his is quite beyond belief. For as he wished to provide
three hundred
couches beautifully covered, with all other decorations for a banquet,
for the different rooms which he has, not only at Rome, but in his different
villas, he
collected such a number, that there was no wealthy house in all Sicily
where he did not set up an embroiderer's shop.
[59] There is a woman, a citizen of Segesta, very rich, and nobly born,
by name Lamia. She, having her house full of spinning jennies, for three
years was
making him robes and coverlets, all dyed with purple; Attalus, a rich man
at Netum; Lyso at Lilybaeum; Critolaus at Enna; at Syracuse Aeschrio, Cleomenes,
and Theomnastus; at Elorum Archonides and Megistus. My voice will fail
me before the names of the men whom he employed in this way will; he himself
supplied the purple--his friends supplied only the work, I dare say; for
I have no wish to accuse him in every particular, as if it were not enough
for me, with
a view to accuse him, that he should have had so much to give, that he
should have wished to carry away so many things; and, besides all that,
this thing
which he admits, namely, that he should have employed the work of his friends
in affairs of this sort. [60] But now do you suppose that brazen
couches and
brazen candelabra were made at Syracuse for any one but for him the whole
of that three years? He bought them, I suppose; but I am informing you
so
fully, O judges, of what that man did in his province as praetor, that
he may not by chance appear to any one to have been careless, and not to
have provided
and adorned himself sufficiently when he had absolute power.
XXVII. I come now, not to a theft, not to avarice, not to covetousness,
but to an action of that sort that every kind of wickedness seems to be
contained in it,
and to be in it; by which the immortal gods were insulted, the reputation
and authority of the name of the Roman people was impaired, hospitality
was
betrayed and plundered, all the kings who were most friendly to us, and
the nations which are under their rule and dominion, were alienated from
us by his
wickedness. [61] For you know that the kings of Syria, the boyish
sons of King Antiochus, have lately been at Rome. And they came not on
account of the
kingdom of Syria; for that they had obtained possession of without dispute,
as they had received it from their father and their ancestors; but they
thought
that the kingdom of Egypt belonged to them and to Selene their mother.
When they, being hindered by the critical state of the republic at that
time, were not
able to obtain the discussion of the subject as they wished before the
senate, they departed for Syria, their paternal kingdom. One of them--the
one whose
name is Antiochus--wished to make his journey through Sicily. And so, while
Verres was praetor, he came to Syracuse. [62] On this Verres thought
that an
inheritance had come to him, because a man whom he had heard, and on other
accounts suspected had many splendid things with him, had come into his
kingdom and into his power. He sends him presents--liberal enough--for
all domestic uses; as much wine and oil as he thought fit; and as much
wheat as he
could want, out of his tenths. After that he invites the king himself to
supper. He decorates a couch abundantly and magnificently. He sets out
the numerous,
and beautiful silver vessels, in which he was so rich; for he had not yet
made all those golden ones. He takes care that the banquet shall be splendidly
appointed and provided in every particular. Why need I make a long story
of it? The king departed thinking that Verres was superbly provided with
everything, and that he himself had been magnificently treated. After that,
he himself invites the praetor to supper. He displays all his treasures;
much silver,
also not a few goblets of gold, which, as is the custom of kings, and especially
in Syria, were studded all over with most splendid jewels. There was also
a
vessel for wine, a ladle hollowed out of one single large precious stone,
with a golden handle, concerning which, I think, you heard Quintus Minutius
speak,
a sufficiently capable judge, and sufficiently credible witness. [63]
Verres took each separate piece of plate into his hands, praised it--admired
it. The king
was delighted that that banquet was tolerably pleasant and agreeable to
a praetor of the Roman people. After the banquet was over, Verres thought
of nothing
else, as the facts themselves showed, than how he might plunder and strip
the king of everything before he departed from the province. He sends to
ask for
the most exquisite of the vessels which he had seen at Antiochus's lodgings.
He said that he wished to show them to his engravers. The king, who did
not
know the man, most willingly sent them, without any suspicion of his intention.
He sends also to borrow the jeweled ladle. He said that he wished to
examine it more attentively; that also is sent to him.
XXVIII.[64] Now, O judges, mark what followed; things which you have already
heard, and which the Roman people will not hear now for the first time,
and which have been reported abroad among foreign nations to the furthest
corners of the earth. The kings, whom I have spoken of, had brought to
Rome a
candelabrum of the finest jewels, made with most extraordinary skill, in
order to place it in the Capitol; but as they found that temple not yet
finished, they
could not place it there. Nor were they willing to display it and produce
it in common, in order that it might seem more splendid when it was placed
at its
proper time in the shrine of the great and good Jupiter; and brighter;
also, as its beauty would come fresh and untarnished before the eyes of
men. They
determined, therefore, to take it back with them into Syria, with the intention,
when they should hear that the image of the great and good Jupiter was
dedicated, of sending ambassadors who should bring that exquisite and most
beautiful present, with other offerings, to the Capitol. [65] The
matter, I know
not how, got to his ears. For the king had wished it kept entirely concealed;
not because he feared or suspected anything, but because he did not wish
many
to feast their eyes on it before the Roman people. He begs the king, and
entreats him most earnestly to send it to him; he says that he longs to
look at it
himself, and that he will not allow any one else to see it. Antiochus,
being both of a childlike and royal disposition, suspected nothing of that
man's
dishonesty, and orders his servants to take it as secretly as possible,
and well wrapped up, to the praetor's house. And when they brought it there,
and placed
it on a table, having taken off the coverings, Verres began to exclaim
that it was a thing worthy of the kingdom of Syria, worthy of being a royal
present,
worthy of the Capitol. In truth, it was of such splendour as a thing must
be which is made of the most brilliant and beautiful jewels; of such variety
of pattern
that the skill of the workmanship seemed to vie with the richness of the
materials; and of such a size that it might easily be seen that it had
been made not for
the furniture of men, but for the decoration of a most noble temple. And
when he appeared to have examined it sufficiently, the servants begin to
take it up to
carry it back again. He says that he wishes to examine it over and over
again; that he is not half satiated with the sight of it; he orders them
to depart and to
leave the candelabrum. So they then return to Antiochus empty-handed.
XXIX.[66] The king at first feared nothing, suspected nothing. One day
passed--two days--many days. It was not brought back. Then the king sends
to
Verres to beg him to return it, if he will be so good. He bids the slaves
come again. The king begins to think it strange. He sends a second time.
It is not
returned. He himself calls on the man; he begs him to restore it to him.
Think of the face and marvellous impudence of the man. That thing which
he knew,
and which he had heard from the king himself was to be placed in the Capitol,
which he knew was being kept for the great and good Jupiter, and for the
Roman people, that he began to ask and entreat earnestly to have given
to him. When the king said that he was prevented from complying by the
reverence
due to Jupiter Capitolinus, and by his regard for the opinion of men, because
many nations were witnesses to the fact of the candelabrum having been
made
for a present to the god, the fellow began to threaten him most violently.
When he sees that he is no more influenced by threats than he had been
by prayers,
on a sadden he orders him to leave his province before night. He says,
that he has found out that pirates from his kingdom were coming against
Sicily. [67]
The king, in the most frequented place in Syracuse, in the forum,--in the
forum at Syracuse, I say, (that no man may suppose I am bringing forward
a charge
about which there is any obscurity, or imagining anything which rests on
mere suspicion,) weeping, and calling gods and men to witness, began to
cry out
that Caius Verres had taken from him a candelabrum made of jewels, which
he was about to send to the Capitol, and which he wished to be in that
most
splendid temple as a memorial to the Roman people of his alliance with
and friendship for them. He said that he did not care about the other works
made of
gold and jewels belonging to him which were in Verres's hands, but that
it was a miserable and scandalous thing for this to be taken from him.
And that,
although it had long ago been consecrated in the minds and intentions of
himself and his brother, still, that he then, before that assembled body
of Roman
citizens, offered, and gave, and dedicated, and consecrated it to the great
and good Jupiter, and that he invoked Jupiter himself as a witness of his
intention
and of his piety.
XXX. What voice, what lungs, what power of mine can adequately express
the indignation due to this atrocity? The King Antiochus, who had lived
for two
years at Rome in the sight of all of us, with an almost royal retinue and
establishment,--though he had been the friend and ally of the Roman people;
though
his father, and his grandfather, and his ancestors, most ancient and honourable
sovereigns, had been our firmest friends; though he himself is monarch
of a
most opulent and extensive kingdom, is turned headlong out of a province
of the Roman people. [68] How do you suppose that foreign nations
will take
this? How do you suppose the news of this exploit of yours will be received
in the dominions of other kings, and in the most distant countries of the
world,
when they hear that a king has been insulted by a praetor of the Roman
people in his province? that a guest of the Roman people has been plundered?
a
friend and ally of the Roman people insultingly driven out? Know that your
name and that of the Roman people will be an object of hatred and detestation
to
foreign nations. If this unheard-of insolence of Verres is to pass unpunished,
all men will think, especially as the reputation of our men for avarice
and
covetousness has been very extensively spread, that this is not his crime
only, but that of those who have approved of it. Many kings, many free
cities, many
opulent and powerful private men, cherish intentions of ornamenting the
Capitol in such a way as the dignity of the temple and the reputation of
our empire
requires. And if they understand that you show a proper indignation at
this kingly present being intercepted, they will then think that their
zeal and their
presents will be acceptable to you and to the Roman people. But if they
hear that you have been indifferent to the complaint of so great a king,
in so
remarkable a case, in one of such bitter injustice, they will not be so
crazy as to spend their time, and labour, and expense on things which they
do not think
will be acceptable to you.
XXXI.[69] And in this place I appeal to you, O Quintus Catulus; 5 for I
am speaking of your most honourable and most splendid monument. You ought
to
take upon yourself not only the severity of a judge with respect to this
crime, but something like the vehemence of an enemy and an accuser. For,
through
the kindness of the senate and people of Rome, your honour is connected
with that temple. Your name is consecrated at the same time as that temple
in the
everlasting recollection of men. It is by you that this case is to be encountered;
by you, that this labour is to be undergone, in order that the Capitol,
as it has
been restored more magnificently, may also be adorned more splendidly than
it was originally; that then that fire may seem to have been sent from
heaven,
not to destroy the temple of the great and good Jupiter, but to demand
one for him more noble and more magnificent. [70] You have heard
Quintus
Minucius Rufus say, that King Antiochus stayed at his house while at Syracuse;
that he knew that this candelabrum had been taken to Verres's house; that
he knew that it had not been returned. You heard, and you shall hear from
the whole body of Roman settlers at Syracuse, that they will state to you
that in
their hearing it was dedicated and consecrated to the good and great Jupiter
by King Antiochus. If you were not a judge, and this affair were reported
to you,
it would be your especial duty to follow it up; to reclaim the candelabrum,
and to prosecute this cause. So that I do not doubt what ought to be your
feelings
as judge in this prosecution, when before any one else as judge you ought
to be a much more vehement advocate and accuser than I am.
XXXII.[71] And to you, O judges, what can appear more scandalous or more
intolerable than this? Shall Verres have at his own house a candelabrum,
made
of jewels and gold, belonging to the great and good Jupiter? Shall that
ornament be set out in his house at banquets which will be one scene of
adultery and
debauchery, with the brilliancy of which the temple of the great and good
Jupiter ought to glow and to be lighted up? Shall the decorations of the
Capitol be
placed in the house of that most infamous debauchee with the other ornaments
which he has inherited from Chelidon? What do you suppose will ever be
considered sacred or holy by him, when he does not now think himself liable
to punishment for such enormous wickedness? who dares to come into this
court of justice, where he cannot, like all others who are arraigned, pray
to the great and good Jupiter, and entreat help from him? from whom even
the
immortal gods are reclaiming their property, before that tribunal which
was appointed for the benefit of men, that they might recover what had
been extorted
unjustly from them? Do we marvel that Minerva at Athens, Apollo at Delos,
Juno at Samos, Diana at Perga, and that many other gods besides all over
Asia
and Greece, were plundered by him, when he could not keep his hands off
the Capitol? That temple which private men are decorating and are intending
to
decorate out of their own riches, that Caius Verres would not suffer to
be decorated by a king. [72] And, accordingly, after he had once
conceived this
nefarious wickedness, he considered nothing in all Sicily afterwards sacred
or hallowed; and he behaved himself in his province for three years in
such a
manner that war was thought to have been declared by him, not only against
men, but also against the immortal gods.
XXXIII. Segesta is a very ancient town in Sicily, O judges, which its inhabitants
assert was founded by Aeneas when he was flying from Troy and coming
to this country. And accordingly the Segestans think that they are connected
with the Roman people, not only by a perpetual alliance and friendship,
but even
by some relationship. This town, as the state of the Segestans was at war
with the Carthaginians on its own account and of its own accord, was formerly
stormed and destroyed by the Carthaginians; and everything which could
be any ornament to the city was transported from thence to Carthage. There
was
among the Segestans a statue of Diana, of brass, not only invested with
the most sacred character, but also wrought with the most exquisite skill
and beauty.
When transferred to Carthage, it only changed its situation and its worshippers;
it retained its former sanctity. For on account of its eminent beauty it
seemed, even to their enemies, worthy of being most religiously worshipped.
[73] Some ages afterwards, Publius Scipio took Carthage, in the third
Punic
war; after which victory, (remark the virtue and carefulness of the man,
so that you may both rejoice at your national examples of most eminent
virtue, and
may also judge tire incredible audacity of Verres worthy of the greater
hatred by contrasting it with that virtue,) he summoned all the Sicilians,
because he
knew that during a long period of time Sicily had repeatedly been ravaged
by the Carthaginians, and bids them seek for all they had lost, and promises
them
to take the greatest pains to ensure the restoration to the different cities
of everything which had belonged to them. Then those things which had formerly
been removed from Himera, and which I have mentioned before, were restored
to the people of Thermae; some things were restored to the Gelans, some
to
the Agrigentines; among which was that noble bull, which that most cruel
of all tyrants, Phalaris, is said to have had, into which he was accustomed
to put
men for punishment, and to put fire under. And when Scipio restored that
bull to the Agrigentines, he is reported to have said, that he thought
it reasonable
for them to consider whether it was more advantageous to the Sicilians
to be subject to their own princes, or to be under the dominion of the
Roman people,
when they had the same thing as a monument of the cruelty of their domestic
masters, and of our liberality.
XXXIV.[74] At that time the same Diana of which I am speaking is restored
with the greatest care to the Segestans. It is taken back to Segesta; it
is replaced
in its ancient situation, to the greatest joy and delight of all the citizens.
It was placed at Segesta on a very lofty pedestal, on which was cut in
large letters the
name of Publius Africanus; and a statement was also engraved that he
had restored it after having taken Carthage. It was worshipped by the
citizens; it
was visited by all strangers; when I was quaestor it was the very first
thing, they showed me. It was a very large and tall statue with a flowing
robe, but in
spite of its large size it gave the idea of the age and dress of a virgin;
her arrows hung from her shoulder, in her left hand she carried her bow,
her right hand
held a burning torch. [75] When that enemy of all sacred things,
that violator of all religious scruples saw it, he began to burn with covetousness
and
insanity, as if he himself had been struck with that torch. He commands
the magistrates to take the statue down and give it to him; and declares
to them that
nothing can be more agreeable to him. But they said that it was impossible
for them to do so; that they were prevented from doing so, not only by
the most
extreme religious reverence, but also by the greatest respect for their
own laws and courts of justice. Then he began to entreat this favour of
them, then to
threaten them, then to try and excite their hopes, then to arouse their
fears. They opposed to his demands the name of Africanus; they said that
it was the gift
of the Roman people; that they themselves had no right over a thing which
a most illustrious general, having taken a city of the enemy, had chosen
to stand
there as a monument of the victory of the Roman people. [76] As he
did not relax in his demand, but urged it every day with daily increasing
earnestness,
the matter was brought before their senate. His demand raises a violent
outcry on all sides. And so at that time, and at his first arrival at Segesta,
it is refused.
Afterwards, whatever burdens could be imposed on any city in respect of
exacting sailors and rowers, or in levying corn, he imposed on the Segestans
beyond all other cities, and a good deal more than they could bear. Besides
that, he used to summon their magistrates before him; he used to send for
all the
most noble and most virtuous of the citizens, to hurry them about with
him to all the courts of justice in the province, to threaten every one
of them separately
to be the ruin of him, and to announce to them all in a body that he would
utterly destroy their city. Therefore, at last, the Segestans, subdued
by much
ill-treatment and by great fear, resolved to obey the command of the praetor.
With great grief and lamentation on the part of the whole city, with many
tears
and wailings on the part of all the men and women, a contract is advertised
for taking down the statue of Diana.
XXXV.[77] See now with what religious reverence it is regarded. Know, O
judges, that among all the Segestans none was found, whether free man or
slave,
whether citizen or foreigner, to dare to touch that statue. Know that some
barbarian workmen were brought from Lilybaeum; they at length, ignorant
of the
whole business, and of the religious character of the image, agreed to
take it down for a sum of money, and took it down. And when it was being
taken out
of the city, how great was the concourse of women! how great was the weeping
of the old men! some of whom even recollected that day when that same
Diana being brought back to Segesta from Carthage, had announced to them,
by its return, the victory of the Roman people. How different from that
time
did this day seem! then the general of the Roman people, a most illustrious
man, was bringing back to the Segestans the gods of their fathers, recovered
from an enemy's city; now a most base and profligate praetor of the same
Roman people, was taking away, with the most nefarious wickedness, those
very
same gods from a city of his allies. What is more notorious throughout
all Sicily than that all the matrons and virgins of Segesta came together
when Diana
was being taken out of their city? that they anointed her with precious
unguents? that they crowned her with chaplets and flowers? that they attended
her to
the borders of their territory with frankincense and burning perfumes?
[78] If at the time you, by reason of your covetousness and audacity,
did not, while
in command, fear these religious feelings of the population, do you not
fear them now, at a time of such peril to yourself and to your children?
What man,
against the will of the immortal gods, or what god, when you so trample
on all the religious reverence due to them, do you think will come to your
assistance? Has that Diana inspired you, while in quiet and at leisure,
with no religious awe;--she, who though she had seen two cities, in which
she was
placed stormed and burnt, was yet twice preserved from the flames and weapons
of two wars; she who, though she changed her situation owing to the
victory of the Carthaginians, yet did not lose her holy character; and
who, by the valour of Publius Africanus afterwards recovered her old worship,
together
with her old situation? And when this crime had been executed, as the pedestal
was empty, and the name of Publius Africanus carved on it, the affair
appeared scandalous and intolerable to every one, that not only was religion
trampled on, but also that Caius Verres had taken away the glory of the
exploits,
the memorial of the virtues, the monument of the victory of Publius Africanus,
that most gallant of men. [79] But when he was told afterwards of
the
pedestal and the inscription, he thought that men would forget the whole
affair, if he took away the pedestal to which was serving as a sort of
signpost to
point out his crime. And so, by his command, the Segestans contracted to
take away the pedestal too; and the terms of that contract were read to
you from
the public registers of the Segestans, at the former pleading.
XXXVI. Now, O Publius Scipio, I appeal to you; to you, I say, a most virtuous
and accomplished youth; from you I request and demand that assistance
which is due to your family and to your name. Why do you take the part
of that man who has embezzled the credit and honour of your family? Why
do you
wish him to be defended? Why am I undertaking what is properly your business?
Why am I supporting a burden which ought to fall on you?--Marcus
Tullius is reclaiming the monuments of Publius Africanus; Publius Scipio
is defending the man who took them away. Though it is a principle handed
down
to us from our ancestors, for every one to defend the monuments of his
ancestors, in such a way as not even to allow them to be decorated by one
of another
name, will you take the part of that man who is not charged merely with
having in some degree spoilt the view of the monuments of Publius Scipio,
but who
has entirely removed and destroyed them? [80] Who then, in the name
of the immortal gods, will defend the memory of Publius Scipio now that
he is dead?
who will defend the memorials and evidences of his valour, if you desert
and abandon them; and not only allow them to be plundered and taken away,
but
even defend their plunderer and destroyer? The Segestans are present, your
clients, the allies and friends of the Roman people. They inform you that
Publius
Africanus, when he had destroyed Carthage, restored the image of Diana
to their ancestors; and that was set up among the Segestans arid dedicated
in the
name of that general;--that Verres has had it taken down and carried away,
and as far as that is concerned, has utterly effaced and extinguished the
name of
Publius Scipio. They entreat and pray you to restore the object of their
worship to them, its proper credit and glory to your own family, so enabling
them by
your assistance to recover from the house of a robber, what they recovered
from the city of their enemies by the beneficence of Publius Africanus.
XXXVII. What can you reply to them with honour, or what can they do but
implore the aid of you and your good faith? They are present, they do implore
it.
You, O Publius, can protect the honour of your family renown; you can,
you have every advantage which either fortune or nature ever gives to men.
I do not
wish to anticipate you in gathering the fruit that belongs to you; I am
not covetous of the glory which ought to belong to another. It does not
correspond to
the modesty of my disposition, while Publius Scipio, a most promising young
man, is alive and well, to put myself forward as the defender and advocate
of
the memorials of Publius Scipio. [81] Wherefore, if you will undertake
the advocacy of your family renown, it will behoove me not only to be silent
about
your monuments, but even to be glad that the fortune of Publius Africanus,
though dead, is such, that his honour is defended by those who are of the
same
family as himself, and that it requires no adventitious assistance. But
if your friendship with that man is an obstacle to you,--if you think that
this thing
which I demand of you is not so intimately connected with your duty,--then
I, as your locum tenens, will succeed to your office, I will undertake
that
business which I have thought not to belong to me. Let that proud aristocracy
give up complaining that the Roman people willingly gives, and at all times
has
given, honours to new and diligent men. It is a foolish complaint that
virtue should be of the greatest influence in that city which by its virtue
governs all
nations. Let the image of Publius Africanus be in the houses of other men;
let heroes now dead be adorned with virtue and glory. He was such a man,
he
deserved so well of the Roman people, that he deserves to be recommended
to the affection, not of one single family, but of the whole state. And
so it partly
does belong to me also to defend his honours with all my power, because
I belong to that city which he rendered great, and illustrious, and renowned;
and
especially, because I practice, to the utmost of my power, those virtues
in which he was preeminent,--equity, industry, temperance, the protection
of the
unhappy, and hatred of the dishonest; a relationship in pursuits and habits
which is almost as important as that of which you boast, the relationship
of name
and family.
XXXVIII.[82] I reclaim from you, O Verres, the monument of Publius Africanus;
I abandon the cause of the Sicilians, which I undertook; let there be no
trial of you for extortion at present; never mind the injuries of the Segestans;
let the pedestal of Publius Africanus be restored; let the name of that
invincible
commander be engraved on it anew; let that most beautiful statue, which
was recovered when Carthage was taken, be replaced. It is not I, the defender
of the
Sicilians,--it is not I, your prosecutor,--they are not the Segestans who
demand this of you; but he who has taken on himself the defence and the
preservation
of the renown and glory of Publius Africanus. I am not afraid of not being
able to give a good account of my performance of this duty to Publius Servilius
the judge; who, as he has performed great exploits, and raised very many
monuments of his good deeds, and has a natural anxiety about them, will
be glad,
forsooth, to leave them an object of care and protection not only to his
own posterity, but to all brave men and good citizens; and not as a mark
for the
plunder of rogues. I am not afraid of its displeasing you, O Quintus Catulus,
to whom the most superb and splendid monument in the whole world belongs,
that there should be as many guardians of such monuments as possible, or
that all good men should think it was a part of their duty to defend the
glory of
another. [83] And indeed I am so far moved by the other robberies
and atrocities of that fellow, as to think them worthy of great reproof;
but that might be
sufficient for them. But in this instance I am roused to such indignation,
that nothing appears to me possible to be more scandalous or more intolerable.
Shall Verres adorn his house, full of adultery, full of debauchery, full
of infamy, with the monuments of Africanus? Shall Verres face the memorial
of that
most temperate and religious man, the image of the ever virgin Diana, in
that house in which the iniquities of harlots and pimps are incessantly
being
practised?
XXXIX.[84] But is this the only monument of Africanus which you have violated?
What! did you take away from the people of Tyndaris an image of
Mercury most beautifully made, and placed there by the beneficence of the
same Scipio? And how? O ye immortal gods! How audaciously, how
infamously, how shamelessly did you do so! You have lately, judges, heard
the deputies from Tyndaris, most honourable men, and the chief men of that
city,
say that the Mercury, which in their sacred anniversaries was worshipped
among them with the extremest religious reverence, which Publius Africanus,
after
he had taken Carthage, had given to the Tyndaritans, not only as a monument
of his victory, but as a memorial and evidence of their loyalty to and
alliance
with the Roman people, had been taken away by the violence, and wickedness,
and arbitrary power of this man; who, when he first came to their city,
in a
moment, as if it were not only a becoming, but an indispensable thing to
be done?--as if the senate had ordered it and the Roman people had sanctioned
it,--in a moment, I say, ordered them to take the statue down and to transport
it to Messana. [85] And as this appeared a scandalous thing to those
who were
present and who heard it, it was not persevered in by him during the first
period of his visit; but when he departed, he ordered Sopater, their chief
magistrate,
whose statement you have heard, to take it down. When he refused, he threatened
him violently; and then he left the city. The magistrate refers the matter
to
the senate; there is a violent outcry on all sides. To make my story short,
some time afterwards he comes to that city again. Immediately he asks about
the
statue. He is answered that the senate will not allow it to be removed;
that capital punishment is threatened to any one who should touch it without
the orders
of the senate: the impiety of removing is also urged. Then says he, What
do you mean by talking to me of impiety? or about punishment? or about
the
senate? I will not leave you alive; you shall be scourged to death if the
statue is not given up. Sopater with tears reports the matter to the
senate a second
time, and relates to them the covetousness and the threats of Verres. The
senate gives Sopater no answer, but breaks up in agitation and perplexity.
Sopater,
being summoned by the praetor's messenger, informs him of the state of
the case, and says that it is absolutely impossible.
XL.[86] And all these things (for I do not think that I ought to omit any
particular of his impudence) were done openly in the middle of the assembly,
while
Verres was sitting on his chair of office, in a lofty situation. It was
the depth of winter; the weather, as you heard Sopater himself state, was
bitterly cold;
heavy rain was falling; when that fellow orders the lictors to throw Sopater
headlong down from the portico on which he himself was sitting, and to
strip him
naked. The command was scarcely, out of his mouth, before you might have
seen him stripped and surrounded by the lictors. All thought that the unhappy
and innocent man was going to be scourged. They were mistaken. Do you think
that Verres would scourge without any reason an ally and friend of the
Roman people? He is not so wicked. All vices are not to be found in that
man; he was never cruel. He treated the man with great gentleness and clemency.
In
the middle of the forum there are some statues of the Marcelli, as there
are in most of the other towns of Sicily; out of these he selected the
statue of Caius
Marcellus, whose services to that city and to the whole province were most
recent and most important. On that statue he orders Sopater, a man of noble
birth
in his city, and at that very time invested with the chief magistracy,
to be placed astride and bound to it. [87] What torture he suffered
when he was bound
naked in the open air, in the rain and in the cold, must be manifest to
every body. Nor did he put an end to this insult and barbarity, till the
people and the
whole multitude, moved by the atrocity of his conduct and by pity for his
victim, compelled the senate by their outcries to promise him that statue
of
Mercury. They cried out that the immortal gods themselves would avenge
the act, and that in the meantime it was not fit that an innocent man should
be
murdered. Then the senate comes to him in a body, and promises him the
statue. And so Sopater is taken down scarcely alive from the statue of
Marcellus,
to which he had almost become frozen. I cannot adequately accuse that man
if I were to wish to do so; it requires not only genius, but an extraordinary
amount of skill.
XLI.[88] This appears to be a single crime, this of the Tyndaritan Mercury,
and it is brought forward by me as a single one; but there are many crimes
contained in it--only I do not know how to separate and distinguish them.
It is a case of money extorted, for he took away from the allies a statue
worth a
large sum of money. It is a case of embezzlement, because he did not hesitate
to appropriate a public statue belonging to the Roman people, taken from
the
spoils of the enemy, placed where it was in the name of our general. It
is a case of treason, because he dared to overturn and to carry away monuments
of
our empire, of our glory, and of our exploits. It is a case of impiety,
because he violated the most solemn principles of religion. It is a case
of inhumanity,
because he invented a new and extraordinary description of punishment for
an innocent man, an ally and friend of our nation. [89] But what
the other crime
is, that I am unable to say; I know not by what name to call the crime
which he committed with respect to the statue of Caius Marcellus. What
is the meaning
of it? Is it because he was the patron of the Sicilians? What then? What
has that to do with it? Ought that fact to have had influence to procure
assistance, or
to bring disaster on his clients and friends? Was it your object to show
that patrons were no protection against your violence? Who is there who
would not
be aware that there is greater power in the authority of a bad man who
is present, than in the protection of good men who are absent? Or do you
merely wish
to prove by this conduct, your unprecedented insolence, and pride, and
obstinacy? You thought, I imagine, that you were taking something from
the dignity
of the Marcelli? And therefore now the Marcelli are not the patrons of
the Sicilians. Verres has been substituted in their place. [90] What
virtue or what
dignity did you think existed in you, that you should attempt to transfer
to yourself, and to take away from these most trusty and most ancient patrons,
so
illustrious a body of clients as that splendid province? Can you with your
stupidity, and worthlessness, and laziness defend the cause, I will not
say of all
Sicily, but even of one, the very meanest of the Sicilians? Was the statue
of Marcellus to serve you for a pillory for the clients of the Marcelli?
Did you out
of his honour seek for punishments for those very men who had held him
in honour? What followed? What did you think would happen to your statues?
was it that which did happen? For the people of Tyndaris threw down the
statue of Verres, which he had ordered to be erected in his own honour
near the
Marcelli, and even on a higher pedestal, the very moment that they heard
that a successor had been appointed to him.
XLII. The fortune of the Sicilians has then given you Caius Marcellus for
a judge, so that we may now surrender you, fettered and bound, to appease
the
injured sanctity of him to whose statue Sicilians were bound while you
were praetor. [91] And in the first place, O judges, that man said
that the people of
Tyndaris had sold this statue to Caius Marcellus Aeserninus, who is here
present. And he hoped that Caius Marcellus himself would assert thus much
for
his sake though it never seemed to me to be very likely that a young man
born in that rank, the patron of Sicily, would lend his name to that fellow
to enable
him to transfer his guilt to another. But still I made such provision,
and took such precaution against every possible bearing of the case, that
if ally one had
been found who was ever so anxious to take the guilt and crime of Verres
upon himself, still he would not have taken anything by his motion, for
I brought
down to court such witnesses, and I had with me such written documents,
that it could not have been possible to have entertained a doubt about
that man's
actions. [92] There are public documents to prove that that Mercury
was transported to Messana at the expense of the state. They state at what
expense; and
that a man named Poleas was ordered by the public authority to superintend
the business--what more would you have? Where is he? He is close at hand,
he
is a witness, by the command of Sopater the Proagorus.--Who is he? The
man who was bound to the statue. What? where is he? He is a witness--you
have
seen the man, and you have heard his statement. Demetrius, the master of
the gymnastic school, superintended the pulling down of the statue, because
he
was appointed to manage that business; What? is it we who say this? No,
he is present himself; moreover, that Verres himself lately promised at
Rome, that
he would restore that statue to the deputies, if the evidence already given
in the affair were removed, and if security were given that the Tyndaritans
would not
give evidence against him, has been stated before you by Zosippus and Hismenias,
most noble men, and the chief men of the city of Tyndaris.
XLIII.[93] What? did you not also at Agrigentum take away a monument of
the same Publius Scipio, a most beautiful statue of Apollo, on whose thigh
there
was the name of Myron, inscribed in diminutive silver letters, out of that
most holy temple of Aesculapius? And when, O judges, he had privately committed
that atrocity, and when in that most nefarious crime and robbery he had
employed some of the most worthless men of the city as his guides and assistants,
the whole city was greatly excited. For the Agrigentines were regretting
at the same time the kindness of Africanus, and a national object of their
worship,
and an ornament of their city, and a record of their victory, and an evidence
of their alliance with us. And therefore a command is imposed on those
men who
were the chief men of the city, and a charge is given to the quaestors
and aediles to keep watch by night over the sacred edifices. And, indeed,
at Agrigentum,
(I imagine, on account of the great number and virtue of these men, and
because great numbers of Roman citizens, gallant and intrepid and honourable
men,
live and trade in that town among the Agrigentines in the greatest harmony,)
he did not dare openly to carry off, or even to beg for the things that
took his
fancy. [94] There is a temple of Hercules at Agrigentum, not far
from the forum, considered very holy and greatly reverenced among the citizens.
In it there
is a brazen image of Hercules himself, than which I cannot easily tell
where I have seen anything finer; (although I am not very much of a judge
of those
matters, though I have seen plenty of specimens;) so greatly venerated
among them, O judges, that his mouth and his chin are a little worn away,
because
men in addressing their prayers and congratulations to him, are accustomed
not only to worship the statue, but even to kiss it. While Verres was at
Agrigentum, on a sudden, one stormy night, a great assemblage of armed
slaves, and a great attack on this temple by them, takes place, under the
leading of
Timarchides. A cry is raised by the watchmen and guardians of the temple.
And, at first, when they attempted to resist them and to defend the temple,
they
are driven back much injured with sticks and bludgeons. Afterwards, when
the bolts were forced open, and the doors dashed in, they endeavour to
pull down
the statue and to overthrow it with levers; meantime, from the outcries
of the keepers, a report got abroad over the whole city, that the national
gods were
being stormed, not by the unexpected invasion of enemies, or by the sudden
irruption of pirates, but that a well armed and fully equipped band of
fugitive
slaves from the house and retinue of the praetor had attacked them. [95]
No one in Agrigentum was either so advanced in age, or so infirm in strength,
as
not to rise up on that night, awakened by that news, and to seize whatever
weapon chance put into his hands. So in a very short time men are assembled
at
the temple from every part of the city. Already, for more than an hour,
numbers of men had been labouring at pulling down that statue; and all
that time it
gave no sign of being shaken in any part; while some, putting levers under
it, were endeavouring to throw it down, and others, having bound cords
to all its
limbs, were trying to pull it towards them. On a sudden all the Agrigentines
collect together at the place; stones are thrown in numbers; the nocturnal
soldiers
of that illustrious commander run away--but they take with them two very
small statues, in order not to return to that robber of all holy things
entirely
empty-handed. The Sicilians are never in such distress as not to be able
to say something facetious and neat; as they did on this occasion. And
so they said
that this enormous boar had a right to be accounted one of the labours
of Hercules, no less than the other boar of Erymanthus.
XLIV.[96] The people of Assorum, gallant and loyal men, afterwards imitated
this brave conduct of the Agrigentines, though they did not come of so
powerful or so distinguished a city. There is a river called Chrysas, which
flows through the territories of Assorum. Chrysas, among that people, is
considered a god, and is worshipped with the greatest reverence. His temple
is in the fields, near the road which goes from Assorum to Enna. In it
there is an
image of Chrysas, exquisitely made of marble. He did not dare to beg that
of the Assorians on account of the extraordinary sanctity of that temple;
so he
entrusts the business to Tlepolemus and Hiero. They, having prepared and
armed a body of men, come by night; they break in the doors of the temple;
the
keepers of the temple and the guardians hear them in time. A trumpet the
signal of alarm well known to all the neighbourhood, is sounded; men come
in
from the country, Tlepolemus is turned out and put to fight; nor was anything
missed out of the temple of Chrysas except one very diminutive image of
brass. [97] There is a temple of the mighty mother Cybele at Enguinum,
for I must new not only mention each instance with the greatest brevity,
but I must
even pass over a great many, in order to come to the greater and more remarkable
thefts and atrocities of this sort which this man has committed. In this
temple that same Publius Scipio, a man excelling in every possible good
quality, had placed breastplates and helmets of brass of Corinthian workmanship,
and some huge ewers of a similar description, and wrought with the same
exquisite skill, and had inscribed his own name upon them. Why should I
make
any more statements or utter any further complaints about that man's conduct?
He took away, O judges, every one of those things. He left nothing in that
most holy temple except the traces of the religion he had trampled on,
and the name of Publius Scipio. The spoils won from the enemy, the memorials
of our
commanders, the ornaments and decorations of our temples, will hereafter,
when these illustrious names are lost, be reckoned in the furniture and
appointments of Caius Verres. [98] Are you, forsooth, the only man
who delights in Corinthian vases? Are you the best judge in the world of
the mixture of
that celebrated bronze, and of the delicate tracery of that work? Did not
the great Scipio, that most learned and accomplished mall, under stand
it too? But do
you, a man without one single virtue, without education, without natural
ability, and without any information, understand them and value them? Beware
lest
he be seen to have surpassed you and those other men who wished to be thought
so elegant, not only in temperance, but in judgment and taste; for it was
because he thoroughly understood how beautiful they were, that he thought
that they were made, not for the luxury of men, but for the ornamenting
of
temples and cities, in order that they might appear to our posterity to
be holy and sacred monuments.
XLV.[99] Listen also, O judges, to the man's singular covetousness, audacity
and madness, especially in polluting those sacred things, which not only
may
not be touched with the hands, but which may not be violated even in thought.
There is a shrine of Ceres among the Catenans of the same holy nature as
the
one at home, and worshipped as the goddess is worshipped among foreign
nations, and in almost every country in the world. In the inmost part of
that
shrine there was an extremely ancient statue of Ceres, as to which men
were not only ignorant of what sort it was, but even of its existence.
For the entrance
into that shrine does not belong to men, the sacred ceremonies are accustomed
to be performed by women and virgins. Verres's slaves stole this statue
by
night out of that most holy and most ancient temple. The next day the priestesses
of Ceres, and the female attendants of that temple, women of great age,
noble and of proved virtue, report the affair to their magistrates. It
appeared to all a most bitter, and scandalous, and miserable business.
[100] Then that
man, influenced by the atrocity of the action, in order that all suspicion
of that crime might be removed from himself, employs some one connected
with him
by ties of hospitality to find a man whom he might accuse of having done
it, and bids him take care that he be convicted of the accusation, so that
he himself
might not be subject to the charge. The matter is not delayed. For when
he had departed from Catina, an information is laid against a certain slave.
He is
accused; false witnesses are suborned against him; the whole senate sits
in judgment on the affair, according to the laws of the Catenans. The priestesses
are
summoned; they are examined secretly in the senate-house, and asked what
had been done, and how they thought that the statue had been carried off.
They
answer that the servants of the praetor had been seen in the temple. The
matter, which previously had not been very obscure, began to be clear enough
by the
evidence of the priestesses. The judges deliberate; the innocent slave
is acquitted by every vote, in order that you may the more easily be able
to condemn
this man by all your votes. [101] For what is it that you ask, O
Verres? What do you hope for? What do you expect? What god or man do you
think will
come to your assistance? Did you send slaves to that place to plunder a
temple, where it was not lawful for free citizens to go, not even for the
purpose of
praying? Did you not hesitate to lay violent hands on those things from
which the laws of religion enjoined you to keep even your eyes? Although
it was not
even because you were charmed by the eye that you were led into this wicked
and nefarious conduct; for you coveted what you had never seen. You took
a
violent fancy, I say, to that which you had not previously beheld. From
your ears did you conceive this covetousness, so violent that no fear,
no religious
scruple, no power of the gods, no regard for the opinion of men could restrain
it. [102] Oh! but you had heard of it, I suppose, from some good
man, from
some good authority. How could you have done that, when you could never
have heard of it from any man at all? You heard of it, therefore, from
a woman;
since men could not have seen it nor known of it. What sort of woman do
you think that she must have been, O judges? What a modest woman must she
have been to converse with Verres! What a pious woman, to show him a plan
for robbing a temple! But it is no great wonder if those sacred ceremonies
which are performed by the most extreme chastity of virgins and matrons
were violated by his adultery and profligacy.
XLVI. What, then, are we to think? Is this the only thing that he began
to desire from mere hearing, when he had never seen it himself? No, there
were many
other things besides; of which I will select the plundering of that most
noble and ancient temple, concerning which you heard witnesses give their
evidence at
the former pleading. Now, I beseech you, listen to the same story once
more, and attend carefully as you hitherto have done. [103] There
is an island called
Melita, O judges, separated from Sicily by a sufficiently wide and perilous
navigation, in which there is a town of the same name, to which Verres
never
went, though it was for three years a manufactory to him for weaving women's
garments. Not far from that town, on a promontory, is an ancient temple
of
Juno, which was always considered so holy, that it was not only always
kept inviolate and sacred in those Punic wars, which in those regions were
carried on
almost wholly by the naval forces, but even by the bands of pirates which
ravage those seas. Moreover, it has been handed down to us by tradition,
that once,
when the fleet of King Masinissa was forced to put into these ports, the
king's lieutenant took away some ivory teeth of an incredible size out
of the temple,
and carried them into Africa, and gave them to Masinissa; that at first
the king was delighted with the present, but afterwards, when he heard
where they had
come from, he immediately sent trustworthy men in a quinquereme to take
those teeth back; and that there was engraved on them in Punic characters,
that
Masinissa the king had accepted them ignorantly; but that, when he knew
the truth, he had taken care that they should be replaced and restored.
There was
besides an immense quantity of ivory, and many ornaments, among which were
some ivory victories of ancient workmanship, and wrought with exquisite
skill. [104] Not to dwell too long on this, he took care to have
all these things taken down and carried off at one swoop by means of the
slaves of the Venus
whom he had sent thither for that purpose.
XLVII. O ye immortal gods! what sort of man is it that I am accusing? Who
is it that I am prosecuting according to our laws, and by this regular
process?
Concerning whom is it that you are going to give your judicial decision?
The deputies from Melita sent by the public authority of their state, say
that the
shrine of Juno was plundered; that that man left nothing in that most holy
temple; that that place, to which the fleets of enemies often came, where
pirates are
accustomed to winter almost every year, and which no pirate ever violated,
no enemy ever attacked before, was so plundered by that single man, that
nothing
whatever was left in it. What, then, now are we to say of him as a defendant,
of me as an accuser, of this tribunal? Is he proved guilty of grave crimes,
or is he
brought into this court on mere suspicion? Gods are proved to have been
carried off, temples to have been plundered, cities to have been stripped
of
everything. And of those actions he has left himself no power of denying
one, no plea for defending one. In every particular he is convicted by
me; he is
detected by the witnesses; he is overwhelmed by his own admissions; he
is caught in the evident commission of guilt; and even now he remains here,
and in
silence recognises his own crimes as I enumerate them.
[105] I seem to myself to have been too long occupied with one class
of crime. I am aware, O judges, that I have to encounter the weariness
of your ears
and eyes at such a repetition of similar cases; I will, therefore, pass
over many instances. But I entreat you, O judges, in the name of the immortal
gods, in the
name of these very gods of whose honour and worship we have been so long
speaking, refresh your minds so as to attend to what I am about to mention,
while I bring forward and detail to you that crime of his by which the
whole province was roused, and in speaking of which you will pardon me
if I appear to
go back rather far, and trace the earliest recollections of the religious
observances in question. The importance of the affair will not allow me
to pass over the
atrocity of his guilt with brevity.
XLVIII.[106] It is an old opinion, O judges, which can be proved from the
most ancient records and monuments of the Greeks, that the whole island
of
Sicily was consecrated to Ceres and Libera. Not only did all other nations
think so but the Sicilians themselves were so convinced of it, that it
appeared a
deeply rooted and innate belief in their minds. For they believe that these
goddesses were born in these districts, and that corn was first discovered
in this
land, and that Libera was carried off, the same goddess whom they call
Proserpina, from a grove in the territory of Enna, a place which, because
it is situated
in the centre of the island, is called the navel of Sicily. And when Ceres
wished to seek her and trace her out, she is said to have lit her torches
at those flames
which burst out at the summit of Aetna, and carrying these torches before
her, to have wandered over the whole earth. [107] But Enna, where
those things
which I am speaking of are said to have been done, is in a high and lofty
situation, on the top of which is a large level plain, and springs of water
which are
never dry. And the whole of the plain is cut off and separated, so as to
be difficult of approach. Around it are many lakes and groves, and beautiful
flowers at
every season of the year; so that the place itself appears to testify to
that abduction of the virgin which we have heard of from our boyhood. 6
Near it is a
cave turned towards the north, of unfathomable depth, where they say that
Father Pluto suddenly rose out of the earth in his chariot, and carried
the virgin off
from that spot, and that on a sudden, at no great distance from Syracuse,
he went down beneath the earth, and that immediately a lake sprang up in
that place;
and there to this day the Syracusans celebrate anniversary festivals with
a most numerous assemblage of both sexes
XLIX. On account of the antiquity of this belief, because in those places
the traces and almost the cradles of those gods are found, the worship
of Ceres of
Enna prevails to a wonderful extent, both in private and in public over
all Sicily. In truth, many prodigies often attest her influence and divine
powers. Her
present help is often brought to many in critical circumstances, so that
this island appears not only to be loved, but also to be watched over and
protected by
her. [108] Nor is it the Sicilians only, but even all other tribes
and nations greatly worship Ceres of Enna. In truth, if initiation into
those sacred mysteries of
the Athenians sought for with the greatest avidity, to which people Ceres
is said to have come in that long wandering of hers, and then she brought
them
corn. How much greater reverence ought to be paid to her by those people
among whom it is certain that she was born, and first discovered corn.
And,
therefore, in the time of our fathers, at a most disastrous and critical
time to the republic, when, after the death of Tiberius Gracchus, there
was a fear that
great dangers were portended to the state by various prodigies, in the
consulship of Publius Mucius and Lucius Calpurnius, recourse was had to
the
Sibylline books, in which it was found set down, that the most ancient
Ceres ought to be appeased. Then, priests of the Roman people, selected
from the
most honourable college of decemvirs, although there was in our own city
a most beautiful and magnificent temple of Ceres, nevertheless went as
far as
Enna. For such was the authority and antiquity of the reputation for holiness
of that place, that when they went thither, they seemed to be going not
to a
temple of Ceres, but to Ceres herself. [109] I will not din this
into your ears any longer. I have been some time afraid that my speech
may appear unlike the
usual fashion of speeches at trials unlike the daily method of speaking.
This I say, that this very Ceres, the most ancient, the most holy, the
very chief of all
sacred things which are honoured by every people, and in every nation,
was carried off by Caius Verres from her temple and her home. Ye who have
been to
Enna, have seen a statue of Ceres made of marble, and in the other temple
a statue of Libera. They are very colossal and very beautiful, but not
exceedingly
ancient. There was one of brass, of moderate size, but extraordinary workmanship,
with the torches in its hands, very ancient, by far the most ancient of
all
those statues which are in that temple; that he carried off, and yet he
was not content with that. [110] Before the temple of Ceres, in an
open and an
uncovered place, there are two statues, one of Ceres, the other of Triptolemus,
very beautiful, and of colossal size. Their beauty was their danger, but
their
size their safety, because the taking of them down and carrying them off
appeared very difficult. But in the right hand of Ceres there stood a beautifully
wrought image of Victory, and this he had wrenched out of the hand of Ceres
and carried off.
L. What now must be his feelings at the recollection of his crimes, when
I, at the mere enumeration of them, am not only roused to indignation in
my mind,
but even shudder over my whole body? For thoughts of that temple, of that
place, of that holy religion come into my mind. Everything seems present
before
my eyes,--the day on which, when I had arrived at Enna, the priests of
Ceres came to meet me with garlands of vervain, and with fillets; the concourse
of
citizens, among whom, while I was addressing them, there was such weeping
and groaning that the most bitter grief seemed to have taken possession
of the
whole. [111] They did not complain of the absolute way in which the
tenths were levied, nor of the plunder of property, nor of the iniquity
of tribunals, nor
of that man's unhallowed lusts, nor of his violence, nor of the insults
by which they had been oppressed and overwhelmed. It was the divinity of
Ceres, the
antiquity of their sacred observances, the holy veneration due to their
temple, which they wished should have atonement made to them by the punishment
of
that most atrocious and audacious man. They said that they could endure
everything else, that to everything else they were indifferent. This indignation
of
theirs was so great, that you might suppose that Verres, like another king
of hell, had come to Enna and had carried off, not Proserpina, but Ceres
herself.
And, in truth, that city does not appear to be a city, but a shrine of
Ceres. The people of Enna think that Ceres dwells among them; so that they
appear to me
not to be citizens of that city, but to be all priests, to be all ministers
and officers of Ceres. [112] Did you dare to take away out of Enna
the statue of Ceres?
Did you attempt at Enna to wrench Victory out of the hand of Ceres? to
tear one goddess from the other?--nothing of which those men dared to violate,
or
even to touch, whose qualities were all more akin to wickedness than to
religion. For while Publius Popillius and Publius Rupilius were consuls,
slaves,
runaway slaves, and barbarians, and enemies, were in possession of that
place; but yet the slaves ware not so much slaves to their own masters,
as you are to
your passions; nor did the runaways flee from their masters as far as you
flee from all laws and from all right; nor were the barbarians as barbarous
in
language and in race as you were in your nature and your habits; nor were
the enemies as much enemies to men as you are to the immortal gods. How,
then,
can a man beg for any mercy who has surpassed slaves in baseness, runaway
slaves in rashness, barbarians in wickedness, and enemies in inhumanity?
LI.[113] You heard Theodorus and Numinius and Nicasio, deputies from Enna,
say, in the name of their state, that they had this commission from their
fellow-citizens, to go to Verres, and to demand from him the restoration
of the statues of Ceres and of Victory. And if they obtained it then they
were to
adhere to the ancient customs of the state of Enna, not to give any public
testimony against him although he had oppressed Sicily, since these were
the
principles which they had received from their ancestors. But if he did
not restore them, then they were to go before the tribunal, to inform the
judges of the
injuries they had received, but, far above all things, to complain of the
insults to their religion. And, in the name of the immortal gods I entreat
you, O judges,
do not you despise, do not you scorn or think lightly of their complaints.
The injuries done to our allies are the present question; the authority
of the laws is
at stake; the reputation and the honesty of our courts of justice is at
stake. And though all these are great considerations, yet this is the greatest
of all,--the
whole province is so imbued with religious feeling, such a superstitious
dread arising out of that man's conduct has seized upon the minds of all
the
Sicilians, that whatever public or private misfortunes happen, appear to
befall them because of that man's wickedness. [114] You have heard
the Centuripans,
the Agyrians, the Catenans, the Herbitans, the Ennans, and many other deputies
say, in the name of their states, how great was the solitude in their districts,
how great the devastation, how universal the flight of the cultivators
of the soil how deserted, how uncultivated, how desolate every place was.
And although
there are many and various injuries done by that man to which these things
are owing, still this one cause, in the opinion of the Sicilians, is the
most weighty
of all; for, because of the insults offered to Ceres, they believe that
all the crops and gifts of Ceres have perished in these districts. Bring
remedies, O judges,
to the insulted religion of the allies; preserve your own, for this is
not a foreign religion, nor one with which you have no concern. But even
if it were, if you
were unwilling to adopt it yourselves, still you ought to be willing to
inflict heavy punishment on the man who had violated it. [115] But
now that the
common religion of all nations is attacked in this way, now that these
sacred observances are violated which our ancestors adopted and imported
from
foreign countries, and have honoured ever since,--sacred observances, which
they called Greek observances, as in truth they were,--even if we were
to wish to
be indifferent and cold about these matters, how could we be so?
LII. I will mention the sacking of one city, also, and that the most beautiful
and highly decorated of all, the city of Syracuse. And I will produce my
proofs of
that, O judges, in order at length to conclude and bring to an end the
whole history of offences of this sort. There is scarcely any one of you
who has not
often heard how Syracuse was taken by Marcus Marcellus, and who has not
sometimes also read the account in our annals. Compare this peace with
that
war; the visit of this praetor with the victory of that general; the debauched
retinue of the one with the invincible army of the other; the lust of Verres
with the
continence of Marcellus;--and you will say that Syracuse was built by the
man who took it; was taken by the man who received it well established
and
flourishing. [116] And for the present I omit those things which
will be mentioned, and have been already mentioned by me in an irregular
manner in
different parts of my speech--what the market-place of the Syracusans,
which at the entrance of Marcellus was preserved unpolluted by slaughter,
on the
arrival of Verres overflowed with the blood of innocent Sicilians; that
the harbour of the Syracusans, which at that time was shut against both
our fleets and
those of the Carthaginians, was, while Verres was praetor, open to Cilician
pirates, or even to a single piratical galley. I say nothing of the violence
offered to
people of noble birth, of the ravishment of matrons, atrocities which then,
when the city was taken, were not committed, neither through the hatred
of
enemies, nor through military licence, nor through the customs of war or
the rights of victory. I pass over, I say, all these things which were
done by that
man for three whole years. Listen rather to acts which are connected with
those matters of which I have hitherto been speaking. [117] You have
often heard
that the city of Syracuse is the greatest of the Greek cities, and the
most beautiful of all. It is so, O judges, as it is said to be; for it
is so by its situation, which
is strongly fortified, and which is on every side by which you can approach
it, whether by sea or land, very beautiful to behold. And it has harbours
almost
enclosed within the walls, and in the sight of the whole city, harbours
which have different entrances, but which meet together, and are connected
at the other
end. By their union a part of the town, which is called the island, being
separated from the rest by a narrow arm of the sea, is again joined to
and connected
with the other by a bridge.
LIII.[118] That city is so great that it may be said to consist of four
cities of the largest size; one of which, as I have said, is that Island,
which,
surrounded by two harbours, projects out towards the mouth and entrance
of each. In it there is a palace which did belong to king Hiero, which
our praetors
are in the habit of using; in it are many sacred buildings, but two, which
have a great pre-eminence over all the others,--one a temple of Diana,
and the other
one, which before the arrival of that man was the most ornamented of all,
sacred to Minerva. At the end of this island is a fountain of sweet water,
the name
of which is Arethusa, of incredible size, very full of fish, which would
be entirely overwhelmed by the waves of the sea, if it were not protected
from the sea
by a rampart and dam of stone. [119] There is also another city at
Syracuse, the name of which is Achradina, in which there is a very large
forum, most
beautiful porticoes, a highly decorated town-hall, a most spacious senate-house,
and a superb temple of Jupiter Olympius; and the other districts of the
city
are joined together by one broad unbroken street, and divided by many cross
streets, and by private houses. There is a third city, which because in
that
district there is an ancient temple of Fortune, is called Tyche, in which
there is a spacious gymnasium, and many sacred buildings, and that district
is the
most frequented and the most populous. There is also a fourth city, which,
because it is the last built, is called Neapolis, 7 in the highest part
of which there is
a very large theatre, and, besides that there are two temples of great
beauty, one of Ceres, the other of Libera, and a statue of Apollo, which
is called
Temenites, very beautiful and of colossal size; which, if he could have
moved them, he would not have hesitated to carry off.
LIV.[120] Now I will return to Marcellus, that I may not appear to have
entered into this statement without any reason. He, when with his powerful
army he
had taken this splendid city, did not think it for the credit of the Roman
people to destroy and extinguish this splendour, especially as no danger
could
possibly arise from it, and therefore he spared all the buildings, public
as well as private, sacred as well as ordinary, as if he had come with
his army for the
purpose of defending them, not of taking them by storm. With respect to
the decorations of the city, he had a regard to his own victory, and a
regard to
humanity, he thought it was due to his victory to transport man, things
to Rome which might be an ornament to this city, and due to humanity not
utterly to
strip the city, especially as it was one which he was anxious to preserve.
[121] In this division of the ornaments, the victory of Marcellus
did not covet more
for the Roman people than his humanity reserved to the Syracusans. The
things which were transported to Rome we see before the temples of Honour
and
of Virtue, and also in other places. He put nothing in his own house, nothing
in his gardens, nothing in his suburban villa; he thought that his house
could
only be an ornament to the city if he abstained from carrying the ornaments
which belonged to the city to his own house. But he left many things of
extraordinary beauty at Syracuse; he violated not the respect due to any
god; he laid hands on none. Compare Verres with him; not to compare the
man with
the man,--no such injury must be done to such a man as that, dead though
he be; but to compare a state of peace with one of war, a state of law
and order,
and regular jurisdiction, with one of violence and martial law, and the
supremacy of arms; to compare the arrival and retinue of the one with the
victory and
army of the other.
LV.[122] There is a temple of Minerva in the island, of which I have already
spoken, which Marcellus did not touch, which he left full of its treasures
and
ornaments, but which was so stripped and plundered by Verres, that it seems
to have been in the hands, not of any enemy,--for enemies, even in war,
respect
the rites of religion, and the customs of the country,--but of some barbarian
pirates. There was a cavalry battle of their king Agathocles, exquisitely
painted in
a series of pictures, and with these pictures the inside walls of the temple
were covered. Nothing could be more noble than those paintings; there was
nothing
at Syracuse that was thought more worthy going to see. These pictures,
Marcus Marcellus, though by that victory of his he had divested everything
of its
sacred inviolability of character, still, out of respect for religion,
never touched; Verres, though, in consequence of the long peace, and the
loyalty of the
Syracusan people, he had received them as sacred and under the protection
of religion, took away all those pictures, and left naked and unsightly
those walls
whose decorations had remained inviolate for so many ages, and had escaped
so many wars: [123] Marcellus, who had vowed that if he took Syracuse
he
would erect two temples at Rome, was unwilling to adorn the temple which
he was going to build with these treasures which were his by right of capture;
Verres, who was bound by no vows to Honour or Virtue, as Marcellus was,
but only to Venus and to Cupid, attempted to plunder the temple of Minerva.
The one was unwilling to adorn gods in the spoil taken from gods, the other
transferred the decorations of the virgin Minerva to the house of a prostitute.
Besides this, he took away out of the same temple twenty-seven more pictures
beautifully painted; among which were likenesses of the kings and tyrants
of
Sicily, which delighted one, not only by the skill of the painter, but
also by reminding us of the men, and by enabling us to recognise their
persons. And see
now, how much worse a tyrant this man proved to the Syracusans than any
of the old ones, as they, cruel as they were, still adorned the temples
of the
immortal gods, while this man took away the monuments and ornaments from
the gods.
LVI.[124] But now what shall I say of the folding-doors of that temple?
I am afraid that those who have not seen these things may think that I
am speaking
too highly of, and exaggerating everything, though no one ought to suspect
that I should be so inconsiderate as to be selling that so many men of
the highest
reputation, especially when they are judges in this cause, who have been
at Syracuse, and who have seen all these things themselves, should be witnesses
to
my rashness and falsehood. I am able to prove this distinctly, O judges,
that no more magnificent doors, none more beautifully wrought of gold and
ivory,
ever existed in an, temple. It is incredible how many Greeks have left
written accounts of the beauty of these doors: they, perhaps, may admire
and extol
them too much; be it so, still it is more honourable for our republic,
O judges, that our general, in a time of war, should have left those things
which appeared
to them so beautiful, than that our praetor should have carried them off
in a time of peace. On the folding-doors were some subjects most minutely
executed
in ivory; all these he caused to be taken out; he tore off and took away
a very tine head of the Gorgon with snakes for hair; and he showed, too,
that he was
influenced not only by admiration for the workmanship, but by a desire
of money and gain; for he did not hesitate to take away also all the golden
knobs
from these folding-doors, which were numerous and heavy; and it was not
the workmanship of these, but the weight which pleased him. And so he left
the
folding-doors in such state, that, though they had formerly contributed
greatly to the ornament of the temple, they now seemed to have been made
only for
the purpose of shutting it up. [125] Am I to speak also of the spears
made of grass? for I saw that you were excited at the name of them when
the witnesses
mentioned them. They were such that it was sufficient to have seen them
once, as there was neither any manual labour in them, nor any beauty, but
simply an
incredible size, which it would be quite sufficient even to hear of, and
too much to see them more than once. Did you covet even those?
LVII.[126] For the Sappho which was taken away out of the town-hall affords
you so reasonable an excuse, that it may seem almost allowable and
pardonable. That work of Silanion, so perfect, so elegant, so elaborate,
(I will not say what private man, but) what nation could be so worthy to
possess, as
the most elegant and learned Verres? Certainly, nothing will be said against
it. If any one of us, who are not as happy, who cannot be as refined as
that man,
should wish to behold anything of the sort, let him go to the temple of
Good Fortune, to the monument of Catulus, to the portico of Metellus; let
him take
pains to get admittance into the Tusculan villa of any one of those men;
let him see the forum when decorated, if Verres is ever so kind as to lend
any of his
treasures to the aediles. Shall Verres have all these things at home? shall
Verres have his house full of his villas crammed with, the ornaments of
temples and
cities? Will you still, O judges, bear with the hobby, as he calls it,
and pleasures of this vile artisan? a man who was born in such a rank,
educated in such a
way, and who is so formed both in mind and body, that he appears a much
fitter person to take down statues than to appropriate them. [127]
And how great
a regret this Sappho which he carried off left behind her, can scarcely
be told; for in the first place it was admirably made, and, besides, it
had a very noble
Greek epigram engraved upon the pedestal; and would not that learned man,
that Grecian, who is such an acute judge of these matters, who is the only
man
who understands them, if he had understood one letter of Greek, have taken
that away too? for now, because it is engraved on an empty pedestal, it
both
declares what was once, on the pedestal, and proves that it has been taken
away. What shall I say more? Did you not take away the statue of Paean
from out
of the temple of Aesculapius, beautifully made, sacred, and holy as it
was? a statue which all men went to see for its beauty, and worshipped
for its sacred
character. What more? was not the statue of Aristaeus openly taken away
by your command out of the temple of Bacchus? [128] What more? did
you not
take away out of the temple of Jupiter that most holy statue of Jupiter
Imperator, which the Greeks call Ourios, most beautifully made? What next?
did you
hesitate to take away out of the temple of Libera, that most exquisite
bust of Parian marble, which we used to go to see? And that Paean used
to be
worshipped among that people together with Aesculapius, with anniversary
sacrifices. Aristaeus, who being, as the Greeks report, the son of Bacchus,
is said
to have been the inventor of oil, was consecrated among them together with
his father Bacchus, in the same temple.
LVIII.[129] But how great do you suppose was the honour paid to Jupiter
Imperator in his own temple? You may collect it from this consideration,
if you
recollect how great was the religious reverence attached to that statue
of the same appearance and form which Flaminius brought out of Macedonia,
and
placed in the Capitol. In truth, there were said to be in the whole world
three statues of Jupiter Imperator, of the same class, all beautifully
made: one was that
one from Macedonia, which we have seen in the Capitol; a second was the
one at the narrow straits, which are the mouth of the Euxine Sea; the third
was that
which was at Syracuse, till Verres came as praetor. Flaminius removed the
first from its habitation, but only to place it in the Capitol, that is
to say, in the
house of Jupiter upon earth. [130] But as to the one that is at the
entrance of the Euxine, that, though so many wars have proceeded from the
shores of that
sea, and though so many have been poured into Pontus, has still remained
inviolate and untouched to this day. This third one, which was at Syracuse,
which
Marcus Marcellus, when in arms and victorious, had seen, which he had spared
to the religion of the place, which both the citizens of, and settlers
in
Syracuse were used to worship, and strangers not only visited, but often
venerated, Caius Verres took away from the temple of Jupiter. [131]
To return
again to Marcellus. Judge of the case, O judges, in this way; think that
more gods were lost to the Syracusans owing to the arrival of Verres, than
even were
owing to the victory of Marcellus. In truth, he is said to have sought
diligently for the great Archimedes, a man of the highest genius and skill,
and to have
been greatly concerned when he heard that he had been killed; but that
other man sought for everything which he did seek for, not for the purpose
of
preserving it, but of carrying it away.
LIX. At present, then, all those things which might appear more insignificant,
I will on that account pass over--how he took away Delphic tables made
of
marble, beautiful goblets of brass, an immense number of Corinthian vases,
out of every saved temple at Syracuse; [132] and therefore, O judges,
those men
who are accustomed to take strangers about to all those things which are
worth going to see, and to show them every separate thing, whom they call
mystagogi, (or cicerones,) now have their description of things reversed;
for as they formerly used to show what there was in every place, so now
they show
what has been taken from every place.
What do you think, then? Do you think that those men are affected with
but a moderate indignation? Not so, O judges: in the first place, because
all men are
influenced by religious feeling, and think that their paternal gods, whom
they have received from their ancestors, are to be carefully worshipped
and retained
by themselves; and secondly, because this sort of ornament, these works
and specimens of art, these statues and paintings, delight men of Greek
extraction
to an excessive degree; therefore by their complaints we can understand
that these things appear most bitter to those men, which perhaps may seem
trifling
and contemptible to us. Believe me, O judges, although I am aware to a
certainty that you yourselves hear the same things, that though both our
allies and
foreign nations have during these past years sustained many calamities
and injuries, yet men of Greek extraction have not been, and are not, more
indignant
at any than at this ruthless plundering of their temples and altars. [133]
Although that man may say that he bought these things, as he is accustomed
to say,
yet, believe me in this, O judges,--no city in all Asia or in all Greece
has ever sold one statue, one picture, or one decoration of the city, of
its own free will to
anybody. Unless, perchance, you suppose that, after strict judicial decisions
had ceased to take place at Rome, the Greeks then began to sell these things,
which they not only did not sell when there were courts of justice open,
but which they even used to buy up; or unless you think that Lucius Crassus,
Quintus Scaevola, Caius Claudius, most, powerful men, whose most splendid
aedileships we have seen had no dealings in those sort of matters with
the
Greeks, but that those men had such dealings who became aediles after the
destruction of the courts of justice.
LX.[134] Know also that that false presence of purchase was more bitter
to the cities than if any one were privately to filch things, or boldly
to steal them
and carry them off. For they think it the most excessive baseness, that
it should be entered on the public records that the city was induced by
a price, and by
a small price too, to sell and alienate those things which it had received
from men of old. In truth, the Greeks delight to a marvellous degree in
those things,
which we despise. And therefore our ancestors willingly allowed those things
to remain in numbers among the allies, in order that they might be as splendid
and as flourishing as possible under our dominion; and among those nations
whom they rendered taxable or tributary, 8 still they left these things,
in order
that they who take delight in those things which to us seem insignificant,
might have them as pleasures and consolations in slavery. [135] What
do you
think that the Rhegians, who now are Roman citizens, would take to allow
that marble Venus to be taken from them? What would the Tarentines take
to lose
the Europa sitting on the Bull? or the Satyr which they have in the temple
of Vesta? or their other monuments? What would the Thespians take to lose
the
statue of Cupid, the only object for which any one ever goes to see Thespiae?
What would the men of Cnidos take for their marble Venus? or the Coans
for
their picture of her? or the Ephesians for Alexander? the men of Cyzicus
for their Ajax or Medea? What would the Rhodians take for Ialysus? the
Athenians
for their marble Bacchus, or their picture of Paralus, or their brazen
Heifer, the work of Myron? It would be a long business and an unnecessary
one, to
mention what is worth going to see among all the different nations in all
Asia and Greece; but that is the reason why I am enumerating these things,
because
I wish you to consider that an incredible indignation must be the feeling
of those men from whose cities these things are carried away.
LXI.[136] And to say nothing of other nations, judge of the Syracusans
themselves. For when I went to Syracuse, I originally believed what I had
heard at
Rome from that man's friends, that the city of Syracuse, on account of
the inheritance of Heraclius, was no less friendly to him than the city
of the
Mamertines, because of their participation in all his booty and robberies.
And at the same time I was afraid that, owing to the influence of the high-born
and
beautiful women at whose will he had directed all the measures of his praetorship
for three years, and of the men to whom they were married, I should be
opposed not only by an excessive lenity, but even by a feeling of liberality
towards that man, if I were to seek for any evidence out of the public
records of
the Syracusans. [137] Therefore when at Syracuse I was chiefly with
Roman citizens; I copied out their papers; I inquired into their injuries.
As I was a
long time occupied by that business, in order to rest a little and to give
my mind a respite from care, I returned to those fine documents of Carpinatius;
in
which, in company with some of the most honourable knights of the body
of Roman settlers, I unraveled the case of those Verrutii, whom I have
mentioned
before, but I expected no aid at all, either publicly or privately, from
the Syracusans, nor had I any idea of asking for any. While I was doing
this, on a
sudden Heraclius came to me, who was in office at Syracuse, a man of high
birth, who had been priest of Jupiter, which is the highest honour among
the
Syracusans; he requests of me and of my brother, if we have no objection,
to go to their senate; that they were at that moment assembled in full
numbers in
the senate-house, and he said that he made this request to us to attend
by command of the senate. [138] At first we were in doubt what to
do; but afterwards
it soon occurred to us that we ought not to shun that assembly or that
place.
LXII. Therefore we came to the senate-house; they all rise at our entry
to do us honour. We sat down at the request of the magistrates. Diodorus
the son of
Timarchides, who was the first man in that body both in influence and in
age, and also as it seemed to me in experience and knowledge of business,
began to
speak; and the first sentence of his speech was to this effect--That the
senate and people of Syracuse were grieved and indignant, that, though
in all the other
cities of Sicily I had informed the senate and people of what I proposed
for their advantage or for their safety, and though I had received from
them all
commissions, deputies, letters and evidence, yet in that city I had done
nothing of that sort. I answered, that deputies from the Syracusans had
not been
present at Rome in that assembly of the Sicilians when my assistance was
entreated by the common resolution of all the deputations, and when the
cause of
the whole of Sicily was entrusted to me; and that I could not ask that
any decree should be passed against Caius Verres in that senate-house in
which I saw a
gilt statue of Caius Verres. [139] And after I said that, such a
groaning ensued at the sight and mention of the statue, that it appeared
to have been placed in
the senate-house as a monument of his wickednesses and not of his services.
Then every one for himself, as fast as each could manage to speak, began
to
give me information of those things which I have just now mentioned; to
tell me that the city was plundered--the temples stripped of their treasures--that
of
the inheritance of Heraclius, which he had adjudged to the men of the palaestra,
he had taken by far the greatest share himself; and indeed, that they could
not expect that he should care for the men of the palaestra, when he had
taken away even the god who was the inventor of oil; that that statue had
neither
been made at the public expense, nor erected by public authority, but that
those men who had been the sharers in the plunder of the inheritance of
Heraclius,
had had it made and placed where it was; and that those same men had been
the deputies at Rome, who had been his assistants in dishonesty, his partners
in
his thefts and the witnesses of his debaucheries; and that therefore I
ought the less to wonder if they were wanting to the unanimity of the deputies
and to the
safety of Sicily.
LXIII.[140] When I perceived that their indignation at that man's injuries
was not only not less, but almost greater than that of the rest of the
Sicilians, then I
explained my own intentions to them, and my whole plan and system with
reference to the whole of the business which I had undertaken; then I exhorted
them not to be wanting to the common cause and the common safety, and to
rescind that panegyric which they had voted a few days before, being compelled,
a, they said, by violence and fear. Accordingly, O judges, the Syracusans,
that man's clients and friends, do this. First of all, they produce to
me the public
documents which they had carefully stored up in the most sacred part of
the treasury; in which they show me that everything, which I have said
had been
taken away, was entered, and even more things than I was able to mention.
And they were entered in this way. What had been taken out of the temple
of
Minerva .. This,... and that. What was missing out of the temple
of Jupiter. What was missing out of the temple of Bacchus. As
each individual had
had the charge of protecting and preserving those things, so it was entered;
that each, when according to law he gave in his accounts, being bound to
give up
what he had received, had begged that he might be pardoned for the absence
of these things and that all had accordingly been released from liability
on that
account, and that it was kept secret; all which documents I took care to
have sealed up with the public seal and brought away. [141] But concerning
the
public panegyric on him this explanation was given: that at first, when
the letters arrived from Verres about the panegyric, a little while before
my arrival,
nothing had been decreed; and after that, when some of his friends urged
them that it ought to be decreed, they were rejected with the greatest
outcry and the
bitterest reproaches; but when I was on the point of arriving, then he
who at that time was the chief governor had commanded them to decree it,
and that it
had been decreed in such a manner that the panegyric did him more damage
than it could have done him good. So now, judges, do you receive the truth
of
that matter from me just as it was shown to me by them.
LXIV.[142] It is a custom at Syracuse, that, if a motion on any subject
is brought before the senate, whoever wishes, gives his opinion on it.
No one is asked
by name for his sentiments; nevertheless, those are accustomed to speak
first of their own accord, and naturally, according as they are superior
in honour or
in age; and that precedence is yielded to them by the rest; but, if at
any time all are silent, then they are compelled to speak by lot. This
was the custom when
the motion was made respecting the panegyric of Verres. On which subject
at first great numbers speak, in order to delay coming to any vote, and
interpose
this objection, that formerly, when they had heard that there was a prosecution
instituted against Sextus Peducaeus, who had deserved admirably well of
that
city and of the whole province, and when, in return for his numerous and
important services, they wished to vote a panegyric on him, they had been
prohibited from doing so by Caius Verres; and that it would be an unjust
thing, although Peducaeus had now no need of their praise, still not to
vote that
which at one time they had been eager to vote, before decreeing what they
would only decree from compulsion. [143] All shout in assent, and
say
approvingly that that is what ought to be done. So the question about Peducaeus
is put to the senate. Each man gave his opinion in order, according as
he
had precedence in age and honour. You may learn this from the resolution
itself; for the opinions delivered by the chief men are generally recorded.
Read--
[The list of speeches made on the subject of Sextus Peducaeus is read.]
It says who were the chief supporters of the motion. The vote is carried.
Then the
question about Verres is put. Tell me, I pray, what happened. [The list
of speeches made on the subject of Caius Verres....] Well what comes next?
[As no
one rose, and no one delivered his opinion....] What is this? [They proceed
by lot.] Why was this? Was no one a willing praiser of your praetorship,
or a
willing defender of you from danger, especially when by being so he might
have gained favour with the praetor? No one. Those very men who used to
feast
with you, your advisers and accomplices, did not venture to utter a word.
In that very senate-house in which a statue of yourself and a naked statue
of your
son were standing, was there no one whom even your naked son in a province
stripped naked could move to compassion? [144] Moreover they inform
me
also of this, that they had passed the vote of panegyric in such a form
that all men might see that it was not a panegyric, but rather a satire,
to remind every
one of his shameful and disastrous praetorship. For in truth it was drawn
up in these words. Because he had scourged no one. From which you
are to
understand, that he had caused most noble and innocent men to be executed.
Because he had administered the affairs of the province with vigilance,
when
all his vigils were well known to have been devoted to debauchery and adultery;
moreover, there was this clause added, which the defendant could never
venture to produce, and the accuser would never cease to dwell upon; Because
Verres had kept all pirates at a distance from the island of Sicily;
men who
in his time had entered even into the island of Syracuse. [145]
And after I had received this information from them, I departed from the
senate-house
with my brother, in order that they might decree what they chose.
LXV. Immediately they pass a decree. First, That my brother Lucius should
be connected with the city by ties of hospitably; because he had shown
the
same goodwill to the Syracusans that I had always felt myself. That they
not only wrote at that time, but also had engraved on brazen tablets and
presented to
us. Truly very fond of you are your Syracusans whom you are always talking
of, who think it quite a sufficient reason for forming an intimate connection
with your accuser, that he is going to be your accuser, and that he has
come among them for the purpose of prosecuting inquiries against you. After
that, a
decree is passed, not with any difference of opinion, but almost unanimously,
That the panegyric which had been decreed to Caius Verres, be rescinded.
[146] But, when not only the vote had been come to, but when it had
even been drawn up in due form and entered in the records, an appeal is
made to the
praetor. But who makes this appeal? Any magistrate? No. Any senator? Not
even that. Any Syracusan? Far from it. Who, then, appeals to the praetor?
The
man who had been Verres's quaestor, Caesetius. Oh, the ridiculous business!
Oh, the deserted man! O man despaired of and abandoned by the Sicilian
magistracy! In order to prevent the Sicilians passing a resolution of the
senate, or from obtaining their rights according to their own customs and
their own
laws, an appeal is made to the praetor, not by any friend of his, not by
any connection, not, in short, by any Sicilian, but by his own quaestor.
Who saw this?
Who heard it? That just and wise praetor orders the senate to be adjourned.
A great multitude flocks to me. First of all, the senators cry out that
their rights
are being taken away; that their liberty is being taken away. The people
praise the senate and thank them. The Roman citizens do not leave me. And
on that
day I had no harder task, than with all my exertions to prevent violent
hands being laid on the man who made that appeal. [147] When we had
gone before
the praetor's tribunal, he deliberates, forsooth, diligently and carefully
what decision he shall give; for, before I say one word, he rises from
his seat and
departs. And so we departed from the forum when it was now nearly evening.
LXVI. The next day, the first thing in the morning, I beg of him to allow
the Syracusans to give me a copy of the resolution which they had passed
the day
before. But he refuses, and says that it is a great shame for me to have
made a speech in a Greek senate; and that, as for my having spoken in the
Greek
language to Greeks, that was a thing which could not be endured at all.
I answered the man as I could, as I chose, and as I ought. Among other
things, I
recollect that I said that it was easy to be seen how great was the difference
between him and the great Numidicus, the real and genuine Metellus. That
that
Metellus had refused to assist with his panegyric Lucius Lucullus, his
sister's husband, with whom he was on the very best terms, but that he
was procuring
panegyrics from cities for a man totally unconnected with himself, by violence
and compulsion. [148] But when I understood that it was many recent
messengers, and many letters, not of introduction but of credit, that had
had so much influence over him, at the suggestion of the Syracusans themselves
I
make a seizure of those documents in which the resolutions of the senate
were recorded. And now behold a fresh confusion and strife. That, however,
you
may not suppose that he was without any friends or connections at Syracuse,
that he was entirely desolate and forsaken, a man of the name of Theomnastus,
a man ridiculously crazy, whom the Syracusans call Theoractus. 9 attempted
to detain those documents; a man in such a condition, that the boys follow
him,
and that every one laughs at him every time he opens his mouth. But his
craziness, which is ridiculous to others, was then in truth very troublesome
to me.
For while he was foaming at the mouth, his eyes glaring, and he crying
out as loud as he could that I was attacking him with violence, we came
together
before the tribunal. [149] Then I began to beg to be allowed to seal
up and carry away the records. He spoke against me; he denied that there
had been any
regular resolution of the senate passed, since an appeal had been made
to the praetor. He said that a copy of it ought not to be given to me.
I read the act, that
I was to be allowed all documents and records. He, like a crazy man as
he was, urged that our laws had nothing to do with him. That intelligent
praetor
decided that he did not choose, as the resolution of the senate had no
business ever to be ratified, to allow me to take a copy of it to Rome.
Not to make a
long story of it, if I had not threatened the man vigorously, if I had
not read to him the provisions of the act passed in this case, and the
penalties enacted by
it, I should not have been allowed to have the documents. But that crazy
fellow, who had declaimed against me most violently on behalf of Verres,
when he
found he did not succeed, in order I suppose to recover my favour, gives
me a book in which all Verres's Syracusan thefts were set down, which I
had
already been informed of by, and had a list of from them.
LXVII.[150] Now, then, let the Mamertines praise you, who are the only
men of all that large province who wish you to get off, but let them praise
you on
condition that Heius, who is the chief man of that deputation, is present;
let them praise you on condition that they are here, ready to reply to
me on those
points concerning which they are questioned. And that they may not be taken
by surprise on a sudden, this is what I shall ask them:--Are they bound
to
furnish a ship to the Roman people? They will admit it. Have they supplied
it while Verres was praetor? They will say, No. Have they built an enormous
transport at the public expense which they have given to Verres? They will
not be able to deny it. Has Verres taken corn from them to send to the
Roman
people, as his predecessor did? They will say, No. What soldiers or sailors
have they furnished during those three years? They will say they furnished
none
at all. They will not be able to deny that Messana has been the receiver
of all his plunder and all his robberies. They will confess that an immense
quantity of
things were exported from that city; and besides that, that this large
vessel given to him by the Mamertines, departed loaded when the praetor
left Sicily.
[151] You are welcome, then, to that panegyric of the Mamertines.
As for the city of Syracuse, we see that that feels towards you as it has
been treated by
you; and among them that infamous Verrean festival, instituted by you,
has been abolished. In truth, it was a most unseemly thing for honours
such as
belong to the gods to be paid to the man who had carried off the images
of the gods. In truth, that conduct of the Syracusans would be deservedly
reproached, If, when they had struck a most celebrated and solemn day of
festival games out of their annals, because on that day Syracuse was said
to have
been taken by Marcellus, they should, notwithstanding, celebrate a day
of festival in the name of Verres; though he had plundered the Syracusans
of all
which that day of disaster had left them. But observe the shamelessness
and arrogance of the man, O judges, who not only instituted this disgraceful
and
ridiculous Verrean festival out of the money of Heraclius, but who also
ordered the Marcellean festival to be abolished, in order that they might
every year
offer sacrifices to the man by whose means they had lost the sacred festivals
which they had ever observed, and had lost their national deities, and
that they
might take away the festival days in honour of that family by whose means
they had recovered all their other festivals.
1 The Latin word is imperium. Imperium (as opposed to Potestas) is the
power which was conferred by the state upon an individual who was appointed
to command an army.... The imperium was as necessary for the governor of
a province, as for a general who merely commanded the armies of the republic;
as without it he could not exercise military authority.... It was conferred
by a special law, and was limited, if not by the terms in which it was
conferred, at
least by usage. It could not be held or exercised within the city.--Smith,
Dict. Ant. p. 508, v. Imperium.
2 The Latin word in each case is potestas. According to Paulus, potestas,
as applied to a magistrate, is equivalent to imperium ... But potestas
is applied
to magistrates who had not the imperium as, for instance, to quaestors
and tribunes of the people; and potestas and imperium are often opposed
in Cicero.
Thus it seems that potestas, like many other Roman terms, had both a wider
signification and a narrower one; in its wider signification it might mean
all the
power that was delegated to any person by the state, whatever might be
the extent of that power; in its narrower signification, it was on the
one hand
equivalent to imperium and on the other, it expressed the power of these
functionaries who had not the imperium. Smith, Dict. Ant. p. 727 v.
Potestas.
3 Attalus, king of Pergamus, had been the inventor of weaving gold thread
into tapestry work, and therefore tapestry with gold threads interwoven
in it was
called by his name.
4 Thericles was a potter in the time of Aristophanes, who made earthenware
vessels of a peculiar black clay. In subsequent time, any goblets made
in
imitation of his, whether of wood, silver, or glass, were called Thericlean.--Graevius.
5 The Capitol had been burnt in the civil war between Marius and Sulla,
and it was now being restored under the superintendence of Quintus Catulus,
to
whom that office had been entrusted by the senate.
6 We have the same advantage as, or rather greater advantages than Cicero
in this respect, for we have heard the story from our boyhood told far
more
beautifully than any Sicilian ever imagined it. See Ovid Fasti, iv. 419.
7 Neapolis meaning new city, or as we might say, Newtown, from the
Greek words Nea polis, as Tyche is the Greek name of Fortune--Tuch compare
with this passage the description of Syracuse given by Thucydides in his
sixth and seventh books.
8 The Latin is quos vectigales aut stipendiarius fuerant--Stipendiarii
and vectigales are thus distinguished: Stipendiarii are those who pay annually
a
fixed sum as tribute; vectigales, those who pay in proportion to their
property or income.--Riddle's Dict. v. Stipendiarius.
9 Theoractus seems a sort of nickname, to indicate his insanity, being
derived from Theos, God, and rhgnumi, to break; while Theomnastas derived
from
Theos and memnmai, to remember.