Therefore, that same fellow whom Cnaeus Dolabella afterwards, when Caius Malleolus
had been slain, had for his quaestor, (I know not whether this connection was not
even a closer one than the connection with Carbo, and whether the consideration of
his having been voluntarily chosen is not stronger than that of his having been
chosen by lot,) behaved to Cnaeus Dolabella in the same manner as he had behaved in
to Cnaeus Carbo. For, the charges which properly touched himself, he transferred to
his shoulders; and gave information of everything connected with his cause to his
enemies and accusers. He himself gave most hostile and most infamous evidence
against the man to whom he had been lieutenant and pro-quaestor. Dolabella,
unfortunate as he was, through his abominable betrayal, through his infamous and
false testimony, was injured far more than by either, by the odium created by that
fellow's own thefts and atrocities.
What can you do with such a man? or what hope can you allow so perfidious, so
ill-omened an animal to entertain? One who despised and trampled on the lot which
bound him to Cnaeus Carbo, the choice which connected him with Cnaeus Dolabella, and
not only deserted them both, but also betrayed and attacked them. Do not, I beg of
you, O judges, judge of his crimes by the brevity of my speech rather than by the
magnitude of the actions themselves. For I am forced to make haste in order to have
time to set before you all the things which I have resolved to relate to you.
Wherefore, now that his quaestorship has been put before you, saw that the
dishonesty and wickedness of his first conduct in his first office has been
thoroughly seen, listen, I pray you, to the remainder.
And in this I will pass over that period of proscription and rapine which took
place under Sulla; nor will I allow him to derive any argument for his own defence
from that time of common calamity to all men. I will accuse him of nothing but his
own peculiar and well-proved crimes. Therefore, omitting all mention of the time of
Sulla from the accusation, consider that splendid lieutenancy of his. After
Cilicia was appointed to Cnaeus Dolabella
as his province, O ye immortal gods! with what covetousness, with what incessant
applications, did he force from him that lieutenancy for himself, which was indeed
the beginning of the greatest calamity to Dolabella. For as he proceeded on his
journey to the province, wherever he went his conduct was such, that it was not some
lieutenant of the Roman people, but rather some calamity that seemed to be going
through the country.
In Achaia, (I will omit all minor things,
to some of which perhaps some one else may some time or other have done something
like; I will mention nothing except what is unprecedented, nothing except what would
appear incredible, if it were alleged against any other criminal,) he demanded money
from a Sicyonian magistrate. Do not let this be considered a crime in Verres; others
have done the tame. When he could not give it, he punished him; a scandalous, but
still not an unheard-of act. Listen to the sort of punishment; you will ask, of what
race of men you are to think him a specimen. He ordered a fire to be made of green
and damp wood in a narrow place. There he left a free man, a noble in his own
country, an ally and friend of the Roman people, tortured with smoke, half dead.
After that, what statues, what paintings he carried off from Achaia, I will not mention at present. There is
another part of my speech which I have reserved for speaking of this covetousness of
the man. You have heard that at Athens a
great sum of money was taken out of the temple of Minerva. This was mentioned in the
trial of Cnaeus Dolabella. Mentioned? the amount too was stated. Of this design you
will find that Caius Verres was not only a partaker, but was even the chief
instigator.
He came to Delos. There from that most
holy temple of Apollo he privately took away by night the most beautiful and ancient
statues, and took care that they were all placed on board his own transport. The
next day, when the inhabitants of Delos
saw their temple plundered, they were very indignant. For the holiness and antiquity
of that temple is so great in their eyes, that they believe that Apollo himself was
born in that place. However, they did not dare to say one word about it, lest haply
Dolabella himself might be concerned in the business. Then on a sudden a very great tempest
arose, O judges; so that Dolabella could not only not depart, when he wished, but
could scarcely stand in the city, such vast waves were dashed on shore. Here that
ship of that pirate loaded with the consecrated statues, being cast up and driven
ashore by the waves, is broken to pieces. Those statues of Apollo were found on the
shore; by command of Dolabella they are restored; the tempest is lulled; Dolabella
departs from Delos.
I do not doubt, though there was no feeling of humanity ever in you, no regard for
holiness, still that now in your fear and danger thoughts of your wicked actions
occurred to you. Can there be any comfortable hope of safety cherished by you, when
you recollect how impious, how wicked, how blasphemous has been your conduct towards
the immortal gods? Did you dare to plunder the Delian Apollo? Did you dare to lay
impious and sacrilegious hands on that temple, so ancient, so venerated, so holy? If
you were not in your childhood taught and framed to learn and know what has been
committed to writing, still would you not afterwards, when you came into the very
places themselves, learn and believe what is handed down both by tradition and by
documents:
That Latona, after a long wandering and
persecution, pregnant, and now near bringing forth, when her time was come, fled to
Delos, and there brought forth Apollo
and Diana; from which belief of men that island is considered sacred to those gods;
and such is and always has been the influence of that religious belief, that not
even the Persians, when they waged war on all Greece, on gods and men, and when they had put in with a fleet of a
thousand ships at Delos, attempted to
violate, or even to touch anything. Did you, O most wicked, O most insane of men,
attempt to plunder this temple? Was any covetousness of such power as to extinguish
such solemn religious belief? And if you did not think of this at that time, do you
not recollect even now that there is no evil so great as not to have been long since
due to you for your wicked actions?
But after he arrived in Asia,—why should
I enumerate the dinners, the suppers, the horses, and the presents which marked that
progress? I am not going to say anything against Verres for everyday crimes. I say
that he carried off by force some most beautiful statues from Chios; also from Erythrae; also from Halicarnassus. From Tenedos (I pass over the money which he seized) he carried off
Tenes himself, who among the Tenedians is
considered a most holy god, who is said to have founded that city, after whose name
it is called Tenedos. This very
Tenes, I say, most admirably wrought,
which you have seen It was allowed to the aediles, and it was
not uncommon for them to borrow of the cities of the allies celebrated and
beautiful statues to adorn the shows in the games which they exhibited; and
afterwards they were restored to their owners. before now in the assembly,
he carried off amid the great lamentations of the city.
But that storming of that most ancient and most noble temple of the Samian Juno,
how grievous was it to the Samians! how bitter to all Asia! how notorious to all men! how notorious to every one of you!
And when ambassadors had come from Samos
into Asia to Caius Nero, to complain of
this attack on that temple, they received for answer, that complaints of that sort,
which concerned a lieutenant of the Roman people, ought not to be brought before the
praetor, but must be carried to Rome. What
pictures did he carry off from thence; what statues! which I saw lately in his
house, when I went thither for the sake of sealing The custom
was for the accuser to put a seal on the house and effects of the man whom he was
preparing to prosecute, in order that no evidence of the theft to be imputed might
be removed by the removal of the stolen goods. it up.
And where are those statues now, O Verres? I mean those which I lately saw in your
house against every pillar, and also in every space between two pillars, and
actually arranged in the grove in the open air? Why were those things left at your
house, as long as you thought that another praetor, with the other judges whom you
expected to have substituted in the room of these, was to sit in judgment upon your?
But when you saw that we preferred suiting the convenience of our own witnesses
rather than your convenience as to time, you left not one statue in your house
except two which were in the middle of it, and which were themselves stolen from
Samos. Did you not think that I would
summon your most intimate friends to give evidence of this matter, who had often
been at your house, and ask of them whether they knew that statues were there which
were not?
What did you think that these men would think of you then, when they saw that you
were no longer contending against your accuser, but against the quaestor and the
brokers? The quaestores
aerarii were sent to take possession in the name of the people of the
effects of a man who was convicted; the sectores
or brokers attended them to appraise the goods seized. On In some editions the passage from “Qua de
re Charidemum,” to “Non ad se
pertinere,” is transferred to the previous chapter, and inserted after
“deferri opertere,” but there is not the least
reason for this transposition, which is contrary to the authority of every
manuscript. which matter you heard Charidemus of Chios give his evidence at the former pleadings,
that he, when he was captain of a trireme, and was attending Verres on his departure
from Asia, was with him at Samos, by command of Dolabella and that he then knew
that the temple of Juno had been plundered, and the town of Samos; that afterwards he had been put on his trial
before the Chians, his fellow citizens, on the accusation of the Samians; and that
he had been acquitted because he had made it plain that the allegations of the
Samians concerned Verres, and not him.
You know that Aspendus is an ancient and
noble town in Pamphylia, full of very fine
statues. I do not say that one statue or another was taken away from thence: this I
say, that you, O Verres, left not one statue at Aspendus; that everything from the temples and from all public places
was openly seized and carried away on wagons, the citizens all looking on. And he
even carried off that harp-player of Aspendus, of whom you have often heard the saying, which is a proverb
among the Greeks, who used to say that he could sing everything within himself, and
put him in the inmost part of his own house, so as to appear to have surpassed the
statue itself in trickery.
At Perga we are aware that there is a very ancient and very holy temple of Diana.
That too, I say, was stripped and plundered by you; and all the gold which there was
on Diana herself was taken off and carried away. What, in the name of mischief, can
such audacity and inanity mean? In the very cities of our friends and allies, which
you visited under the pretext of your office as lieutenant, if you had stormed them
by force with an army, and had exercised military rule there; still, I think, the
statues and ornaments which you took away, you would have carried, not to your own
house, nor to the suburban villas of your friends, but to Rome for the public use.
Why should I speak of Marcus Marcellus, who took Syracuse, that most beautiful city? why of Lucius Scipio, who waged
war in Asia, and conquered Antiochus, a
most powerful monarch? why of Flaminius, who subdued Philip the king, and Macedonia? why of Lucius Paullus, who with his might
and valour conquered king Perses? why of Lucius Mummius, who overthrew that most
beautiful and elegant city Corinth,
full of all sorts of riches, and brought many cities of Achaia and Boeotia under the
empire and dominion of the Roman people?—their houses, though they were rich in
virtue and honour, were empty of statues and paintings. But we see the whole city,
the temples of the gods, and all parts of Italy, adorned with their gifts, and with memorials of them.
I am afraid all this may seem to some people too ancient, and long ago obsolete.
For at that time all men were so uniformly disposed in the same manner, that this
credit of eminent virtue and incorruptibility appears to belong, not only to those
men, but also to those times. Publius Servilius, a most illustrious man, who has
performed the noblest exploits, is present. He will deliver his opinion on your
conduct. He, by his power, had forces; his wisdom and his valour took Olympus, an ancient city, and one strengthened and
embellished in every possible manner. I am bringing forward recent example of a most
distinguished man. For Servilius, as a general of the Roman people, took Olympus after you, as lieutenant of the quaestor in
the same district, had taken care to harass and plunder all the cities of our
friends and allies even when they were at peace.