And that you may not suppose that those things which have
been removed out of the way, and taken from you, were all so carefully hidden, and
kept so secretly, that with all the diligence which I am aware is universally
expected of me nothing concerning them has been able to be arrived at or discovered,
I must tell you that, whatever could by any means or contrivance be found out, has
been found out, O judges. You shall see in a moment the man detected in the very
act; for as I have spent a great part of my life in attending to the causes of
farmers, and have paid great attention to that body, I think that I am sufficiently
acquainted with their customs by experience and by intercourse with them.
Therefore, when I ascertained that the letters of the company were removed out of
the way, I made a calculation of the years that that man had been in Sicily; then I inquired (what was exceedingly easy
to discover) who during those years had been the collectors of that company,—in
whose care the records had been. For I was aware that it was the custom of the
collectors who kept the records, when they gave them up to the new collector, to
retain copies of the documents themselves. And therefore I went in the first place
to Lucius Vibius, a Roman knight, a man of the highest consideration, who, I
ascertained, had been collector that very year about which I particularly had to
inquire. I came upon the man unexpectedly when he was thinking of other things. I
investigated what I could, and inquired into everything. I found only two small
books, which had been sent by Lucius Canuleius to the shareholders from the harbour
at Syracuse; in which there was
entered an account of many months, and of things exported in Verres's name without
having paid harbour dues. These I sealed up immediately.
These were documents of that sort which of all the papers of the company I was most
anxious to find; but still I only found enough, O judges, to produce to you as a
sample, as it were. But still, whatever is in these books, however unimportant it
may seem to be, will at all events be undeniable; and by this you will be able to
form your conjectures as to the rest. Read for me, I beg, this first book, and then
the other. [The books of Canuleius are read.] I do not ask now whence you got those
four hundred jars of honey, or such quantities of Maltese cloth, or fifty cushions
for sofas or so many candelabra;—I do not, I say, inquire at present where you got
these things; but, how you could want such a quantity of them, that I do ask. I say
nothing about the honey; but what could you want with so many Maltese garments? as
if you were going to dress all your friends' wives;—or with so many sofa cushions?
as if you were going to furnish all their villas.
As in these little books there are only the accounts of a few months, conjecture
in your minds what they must have been for the whole three years. This is what I
contend for. From these small books found in the house of one collector of the
company, you can form some conjecture how great a robber that man was in that
province; what a number of desires, what different ones, what countless ones he
indulged; what immense sums he made not only in money, but invested also in articles
of this sort; which shall be detailed to you more fully another time. At present
listen to this.
By these exportations, of which the list was read to you, he writes that the
shareholders had lost sixty thousand sesterces by
the five per cent due on them as harbour dues at Syracuse. In a few months, therefore, as these little insignificant
books show, things were stolen by the praetor and exported from one single town of
the value of twelve hundred thousand sesterces.
Think now, as the island is one which is accessible by sea on all sides, what you
can suppose was exported from other places? from Agrigentum, from Lilybaeum,
from Panormus, from Thermae, from
Halesa, from Catina, from the other towns?
And what from Messana? the place which he
thought safe for his purpose above all others,—where he was always easy and
comfortable in his mind, because he had selected the Mamertines as men to whom he
could send everything which was either to be preserved carefully, or exported
secretly. After these books had been found, the rest were removed and concealed more
carefully; but we, that all men may see that we are acting without any ulterior
motive, are content with these books which we have produced.
Now we will return to the accounts of the society of money received and paid,
which they could not possibly remove honestly, and to your friend Carpinatius. We
inspected at Syracuse accounts of the
company made up by Carpinatius, which showed by many items that many of the men who
had paid money to Verres, had borrowed it of Carpinatius. That will be clearer than
daylight to you, O judges, when I produce the very men who paid the money; for you
will see that the times at which, as they were in danger, they bought themselves
off, agree with the records of the company not only as to the years, but even as to
the months.
While we were examining this matter thoroughly, and
holding the documents actually in our hands, we see on a sudden erasures of such a
sort as to appear to be fresh wounds inflicted on papers. Immediately, having a
suspicion of something wrong, we bent our eyes and attention on the names
themselves. Money was entered as having been received from Caius Verrutius the son
of Caius, in such a way that the letters had been let stand down to the second R,
all the rest was an erasure. A second, a third, a fourth—there were a great many
names in the same state. As the matter was plain, so also was the abominable and
scandalous worthlessness of the accounts. We began to inquire of Carpinatius who
that Verrutius was, with whom he had such extensive pecuniary dealings. The man
began to hesitate, to look away, to colour. Because there is a provision made by law
with respect to the accounts of the farmers, forbidding their being taken to
Rome; in order that the matter might be
as clear and as completely proved as possible, I summon Carpinatius before the
tribunal of Metellus and produce the accounts of the company in the forum. There is
a great rush of people to the place; and as the partnership existing between
Carpinatius and that praetor, and his usury, were well known, all people were
watching with the most eager expectation to see what was contained in the accounts
I bring the matter before Metellus; I state to him that I have seen the accounts
of the shareholders, that in these there is a long account of one Caius Verrutius
made up of many items, and that I saw, by a computation of the years and months,
that this Verrutius had had no account at all with Carpinatius, either before the
arrival of Caius Verres, or after his departure. I demand that Carpinatius shall
give me an answer who that Verrutius is; whether he is a merchant, or a broker, or
an agriculturist, or a grazier; whether he is in Sicily, or whether he has now left it. All who were in the court
cried out at once that there had never been any one in Sicily of the name of Verrutius. I began to press the man to answer
me who he was, where he was, whence he came; why the servant of the company who made
up the accounts always made a blunder in the name of Verrutius at the same place?
And I made this demand, not because I thought it of any consequence that he should
be compelled to answer me these things against his will, but that the robberies of
one, the dishonesty of the other, and the audacity of both might be made evident to
all the world. And so I leave him in the court, dumb from fear and the consciousness
of his crimes, terrified out of his wits, and almost frightened to death; I take a
copy of the accounts in the forum, with a great crowd of men standing round me; the
most eminent men in the assembly are employed in making the copy; the letters and
the erasures are faithfully copied and imitated, and transferred from the accounts
into books.
The copy was examined and compared with the original with
the greatest care and diligence, and then sealed up by most honourable men. If
Carpinatius would not answer me then, do you, O Verres, answer me now, who you
imagine this Verrutius, who must almost be one of your own family, to be. It is
quite impossible that you should not have known a man in your own province, who, I
see, was in Sicily while you were praetor,
and who, I perceive from the accounts themselves, was a very wealthy man. And now,
that this may not be longer in obscurity, advance into the middle, This is said of the officers of the court who have the account in
their keeping during the trial. open the volume, the copy of the accounts,
so that every one may be able to see now, not the traces only of that man's avarice,
but the very bed in which it lay.
You see the word Verrutius?—You see the first
letters untouched? you see the last part of the name, the tail of Verres, smothered
in the erasure, as in the mud. The original accounts, O judges, are in exactly the
same state as this copy.—What are you waiting for? What more do you want? You,
Verres, why are you sitting there? Why do you delay? for either you must show us
Verrutius, or confess that you yourself are Verrutius. The ancient orators are
extolled, the Crassi and Antonii, because they had the skill to efface the
impression made by an accusation with great clearness, and to defend the causes of
accused persons with eloquence. It was not, forsooth, in ability only that they
surpassed those who are now employed here as counsel, but also in good fortune. No
one, in those times, committed such crimes as to leave no room for any defence; no
one lived in such a manner that no part of his life was free from the most extreme
infamy; no one was detected in such manifest guilt, that, shameless as he had been
in the action, he seemed still more shameless if he denied it.
But now what can Hortensius do? Can he argue against the
charges of avarice by panegyrics on his client's economy? He is defending a man
thoroughly profligate, thoroughly licentious, thoroughly wicked. Can he lead your
attention away from this infamy and profligacy of his, and turn them into some other
direction by a mention of his bravery? But a man more inactive, more lazy, one who
is more a man among women, a debauched woman among men, cannot be found.—But his
manners are affable. Who is more obstinate more rude? more arrogant?—But still all
this is without any injury to any one. Who has ever been more furious, more
treacherous, and more cruel? With such a defendant and such a cause, what could all
the Crassus's and Antonius's in the world do? This is all they would do, as I think,
O Hortensius; they would have nothing to do with the cause at all, lest by contact
with the impudence of another they might lose their own characters for virtue. For
they come to plead causes free and unshackled, so as not, if they did not choose to
act shamelessly in defending people, to be thought ungrateful for abandoning
them.