Lastly, the most noble men and the chief men of the whole province have come
forward both publicly and privately; every city of the greatest authority—every city
of the highest reputation—have come forward with the greatest earnestness to
prosecute its oppressor for its injuries. But how, O judges,
have they come? It seems to me that I ought to speak before you now on behalf of the
Sicilians with more freedom than perhaps they themselves wish. For I shall consult
their safety rather than their inclination. Do you think that there was ever any
criminal in any province defended in his absence against the inquiry into his
conduct urged by his accuser, with such influence, and with such zeal? The quaestors
of both provinces, Sicily had two quaestors, one for the western or Lilybaean
district, one for the Syracusan. who were so while he was praetor, stood
close to me with their forces.
Those also who succeeded them, very zealous for his interests, liberally fed from
his stores, were no less vehement against me. See how great was his influence who
had four quaestors in one province, most zealous defenders and bulwarks of his
cause; and the praetor and all his train so zealous in his interest, that it was
quite plain, that it was not Sicily, which
they had come upon when stripped bare, so much as Verres himself, who had left it
loaded, which they looked upon as their province. They began to threaten the
Sicilians, if they decreed any deputations to make statements against him; to
threaten any one who had gone on any such deputation, to make most liberal promises
to others, if they spoke well of him; to detain by force and under guard the most
damaging witnesses of his private transactions, whom we had summoned by word of
mouth to give evidence.
And though all this was done, yet know ye, that there was but one single city,
that, namely, of the Mamertines, which by public resolution sent ambassadors to
speak in his favour. But you heard the chief man of that embassy, the most noble man
of that state, Caius Eleius, speak on his oath, and say, that Verres had had a
transport of the largest size built at Messana, the work being contracted for at the expense of the city.
And that same ambassador of the Mamertines, his panegyrist, said that he had not
only robbed him of his private property, but had also carried away his sacred
vessels, and the images of the Di Penates, which he had received from his ancestors,
out of his house. A noble panegyric; when the one business of the ambassadors is
discharged by two operations, praising the man and demanding back what has been
stolen by him. And on what account that very city is friendly to him, shall be told
in its proper place. For you will find that those very things which are the causes
of the Mamertines bearing him good-will, are themselves sufficiently just causes for
his condemnation. No other city, O judges, praises him by public resolution.
The power of supreme authority has had so much influence with a very few men, not
in the cities, that either some most insignificant people of the most miserable and
deserted towns were found who would go to Rome without the command of their people or their senate, or on the
other hand, those who had been voted as ambassadors against him, and who had
received the public evidence to deliver, and the public commission, were detained by
force or by fear. And I am not vexed at this having happened in a few instances, in
order that the rest of the cities, so numerous, so powerful, and so wise,—that all
Sicily, in short, should have all the
more influence with you when you see that they could be restrained by no force,
could be hindered by no danger, from making experiment whether the complaints of
your oldest and most faithful allies had any weight with you.
For as to what some of you may, perhaps, have heard, that he had a public encomium
passed upon him by the Syracusans, although in the former pleading you learnt from
the evidence of Heraclius the Syracusan what sort of encomium it was, still it shall
be proved to you in another place how the whole matter really stands as far as that
city is concerned For you shall see clearly that no man has ever been so hated by
any people as that man both is and has been by the Syracusans. But perhaps it is only the native
Sicilians who are persecuting him: the Roman citizens who are trading in Sicily defend him, love him, desire his safety.
First of all, if that were the case, still in this trial for extortion, which has
been established for the sake of the allies, according to that law and forms of
proceeding which the allies are entitled to, you ought to listen to the complaints
of the allies.
But you were able to see clearly in the former pleading, that many Roman citizens
from Sicily, most honourable men, gave
evidence about most important transactions, both as to injuries which they had
received themselves, and injuries which they knew had been inflicted on others. I, O
judges, affirm in this way what I know. I seem to myself to have done an action
acceptable to the Sicilians in seeking to avenge their injuries with my own labour,
at my own peril, and at the risk of incurring enmity in some quarters; and I am sure
that this which I am doing is not less acceptable to our own citizens, who think
that the safety of their rights, of their liberty, of their properties and fortunes,
consists in tho condemnation of that man.
On which account, while speaking of his Sicilian praetorship, I will not object to
your listening to me on this condition, that if he has been approved of by any
description of men whatever; whether of Sicilians or of our own citizens; if he has
been approved of by any class of men, whether agriculturists, or graziers, or
merchants; if he has not been the common enemy and plunderer of all these men,—if,
in short, he has ever spared any man in any thing, then you, too, shall spare him.
Now, as soon as Sicily fell to him by lot as his province, immediately at Rome, while he was yet in the city, before he
departed, he began to consider within himself and to deliberate with his friends, by
what means he might make the greatest sum of money in that province in one year. He
did not like to learn while he was acting, (though he was not entirely ignorant and
inexperienced in the oppression of a province,) but he wished to arrive in
Sicily with all his plans for plunder
carefully thought of and prepared.
Oh how correct was the augury diffused by common report and common conversation
among the people in that province! when from his very name men augured in a jesting
way what he would do in the province. Indeed, who could doubt, when they recollected
his flight and robbery in his quaestorship—when they considered his spoliation of
temples and shrines in his lieutenancy—when they saw in the forum the plunder of his
praetorship—what sort of man he was likely to prove in the fourth act of his
villainy? And that you may
be aware that he inquired at Rome not only
into the different kinds of robbery which he might be able to execute, but into the
very names of his victims, listen to this most certain proof, by which you will be
able more easily to form an opinion of his unexampled impudence.