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.