It is a great proof, but this is the greatest proof of all, that to those very men
of Bidis, with whom he ought to have been angry, as being the men by whom he found
out that his decree had been attempted to be influenced by bribes, because they
could do nothing against Epicrates according to law, even if he were present,—to
these very men, I say, he not only gave that inheritance which had come to
Epicrates, but, as in the case of Heraclius of Syracuse, so too in this case, (which was even rather more atrocious
than the other, because Epicrates had actually never had any action brought against
him at all,) he gave them all his paternal property and fortune. For he showed that
if any one made a demand of any thing from an absent person, he would hear the
cause, though without any precedent for so doing. The men of Bidis appear—they claim
the inheritance. The agents of Epicrates demand that he would either refer them to
their own laws, or else appoint judges, in accordance with the provisions of the
Rupilian law. The adversaries did not dare to say anything against this; no escape
from it could be devised. They accuse the man of having fled for the purpose of
cheating them. They demand to be allowed to take possession of his property.
Epicrates did not owe a farthing to any one. His friends said that, if any one
claimed anything from him, they would stand the trial themselves, and that they
would give security to satisfy the judgment. When the whole business was getting cool, by Verres's
instigation they began to accuse Epicrates of having tampered with the public
documents; a suspicion from which he was far removed. They demand a trial on that
charge. His friends began to object that no new proceeding, that no trial affecting
his rank and reputation, ought to be instituted while he was absent; and at the same
time they did not cease to reiterate their demands that Verres should refer them to
their own laws.
He, having now got ample room for false accusation, when he sees that there is any
point on which his friends refused to appear for Epicrates in his absence, declares
that he will appoint a trial on that charge before any other. When all saw plainly
that not only that money which had (to make a presence) been sent from his house,
had returned back to it, but that he had afterwards received much more money, the
friends of Epicrates ceased to argue in his defence. Verres ordered the men of Bidis
to take possession of all his property, and to keep it for themselves. Besides the
five hundred thousand sesterces which the
inheritance amounted to, his own previous fortune amounted to fifteen hundred
thousand. Was the affair planned out in this way from the beginning? Was it
completed in this way? Is it a very trifling sum of money? Is Verres such a man as
to be likely to have done all this which I have related for nothing?
Now, O judges, hear a little about the misery of the
Sicilians. Both Heraclius the Syracusan, and Epicrates of Bidis, being stripped of
all their property, came to Rome. They
lived at Rome nearly two years in mourning
attire, with unshaven beard and hair. When Lucius Metellus went to the province,
then they also go back with Metellus, bearing with them letters of high
recommendation. As soon as Metellus came to Syracuse he rescinded both the sentences—the sentence in the case of
Epicrates, and that against Heraclius. In the property of both of them there was
nothing which could be restored, except what was not able to be moved from its
place.
Metellus had acted admirably on his first arrival, in rescinding and making of no
effect all the unjust acts of that man which he could rescind. He had ordered
Heraclius to be restored to his property; he was not restored. Every Syracusan
senator who was accused by Heraclius he ordered to be imprisoned. And on this ground
many were imprisoned. Epicrates was restored at once. Other sentences which had been
pronounced at Lilybaeum, at Agrigentum, and at Panormus, were reviewed and reformed. Metellus showed that he did not
mean to attend to the returns which had been made while Verres was praetor. The
tithes which he had sold in a manner contrary to the Lex Hieronica, he said that he
would sell according to that law. All the actions of Metellus went to the same
point, so that he seemed to be remodeling the whole of Verres's praetorship. As soon
as I arrived in Sicily, he changed his
conduct.
A man of the name of Letilius had come to him two days before, a man not unversed
in literature, so he constantly used him as his secretary. He had brought him many
letters, and, among them, one from home which had changed the whole man. On a sudden
he began to say that he wished to do everything to please Verres; that he was
connected with him by the ties of both friendship and relationship. All men wondered
that this should now at last have occurred to him, after he had injured him by so
many actions and so many decisions. Some thought that Letilius had come as an
ambassador from Verres, to put him in mind of their mutual interests, their
friendship, and their relationship. From that time he began to solicit the cities
for testimony in favour of Verres, and not only to try to deter the witnesses
against him by threats, but even to detain them by force. And if I had not by my
arrival checked his endeavours in some degree, and striven among the Sicilians, by
the help of Glabrio's letters and of the law, I should not have been able to bring
so many witnesses into this court.
But, as I began to say, remark the miseries of the Sicilians. Heraclius, whom I
have mentioned, and Epicrates came forward a great distance to meet me, with all
their friends. When I came to Syracuse, they thanked me with tears; they wished to leave Syracuse, and go to Rome in my company: because I had many other towns
left which I wanted to go to, I arranged with the men on what day they were to meet
me at Messana. They sent a messenger to me
there, that they were detained by the praetor. And though I summoned them formally
to attend and give evidence,—though I gave in their names to Metellus,—though they
were very eager to come, having been treated with the most enormous injustice, they
have not arrived yet. These are the rights which the allies enjoy now, not to be
allowed even to complain of their distresses.
You have already heard the evidence of Heraclius of
Centuripa, a most virtuous and noble young man, from whom a hundred thousand
sesterces were claimed by a fraudulent and false
accusation. Verres, by means of penalties and securities The
compromissum was money deposited by both
parties as a security for their obeying the decision of the judge, “though the
same term was also employed to express the engagement by which parties agreed to
settle their differences by arbitration, without the intervention of the
praetor.”—Smith, Dict. Ant. p. 530, v. Judex. exacted, contrived to extort three hundred thousand; and
the sentence which had been given in favour of Heraclius, in the affairs about which
security had been given) he set aside, because a citizen of Centuripa had acted as
judge between two of his fellow-citizens, and he said that he had given a false
decision; he forbade him to appear in the senate, and deprived him by an interdict
of all the privileges of citizens and of access to all public places. If any one
struck him, he announced that he would take no cognisance of the injury; that if any
claim were made on him, he would appoint a judge from his own retinue, but that he
would not allow him an action on any ground whatever.