I, inquiring into this charge respecting the corn, keep this in view, O judges,
that you are going to inquire into the estates and fortunes of all the
Sicilians—into the property of all the Roman citizens who cultivate land in
Sicily—into the revenues handed down to
you by your ancestors—into the life and sustenance of the Roman people. And if these
matters appear to you important—yes, and most important,—do not be weary if they are
pressed upon you from various points of view, and at some length. It cannot escape
the notice of any one of you, O judges, that all the advantage and desirableness of
Sicily, which is in any way connected
with the convenience of the Roman people, consists mainly in its corn; for in other
respects we are indeed assisted by that province, but as to this article, we are fed
and supported by it.
The case, O judges, will be divided under three heads in my accusation: for,
first, I shall speak of the collectors of the tenths; secondly, of the corn which
has been bought; thirdly, of that which has been valued. There is, O judges, this difference
between Sicily and other provinces, in the matter of tribute derived from the lands;
that in the other provinces, either the tribute imposed is of a fixed amount, which
is called stipendiarium, as in the case of the
Spaniards and most of the Carthaginian provinces, being a sort of reward of victory,
and penalty for war; or else a contract exists between the state and the farmers,
settled by the censor, as is the case in Asia, by the Sempronian law. But the cities in Sicily were received into our friendship and
alliance, retaining the same laws which they had before, and that being subject to
the Roman people on the same conditions as they had formerly been subject to their
own princes.
Very few cities of Sicily were subdued in
war by our ancestors, and even in the case of those which were, though their land
was made the public domain of the Roman people, still it was afterwards restored to
them. That domain is regularly let out to farmers by the censors. There are two
federate cities, whose tenths are not put up to auction; the city of the Mamertines
and Taurominium. Besides these, there are five cities without any treaty, free and
enfranchised; Centuripa, Halesa, Segesta, Halicya, and Panormus. All the land of the other states of
Sicily is subject to the payment of
tenths; and was so, before the sovereignty of the Roman people, by the will and laws
of the Sicilians themselves.
See now the wisdom of our ancestors, who, when they had added Sicily, so valuable an assistant both in war and
peace, to the republic, were so careful to defend the Sicilians and to retain them
in their allegiance, that they not only imposed no new tax upon their lands, but did
not even alter the law of putting up for sale the contracts of the farmers of the
tenths, or the time or place of selling them; so that they were to put them up for
sale at the regular time of year, at the same place, in Sicily,—in short, in every respect as the law of Hiero directed; they
permitted them still to manage their own affairs, and were not willing that their
minds should be disturbed even by a new name to a law, much less by an actual new
law.
And so that resolved that the farming of the tenth should always be put up to
auction according to the law of Hiero, in order that the discharge of that office
might be the more agreeable if, though the supreme power was changed, still, not
only the laws of that king who was very dear to the Sicilians, but his name also
remained in force among them. This law the Sicilians always used before Verres was
praetor. He first dared to root up and alter the established usages of them all,
their customs which had been handed down to them from their ancestors, the
conditions of their friendship with us, and the rights secured to them by our
alliance.
And in this, this is the first thing I object to and accuse you for, that in a
custom of such long standing, and so thoroughly established, you made any innovation
at all. Have you ever gained anything by this genius of yours? Were you superior in
prudence and wisdom to so many wise and illustrious men who governed that province
before you? That is your renown; this praise is due to your genius and diligence. I
admit and grant this to you. I do know that, at Rome, when you were praetor, you did transfer by your edict the
possession of inheritance from the children to strangers, from the first heirs to
the second, from the laws to your own licentious covetousness. I do know that you
corrected the edicts of all your predecessors, and gave possession of inheritance
not according to the evidence of those who produced the will, but according to
theirs who said that a will had been made. And I do know too that those new
practices, first brought forward and invented by you, were a very great profit to
you. I recollect, moreover, that you also abrogated and altered the laws of the
censors about the keeping the public buildings in repair; so that he might not take
the contract to whom the care of the building belonged; so that his guardians and
relations might not consult the advantage, of their ward so as to prevent his being
stripped of all his property; that you appointed a very limited time for the work,
in order to exclude others from the business; but that with respect to the
contractor you favoured, you did not observe any fixed time at all.
So that I do not marvel at your having established a new law in the matter of the
tenths you, a man so wise, so thoroughly practiced in praetorian edicts and
censorian laws. I do not wonder, I say, at your having invented something; but I do
blame you, I do impeach you, for having of your own accord, without any command from
the people, without the authority of the senate, changed the laws of the province of
Sicily.
The senate permitted Lucius Octavius and Caius Cotta, the consuls, to put up to
auction at Rome the tenths of wine, and
oil, and of pulse, which before your time the quaestors had been in the habit of
putting up in Sicily; and to establish any
law with respect to those articles which they might think fit. When the contract was
offered for sale, the farmers begged them to add some clauses to the law, and yet
not to depart from the other laws of the censors. A man opposed this, who by
accident was at Rome at that time; your
host,—your host, and intimate friend, I say, O Verres,—Sthenius, of Thermae, who is
here present The consuls examined into the matter. When they had summoned many of
the principal and most honourable men of the state to form a council on the subject;
according to the opinion of that council they gave notice that they should put the
tenths up to auction according to the law of Hiero.