You know the depraved and licentious habits of Verres. Imagine to yourselves, if
you can, any one who can be in every respect equal to him in the wicked and
dissolute commission of every crimes that man will be Apronius; who, as he shows not
only by his life, but by his person and countenance, is a vast gulf and whirlpool of
every sort of vice and infamy. Him did Verres employ as his chief agent in all his
adulteries, in all his plundering of temples, in all his debauched banquets; and the
similarity of their manners caused such a friendship and unanimity between them,
that Apronius, whom every one else thought a boor and a barbarian, appeared to him
alone an agreeable and an accomplished man; that, though every one else hated him,
and could not bear the sight of him, Verres could not bear to be away from him;
that, though others shunned even the banquets at which Apronius was to be presents
Verres used the same cup with him; lastly, that, though the odour of Apronius's
breath and person is such that even, as one may say, the beasts cannot endure him,
he appeared to Verres alone sweet and pleasant. He sat next to him on the
judgment-seat; he was alone with him in his chamber; he was at the head of his table
at his banquets; and especially then, when he began to dance at the feast naked,
while the young son of the praetor was sitting by.
This man, as I began to say, Verres selected for his principal agent in
distressing and plundering the fortunes of the cultivators of the land. To this
man's audacity, and wickedness, and cruelty, our most faithful allies and most
virtuous citizens were given up, O judges, by this praetor, and were placed at his
mercy by new regulations and new edicts, the entire law of Hiero, as I said before,
having been rejected and repudiated.
First of all, listen, O judges, to his splendid edict.
“Whatever amount of tithe the collector declared that the cultivator ought to pay,
that amount the cultivator should be compelled to pay to the collector.”—How? Let
him pay as much as Apronius demands? What is this? is the regulation of a praetor
for allies, or the edict and command of an insane tyrant to conquered enemies? Am I
to give as much as he demands? He will demand every grain that I can get out of my
land. Am I to give all? Yes, and more too, if he chooses. What, then, am I to do?
What do you think? You must either pay, or you will be convicted of having disobeyed
the edict. O ye immortal gods, what a state of things is this For it is hardly
credible. And indeed.
I am persuaded, O judges, that, though you should think that all other vices are
met in this man, still this must seem false to you. For I myself, though all
Sicily told me of it, still should not
dare to affirm this to you, if I was not able to recite to you these edicts from his
own documents in those very words—as I will do. Give this, I pray you, to the clerk;
he shall read from the register. Read the edict about the returns of property. [The
edict about the returns of property is read.] He says I am not reading the whole.
For that is what he seems to intimate by shaking his head. What am I passing over?
is it that part where you take care of the interests of the Sicilians, and show
regard for the miserable cultivators? For you announce in your edict, that you will
condemn the collector in eightfold damages, if he has taken more than was due to
him. I do not wish anything to be passed over. Read this also which he requires;
read every word. [The edict about the eightfold damages is read.] Does this mean
that the cultivator is to prosecute the collector at law? It is a miserable and
unjust thing for men to be brought from the country into the forum, from the plough
to the courts of justice; from habits of rustic life to actions and trials to which
they are wholly unaccustomed.
When in all the other countries liable to tribute, of Asia, of Macedonia, of
Spain, of Gaul, of Africa, of
Sicily, and in those parts of Italy also which are so liable; when in all these, I
say, the farmer in every case has a right to claim and a power to distrain, but not
to seize and take possession without the interference of the law, you established
regulations respecting the most virtuous and honest and honourable class of
men,—that is, respecting the cultivators of the soil,—which are contrary to all
other laws. Which is the most just, for the collector to have to make his claim, or
for the cultivator to have to recover what has been unlawfully seized? for them to
go to trial when things are in their original state, or when one side is ruined? for
him to be in possession of the property who has acquired it by hard labour, or him
who has obtained it by bidding for it at an auction? What more? They who cultivate
single acres, who never cease from personal labour, of which class there were a
great number, and a vast multitude among the Sicilians before you came as
praetor,—what are they to do? When they have given to Apronius all he has demanded,
are they to leave their allotments? to leave their own household gods? to come to
Syracuse, in order while you,
forsooth, are praetor, to prosecute, by the equal law which they will find there,
Apronius, the delight and joy of your life, in a suit for recovery of their
property?
But so be it. Some fearless and experienced cultivator will be found, who, when he
has paid the collector as much as he says is due, will seek to recover it by course
of law, and will sue for the eightfold penalty. I look for the vigour of the edict,
for the impartiality of the praetor; I espouse the cause of the cultivator; I wish
to see Apronius condemned in the eightfold penalty. What now does the cultivator
demand? Nothing but sentence for an eightfold penalty, according to the edict. What
says Apronius? He is unable to object. What says the praetor? He bids him challenge
the judges. Let us, says he, make out the decuries. What decuries? Those from my
retinue; you will challenge the others. What? of what men is that retinue composed?
Of Volusius the soothsayer, and Cornelius the physician, and the other dogs whom you
see licking up the crumbs about my judgment-seat. For he never appointed any judge
or recuperator The recuperatores were a kind of judges, usually appointed by the
praetors in some particular kinds of action, and especially in those relating to
money. from the proper body. The Latin word here is
conventus, which often occurs in these
orations; properly it means any assembly of men, but when the Romans had reduced
foreign countries into the form of provinces, it assumed a nave definite meaning.
Sometimes it was applied to the whole body of Roman citizens who were either
permanently or temporarily settled in a province. Also in order to facilitate the
administration of justice, a province was divided into a number of districts, each
of which was called conventus... Roman citizens
living in a province, at certain times of the year, fixed by the proconsul,
assembled in the chief town of the district, and this meeting bore the name of
conventus. At this conventus litigant, parties
applied to the proconsul, who selected a number of judges from the conventus to
try their causes. The proconsul himself presided at the trial, and pronounced the
sentence according to the views of the judges who were his assessors.—Smith, Dict.
Ant in v. Conventus. He said all men who
possessed one clod of earth were unfairly prejudiced against the collectors. People
had to sue Apronius before these men who had not yet got rid of the surfeit from his
last banquet. What a
splendid and memorable court! what an impartial decision! what a safe resource for
the cultivators of the soil!