And in this description of boldness he proceeded even much more shamelessly with
respect to the tenths of the district of Segesta; for when he had knocked them down
to this same Docimus, for five thousand modii of
wheat, and had added as an extra present fifteen thousand sesterces, he compelled the people of Segesta to take them of Docimus
at the same price in the name of their city; and you shall have this proved by the
public testimony of the Segestans. Read the public testimony [The public testimony
is read.] You have heard at what price the city took the tenths from Docimus,—at
five thousand modii of wheat, and an extra gift.
Learn now at what price he entered them in his accounts as having been sold. [The
law respecting the sale of tithes, Caius Verres being the praetor, is read.] You see
that in this item three thousand bushels of wheat are deducted from the sum total,
and when he had taken all this from the food of the Roman people, from the sinews of
the revenue, from the blood of the treasury, he gave it to Tertia the actress? Shall
I call it rather an impudent action, to extort from allies of the state, or an
infamous one to give it to a prostitute? or a wicked one to take it away from the
Roman people, or an audacious one to make false entries in the public accounts? Can
any influence or any bribery deliver you from the severity of these judges? And if
it should deliver you, do you not still see that the things which I am mentioning
belong to another count of the prosecution, and to the action for peculation?
Therefore I will reserve the whole of that class of offences, and return to the
charge respecting the corn and the tenths which I had begun to speak of. While this man was laying waste the largest and most fertile
districts by his own agency, that is to say by Apronius, that second Verres, he had
others whom he could send, like hounds, among the lesser cities, worthless and
infamous men, to whom he compelled the citizens to give either corn or money in the
name of their city. There
is a man called Aulus Valentius in Sicily,
an interpreter, whom Verres used to employ not only as an interpreter of the Greek
language, but also in his robberies and other crimes. This interpreter, an
insignificant and needy man, becomes on a sudden a farmer of tenths. He purchases
the tenths of the territory of Lipara, a
poor and barren district, for six hundred medimni
of wheat. The people of Lipara are
convoked: they are compelled to take the tenths, and to pay Valentius thirty
thousand sesterces as profit. O ye immortal gods!
which argument will you take for your defence; that you sold the tenths for so much
less than you might have done,—that the city immediately, of its own accord, added
to the six hundred medimni thirty thousand sesterces as a compliment, that is to say, two thousand
medimni of wheat? or that, after you had sold the
tenths at a high price, you still extorted this money from the people of Lipara against their will?
But why do I ask of you what defence you are going to employ, instead of rather
asking the city itself what you have done. Read the public testimony of the
Liparans, and after that read how the money was given to Valentius. [The public
testimony is read.] [The statement how the money was paid, extracted out of the
public accounts, is read.] Was even this little state, so far removed out of your
reach and out of your sight, separated from Sicily, placed on a barren and uncultivated island, turned as a sort
of crown to all your other iniquities, into a source of plunder and profit to you in
this matter of corn? You had given the whole island to one of your companions as a
trifling present, and still were these profits from corn exacted from it as from the
inland states? And therefore the men who for so many years, before you came as
praetor, were in the habit of ransoming their lands from the pirates, now had a
price set on themselves, and were compelled to ransom themselves from you.
What more need I say? Was not more extorted, under the name of a compliment, from
the people of Tissa, a very small and
poor city, but inhabited by very hard-working agriculturists and most frugal men,
than the whole crop of corn which they had extracted from their land? Among them you
sent as farmer Diognotus, a slave of Venus, a new class of collector altogether.
Why, with such a precedent as this, are not the public slaves at Rome also entrusted with the revenues? In the
second year of your praetorship the Tissans are compelled against their will to give
twenty-one thousand sesterces as a compliment. In
the third year they were compelled to give thirty thousand medimni of wheat to Diognotus, a slave of Venus, as a compliment! This
Diognotus, who is making such vast profits out of the public revenues, has no
deputy, no peculium at all. Doubt now, if you can,
whether this Venereal officer of Verres received such an immense quantity of corn
for himself, or exacted it for his master.
And learn this also from the public testimony of the Tissans. [The public
testimony of the Tissans is read.] Is it only obscurely, O judges, that the praetor
himself is the farmer, when his officers exact corn from the cities, levy money on
them, take something more as a compliment for themselves than they are to pay over
to the Roman people under the name of tenths? This was your idea of equity in your
command—this was your idea of the dignity of the praetor, to make the slaves of
Venus the lords of the Sicilian people. This was the line drawn, these were the
distinctions of rank, while you were the praetor, that the cultivators of the soil
were to be considered in the class of slaves, the slaves in the light of farmers of
the revenue.
What more shall I say? Were not the wretched people of Amestratus, after such vast
tenths had been imposed upon them, that they had nothing left for themselves, still
compelled to pay money besides? The tenths are knocked down to Marcus Caesius in the
presence of deputies from Amestratus and Heraclius, one of their deputies, is
compelled at once to pay twenty-two thousand sesterces. What is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of this
booty? of this violence? of this plundering of the allies? If Heraclius had been
commissioned by his senate to purchase the tenths, he would have purchased them; if
he was not, how could he pay money of his own accord? He reports to his fellow
citizens that he has paid Caesius this money. Learn his report from his letters.
Read extracts from the public letters. [The public letters are read.] By what
decree of the senate was this permission given to the deputy? By none. Why did he do
so? He was compelled. Who says this? The whole city. Read the public testimony. [The
public testimony is read.] By the same evidence you see that there was extorted from
the same city in the second year a sum of money in a similar manner, and given to
Sextus Vennonius. But you compel the Amestratines, needy men, after you have sold
their tenths for eight hundred medimni to
Banobalis, a slave of Venus, (just notice the names of the farmers,) to add more
still as a compliment, than they had been sold for, though they had been sold at a
high price. They gave Banobalis eight hundred medimni of wheat, and fifteen hundred sesterces. Surely that man would never have been so senseless, as to
allow more corn to be given out of the domain of the Roman people to a slave of
Venus than to the Roman people itself, unless all that plunder had, under the name
of the slave, come in reality to himself.
The people of Petra, though their tenths
had been sold at a high price, were, very much against their will, compelled to give
thirty-seven thousand sesterces to Publius Naevius
Turpio, a most infamous man, who was convicted of assault while Sacerdos was
praetor. Did you sell the tenths so carelessly, that, when a medimnus cost fifteen sesterces, and
when the tenths were sold for three thousand medimni, that is, for forty-five thousand sesterces, still three thousand sesterces could be given to the farmer as a compliment? “Oh, but I sold
the tenths of that district at a high price” he boasts, forsooth, not that a
compliment was given to Turpio, but that money was taken from the Petrans.