The men of Thermae sent agents to purchase the tenths of their district. They
thought it was much better for them, that they should be purchased by their own
state at ever so high a price, than that they should get into the hands of some
emissary of his. A man of the name of Venuleius had been put up to buy them. He did
not cease from bidding. They went on competing with him, as long as the price
appeared such as could by any possibility be borne. At last they gave up bidding.
They are knocked down to Venuleius at eight thousand modii of wheat. Possidorus, the deputy of Thermae, sends notice home.
Although it appeared to every one a most intolerable hardship, still there were
given to Venuleius eight thousand modii of wheat,
and two thousand sesterces besides, not to come
near them. From which it is very evident which part was the wages of the farmer, and
which the booty of the praetor. Give me the letters and testimony of the people of
Thermae. [The accounts of the people of Thermae, and their evidence, are read.]
You compelled the Imacharans after you had taken away all
their corn, after they had been impoverished by your incessant injuries, miserable
and ruined as they were, to pay tribute so as to give Apronius twenty thousand
sesterces. Read the decree about the tributes,
and the public testimony. [The Resolution of the Senate about the tribute to be
paid, is read. [The testimony of the Imacharans is read.] The people of Enna, though the tenths of
the territory of Enna had been sold for
three thousand two hundred medimni, were compelled
to give Apronius eighteen thousand modii of wheat,
and three thousand sesterces. I entreat you to
remark what an enormous quantity of corn is extorted from every district liable to
the payment of tenths; for my speech extends over every city which is so liable. And
I am at present engaged about this class of injuries, O judges, in which it is not a
case of single cultivators being stripped of all their property, but of compliments
being exacted from the public treasury of each city, for the farmers, in order that
at last they may depart from the lands and cities glutted and satiated with this
immense heap of gain.
Why in the third year of your praetorship did you order the Calactans to carry the
tenths of their land, which they had been accustomed to pay at Calacta, to Marcus
Caesius the farmer of Amestratus, a thing which they had never done before you were
praetor, and which you yourself had never ordered in the two years preceding? Why
was Theomnastus the Syracusan sent by you into the district of Mutyca, where he so
harassed the cultivators, that for their second teethe they were unavoidably forced
to buy wheat, because they had actually none of their own, (a thing which I shall
prove happened also in the case of other cities.)
But now, from the agreements made with the people of Hybla, which were made with
the farmer Cnaeus Sergius, you will perceive that six times as much corn as was sown
was exacted of the cultivators Read the accounts of the sowings and the agreements,
extracted from the public registers. Read. [The agreements of the people of Hybla
with Cnaeus Sergius, extracted out of the public registers, are read.] Listen also
to the returns of the sowings, and the agreements of the men of Mena with that slave of Venus. Read them out of the
public registers. [The returns of the Sowings, arid the agreements of the Menans
with the servant of Venus, extracted from the public registers, are read.] Will you,
O judges, endure that a great deal more than has been produced should be exacted
from our allies, from the cultivators of the domain of the Roman people, from those
who are labouring for you, are in your service, who are so eager that the Roman
people should be fed by them, that they only retain for themselves and their
children enough for their actual subsistence, and should be exacted too with the
greatest violence, and the most bitter insults?
I feel, O judges, that I must now set some bounds to the length of my speech, and
that I must avoid wearying you. I will no longer dwell on one kind of injury alone,
and I will leave the other instances out of my speech, though they will still make a
part of my accusation. You shall hear the complaints of the Agregentines, most
gallant, and most industrious men; you shall become acquainted, O judges, with the
sufferings and the injuries of the Entellans, a people of the greatest perseverance
and the greatest industry; the wrongs of the men of Heraclea, and Gela, and
Solentum shall be mentioned: you shall be told of the fields of the Catanians, a
most wealthy people and most friendly to us, ravaged by Apronius: you shall be made
aware that the cities of Tyndaris,
that most noble city, of Cephalaedis, of Halentia, of Apollonia, of Enguina, of Capitia, have been
ruined by the iniquity of these farmers; that actually nothing is left to the
citizens of Ina, of Murgentia, of Assoria, of Elorum, of Enna, and of Ietum; that the people of Cetaria and
Acheria, small cities, are wholly crushed and destroyed; in short, that all the
lands liable to the payment of tenths have been for three years tributary to the
Roman people, to the extent of one tenth of their produce, and to Caius Verres to
the extent of all the rest; that to most of the cultivators nothing at all is left,
that if anything was either remitted to or left to any one, it was only just so much
as remained of that property by which the avarice of that man had bees satiated.
I have reserved the territories of two cities, O judges, to speak of last, the
best and noblest of all, the territory of Aetna and that of Leontini: I will say nothing of the gains made out
of these districts in his three years; I will select one year in order that I more
easily may be able to explain what I have settled to mention. I will take the third
year, because it is both the most recent, and because it has been managed by him in
such a way that, since he knew that he was certainly going to depart, he evidently
did not care if he left behind him not one cultivator of the soil in all Sicily. We will speak of the tenths of the territory
of Aetna and Leontini. Give heed, O judges,
carefully. The lands are fertile; it is the third year;
Apronius is the farmer. I will speak a little of the people of Aetna; for they themselves at the former pleading
spoke in the name of their city. You recollect that Artemidorus of Aetna, the chief of that deputation, said, in the
name of his city, that Apronius had come to Aetna with the slaves of Venus; that he had summoned the magistrates
before him; that he had ordered a couch to be spread for him in the middle of the
forum; that he was accustomed every day to feast not only in public, but at the
public expense; that, when at those feasts the concert began to sound, and slaves
began to serve him with wine in large goblets, then he used to detain the
cultivators of the soil, and not only with injustice, but even with insolence, to
extort, from them whatever quantity of corn he had ordered them to supply.
You heard all these things, O judges, all which I now pass by and leave unnoticed.
I say nothing of the luxury of Apronius, nothing of his insolence, nothing of his
unexampled profligacy and wickedness; I will only speak of the gain and profit made
out of one district in one year, so that you may the more easily be able to form
your conjectures of the whole three years and of the whole of Sicily; but I do not mean to say much about the
people of Aetna, for they have come hither
themselves, they have brought with them their public documents; they have proved to
you what gains were made by that honest man, the intimate friend of the praetor,
Apronius. I pray of you learn this from their own testimony. Read the testimony of
the people of Aetna. [The testimony of the
people of Aetna is read.] What are you saying? Speak, speak, I pray
you, louder, that the Roman people may hear about its revenues, its cultivators of
the soil, its allies, and its friends. “Three hundred thousand medimni; and fifty thousand sesterces.” Oh, the immortal gods! Does one district in one year years
three hundred thousand modii of wheat, and fifty
thousand sesterces besides, as a compliment to
Apronius? Did the tenths sell for so much less than they were really worth? or,
though they had been sold at a sufficiently high price, was such a quantity of corn
and money nevertheless exacted by main force from the cultivators? For whichever of
these you say was the truth, blame and criminality will attach to it.