What do you think that the Rhegians, who now are Roman citizens, would take to
allow that marble Venus to be taken from them? What would the Tarentines take to
lose the Europa sitting on the Bull? or the Satyr which they have in the temple of
Vesta? or their other monuments? What would the Thespians take to lose the statue of
Cupid, the only object for which any one ever goes to see Thespiae? What would the men of Cnidostake for their marble Venus? or the Coans for
their picture of her? or the Ephesians for Alexander? the men of Cyzicusfor their Ajax or Medea? What would the
Rhodians take for Ialysus? the Athenians
for their marble Bacchus, or their picture of Paralus, or their brazen Heifer, the
work of Myron? It would be a long business and an unnecessary one, to mention what
is worth going to see among all the different nations in all Asiaand Greece; but that is the reason why I am enumerating these things,
because I wish you to consider that an incredible indignation must be the feeling of
those men from whose cities these things are carried away.
And to say nothing of other nations, judge of the Syracusans themselves. For when I
went to Syracuse, I originally
believed what I had heard at Romefrom that
man's friends, that the city of Syracuse, on account of the inheritance of Heraclius, was no less
friendly to him than the city of the Mamertines, because of their participation in
all his booty and robberies. And at the same time I was afraid that, owing to the
influence of the high-born and beautiful women at whose will he had directed all the
measures of his praetorship for three years, and of the men to whom they were
married, I should be opposed not only by an excessive lenity, but even by a feeling
of liberality towards that man, if I were to seek for any evidence out of the public
records of the Syracusans.
Therefore when at SyracuseI was
chiefly with Roman citizens; I copied out their papers; I inquired into their
injuries. As I was a long time occupied by that business, in order to rest a little
and to give my mind a respite from care, I returned to those fine documents of
Carpinatius; in which, in company with some of the most honourable knights of the
body of Roman settlers, I unraveled the case of those Verrutii, whom I have
mentioned before, but I expected no aid at all, either publicly or privately, from
the Syracusans, nor had I any idea of asking for any. While I was doing this, on a
sudden Heraclius came to me, who was in office at Syracuse, a man of high birth, who had been priest of
Jupiter, which is the highest honour
among the Syracusans; he requests of me and of my brother, if we have no objection,
to go to their senate; that they were at that moment assembled in full numbers in
the senate-house, and he said that he made this request to us to attend by command
of the senate.
At first we were in doubt what to do; but afterwards it soon occurred to us that we
ought not to shun that assembly or that place. Therefore we came to the senate-house; they all rise at
our entry to do us honour. We sat down at the request of the magistrates. Diodorus
the son of Timarchides, who was the first man in that body both in influence and in
age, and also as it seemed to me in experience and knowledge of business, began to
speak; and the first sentence of his speech was to this effect—That the senate and
people of Syracusewere grieved and
indignant, that, though in all the other cities of SicilyI had informed the senate and people of what I proposed for
their advantage or for their safety, and though I had received from them all
commissions, deputies, letters and evidence, yet in that city I had done nothing of
that sort. I answered, that deputies from the Syracusans had not been present at
Romein that assembly of the Sicilians
when my assistance was entreated by the common resolution of all the deputations,
and when the cause of the whole of Sicilywas entrusted to me; and that I could not ask that any decree
should be passed against Caius Verres in that senate-house in which I saw a gilt
statue of Caius Verres.
And after I said that, such a groaning ensued at the sight and mention of the
statue, that it appeared to have been placed in the senate-house as a monument of
his wickednesses and not of his services. Then every one for himself, as fast as
each could manage to speak, began to give me information of those things which I
have just now mentioned; to tell me that the city was plundered—the temples stripped
of their treasures—that of the inheritance of Heraclius, which he had adjudged to
the men of the palaestra, he had taken by far the greatest share himself; and
indeed, that they could not expect that he should care for the men of the palaestra,
when he had taken away even the god who was the inventor of oil; that that statue
had neither been made at the public expense, nor erected by public authority, but
that those men who had been the sharers in the plunder of the inheritance of
Heraclius, had had it made and placed where it was; and that those same men had been
the deputies at Rome, who had been his
assistants in dishonesty, his partners in his thefts and the witnesses of his
debaucheries; and that therefore I ought the less to wonder if they were wanting to
the unanimity of the deputies and to the safety of Sicily.
When I perceived that their indignation at that man's injuries was not only not
less, but almost greater than that of the rest of the Sicilians, then I explained my
own intentions to them, and my whole plan and system with reference to the whole of
the business which I had undertaken; then I exhorted them not to be wanting to the
common cause and the common safety, and to rescind that panegyric which they had
voted a few days before, being compelled, a, they said, by violence and fear.
Accordingly, O judges, the Syracusans, that man's clients and friends, do this.
First of all, they produce to me the public documents which they had carefully
stored up in the most sacred part of the treasury; in which they show me that
everything, which I have said had been taken away, was entered, and even more things
than I was able to mention. And they were entered in this way. “What had been taken
out of the temple of Minerva .. This,... and that.” “What was missing out of the
temple of Jupiter.” “What was missing out of
the temple of Bacchus.” As each individual had had the charge of protecting and
preserving those things, so it was entered; that each, when according to law he gave
in his accounts, being bound to give up what he had received, had begged that he
might be pardoned for the absence of these things and that all had accordingly been
released from liability on that account, and that it was kept secret; all which
documents I took care to have sealed up with the public seal and brought away.
But concerning the public panegyric on him this explanation was given: that at
first, when the letters arrived from Verres about the panegyric, a little while
before my arrival, nothing had been decreed; and after that, when some of his
friends urged them that it ought to be decreed, they were rejected with the greatest
outcry and the bitterest reproaches; but when I was on the point of arriving, then
he who at that time was the chief governor had commanded them to decree it, and that
it had been decreed in such a manner that the panegyric did him more damage than it
could have done him good. So now, judges, do you receive the truth of that matter
from me just as it was shown to me by them.
It is a custom at Syracuse, that, if
a motion on any subject is brought before the senate, whoever wishes, gives his
opinion on it. No one is asked by name for his sentiments; nevertheless, those are
accustomed to speak first of their own accord, and naturally, according as they are
superior in honour or in age; and that precedence is yielded to them by the rest;
but, if at any time all are silent, then they are compelled to speak by lot. This
was the custom when the motion was made respecting the panegyric of Verres. On which
subject at first great numbers speak, in order to delay coming to any vote, and
interpose this objection, that formerly, when they had heard that there was a
prosecution instituted against Sextus Peducaeus, who had deserved admirably well of
that city and of the whole province, and when, in return for his numerous and
important services, they wished to vote a panegyric on him, they had been prohibited
from doing so by Caius Verres; and that it would be an unjust thing, although
Peducaeus had now no need of their praise, still not to vote that which at one time
they had been eager to vote, before decreeing what they would only decree from
compulsion.