Verres took each separate piece of plate into his hands, praised it—admired it. The
king was delighted that that banquet was tolerably pleasant and agreeable to a
praetor of the Roman people. After the banquet was over, Verres thought of nothing
else, as the facts themselves showed, than how he might plunder and strip the king
of everything before he departed from the province. He sends to ask for the most
exquisite of the vessels which he had seen at Antiochus's lodgings. He said that he
wished to show them to his engravers. The king, who did not know the man, most
willingly sent them, without any suspicion of his intention. He sends also to borrow
the jeweled ladle. He said that he wished to examine it more attentively; that also
is sent to him.
Now, O judges, mark what followed; things which you have already heard, and which
the Roman people will not hear now for the first time, and which have been reported
abroad among foreign nations to the furthest corners of the earth. The kings, whom I
have spoken of, had brought to Romea
candelabrum of the finest jewels, made with most extraordinary skill, in order to
place it in the Capitol; but as they found that temple not yet finished, they could
not place it there. Nor were they willing to display it and produce it in common, in
order that it might seem more splendid when it was placed at its proper time in the
shrine of the great and good Jupiter; and
brighter; also, as its beauty would come fresh and untarnished before the eyes of
men. They determined, therefore, to take it back with them into Syria, with the intention, when they should hear
that the image of the great and good
Jupiterwas dedicated, of sending ambassadors
who should bring that exquisite and most beautiful present, with other offerings, to
the Capitol.
The matter, I know not how, got to his ears. For the king had wished it kept
entirely concealed; not because he feared or suspected anything, but because he did
not wish many to feast their eyes on it before the Roman people. He begs the king,
and entreats him most earnestly to send it to him; he says that he longs to look at
it himself, and that he will not allow any one else to see it. Antiochus, being both
of a childlike and royal disposition, suspected nothing of that man's dishonesty,
and orders his servants to take it as secretly as possible, and well wrapped up, to
the praetor's house. And when they brought it there, and placed it on a table,
having taken off the coverings, Verres began to exclaim that it was a thing worthy
of the kingdom of Syria, worthy of being a
royal present, worthy of the Capitol. In truth, it was of such splendour as a thing
must be which is made of the most brilliant and beautiful jewels; of such variety of
pattern that the skill of the workmanship seemed to vie with the richness of the
materials; and of such a size that it might easily be seen that it had been made not
for the furniture of men, but for the decoration of a most noble temple. And when he
appeared to have examined it sufficiently, the servants begin to take it up to carry
it back again. He says that he wishes to examine it over and over again; that he is
not half satiated with the sight of it; he orders them to depart and to leave the
candelabrum. So they then return to Antiochus empty-handed.
The king at first feared nothing, suspected nothing. One day passed—two days—many
days. It was not brought back. Then the king sends to Verres to beg him to return
it, if he will be so good. He bids the slaves come again. The king begins to think
it strange. He sends a second time. It is not returned. He himself calls on the man;
he begs him to restore it to him. Think of the face and marvellous impudence of the
man. That thing which he knew, and which he had heard from the king himself was to
be placed in the Capitol, which he knew was being kept for the great and good
Jupiter, and for the Roman people, that
he began to ask and entreat earnestly to have given to him. When the king said that
he was prevented from complying by the reverence due to Jupiter Capitolinus, and by
his regard for the opinion of men, because many nations were witnesses to the fact
of the candelabrum having been made for a present to the god, the fellow began to
threaten him most violently. When he sees that he is no more influenced by threats
than he had been by prayers, on a sadden he orders him to leave his province before
night. He says, that he has found out that pirates from his kingdom were coming
against Sicily.
The king, in the most frequented place in Syracuse, in the forum,—in the forum at Syracuse, I say, (that no man may suppose I am
bringing forward a charge about which there is any obscurity, or imagining anything
which rests on mere suspicion,) weeping, and calling gods and men to witness, began
to cry out that Caius Verres had taken from him a candelabrum made of jewels, which
he was about to send to the Capitol, and which he wished to be in that most splendid
temple as a memorial to the Roman people of his alliance with and friendship for
them. He said that he did not care about the other works made of gold and jewels
belonging to him which were in Verres's hands, but that it was a miserable and
scandalous thing for this to be taken from him. And that, although it had long ago
been consecrated in the minds and intentions of himself and his brother, still, that
he then, before that assembled body of Roman citizens, offered, and gave, and
dedicated, and consecrated it to the great and good
Jupiter, and that he invoked
Jupiterhimself as a witness of his
intention and of his piety. What voice, what lungs, what power of mine can adequately express the indignation
due to this atrocity? The King Antiochus, who had lived for two years at Romein the sight of all of us, with an almost royal
retinue and establishment,—though he had been the friend and ally of the Roman
people; though his father, and his grandfather, and his ancestors, most ancient and
honourable sovereigns, had been our firmest friends; though he himself is monarch of
a most opulent and extensive kingdom, is turned headlong out of a province of the
Roman people.
How do you suppose that foreign nations will take this? How do you suppose the news
of this exploit of yours will be received in the dominions of other kings, and in
the most distant countries of the world, when they hear that a king has been
insulted by a praetor of the Roman people in his province? that a guest of the Roman
people has been plundered? a friend and ally of the Roman people insultingly driven
out? Know that your name and that of the Roman people will be an object of hatred
and detestation to foreign nations. If this unheard-of insolence of Verres is to
pass unpunished, all men will think, especially as the reputation of our men for
avarice and covetousness has been very extensively spread, that this is not his
crime only, but that of those who have approved of it. Many kings, many free cities,
many opulent and powerful private men, cherish intentions of ornamenting the Capitol
in such a way as the dignity of the temple and the reputation of our empire
requires. And if they understand that you show a proper indignation at this kingly
present being intercepted, they will then think that their zeal and their presents
will be acceptable to you and to the Roman people. But if they hear that you have
been indifferent to the complaint of so great a king, in so remarkable a case, in
one of such bitter injustice, they will not be so crazy as to spend their time, and
labour, and expense on things which they do not think will be acceptable to you.
And in this place I appeal to you, O Quintus
Catulus; The Capitol had been burnt in the civil war between
Marius and Sulla, and it was now being restored under the superintendence of
Quintus Catulus, to whom that office had been entrusted by the senate.for I
am speaking of your most honourable and most splendid monument. You ought to take
upon yourself not only the severity of a judge with respect to this crime, but
something like the vehemence of an enemy and an accuser. For, through the kindness
of the senate and people of Rome, your
honour is connected with that temple. Your name is consecrated at the same time as
that temple in the everlasting recollection of men. It is by you that this case is
to be encountered; by you, that this labour is to be undergone, in order that the
Capitol, as it has been restored more magnificently, may also be adorned more
splendidly than it was originally; that then that fire may seem to have been sent
from heaven, not to destroy the temple of the great and good
Jupiter, but to demand one for him more
noble and more magnificent.
You have heard Quintus Minucius Rufus say, that King Antiochus stayed at his house
while at Syracuse; that he knew that
this candelabrum had been taken to Verres's house; that he knew that it had not been
returned. You heard, and you shall hear from the whole body of Roman settlers at
Syracuse, that they will state to
you that in their hearing it was dedicated and consecrated to the good and great
Jupiterby King Antiochus. If you were
not a judge, and this affair were reported to you, it would be your especial duty to
follow it up; to reclaim the candelabrum, and to prosecute this cause. So that I do
not doubt what ought to be your feelings as judge in this prosecution, when before
any one else as judge you ought to be a much more vehement advocate and accuser than
I am.