What torture he suffered when he was bound naked in the open air, in the rain and
in the cold, must be manifest to every body. Nor did he put an end to this insult
and barbarity, till the people and the whole multitude, moved by the atrocity of his
conduct and by pity for his victim, compelled the senate by their outcries to
promise him that statue of Mercury. They cried out that the immortal gods themselves
would avenge the act, and that in the meantime it was not fit that an innocent man
should be murdered. Then the senate comes to him in a body, and promises him the
statue. And so Sopater is taken down scarcely alive from the statue of Marcellus, to
which he had almost become frozen. I cannot adequately accuse that man if I were to
wish to do so; it requires not only genius, but an extraordinary amount of skill.
This appears to be a single crime, this of the Tyndaritan Mercury, and it is
brought forward by me as a single one; but there are many crimes contained in
it—only I do not know how to separate and distinguish them. It is a case of money
extorted, for he took away from the allies a statue worth a large sum of money. It
is a case of embezzlement, because he did not hesitate to appropriate a public
statue belonging to the Roman people, taken from the spoils of the enemy, placed
where it was in the name of our general. It is a case of treason, because he dared
to overturn and to carry away monuments of our empire, of our glory, and of our
exploits. It is a case of impiety, because he violated the most solemn principles of
religion. It is a case of inhumanity, because he invented a new and extraordinary
description of punishment for an innocent man, an ally and friend of our nation.
But what the other crime is, that I am unable to say; I know not by what name to
call the crime which he committed with respect to the statue of Caius Marcellus.
What is the meaning of it? Is it because he was the patron of the Sicilians? What
then? What has that to do with it? Ought that fact to have had influence to procure
assistance, or to bring disaster on his clients and friends? Was it your object to
show that patrons were no protection against your violence? Who is there who would
not be aware that there is greater power in the authority of a bad man who is
present, than in the protection of good men who are absent? Or do you merely wish to
prove by this conduct, your unprecedented insolence, and pride, and obstinacy? You
thought, I imagine, that you were taking something from the dignity of the Marcelli?
And therefore now the Marcelli are not the patrons of the Sicilians. Verres has been
substituted in their place.
What virtue or what dignity did you think existed in you, that you should attempt
to transfer to yourself, and to take away from these most trusty and most ancient
patrons, so illustrious a body of clients as that splendid province? Can you with
your stupidity, and worthlessness, and laziness defend the cause, I will not say of
all Sicily, but even of one, the very
meanest of the Sicilians? Was the statue of Marcellus to serve you for a pillory for
the clients of the Marcelli? Did you out of his honour seek for punishments for
those very men who had held him in honour? What followed? What did you think would
happen to your statues? was it that which did happen? For the people of Tyndaristhrew down the statue of Verres, which
he had ordered to be erected in his own honour near the Marcelli, and even on a
higher pedestal, the very moment that they heard that a successor had been appointed
to him. The fortune of
the Sicilians has then given you Caius Marcellus for a judge, so that we may now
surrender you, fettered and bound, to appease the injured sanctity of him to whose
statue Sicilians were bound while you were praetor.
And in the first place, O judges, that man said that the people of Tyndarishad sold this statue to Caius Marcellus
Aeserninus, who is here present. And he hoped that Caius Marcellus himself would
assert thus much for his sake though it never seemed to me to be very likely that a
young man born in that rank, the patron of Sicily, would lend his name to that fellow to enable him to transfer
his guilt to another. But still I made such provision, and took such precaution
against every possible bearing of the case, that if ally one had been found who was
ever so anxious to take the guilt and crime of Verres upon himself, still he would
not have taken anything by his motion, for I brought down to court such witnesses,
and I had with me such written documents, that it could not have been possible to
have entertained a doubt about that man's actions.
There are public documents to prove that that Mercury was transported to Messanaat the expense of the state. They state at
what expense; and that a man named Poleas was ordered by the public authority to
superintend the business—what more would you have? Where is he? He is close at hand,
he is a witness, by the command of Sopater the Proagorus.—Who is he? The man who was
bound to the statue. What? where is he? He is a witness—you have seen the man, and
you have heard his statement. Demetrius, the master of the gymnastic school,
superintended the pulling down of the statue, because he was appointed to manage
that business; What? is it we who say this? No, he is present himself; moreover,
that Verres himself lately promised at Rome, that he would restore that statue to the deputies, if the
evidence already given in the affair were removed, and if security were given that
the Tyndaritans would not give evidence against him, has been stated before you by
Zosippus and Hismenias, most noble men, and the chief men of the city of Tyndaris.
What? did you not also at Agrigentumtake
away a monument of the same Publius Scipio, a most beautiful statue of Apollo, on
whose thigh there was the name of Myron, inscribed in diminutive silver letters, out
of that most holy temple of Aesculapius? And when, O judges, he had privately
committed that atrocity, and when in that most nefarious crime and robbery he had
employed some of the most worthless men of the city as his guides and assistants,
the whole city was greatly excited. For the Agrigentines were regretting at the same
time the kindness of Africanus, and a national object of their worship, and an
ornament of their city, and a record of their victory, and an evidence of their
alliance with us. And therefore a command is imposed on those men who were the chief
men of the city, and a charge is given to the quaestors and aediles to keep watch by
night over the sacred edifices. And, indeed, at Agrigentum, (I imagine, on account of the great number and virtue of
these men, and because great numbers of Roman citizens, gallant and intrepid and
honourable men, live and trade in that town among the Agrigentines in the greatest
harmony,) he did not dare openly to carry off, or even to beg for the things that
took his fancy.
There is a temple of Hercules at Agrigentum, not far from the forum, considered very holy and greatly
reverenced among the citizens. In it there is a brazen image of Hercules himself,
than which I cannot easily tell where I have seen anything finer; (although I am not
very much of a judge of those matters, though I have seen plenty of specimens;) so
greatly venerated among them, O judges, that his mouth and his chin are a little
worn away, because men in addressing their prayers and congratulations to him, are
accustomed not only to worship the statue, but even to kiss it. While Verres was at
Agrigentum, on a sudden, one stormy
night, a great assemblage of armed slaves, and a great attack on this temple by
them, takes place, under the leading of Timarchides. A cry is raised by the watchmen
and guardians of the temple. And, at first, when they attempted to resist them and
to defend the temple, they are driven back much injured with sticks and bludgeons.
Afterwards, when the bolts were forced open, and the doors dashed in, they endeavour
to pull down the statue and to overthrow it with levers; meantime, from the outcries
of the keepers, a report got abroad over the whole city, that the national gods were
being stormed, not by the unexpected invasion of enemies, or by the sudden irruption
of pirates, but that a well armed and fully equipped band of fugitive slaves from
the house and retinue of the praetor had attacked them.