Therefore, while these were the established regulations of the province, Caius
Norbanus, a man neither very active nor very valiant, was at perfect ease, at the
very moment that all Italy was raging with
the servile war. For at that time Sicily
easily took care of itself, so that no war could possibly arise there. In truth, as
no two things are so closely united as the traders are with the Sicilians, by habit,
by interest, by reason, and by community of sentiment; and as the Sicilians have all
their affairs in such a state that it is most desirable for them to be at peace; and
as they are so attached to the sway of the Roman people that they would be very
sorry that its power should be diminished or altered; and as ever since the servile
war all such dangers as these have been provided for, both by the regulations of the
praetors, and by the discipline of the masters; there is no conceivable domestic
evil which can arise out of the province itself.
What then do you say? Were there no disturbances of slaves in Sicily while Verres was praetor? Are no conspiracies
said to have taken place? None at all that have ever come to the knowledge of the
senate and people of Rome; none which that
man has thought worth writing public despatches to Rome about; and yet I do suspect that the body of slaves had begun to
be less orderly in some parts of Sicily;
and I infer that, not so much from any overt act, as from the actions and decrees of
Verres. And see with how little of a hostile feeling I am going to conduct this
case. I myself will mention and bring forward the things which he wishes to have
mentioned, and which as yet you have never heard of.
In the district of Triocala, a place which the fugitive slaves had occupied before,
the family of a certain Sicilian called Leonidas was implicated in suspicion of a
conspiracy. Information of the matter was laid before Verres. Immediately, as was
natural, by his command, the men who had been named were arrested and taken to
Lilybaeum. Their master was summoned to
appear, and after the case had been heard they were condemned.
What happened afterwards? What do you suppose? Perhaps you expect
to hear of some robbery or plunder;—do not look on all occasions for the same
things—when a man is in fear of war, what room is there for petty thefts? However,
even if there was any opportunity for such a thing in this matter, it was
overlooked. Perhaps he could have got some money out of Leonidas when he summoned
him to appear. There was besides room for bargaining, (and that was an opportunity
that he was not new to,) to get the cause adjourned; and a second chance, to get the
slaves acquitted. But when the slaves had been condemned, what opportunity of
plundering could there be? They must be brought up for punishment. For there were
the witnesses who were sitting on the bench; the public records were witnesses; that
most splendid city of Lilybaeum was a
witness; that most honourable and numerous assembly of Roman citizens was a witness.
Nothing can be done; they must be brought up. Accordingly, they are brought up, and
fastened to the stake.
Even now, O judges, you seem to me to be waiting to see what happened next; because
that man never did anything without some gain and some booty. What could be done in
such a case? What is profitable? Expect then to hear of some crime as infamous as
you please; but I will outdo all your expectation. The men who had been convicted of
wickedness and conspiracy, who had been delivered up for punishment, who had been
bound to the stake, on a sudden, in the sight of many thousands of men, are unbound
and restored to Leonidas their master. What can you say on this topic, O most insane
of men? except, indeed, that which I do not ask you; what, in short, in so nefarious
a business, although there can be no doubt about it, still, even if there were a
doubt, ought not to be asked; namely, what or how much money you took to release
them, and how you managed it. I give up the whole of this to you; and I release you
from this anxiety; for I am not afraid of any one believing that you, without any
payment, undertook an action which no man in the world except you could have been
induced to undertake by any sum of money whatever. But about that system of thieving
and plundering of yours I say nothing;—what I am now discussing is your renown as a
general.
What do you say, O you admirable guardian and defender of the province? Did you
dare to snatch from the very jaws of death and to release slaves whom you had
decided were eager to take arms and to make war in Sicily, and whom in accordance with the opinion of your colleagues on
the bench you had sentenced, after they had been already delivered up to punishment
after the manner of our ancestors and had been bound to the stake, in order to
reserve for Roman citizens the cross which you had erected for condemned slaves?
Ruined cities, when their affairs are all desperate, are often accustomed to these
disastrous scenes, to have those who have been condemned restored to their original
position; those who have been bound, released; those who have been banished,
restored; decisions which have been given, rescinded. And when such events take
place, there is no one who is not aware that that state is hastening to its fall.
When such things take place, there is no one who thinks that there is any hope of
safety left.
And whenever these things do take place, their effect has been to cause popular or
high-born men to be relieved from punishment or exile; still, not by the very men
who have passed the sentences; still, not instantly; still, not if they have been
convicted of those crimes which affected the lives and property of all the citizens.
Still this is an utterly unprecedented step, and of such a character as to appear
credible rather from consideration of who the criminal is, than from consideration
of the case itself That a man should have released slaves; that that very man who
had sentenced them should release them; that he should release them, in a moment,
out of the very jaws of death, that he should release slaves convicted of a crime
which affected the life and existence of every free man—
O splendid general, not to be compared now to Marcus Aquillius, a most valiant man,
but to the Paulli, the Scipios, and the Marii! That a man should have had such
foresight at a time of such alarm and danger to the province! As he saw that the
minds of all the slaves in Sicily were in
an unsettled state on account of the war of the runaway slaves in Italy, what was the great terror he struck into them
to prevent any one's daring to stir? He ordered them to be arrested—who would not he
alarmed? He ordered their masters to plead their cause—what could be so terrible to
slaves? He pronounced “That they appeared to have done....” He seems to have
extinguished the rising flame by the pain and death of a few. What follows next?
Scourgings, and burnings, and all those extreme agonies which are part of the
punishment of condemned criminals, and which strike terror into the rest, torture
and the cross? From all these punishments they are released. Who can doubt that he
must have overwhelmed the minds of the slaves with the most abject fear, when they
saw a praetor so good-natured as to allow the lives of men condemned of wickedness
and conspiracy to be redeemed from punishment, the very executioner acting as the
go-between to negotiate the terms?
What more? Did you not act in the same manner in the case of Aristodemus of
Apollonia, and in that of
Leon of Megara? What more? Did that unquiet state of the slaves, and that
sudden suspicion of war, inspire you with any additional diligence in guarding the
province, or with a new plan for acquiring most scandalous gain? When at your
instigation the steward of Eumenides of Halicya, a highborn and honourable man of
great wealth, was accused of some crime, you got sixty thousand sesterces from his master, and he lately explained to us,
as a witness on his oath, how you managed it. From Caius Matrinius, a Roman knight,
you took in his absence, while he was at Rome, a hundred thousand sesterces,
because you said that his stewards and shepherds had fallen under suspicion. Lucius
Flavius, the agent of Caius Matrinius, who paid you that money, deposed to this
fact; Caius Matrinius himself made the same statement, and that most illustrious
man, Cnaeus Lentulus the censor, who quite recently has both sent letters to you
himself, and has procured others to be sent to you for the purpose of doing honour
to Caius Matrinius, will prove the same thing.