[CORNELIUS?] 1. Was a Roman senator, who appears to have been connected by birth, adoption, or emancipation with the Cornelia gens. Cicero, whose anger Verres had incurred by interfering in his election for the aedileship B. C. 70, calls him a veteran briber and manager of votes. Verres took alarm at his son's reckless proceedings in Sicily, B. C. 73-71; and although he supplicated the senate in his behalf, despatched special messengers to Syracuse with warnings to be more circumspect in future. The elder Verres had a share in his son's pillage of the Sicilians. (Verrin. 1.8, 9, 2.1. 23, 39, 40 ; Pseud. Ascon. in Verrin.; in Q. Caecil. proem.)
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
Smith, William
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890