Chapter VIII: The Latin Orators (2)

In truth, what genius is there so powerful, what faculty of
speaking, what eloquence so mighty, as to be in any
particular able to defend the life of that man convicted as
it is of so many vices and crimes, and long since condemned
by the inclinations and private sentiments of every one.
And, to say nothing of the stains and disgraces of his
youth, what other remarkable event is there in his
questorship, that first step to honor, except that Cnaeus
Carbo was robbed by his questor of the public money? that
the consul was plundered and betrayed? his army deserted?
his province abandoned? the holy nature and obligations
imposed on him by lot violated? whose lieutenancy was the
ruin of all Asia and Pamphylia, in which provinces he
plundered many houses, very many cities, all the shrines
and temples; when he renewed and repeated against Cnaeus
Dolabella his ancient wicked tricks when he had been
questor, and did not only in his danger desert, but even
attack and betray the man to whom he had been lieutenant,
and proquaestor, and whom he had brought into odium by his
crimes; whose city praetorship was the destruction of the
sacred temples and the public works, and, as to his legal
decisions, was the adjudging and awarding of property
contrary to all established rules and precedents. But now
he has established great and numerous monuments and proofs
of all his vices in the province of Sicily, which he for
three years so harassed and ruined that it can by no
possibility be restored to its former condition, and
appears scarcely able to be at all recovered after a long
series of years, and a long succession of virtuous
praetors. While this man was praetor the Sicilians enjoyed
neither their own laws nor the decrees of our senate, nor
the common rights of every nation. Every one in Sicily has
only so much left as either escaped the notice or was
disregarded by the satiety of that most avaricious and
licentious man.

No legal decision for three years was given on any other
ground but his will; no property was so secure to any man,
even if it had descended to him from his father and
grandfather, but he was deprived of it at his command;
enormous sums of money were exacted from the property of
the cultivators of the soil by a new and nefarious system.
The most faithful of the allies were classed in the number
of enemies. Roman citizens were tortured and put to death
like slaves; the greatest criminals were acquitted in the
courts of justice through bribery; the most upright and
honorable men, being prosecuted while absent, were
condemned and banished without being heard in their own
defense; the most fortified harbors, the greatest and
strongest cities, were laid open to pirates and robbers;
the sailors and soldiers of the Sicilians, our own allies
and friends, died of hunger; the best built fleets on the
most important stations were lost and destroyed, to the
great disgrace of the Roman people. This same man while
praetor plundered and stripped those most ancient
monuments, some erected by wealthy monarchs and intended by
them as ornaments for their cities; some, too, the work of
our own generals, which they either gave or restored as
conquerors to the different states in Sicily. And he did
this not only in the case of public statues and ornaments,
but he also plundered all the temples consecrated in the
deepest religious feelings of the people. He did not leave,
in short, one god to the Sicilians which appeared to him to
be made in a tolerable workmanlike manner, and with any of
the skill of the ancients.

I am prevented by actual shame from speaking of his
nefarious licentiousness as shown in rapes and other such
enormities; and I am unwilling also to increase the
distress of those men who have been unable to preserve
their children and their wives unpolluted by his wanton
lust. But, you will say, these things were done by him in
such a manner as not to be notorious to all men. I think
there is no man who has heard his name who cannot also
relate wicked actions of his; so that I ought rather to be
afraid of being thought to omit many of his crimes, than to
invent any charges against him. And, indeed, I do not think
that this multitude which has collected to listen to me
wishes so much to learn of me what the facts of the case
are, as to go over it with me, refreshing its recollection
of what it knows already.

And as this is the case, that senseless and profligate man
attempts to combat me in another manner. He does not seek
to oppose the eloquence of any one else to me; he does not
rely on the popularity, or influence, or authority, of any
one. He pretends that he trusts to those things; but I see
what he is really aiming at (and indeed he is not acting
with any concealment). He sets before me empty titles of
nobility--that is to say, the names of arrogant men, who do
not hinder me so much by being noble, as assist me by being
notorious; he pretends to rely on their protection, when he
has in reality been contriving something else this long
time. What hope he now has, and what he is endeavoring to
do, I will now briefly explain to you, O judges.

But first of all, remark, I beg you, how the matter has
been arranged by him from the beginning. When he first
returned from the province he endeavored to get rid of his
prosecution by corrupting the judges at a great expense;
and this object he continued to keep in view till the
conclusion of the appointment of the judges. After the
judges were appointed, because in drawing lots for them the
fortune of the Roman people had defeated his hopes, and in
the rejecting some my diligence had defeated his impudence,
the whole attempt at bribery was abandoned. The affair was
now going on admirably; lists of your names and of the
whole tribunal were in every one's hands. It did not seem
possible to mark the votes of these men with any
distinguishing mark or color or spot of dirt; and that
fellow, from having been brisk and in high spirits, became
on a sudden so downcast and humbled that he seemed to be
condemned not only by the Roman people but even by himself.
But lo! all of a sudden, within these few days, since the
consular comitia have taken place, he has gone back to his
original plan with more money, and the same plots are now
laid against your reputation and against the fortunes of
every one, by the instrumentality of the same people; which
fact at first, O judges, was pointed out by me by a very
slight hint and indication; but afterward, when my
suspicions were once aroused, I arrived at the knowledge of
all the most secret counsels of that party without any
mistake.

For as Hortensius, the consul-elect, was being attended
home again from the Campus by a great concourse and
multitude of people, Caius Curio fell in with that
multitude by chance--a man whom I wish to name by way of
honor rather than disparagement. I will tell you what if he
had been unwilling to have it mentioned, he would not have
spoken of in so large an assembly so openly and
undisguisedly; which, however, shall be mentioned by me
deliberately and cautiously, that it may be seen that I pay
due regard to our friendship and to his dignity. He sees
Verres in the crowd by the arch of Fabius,[3] he speaks to
the man, and with a loud voice congratulates him on his
victory. He does not say a word to Hortensius himself, who
had been made consul, or to his friends and relations who
were present attending on him; but he stops to speak to
this man, embraces him, and bids him cast off all anxiety.
"I give you notice," said he, "that you have been acquitted
by this day's comitia." And as many most honorable men
heard this, it is immediately reported to me the first
thing. To some it appeared scandalous, to others, again,
ridiculous--ridiculous to those who thought that this case
depended on the credibility of the witnesses, on the
importance of the charges, and on the power of the judges,
and not on the consular comitia; scandalous to those who
looked deeper, and who thought and this congratulation had
reference to the corruption of the judges.

In truth, they argued in this manner--the most honorable
men spoke to one another and to me in this manner--that
there were now manifestly and undeniably no courts of
justice at all. The very criminal who the day before
thought that he was already condemned, is acquitted, now
that his defender has been made consul. What are we to
think then? Will it avail nothing at all Sicily, all the
Sicilians, that all the merchants who have business in that
country, that if the consul-elect wills it otherwise. What!
will not the judges be influenced by the accusation, by the
evidence, by the universal opinion of the Roman people? No.
Everything will be governed by the power and authority of
one man.

In the meantime my comitia began to be held; of which that
fellow thought himself the master, as he had been of all
the other comitia this year. He began to run about, that
influential man, with his son, a youth of engaging and
popular manners, among the tribes. The son began to address
and to call on all the friends of his father--that is to
say, all his agents--for bribery; and when this was noticed
and perceived, the Roman people took care with the most
earnest good will that I should not be deprived of my honor
through the money of that man, whose riches had not been
able to make me violate my good faith. After that I was
released from the great anxiety about my canvass, I began,
with a mind much more unoccupied and much more at ease, to
think of nothing and to do nothing except what related to
this trial. I find, O judges, these plans formed and begun
to be put in execution by them to protract the matter,
whatever steps it might be necessary to take in order to do
so, so that the cause might be pleaded before Marcus
Metellus as praetor. That by doing so they would have these
advantages: firstly, that Marcus Metellus was most friendly
to them; secondly, that not only would Hortensius be
consul, but Quintus Metellus also; and listen while I show
you how a great a friend he is to them. For he gave him a
token of his good will of such a sort that he seemed to be
giving it as a return for the suffrages of the tribes which
he had secured to him. Did you think that I would say
nothing of such serious matters as these? and that, at a
crisis of such danger to the republic and my own character,
I would consult anything rather than my duty and my
dignity? The other consul-elect sent for the Sicilians;
some came, because Lucius Metellus was praetor in Sicily.
To them he speaks in this manner: that he is the consul;
that one of his brothers has Sicily for a province; that
the other is to be judge in all prosecutions for extortion;
and that care had been taken in many ways that there should
be no possibility of Verres being injured.

I ask you, Metellus, what is corrupting the course of
justice, if this is not--to seek to frighten witnesses, and
especially Sicilians, timid and oppressed men, not only by
your own private influence, but by their fear of the
consul, and by the power of two praetors? What could you do
for an innocent man or for a relation, when for the sake of
a most guilty one, entirely unconnected with you, you
depart from your duty and your dignity, and allow what he
is constantly saying to appear true to any one who is not
acquainted with you? For they said that Verres said that
you had not been made consul by destiny, as the rest of
your family had been, but by his assistance. Two consuls,
therefore, and the judge are to be such because of his
will. We shall not only, says he, avoid having a man too
scrupulous in investigating, too subservient to the opinion
of the people, Marcus Glabrio, but we shall have this
advantage also: Marcus Caesonius is the judge, the
colleague of your accuser, a man of tried and proved
experience in the decision of actions. It will never do for
us to have such a man as that on the bench, which we are
endeavoring to corrupt by some means or other; for before,
when he was one of the judges on the tribunal of which
Junius was president, he was not only very indignant at the
shameful transaction, but he even betrayed and denounced it.

But as for what I had begun to say--namely, that the
contest is between you and me, this is it--I, when I had
undertaken this cause at the request of the Sicilians, and
had thought it a very honorable and glorious thing for me
that they were willing to make experiment of my integrity
and diligence, who already knew by experience my innocence
and temperance: then, when I had undertaken this business,
I proposed to myself some greater action also by which the
Roman people should be able to see my good will toward the
republic. For that seemed to me to be by no means worthy of
my industry and efforts, for that man to be brought to
trial by me who had already condemned by the judgment of
all men, unless that intolerable influence of yours, and
that grasping nature which you have displayed for some
years in many trials, were interposed also in the case of
that desperate man. But now, since all this dominion and
sovereignty of yours over the courts of justice delights
you so much, and since there are some men who are neither
ashamed of their licentiousness and their infamy, nor weary
of it, and who, as if on purpose, seem to wish to encounter
hatred and unpopularity from the Roman people, I profess
that I have undertaken this, a great burden perhaps, and
one dangerous to myself, but still worthy of my applying
myself to it with all the vigor of my age, and all
diligence.

And since the whole order of the senate is weighed down by
the discredit brought on it by the wickedness and audacity
of a few, and is overwhelmed by the infamy of the
tribunals, I profess myself an enemy to this race of men,
an accuser worthy of their hatred, a persevering, a bitter
adversary. I arrogate this to myself, I claim this for
myself, and I will carry out this enmity in my magistracy,
and from that post in which the Roman people have willed
that from the next first of January I shall act in concert
with it in matters concerning the republic, and concerning
wicked men. I promise the Roman people that this shall be
the most honorable and the fairest employment of my
aedileship. I warn, I forewarn, I give notice beforehand
to those men who are wont either to put money down, to
undertake for others, to receive money, or to promise
money, or to act as agents in bribery, or as go-betweens in
corrupting the seat of judgment, and who have promised
their influence or their impudence in aid of such a
business, in this trial to keep their hands and inclination
from this nefarious wickedness.

And what do you suppose will be my thoughts, if I find in
this very trial any violation of the laws committed in any
similar manner? especially when I can prove by many
witnesses that Caius Verres often said in Sicily, in the
hearing of many persons, "that he had a powerful friend, in
confidence with whom he was plundering the province; and
that he had so distributed the three years of his Sicilian
praetorship that should say he did exceedingly well, if he
appropriated the gains of one year to the augmentation of
his own property, those of the second year to his patrons
and defenders, and reserved the whole of the third year,
the most productive and gainful of all, for the judges."

From which it came into my mind to say that which, when I
had said lately before Marcus Glabrio at the time of
striking the list of judges, I perceived the Roman people
greatly moved by: that I thought that foreign nations would
send ambassadors to the Roman people to procure the
abrogation of the law, and of all trials, about extortion;
for if there were no trials, they think that each man would
only plunder them of as much as he would think sufficient
for himself and his children; but now, because there are
trials of that sort, every one carries off as much as it
will take to satisfy himself, his patrons, his advocates,
the praetor, and the judges; and that this is an enormous
sum; that they may be able to satisfy the cupidity of one
most avaricious man, but are quite unable to incur the
expense of his most guilty victory over the laws. O trials
worthy of being recorded! O splendid reputation of our
order! when the allies of the Roman people are unwilling
that trials for extortion should take place, which were
instituted by our ancestors for the sake of all allies.
Would that man ever have had a favorable hope of his own
safety, if he had not conceived in his mind a bad opinion
of you? on which account, he ought, if possible, to be
still more hated by you than he is by the Roman people,
because he considers you like himself in avarice and
wickedness and perjury.

And I beg you, in the name of the immortal gods, O judges,
think of and guard against this; I warn you, I give notice
to you of what I am well assured, that this most seasonable
opportunity has been given to you by the favor of the gods,
for the purpose of delivering your whole order from hatred,
from unpopularity, from infamy, and from disgrace. There is
no severity believed to exist in the tribunals, nor any
scruples with regard to religion; in short, there are not
believed to be any tribunals at all. Therefore we are
despised and scorned by the Roman people; we are branded
with a heavy and now long standing infamy. Nor, in fact, is
there any other reason for which the Roman people has with
so much earnestness sought the restoration of the
tribunician power: but when it was demanding that in words,
it seemed to be asking for that, but in reality it was
asking for tribunals which it could trust.

But now men on the watch-towers; they observe how every one
of you behaves himself in respecting religion and observing
the laws. They see that, ever since the passing of the law
for restoring the power of the tribunes, only one senator,
and he, too, a very insignificant one, has been condemned.
And though they do not blame this, yet they have nothing
which they can very much command. For there is no credit in
being upright in a case where there is no one who is either
able or who endeavors to corrupt one. This is a trial in
which you will be deciding about the defendant, the Roman
people about you; by the example of what happens to this
man it will be determined whether, when senators are the
judges, a very guilty and a very rich man can be condemned.

On which account, in the first place, I beg this of the
immortal gods, which I seem to myself to have hopes of,
too--that in this trial no one may be found to be wicked
except he who has long since been found to be such;
secondly, if there are many wicked men, I promise this to
you, O judges, I promise this to the Roman people, that my
life shall fail rather than my vigor and perseverance in
prosecuting their iniquity. But that iniquity, which if it
should be committed, I promise to prosecute severely, with
however much trouble and danger to myself, and whatever
enmities I may bring on myself by doing so, you, O Marcus
Glabrio, can guard against ever taking place by your
wisdom, and authority, and diligence. Do you undertake the
cause of the tribunals? Do you undertake the cause of
impartiality, of integrity, of good faith and religion? Do
you undertake the cause of the senate, that, being proved
worthy by its conduct in this trial, it may come into favor
and popularity with the Roman people? Think who you are and
in what a situation you are placed; what you ought to give
to the Roman people and what you ought to repay to your
ancestors. Let the recollection of the Acilian Law passed
by your father occur to your mind, owing to which law the
Roman people has had this advantage of most admirable
decisions and very strict judges in cases of extortion.

I am resolved not to permit the praetor or the judges to be
changed in this cause. I will not permit the matter to be
delayed till the lictors of the consuls can go and summon
the Sicilians, whom the servants of the consuls-elect did
not influence before, when by an unprecedented course of
proceeding they sent for them all; I will not permit these
miserable men, formerly the allies and friends of the Roman
people, now their slaves and supplicants, to lose not only
their rights and fortunes by their tyranny, but to be
deprived of even the power of bewailing their condition; I
will not, I say, when the cause has been summed up by me,
permit them after a delay of forty days has intervened,
then at last to reply to me when my accusation has already
fallen into oblivion through lapse of time; I will not
permit the decision to be given when this crowd collected
from all Italy has departed from Rome, which has assembled
from all quarters at the same time on account of the
comitia, of the games, and of the census.

The reward of the credit gained by your decision, or the
danger arising from the unpopularity which will accrue to
you if you decide unjustly, I think ought to belong to you;
the labor and anxiety to me; the knowledge of what is done
and the recollection of what has been said by every one, to
all. I will adopt this course, not an unprecedented one,
but one that has been adopted before, by this who are now
the chief men of our state--the course, I mean, of at once
producing the witnesses.

What you will find novel, O judges, is this, that I will so
marshal my witnesses as to unfold the whole of my
accusation; that when I have established it by examining my
witnesses, by arguments, and by my speech, then I shall
show the agreement of the evidence with my accusation: so
that there shall be no difference between the established
mode of prosecuting, and this new one, except that,
according to the established mode, when everything has been
said which is to be said, then the witnesses are produced;
here they shall be produced as each count is brought
forward, so that the other side shall have the same
opportunity of examining them, of arguing and making
speeches on their evidence. If there be any one who prefers
an uninterrupted speech and the old mode of conducting a
prosecution without any break, he shall have it in some
other trial. But for this time let him understand that what
we do is done by us on compulsion (for we only do it with
the design of opposing the artifice of the opposite party
by our prudence). This will be the first part of the
prosecution. We say that Caius Verres has not only done
many licentious acts, many cruel ones, toward Roman
citizens, and toward some of the allies, many wicked acts
against both gods and man; but especially that he has taken
away four hundred thousand sesterces out of Sicily contrary
to the laws. We will make this so plain to you by
witnesses, by private documents, and by public records,
that you shall decide that, even if we had abundant space
and leisure days for making a long speech without any
inconvenience, still there was no need at all of a long
speech in this matter.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This is the famous passage in which Cato intimated
that Caesar was in some manner allied with the
conspirators.

[2] A decree of the Senate was made in accordance with
this advice.

[3] This arch, as explained in a note to Mr. Yonge's
translation, had been erected to commemorate the
victory obtained by Fabius over the Allobroges;
and it was erected in the Via Sacra, as Cicero
mentions in his speech _Pro Plancio._