I come now to that which this man calls (as he himself says) his pursuit, his friends call his disease and madness, the Sicilians call brigandage. By what name to call it I do not know. I shall lay the matter before you; you weigh it by its own weight, not by that of a name. Learn first the kind of thing itself, gentlemen; then perhaps you will not greatly inquire by what name you should call it. I say in all Sicily — a province so wealthy, so old, of so many towns, of so many resourceful households — that there was no silver vase, no Corinthian or Delian work, no gem or pearl, anything made of gold or ivory, no bronze or marble or ivory statue, no painting either on a panel or in cloth, that he did not seek out, inspect, and (where it pleased him) carry off.

venio nunc ad istius, quem ad modum ipse appellat, studium, ut amici eius, morbum et insaniam, ut Siculi, latrocinium; ego quo nomine appellem nescio; rem vobis proponam, vos eam suo non nominis pondere penditote. genus ipsum prius cognoscite, iudices; deinde fortasse non magno opere quaeretis quo id nomine appellandum putetis. nego in Sicilia tota, tam locupleti, tam vetere provincia, tot oppidis, tot familiis tam copiosis, ullum argenteum vas, ullum Corinthium aut Deliacum fuisse, ullam gemmam aut margaritam, quicquam ex auro aut ebore factum, signum ullum aeneum, marmoreum, eburneum, nego ullam picturam neque in tabula neque in textili quin conquisierit, inspexerit, quod placitum sit abstulerit.

I seem to say a great thing: mark also how I say it. For not for the sake of swelling a word or a charge do I take in all things: when I say that this man left nothing of that kind in the whole province, know that I speak Latin, not as a prosecutor. To put it more plainly: nothing in any man’s house, not even a guest-friend’s; nothing in public places, not even in shrines; nothing among Sicilians, nothing among Roman citizens; finally nothing whatsoever, that came before his eyes and his mind, neither private nor public nor profane nor sacred, did this man leave in all Sicily.

Magnum videor dicere: attendite etiam quem ad modum dicam. non enim verbi neque criminis augendi causa complector omnia: cum dico nihil istum eius modi rerum in tota provincia reliquisse, Latine me scitote, non accusatorie loqui. etiam planius: nihil in aedibus cuiusquam, ne in hospitis quidem, nihil in locis communibus, ne in fanis quidem, nihil apud Siculum, nihil apud civem Romanum, denique nihil istum, quod ad oculos animumque acciderit, neque privati neque publici neque profani neque sacri tota in Sicilia reliquisse.

Whence then should I rather begin than from that city which alone was in your love and in your delight? Or out of what number rather than from your very praisers? For it will be more easily seen what kind of man you were among those who hate you, who accuse you, who pursue you, when you are found among your own Mamertines to have been a plunderer in the most dishonest fashion. Gaius Heius is a Mamertine — all who have come to Messana easily grant me this — the most adorned man of all in that city in every kind of thing. His house is, you might say, the best at Messana, certainly the best known and to our men the most open and the most hospitable. That house, before this man’s coming, was so adorned that it was an ornament also to the city; for Messana itself, although adorned by its situation, walls, and harbour, is plainly empty and bare of those things in which this man delights.

Vnde igitur potius incipiam quam ab ea civitate quae tibi una in amore atque in deliciis fuit, aut ex quo potius numero quam ex ipsis laudatoribus tuis? facilius enim perspicietur qualis apud eos fueris qui te oderunt, qui accusant, qui persequuntur, cum apud tuos Mamertinos inveniare improbissima ratione esse praedatus. C. Heius est Mamertinus—omnes hoc mihi qui Messanam accesserunt facile concedunt —omnibus rebus illa in civitate ornatissimus. huius domus est vel optima Messanae, notissima quidem certe et nostris hominibus apertissima maximeque hospitalis. ea domus ante istius adventum ornata sic fuit ut urbi quoque esset ornamento; nam ipsa Messana, quae situ moenibus portuque ornata sit, ab his rebus quibus iste delectatur sane vacua atque nuda est.

There was at Heius’s house a shrine, with great dignity, in the building, of great age, handed down from his ancestors, in which there were four most beautiful statues of the highest art and the highest fame, which could delight not only this man as a man of talent and understanding, but anyone of us, whom he calls amateurs: one a marble Cupid by Praxiteles — for indeed I have learned the names of artists too while I have inquired into this man. The same artist, I think, made that other Cupid of the same kind, which is at Thespiae, on whose account Thespiae is visited; for there is no other reason for visiting it. And that famous Lucius Mummius, when he was carrying off the Thespiads (which now are by the temple of Felicitas) and the rest of the profane statues from that town, did not touch this marble Cupid, because it was consecrated.

erat apud Heium sacrarium magna cum dignitate in aedibus a maioribus traditum perantiquum, in quo signa pulcherrima quattuor summo artificio, summa nobilitate, quae non modo istum hominem ingeniosum et intellegentem, verum etiam quemvis nostrum, quos iste idiotas appellat, delectare possent, unum Cupidinis marmoreum Praxiteli; nimirum didici etiam, dum in istum inquiro, artificum nomina. idem, opinor, artifex eiusdem modi Cupidinem fecit illum qui est Thespiis, propter quem Thespiae visuntur; nam alia visendi causa nulla est. atque ille L. Mummius, cum Thespiadas, quae ad aedem felicitatis sunt, ceteraque profana ex illo oppido signa tolleret, hunc marmoreum Cupidinem, quod erat consecratus, non attigit.

But to return to that shrine: there was the statue I am speaking of, of Cupid, in marble; on the other side a Hercules, finely made, in bronze. He was said to be by Myron, as I think, and indeed it is so. Likewise before these gods were little altars, which could signify to anyone the religious sanctity of the shrine. There were besides two bronze statues, not of the largest size but of singular grace, in maiden’s bearing and dress, which with hands lifted up bore on their heads certain sacred objects laid up in the manner of Athenian maidens; Canephori they themselves were called. But their artist — who? whose? you remind me well — they said was Polyclitus. Whoever of us came to Messana was wont to look at these. To all these were open daily for visiting; the house was an ornament not so much to its master as to the state.

verum ut ad illud sacrarium redeam, signum erat hoc quod dico Cupidinis e marmore, ex altera parte Hercules egregie factus ex aere. is dicebatur esse Myronis, ut opinor, et certe. item ante hos deos erant arulae, quae cuivis religionem sacrari significare possent. erant aenea duo praeterea signa, non maxima verum eximia venustate, virginali habitu atque vestitu, quae manibus sublatis sacra quaedam more Atheniensium virginum reposita in capitibus sustinebant; Canephoroe ipsae vocabantur; sed earum artificem —quem? quemnam? recte admones—Polyclitum esse dicebant. Messanam ut quisque nostrum venerat, haec visere solebat; omnibus haec ad visendum patebant cotidie; domus erat non domino magis ornamento quam civitati.

Gaius Claudius, whose aedileship we know was most magnificent, used this Cupid only so long as he had the forum adorned for the immortal gods and the Roman people; and, since he was a guest-friend of the Heii, but the patron of the Mamertine people, as he made use of their kindness in the lending, so was he himself diligent in the giving back. Lately, gentlemen, noble men of this kind — but why do I say "lately"? Indeed but now and a very little while ago we have seen — who adorned the forum and the basilicas not with the spoils of provinces but with the ornaments of friends, with the conveniences of guest-friends not with the thefts of the guilty; who yet returned their statues and ornaments to each man, and did not, having taken them out of the cities of allies and friends for four days under the pretence of an aedileship, then carry them off home and to their villas.

C. Claudius, cuius aedilitatem magnificentissimam 6 scimus fuisse, usus est hoc Cupidine tam diu dum forum dis immortalibus populoque Romano habuit ornatum, et, cum hospes esset Heiorum, Mamertini autem populi patronus, ut illis benignis usus est ad commodandum, sic ipse diligens fuit ad reportandum. nuper homines nobilis eius modi, iudices,—sed quid dico ’nuper’? immo vero modo ac plane paulo ante vidimus, qui forum et basilicas non spoliis provinciarum sed ornamentis amicorum, commodis hospitum non furtis nocentium ornarent; qui tamen signa atque ornamenta sua cuique reddebant, non ablata ex urbibus sociorum atque amicorum quadridui causa, per simulationem aedilitatis, domum deinde atque ad suas villas auferebant.

All these statues that I have spoken of, gentlemen, Verres carried off from Heius’s shrine. Not one, I say, of these did he leave; nor any other besides one ancient wooden one, the good Fortune, I think; that this man would not keep in his house. By the faith of gods and men! What is this? What is this case, what is this shamelessness? The statues I am speaking of, before they were carried off by you, no man came with imperium to Messana who did not visit them. So many praetors, so many consuls were in Sicily, both in peace and in war, so many men of every kind — I am not speaking of the upright, the innocent, the scrupulous — so many greedy, so many dishonest, so many bold, of whom no one seemed to himself so vehement, so powerful, so noble that he dared to ask for, to take, or to touch anything from that shrine. Will Verres carry off whatever shall be most beautiful anywhere? Shall it be lawful to no one to have anything besides? Shall this man’s one house take in so many most well-off houses? Did none of his predecessors touch them, that this man might carry them off? Did Gaius Claudius Pulcher restore them, that Gaius Verres might carry them off? But that Cupid did not require a pimp’s house and the school of harlots; he was easily contained in his ancestral shrine. He knew he had been left to Heius by his ancestors in the inheritance of the sacred things; he was not seeking the heir of a harlot.

haec omnia quae dixi signa, iudices, ab Heio e sacrario Verres abstulit; nullum, inquam, horum reliquit neque aliud ullum tamen praeter unum pervetus ligneum, bonam Fortunam, ut opinor; eam iste habere domi suae noluit. pro deum hominumque fidem! quid hoc est? quae haec causa est, quae ista impudentia? quae dico signa, antequam abs te sublata sunt, Messanam cum imperio nemo venit quin viserit. tot praetores, tot consules in Sicilia cum in pace tum etiam in bello fuerunt, tot homines cuiusque modi—non loquor de integris, innocentibus, religiosis —tot cupidi, tot improbi, tot audaces, quorum nemo sibi tam vehemens, tam potens, tam nobilis visus est qui ex illo sacrario quicquam poscere aut tollere aut attingere auderet: Verres quod ubique erit pulcherrimum auferet? nihil habere cuiquam praeterea licebit? tot domus locupletissimas istius domus una capiet? idcirco nemo superiorum attigit ut hic tolleret? ideo C. Claudius pulcher rettulit ut C. Verres posset auferre? at non requirebat ille Cupido lenonis domum ac meretriciam disciplinam; facile illo sacrario patrio continebatur; Heio se a maioribus relictum esse sciebat in hereditate sacrorum, non quaerebat meretricis heredem.

But why do I press so vehemently? I shall be repelled with one word. "I bought it," he says. Immortal gods, a famous defence! We sent into the province, with imperium and axes, a buyer to buy up all statues, painted panels, all the silver, gold, ivory, gems, to leave nothing for any man! For this defence, I see, opens to him for everything — "I bought it." First, even if I should grant you what you wish — that you bought (since in this whole kind you are about to use this one defence) — I ask, what kind of trials did you reckon there were at Rome, if you reckoned that anyone was about to grant you this: that you in your praetorship and command bought up so many things so precious, indeed all things which were of any value, out of a whole province?

sed quid ego tam vehementer invehor? verbo uno repellar. ’ emi,’ inquit. di immortales, praeclaram defensionem! mercatorem in provinciam cum imperio ac securibus misimus, omnia qui signa, tabulas pictas, omne argentum, aurum, ebur, gemmas coemeret, nihil cuiquam relinqueret! haec enim mihi ad omnia defensio patefieri videtur, emisse. primum, si id quod vis tibi ego concedam, ut emeris,—quoniam in toto hoc genere hac una defensione usurus es,— quaero cuius modi tu iudicia Romae putaris esse, si tibi hoc quemquam concessurum putasti, te in praetura atque imperio tot res tam pretiosas, omnis denique res quae alicuius preti fuerint, tota ex provincia coemisse?

See the diligence of our ancestors, who suspected nothing yet of this kind, but yet provided for those things which could happen in small matters. They did not suppose that any man, who had set out into a province with power or with a legateship, would be so mad as to buy silver — for it was given out of public funds; or clothes — for they were furnished by the laws. They thought of slaves, which we all use and which are not furnished by the people: they ordained that no one should buy except in the place of a deceased one. If anyone had died at Rome? No, but in the place itself; for they did not wish you to furnish your own home in the province, but to fill up the use of the province itself.

videte maiorum diligentiam, qui nihildum etiam istius modi suspicabantur, verum tamen ea quae parvis in rebus accidere poterant providebant. neminem qui cum potestate aut legatione in provinciam esset profectus tam amentem fore putaverunt ut emeret argentum, dabatur enim de publico; ut vestem, praebebatur enim legibus; mancipium putarunt, quo et omnes utimur et non praebetur a populo: sanxerunt ne quis emeret nisi in demortui locum. si qui Romae esset demortuus? immo, si quis ibidem; non enim te instruere domum tuam voluerunt in provincia, sed illum usum provinciae supplere.

What was the cause why they so diligently kept us from buyings in the provinces? This, gentlemen: that they thought it was a snatching, not a buying, when the seller was not allowed to sell at his own discretion. They understood that in the provinces, if he who was there with imperium and power wished to buy whatever was at any man’s house, and that should be allowed him, the result would be that whatever each wished, whether it was for sale or not, he would carry off at the price he wished. Someone will say: "Do not deal with Verres in this fashion; do not search out his deeds by the reckoning of old religious scruple. Grant that he bought without punishment, only that he bought in good reckoning, nothing on the strength of his power, nothing from an unwilling man, nothing through wrong." So I shall deal with him: if Heius sold what he had for sale at the value he set on it, I cease to ask why you bought it.

quae fuit causa cur tam diligenter nos in provinciis ab emptionibus removerent? haec, iudices, quod putabant ereptionem esse, non emptionem, cum venditori suo arbitratu vendere non liceret. in provinciis intellegebant, si is qui esset cum imperio ac potestate quod apud quemque esset emere vellet, idque ei liceret, fore uti quod quisque vellet, sive esset venale sive non esset, quanti vellet auferret. dicet aliquis: ’ noli isto modo agere cum Verre, noli eius facta ad antiquae religionis rationem exquirere; concede ut impune emerit, modo ut bona ratione emerit, nihil pro potestate, nihil ab invito, nihil per iniuriam.’ sic agam: si, quod venale habuit Heius, id quanti aestimabat tanti vendidit, desino quaerere cur emeris.

What then must we do? Are we to use proofs in such a matter? We must inquire, I think, whether this Heius had any debt, whether he held an auction; if he held one, whether such great difficulty in money matters held him, whether such great want, such great force pressed him, that he should despoil his own shrine, that he should sell his ancestral gods. But I see the man held no auction; that he sold nothing ever save his own harvests; that he was not only in no debt but had much money of his own and always had had. If all these things were the contrary of what I say, yet he would not have been about to sell these things, which had for so many years been in his family and in his ancestors’ shrine. "What if he was persuaded by the size of the money?" It is not credible that the man, so well-off, so honourable, would set money before his religious obligation and the monuments of his ancestors.

quid igitur nobis faciendum est? num argumentis utendum in re eius modi? quaerendum, credo, est Heius iste num aes alienum habuerit, num auctionem fecerit; si fecit, num tanta difficultas eum rei nummariae tenuerit, tanta egestas, tanta vis presserit ut sacrarium suum spoliaret, ut deos patrios venderet. at hominem video auctionem fecisse nullam, vendidisse praeter fructus suos nihil umquam, non modo in aere alieno nullo, sed in suis nummis multis esse et semper fuisse; si haec contra ac dico essent omnia, tamen illum haec, quae tot annos in familia sacrarioque maiorum fuissent, venditurum non fuisse. ’ quid, si magnitudine pecuniae persuasum est?’ veri simile non est ut ille homo tam locuples, tam honestus, religioni suae monumentisque maiorum pecuniam anteponeret.

"These things are so; but yet men sometimes are drawn even from their own institutions by the size of the money." Let us see how great that money was which could draw Heius — a most well-off, least greedy man — from humanity, from piety, from religion. So you ordered him, I think, to enter into his account-books: "All these statues by Praxiteles, Myron, Polyclitus sold to Verres for 6,500 sesterces." So he entered them. Read. From the account-books. It pleases me that these famous names of artists, which these men set on high, have so fallen by Verres’s assessment. A Cupid by Praxiteles for 1,600 sesterces! Surely from this was born "I prefer to buy than to ask."

’ sunt ista; verum tamen abducuntur homines non numquam etiam ab institutis suis magnitudine pecuniae.’ videamus quanta ista pecunia fuerit quae potuerit Heium, hominem maxime locupletem, minime avarum, ab humanitate, a pietate, ab religione deducere. ita iussisti, opinor, ipsum in tabulas referre: ’ haec omnia signa Praxiteli, Myronis, Polycliti HS sex milibus quingentis Verri vendita.’ sic rettulit. recita. ex TABVLIS. iuvat me haec praeclara nomina artificum, quae isti ad caelum ferunt, Verris aestimatione sic concidisse. Cupidinem Praxiteli HS MDC! profecto hinc natum est, ’ malo emere quam rogare.’

Some will say, "What? Do you assess these things at a great price?" I, indeed, by my own reckoning and use, do not assess them. Yet I think they ought to be regarded by you in this manner: at how much they would be valued in the judgement of those who are zealous for these things, at how much they are wont to be sold, at how much these very statues, if they came up for open and free sale, might be sold; finally, at how much Verres himself values them. For never, had he reckoned that Cupid at 400 denarii, would he have committed himself, on its account, to talk among men and to such great reproach.

dicet aliquis: ’ quid? tu ista permagno aestimas?’ ego vero ad meam rationem usumque meum non aestimo; verum tamen a vobis ita arbitror spectari oportere, quanti haec eorum iudicio qui studiosi sunt harum rerum aestimentur, quanti venire soleant, quanti haec ipsa, si palam libereque venirent, venire possent, denique ipse Verres quanti aestimet. numquam enim, si denariis cccc Cupidinem illum putasset, commisisset ut propter eum in sermonem hominum atque in tantam vituperationem veniret.

Who of you, then, does not know at how much these things are valued? Have we not seen at auction a bronze statue, not the largest, sold for 40,000 sesterces? What? If I should wish to name men who bought either at no less, or even at more, can I not? For what measure there is in these things of greed, the same is of valuation; it is hard to set an end of price unless you have set one to the lust. I see therefore that Heius was led neither by will nor by any difficulty of the time nor by the size of the money to sell these statues; that you, by that pretence of a buying, by force, by fear, by command, by the fasces, snatched and carried them off from the man whom, with the rest of the allies, the Roman people had committed not only to your power but to your faith.

quis vestrum igitur nescit quanti haec aestimentur? in auctione signum aeneum non maximum HS XL venire non vidimus? quid? si velim nominare homines qui aut non minoris aut etiam pluris emerint, nonne possum? etenim qui modus est in his rebus cupiditatis, idem est aestimationis; difficile est finem facere pretio nisi libidini feceris. video igitur Heium neque voluntate neque difficultate aliqua temporis nec magnitudine pecuniae adductum esse ut haec signa venderet, teque ista simulatione emptionis vi, metu, imperio, fascibus ab homine eo quem, una cum ceteris sociis, non solum potestati tuae sed etiam fidei populus Romanus commiserat eripuisse atque abstulisse.

What more, gentlemen, can be desired by me in this charge than that Heius himself should say these very things? Nothing surely. But let us not desire what is hard. Heius is a Mamertine; the Mamertine state alone publicly by common counsel praises this man. To all the rest of the Sicilians he is hateful; by these alone is he loved. But of this embassy which has been sent to praise him the chief is Heius; for he is the first man of the city. So that, perhaps, while he serves the public mandate, he may keep silent about his private wrongs.

quid mihi tam optandum, iudices, potest esse in hoc crimine quam ut haec eadem dicat ipse Heius? nihil profecto; sed ne difficilia optemus. Heius est Mamertinus; Mamertina civitas istum publice communi consilio sola laudat; omnibus iste ceteris Siculis odio est, ab his solis amatur; eius autem legationis quae ad istum laudandum missa est princeps est Heius—etenim est primus civitatis: ne forte, dum publicis mandatis serviat, de privatis iniuriis reticeat.

Knowing and considering this, gentlemen, I yet entrusted the matter to Heius. I produced him in the first hearing, and yet I did this with no peril. For what could Heius answer, were he a dishonest man, were he unlike himself? That those statues were in his own house, and not with Verres? How could he say anything of the kind? Were he a man most foul and most shamelessly lying, he would say this: that he had had them for sale, and had sold them at his own price. The man, most noble in his own city, who would most have wished you to think truly of his religious obligation and dignity, first said that he was praising this man publicly, because so it had been laid upon him. Next, that he had not had them for sale, nor on any condition (had either been allowed him to choose) could he ever have been led to sell those things which had been left and handed down by his ancestors in the shrine.

haec cum scirem et cogitarem, commisi tamen, iudices, Heio; produxi prima actione, neque id tamen ullo periculo feci. quid enim poterat Heius respondere, si esset improbus, si sui dissimilis? esse illa signa domi suae, non esse apud Verrem? qui poterat quicquam eius modi dicere? Vt homo turpissimus esset impudentissimeque mentiretur, hoc diceret, illa se habuisse venalia, eaque sese quanti voluerit vendidisse. homo domi suae nobilissimus, qui vos de religione sua ac dignitate vere existimare maxime vellet, primo dixit se istum publice laudare, quod sibi ita mandatum esset; deinde neque se habuisse illa venalia neque ulla condicione, si utrum vellet liceret, adduci umquam potuisse ut venderet illa quae in sacrario fuissent a maioribus suis relicta et tradita.

Why do you sit, Verres? What do you await? Why do you say that you are surrounded and oppressed by the Centuripine state, by the Catinaean, by the Halaesine, by the Tyndaritan, by the Hennensian, by the Agyrinensian, and the rest of the cities of Sicily? Your second fatherland (as you used to say) Messana surrounds you — your own Messana, I say, the helper of your crimes, the witness of your lusts, the receiver of your plunder and thefts. For the most ample man of that city is here, an envoy sent from home for the cause of this trial, the chief of your praise, who praises you publicly — for so it has been laid upon him and ordered. Although when asked about the cargo-ship, you hold in memory what he answered: that it was built with public works publicly compelled, and that a Mamertine senator had publicly been in charge of its building. The same man flees privately to you, gentlemen; he uses this law by which the trial is held, the common citadel of allies. Although the law is on extortion, he says he is not asking back money, of which he does not so greatly miss what was snatched. He says he is asking back from you the sacred things of his ancestors; he demands again from you the household gods of his fathers.

quid sedes, Verres? quid exspectas? quid te a Centuripina civitate, a Catinensi, ab Halaesina, a Tyndaritana, Hennensi, Agyrinensi ceterisque Siciliae civitatibus circumveniri atque opprimi dicis? tua te altera patria, quem ad modum dicere solebas, Messana circumvenit,—tua, inquam, Messana, tuorum adiutrix scelerum, libidinum testis, praedarum ac furtorum receptrix. adest enim vir amplissimus eius civitatis legatus huius iudici causa domo missus, princeps laudationis tuae, qui te publice laudat,—ita enim mandatum atque imperatum est; tametsi rogatus de cybaea tenetis memoria quid responderit: aedificatam publicis operis publice coactis, eique aedificandae publice Mamertinum senatorem praefuisse. idem ad vos privatim, iudices, confugit; utitur hac lege qua iudicium est, communi arce sociorum. tametsi lex est de pecuniis repetundis, ille se negat pecuniam repetere, quam ereptam non tanto opere desiderat: sacra se maiorum suorum repetere abs te dicit, deos penatis te patrios reposcit.

Is there any modesty, Verres, any religion, any fear? You lived at Heius’s house at Messana; you saw him performing divine rites before those gods in his own shrine almost daily. He is not moved by money; finally, things which were for ornament’s sake he does not ask for: keep your Canephori, restore the images of the gods. Because he said this, because at the time given he modestly complained before you, an ally and friend of the Roman people, because he was loyal to his religious obligation not only in asking back his ancestral gods but even in his very testimony and oath, know that a man was sent by this man to Messana — one of the envoys, that very man who was in public charge of building this man’s ship — who should ask the senate that Heius be afflicted with ignominy.

ecqui pudor est, ecquae religio, Verres, ecqui metus? habitasti apud Heium Messanae, res illum divinas apud eos deos in suo sacrario prope cotidiano facere vidisti; non movetur pecunia, denique quae ornamenti causa fuerunt non requirit; tibi habe Canephoros, deorum simulacra restitue. quae quia dixit, quia tempore dato modeste apud vos socius amicusque populi Romani questus est, quia religioni suae non modo in dis patriis repetendis sed etiam in ipso testimonio ac iure iurando proximus fuit, hominem missum ab isto scitote esse Messanam de legatis unum,—illum ipsum qui navi istius aedificandae publice praefuit,—qui a senatu peteret ut Heius adficeretur ignominia.

Most senseless of men, what did you suppose? That you would obtain it? Were you ignorant of how much he was esteemed by his fellow citizens, how much his authority was valued? But suppose you obtained it: suppose the Mamertines had set down something graver against Heius. How great do you think the authority of their praise will be, if they have established a punishment against the man whom it is agreed gave true testimony? But what kind of praise is it, when the praiser, when questioned, must of necessity wound? What? Are these praisers of yours not my witnesses? Heius is a praiser: he wounded most gravely. I shall produce the rest. They will keep silent willingly about what they can; they will say what is necessary unwillingly. Will they deny that the largest cargo-ship was built at Messana? Let them deny it, if they can. Will they deny that a Mamertine senator was in public charge of building that ship? Would that they would deny it! There are also other things, which I prefer to keep entire, to give them as little time as possible to meditate and confirm their perjury.

homo amentissime, quid putasti? impetraturum te? quanti is a civibus suis fieret, quanti auctoritas eius haberetur ignorabas? verum fac te impetravisse, fac aliquid gravius in Heium statuisse Mamertinos: quantam putas auctoritatem laudationis eorum futuram, si in eum quem constet verum pro testimonio dixisse poenam constituerint? tametsi quae est ista laudatio, cum laudator interrogatus laedat necesse est? quid? isti laudatores tui nonne testes mei sunt? Heius est laudator: laesit gravissime. producam ceteros: reticebunt quae poterunt libenter, dicent quae necesse erit ingratiis. negent isti onerariam navem maximam aedificatam esse Messanae? negent, si possunt. negent ei navi faciundae senatorem Mamertinum publice praefuisse? Vtinam negent! sunt etiam cetera; quae malo integra reservare, ut quam minimum dem illis temporis ad meditandum confirmandumque periurium.

Shall this praise be reckoned in the number for you? Shall these men relieve you by their authority? Who neither owe you help if they could give it, nor can if they wished, on whom you have laid most private wrongs and insults; in whose town you have made many whole households for ever infamous by your debauches and disgraces. "But you have served them publicly." Not without great hurt to the commonwealth and the province of Sicily. They ought to give and were wont to give 60,000 modii of wheat bought to the Roman people: by you alone has it been remitted. The commonwealth has taken hurt because through you the right of empire has been lessened in one city; the Sicilians, because that very thing has not been deducted from the total of grain, but has been transferred onto the Centuripines and the Halaesines, free peoples, and on these has been laid more than they could bear.

haec tibi laudatio procedat in numerum? hi te homines auctoritate sua sublevent? qui te neque debent adiuvare si possint, neque possunt si velint; quibus tu privatim iniurias plurimas contumeliasque imposuisti, quo in oppido multas familias totas in perpetuum infamis tuis stupris flagitiisque fecisti. at publice commodasti. non sine magno quidem rei publicae provinciaeque Siciliae detrimento. tritici modium L_X_ empta populo Romano dare debebant et solebant: abs te solo remissum est. res publica detrimentum fecit quod per te imperi ius in una civitate imminutum est: Siculi, quod ipsum non de summa frumenti detractum est, sed translatum in Centuripinos et Halaesinos, immunis populos, et hoc plus impositum quam ferre possent.

You ought by treaty to have demanded a ship: you remitted it for three years; you have demanded no soldier in all those years. You have done as pirates are wont. Pirates, although they are common enemies of all, yet make some men friends to themselves, whom they not only spare but even enrich with plunder; and especially those who hold a town in an opportune place, where ships often must put in. That famous Phaselis which Publius Servilius took had not before been a city of Cilicians and pirates; the Lycians, Greek men, lived in it. But because it was so situated and so jutting out into the deep that the pirates leaving Cilicia often necessarily came to it, and, when they returned from these places, were carried thither, the pirates joined that town to themselves first by trade, then even by partnership.

navem imperare ex foedere debuisti; remisisti in triennium; militem nullum umquam poposcisti per tot annos. fecisti item ut praedones solent; qui cum hostes communes sint omnium, tamen aliquos sibi instituunt amicos, quibus non modo parcant verum etiam praeda quos augeant, et eos maxime qui habent oppidum oportuno loco, quo saepe adeundum sit navibus. Phaselis illa, quam cepit P. Servilius, non fuerat urbs antea Cilicum atque praedonum; Lycii illam, Graeci homines, incolebant. sed quod erat eius modi loco atque ita proiecta in altum ut et exeuntes e Cicilia praedones saepe ad eam necessario devenirent, et, cum se ex hisce locis reciperent, eodem deferrentur, adsciverunt sibi illud oppidum piratae primo commercio, deinde etiam societate.

The Mamertine state was not before dishonest; it was even an enemy of dishonest men, for it kept the baggage of Gaius Cato (the man who was consul). But of what man! A most distinguished and most powerful man — who yet, when he had been consul, was condemned. So Gaius Cato, the grandson of two most distinguished men, Lucius Paulus and Marcus Cato, and the son of Publius Africanus’s sister: when he was condemned at the time when strict trials were being held, his fine was assessed at 8,000 sesterces. With him these Mamertines were angry, who often spent more on a luncheon for Timarchides than the fine of Cato had been assessed.

Mamertina civitas improba antea non erat; etiam erat inimica improborum, quae C. Catonis, illius qui consul fuit, impedimenta retinuit. at cuius hominis! clarissimi ac potentissimi; qui tamen cum consul fuisset, condemnatus est. ita, C. Cato, duorum hominum clarissimorum nepos, L. Pauli et M. Catonis, et P. Africani sororis filius: quo damnato tum, cum severa iudicia fiebant, HS VIII lis aestimata est. huic Mamertini irati fuerunt, qui maiorem sumptum quam quanti Catonis lis aestimata est in Timarchidi prandium saepe fecerunt.

But this state was a Phaselis to that brigand and Sicilian pirate. Hither all things were brought from every side; with these men they were left. What needed to be hidden, they kept set aside and laid up. Through these men what he wished he had loaded secretly and exported in concealment. Finally the largest ship, which loaded with thefts he should send to Italy, he had built and constructed at their hands. For these things, immunity was given by him from outlay, from labour, from military service, from all things at last. For three years they alone, not only in Sicily but (as I think) at this time in the whole world, were free, exempt, loose, and free from every outlay, trouble, and duty. Hence those Verria were born, hence to a banquet Sextus Cominius

verum haec civitas isti praedoni ac piratae Siciliensi Phaselis fuit; huc omnia undique deferebantur, apud istos relinquebantur; quod celari opus erat, habebant sepositum et reconditum; per istos quae volebat clam imponenda, occulte exportanda curabat; navem denique maximam, quam onustam furtis in Italiam mitteret, apud istos faciundam aedificandamque curavit; pro hisce rebus vacatio data est ab isto sumptus, laboris, militiae, rerum denique omnium; per triennium soli non modo in Sicilia verum, ut opinio mea fert, his quidem temporibus in omni orbe terrarum vacui, expertes, soluti ac liberi fuerunt ab omni sumptu, molestia, munere. hinc illa Verria nata sunt, quod in convivium sex.

was ordered to be dragged forth, at whom he tried to throw a cup with his own hand, whom with his throat twisted he ordered to be snatched from the banquet into chains and into darkness. Hence that cross on which this man hoisted up a Roman citizen with many looking on, which he dared to fix nowhere save among those with whom he shared all his crimes and brigandages. Do you also come to praise any of you? With what authority? Whether that which you ought to have before the senate, or that before the Roman people?

Cominium protrahi iussit, in quem scyphum de manu iacere conatus est, quem obtorta gula de convivio in vincla atque in tenebras abripi iussit; hinc illa crux in quam iste civem Romanum multis inspectantibus sustulit, quam non ausus est usquam defigere nisi apud eos quibuscum omnia scelera sua ac latrocinia communicavit. laudatum etiam vos quemquam venitis? qua auctoritate? utrum quam apud senatum an quam apud populum Romanum habere debetis?

Is there any city, not only in our provinces but among the most distant nations, either so powerful or so free or even so monstrous and barbarous, or any king finally, who does not invite a senator of the Roman people under his roof and into his house? An honour which is paid not to the man only, but first to the Roman people, by whose kindness we have come into this order, then to the authority of the order, which, unless it shall be grave among allies and foreign nations, where shall be the name and dignity of empire? The Mamertines did not invite me publicly. When I say me, it is light; if they did not invite a senator of the Roman people, they took away the honour due not to the man but to the order. For to me Tullius lay open the most well-off and most ample house of Gnaeus Pompeius the basilisk, where, even had I been invited by you, I would yet have lodged. There was also the most honourable house of the Percennii (who now likewise are Pompeii), where my brother Lucius lodged with their highest goodwill. A senator of the Roman people, so far as it was in you, in your town lay and spent the night in public. No other city has ever committed this. "But you were calling our friend into court." Will you interpret what private business I am doing by lessening senatorial honour?

ecqua civitas est, non modo in provinciis nostris verum in ultimis nationibus, aut tam potens aut tam libera aut etiam tam immanis ac barbara, rex denique ecquis est qui senatorem populi Romani tecto ac domo non invitet? qui honos non homini solum habetur, sed primum populo Romano, cuius beneficio nos in hunc ordinem venimus, deinde ordinis auctoritati, quae nisi gravis erit apud socios et exteras nationes, ubi erit imperi nomen et dignitas? Mamertini me publice non invitarunt. me cum dico, leve est: senatorem populi Romani si non invitarunt, honorem debitum detraxerunt non homini sed ordini. nam ipsi Tullio patebat domus locupletissima et amplissima Cn. Pompei basilisci, quo, etiamsi esset invitatus a vobis, tamen devertisset; erat etiam Percenniorum, qui nunc item Pompeii sunt, domus honestissima, quo Lucius frater meus summa illorum voluntate devertit. senator populi Romani, quod in vobis fuit, in vestro oppido iacuit et pernoctavit in publico. nulla hoc civitas umquam alia commisit. ’Amicum enim nostrum in iudicium vocabas.’ tu quid ego privatim negoti geram interpretabere imminuendo honore senatorio?

But these things we shall complain of then, if any matter about you shall be conducted by that order, the order which up to now has been despised by you alone. With what face have you committed yourselves to the sight of the Roman people? Did you not first tear down that cross, which still drips with the blood of a Roman citizen, which is fixed at your harbour and city, and cast it into the deep, and purify all that place, before you came to Rome and into this assize of these men? On the soil of the Mamertines, an ally and at peace, a monument of this man’s cruelty has been set up. Was your city chosen to which, when men should come from Italy, they should see the cross of a Roman citizen before they had seen any friend of the Roman people? Which you are wont to show to the Reginians, whose state you envy, and likewise to your dependents, Roman citizens, that they may presume the less for themselves and the less despise you, when they see the right of citizenship dispatched by that punishment.

verum haec tum queremur si quid de vobis per eum ordinem agetur, qui ordo a vobis adhuc solis contemptus est. in populi Romani quidem conspectum quo ore vos commisistis? nec prius illam crucem, quae etiam nunc civis Romani sanguine redundat, quae fixa est ad portum urbemque vestram, revellistis neque in profundum abiecistis locumque illum omnem expiastis, quam Romam atque in horum conventum adiretis? in Mamertinorum solo foederato atque pacato monumentum istius crudelitatis constitutum est. vestrane urbs electa est ad quam cum adirent ex Italia cives crucem civis Romani prius quam quemquam amicum populi Romani viderent? quam vos Reginis, quorum civitati invidetis, itemque incolis vestris, civibus Romanis, ostendere soletis, quo minus sibi adrogent minusque vos despiciant, cum videant ius civitatis illo supplicio esse mactatum.

But you say you bought these. What? Have you forgotten to buy from the same Heius those Attalic tapestries, named throughout all Sicily? It was lawful in the same manner as the statues. For what was done? Or did you spare the records? But this escapes a senseless man: he thought it would be less famous what was carried off out of a wardrobe than what was carried off out of a shrine. But how did he carry them off? I cannot say more plainly than Heius himself said before you. When I had asked whether anything else of his goods had come to Verres, he answered that this man had sent to him to send him the tapestries to Agrigentum. I asked whether he had sent them; he answered (which was necessary) that he had been obedient to the praetor’s word, that he had sent them. I asked whether they had reached Agrigentum; he said they had reached. I asked in what manner they had returned; he denied they had yet returned. There was laughter from the people and wonder from all of you.

verum haec emisse te dicis. quid? illa Attalica tota Sicilia nominata ab eodem Heio peripetasmata emere oblitus es? licuit eodem modo ut signa. quid enim actum est? an litteris pepercisti? verum hominem amentem hoc fugit: minus clarum putavit fore quod de armario quam quod de sacrario esset ablatum. at quo modo abstulit? non possum dicere planius quam ipse apud vos dixit Heius. cum quaesissem num quid aliud de bonis eius pervenisset ad Verrem, respondit istum ad se misisse ut sibi mitteret Agrigentum peripetasmata. quaesivi misisset ne; respondit, id quod necesse erat, se dicto audientem fuisse praetori, misisse. rogavi pervenissentne Agrigentum; dixit pervenisse. quaesivi quem ad modum revertissent; negavit adhuc revertisse. risus populi atque admiratio omnium vestrum facta est.

Did it not come into your mind here to bid him enter that he had sold these too to you for 6,500 sesterces? Did you fear that your debt would grow, if those things should stand you at 6,500 sesterces which you could easily sell at 200,000? It would have been worth as much, believe me; you would have something to defend. No one would inquire how much that thing was worth. If only you could say that you had bought it, you would easily prove your case and your deed to whom you wished. As it is, with the tapestries you have nothing by which to extricate yourself.

hic tibi in mentem non venit iubere ut haec quoque referret HS Vl milibus D se tibi vendidisse? metuisti ne aes alienum tibi cresceret, si HS VI milibus D tibi constarent ea quae tu facile posses vendere HS ducentis milibus? fuit tanti, mihi crede; haberes quod defenderes; nemo quaereret quanti illa res esset; si modo te posses dicere emisse, facile cui velles tuam causam et factum probares; nunc de peripetasmatis quem ad modum te expedias non habes.

What? From the phylarch of Centuripa, a wealthy and noble man, the most beautifully made trappings (which are said to have belonged to King Hiero) — did you carry off, or buy? When I was in Sicily, I was so hearing both from the Centuripines and from the rest — for the matter was not little known: they said you had carried off these trappings from the phylarch of Centuripa as well as the like noble ones from Aristus of Panhormus, as the third from Cratippus of Tyndaris. For if the phylarch had sold them, you would not, when you became defendant, have promised to give them back. Because you saw that more men knew, you considered: if you had given them back, you would have had less; the matter would not the less be witnessed. So you did not give them back. The phylarch said in evidence that, since he knew that disease of yours (as your friends call it), he had wished to hide the trappings from you; that, when he was asked by you, he denied that he had them, that he had laid them up with another, that they should not be found. That such was your sagacity that you inspected them through that very man with whom they were laid up. Then, caught, he could not deny it. So the trappings were taken from him, against his will, free.

quid? a phylarcho Centuripino, homine locupleti ac nobili, phalerass pulcherrime factas, quae regis Hieronis fuisse dicuntur, utrum tandem abstulisti an emisti? in Sicilia quidem cum essem, sic a Centuripinis, sic a ceteris audiebam,—non enim parum res erat clara: tam te has phaleras a phylarcho Centuripino abstulisse dicebant quam alias item nobilis ab Aristo Panhormitano, quam tertias a Cratippo Tyndaritano. etenim si phylarchus vendidisset, non ei, posteaquam reus factus es, redditurum te promisisses. quod quia vidisti pluris scire, cogitasti, si ei reddidisses, te minus habiturum, rem nihilo minus testatam futuram: non reddidisti. dixit phylarchus pro testimonio se, quod nosset tuum istum morbum, ut amici tui appellant, cupisse te celare de phaleris; cum abs te appellatus esset, negasse habere sese; apud alium quoque eas habuisse depositas, ne qua invenirentur; tuam tantam fuisse sagacitatem ut eas per illum ipsum inspiceres, ubi erant depositae; tum se deprensum negare non potuisse; ita ab se invito phalera sublatas gratiis.

Now in what fashion he was wont to find out and search out all these things, gentlemen, is worth knowing. There are at Cibyra two brothers, Tlepolemus and Hiero, of whom one (I think) used to model in wax, the other was a painter. These men, I think, when they had come into suspicion among their fellow citizens at Cibyra of having despoiled the temple of Apollo, fearing the penalty of trial and law, fled from home. Because they had come to know Verres as eager for their craft, then, when this man (as you have learned from the witnesses) had come to Cibyra with empty bonds, fleeing from home they betook themselves to him as exiles, when this man was in Asia. He kept them with him at that time and made much use of their work and counsel in the plunders and thefts of the legateship.

iam, ut haec omnia reperire ac perscrutari solitus sit, iudices, est operae pretium cognoscere. Cibyratae sunt fratres quidam, Tlepolemus et Hiero, quorum alterum fingere opinor e cera solitum esse, alterum esse pictorem. hosce opinor, Cibyrae cum in suspicionem venissent suis civibus fanum expilasse Apollinis, veritos poenam iudici ac legis domo profugisse. quod Verrem artifici sui cupidum cognoverant tum, cum iste, id quod ex testibus didicistis, Cibyram cum inanibus syngraphis venerat, domo fugientes ad eum se exsules, cum iste esset in Asia, contulerunt. habuit eos secum illo tempore et in legationis praedis atque furtis multum illorum opera consilioque usus est.

These are those to whom in the books Quintus Tadius enters that he gave at this man’s order — "to the Greek painters." These men, now well known and proved by the trial, he led with him into Sicily. After they had come thither, in a wonderful manner (you would say hunting dogs) they so smelled out and tracked everything that, where each thing was, they found it by some method. One thing by threatening, another by promising, another through slaves, another through the free, another through a friend, another through an enemy they would find. Whatever pleased them must be lost. Those whose silver was demanded had no other wish than that it should displease Hiero and Tlepolemus.

hi sunt illi quibus in tabulis refert sese Q. Tadius ’dedisse iussu istius, Graecis pictoribus’. Eos iam bene cognitos et re probatos secum in Siciliam duxit. quo posteaquam venerunt, mirandum in modum (canis venaticos diceres) ita odorabantur omnia et pervestigabant ut, ubi quidque esset, aliqua ratione invenirent. aliud minando, aliud pollicendo, aliud per servos, aliud per liberos, per amicum aliud, aliud per inimicum inveniebant; quicquid illis placuerat, perdendum erat. nihil aliud optabant quorum poscebatur argentum nisi ut id Hieroni et Tlepolemo displiceret.

But by Hercules, gentlemen, I will tell you this: I remember Pamphilus of Lilybaeum, my friend and guest-friend, a noble man, telling me that, when this man had carried off from him by his power a hydria made by the hand of Boethus of distinguished workmanship and great weight, he had returned home truly sad and troubled, because such a vase — which had been left him by his father and his ancestors, which he was wont to use for festal days, for the visits of guests — had been carried off from him. "While I was sitting at home, sad," he said, "a Venusian came up. He bids me bring at once the embossed cups to the praetor. I was disturbed," he said. "I had two: I order both to be brought out, lest some greater evil arise, and to be carried with me to the praetor’s house. When I come there, the praetor was resting; those Cibyratan brothers were walking about. When they saw me, ’Where are the cups, Pamphilus?’ they say. I show them, sad. They praise them. I begin to complain that I shall have nothing of any value if even the cups are carried off. Then they, when they see me troubled, ’What will you give us not to have these carried off from you?’ To be brief, they asked me," he said, "for a thousand sesterces. I said I would give them. Meanwhile the praetor calls, demands the cups." Then they had begun to say to the praetor that they had thought, from what they had heard, that Pamphilus’s cups were of some value: that it was a poor business, not worthy that Verres should keep them in his silver. He says he too thinks so. So Pamphilus carries off his most excellent cups.

verum mehercule hoc, iudices, dicam. memini Pamphilum Lilybitanum, amicum et hospitem meum, nobilem hominem, mihi narrare, cum iste ab sese hydriam Boethi manu factam praeclaro opere et grandi pondere per potestatem abstulisset, se sane tristem et conturbatum domum revertisse, quod vas eius modi, quod sibi a patre et a maioribus esset relictum, quo solitus esset uti ad festos dies, ad hospitum adventus, a se esset ablatum. ’ cum sederem,’ inquit, ’domi tristis, accurrit Venerius; iubet me scyphos sigillatos ad praetorem statim adferre. permotus sum,’ inquit; ’binos habebam; iubeo promi utrosque, ne quid plus mali nasceretur, et mecum ad praetoris domum ferri. eo cum venio, praetor quiescebat; fratres illi Cibyratae inambulabant. qui me ubi viderunt, "Vbi sunt, Pamphile," inquiunt, "scyphi?" ostendo tristis; laudant. incipio queri me nihil habiturum quod alicuius esset preti si etiam scyphi essent ablati. tum illi, ubi me conturbatum vident, " quid vis nobis dare ut isti abs te ne auferantur?" ne multa, HS mille me,’ inquit, ’poposcerunt; dixi me daturum. vocat interea praetor, poscit scyphos.’ tum illos coepisse praetori dicere putasse se, id quod audissent, alicuius preti scyphos esse Pamphili; luteum negotium esse, non dignum quod in suo argento Verres haberet. ait ille idem sibi videri. ita Pamphilus scyphos optimos aufert.

And by Hercules, although I knew that to understand these things was a kind of trifle, I was yet wont to wonder that this man had any sense at all in these very things, the man whom I knew to have nothing in any matter that resembled a man. Then for the first time I understood that those Cibyratan brothers had been there for this: that, in stealing, this man might use his own hands and their eyes. But he is so eager for this distinguished standing — to be reckoned a knower in these things — that lately (see the senselessness of the man!), after he was put off till the morrow, when already he was as if condemned and dead, on the morning of the circus games at Lucius Sisenna’s house (a leading man), when the dining-couches were spread and the silver set out in the rooms, and as befits the dignity of Lucius Sisenna the house was full of most honourable men, he came up to the silver and began to consider each piece at leisure. Some wondered at his stupidity, that in the very trial he was increasing the suspicion of that very greed of which he was being accused; others at his senselessness — who, when so many witnesses had spoken and he was put off, could remember any of those things. But the slaves of Sisenna, I trust — who had heard what testimonies had been given against him — never took their eyes from him nor their fingers from the silver.

et mehercule ego antea, tametsi hoc nescio quid nugatorium sciebam esse, ista intellegere, tamen mirari solebam istum in his ipsis rebus aliquem sensum habere, quem scirem nulla in re quicquam simile hominis habere. tum primum intellexi ad eam rem istos fratres Cibyratas fuisse, ut iste in furando manibus suis oculis illorum uteretur. at ita studiosus est huius praeclarae existimationis, ut putetur in hisce rebus intellegens esse, ut nuper—videte hominis amentiam: posteaquam est comperendinatus, cum iam pro damnato mortuoque esset, ludis circensibus mane apud L. Sisennam, virum primarium, cum essent triclinia strata argentumque expositum in aedibus, cum pro dignitate L. Sisennae domus esset plena hominum honestissimorum, accessit ad argentum, contemplari unum quidque otiose et considerare coepit. mirari stultitiam alii, quod in ipso iudicio eius ipsius cupiditatis cuius insimularetur suspicionem augeret, alii amentiam, cui comperendinato, cum tam multi testes dixissent, quicquam illorum veniret in mentem. pueri autem Sisennae, credo, qui audissent quae in istum testimonia essent dicta, oculos de isto nusquam deicere neque ab argento digitum discedere.

It is the part of a good judge to make a guess of each man’s greed and self-restraint from small things. He who, as defendant, and as defendant put off by law, by fact and by men’s opinion almost condemned, could not in the largest gathering keep himself from handling and inspecting Lucius Sisenna’s silver — this man as praetor in a province will any one suppose could have kept his greed and his hands from the silver of the Sicilians?

est boni iudicis parvis ex rebus coniecturam facere unius cuiusque et cupiditatis et continentiae. qui reus, et reus lege comperendinatus, re et opinione hominum paene damnatus, temperare non potuerit maximo conventu quin L. Sisennae argentum tractaret et consideraret, hunc praetorem in provincia quisquam putabit a Siculorum argento cupiditatem aut manus abstinere potuisse?

But that we may return to Lilybaeum, whence the speech has gone aside: there is Diocles, the son-in-law of Pamphilus (from whom the hydria was taken), surnamed Popilius. From him, of all the vessels of the sideboard, just as they were set out, he carried them off. Suppose he says he bought them. For here, on account of the size of the theft, the entries (as I think) have been made. He bade Timarchides assess the silver — in such a manner as he who has assessed most stingily for a gift to actors. Yet I have long erred in spending so many words about your buyings, and asking whether you bought or not, and how, and at what price — when I can dispatch it in a word. Set out for me, in writing, what silver you got in the province of Sicily, whence each piece was, and at what price you bought it.

verum ut Lilybaeum, unde digressa est oratio, revertamur, Diocles est, Pamphili gener, illius a quo hydria ablata est, Popilius cognomine. ab hoc abaci vasa omnia, ut exposita fuerunt, abstulit. dicat se licet emisse; etenim hic propter magnitudinem furti sunt, ut opinor, litterae factae. iussit Timarchidem aestimare argentum, quo modo qui umquam tenuissime in donationem histrionum aestimavit. tametsi iam dudum ego erro qui tam multa de tuis emptionibus verba faciam, et quaeram utrum emeris necne et quo modo et quanti emeris, quod verbo transigere possum. ede mihi scriptum quid argenti in provincia Sicilia pararis, unde quidque aut quanti emeris.

What follows? Although I ought not to ask these writings of you; for it would be fit that I should hold and produce your account-books. But you say you did not draw them up for some of these years. Set together for me what I demand — about the silver; the rest I shall see to. "I have nothing in writing, nor can I produce it." What then will be? What do you suppose these judges can do? A house full of most beautiful statues already before your praetorship; many things set out at your villas; many laid up with friends; many given and granted to others. The records show no purchase. All the silver has been carried off out of Sicily; nothing has been left to anyone that he might wish to call his own. A dishonest defence is feigned: that the praetor bought up all that silver. Yet this very thing cannot be shown by the records. If, in the records you produce, it is not written in what manner you have what you have; and if of these years in which you say you have bought very many things you produce no records at all — must you not be condemned both by the records produced and by those not produced?

quid fit? quamquam non debebam ego abs te has litteras poscere; me enim tabulas tuas habere et proferre oportebat. verum negas te horum annorum aliquot confecisse. compone hoc quod postulo de argento, de reliquo videro. ’ nec scriptum habeo nec possum edere.’ quid futurum igitur est? quid existimas hosce iudices facere posse? domus plena signorum pulcherrimorum iam ante praeturam, multa ad villas tuas posita, multa deposita apud amicos, multa aliis data atque donata; tabulae nullum indicant emptum. omne argentum ablatum ex Sicilia est, nihil cuiquam quod suum dici vellet relictum. fingitur improba defensio, praetorem omne id argentum coemisse; tamen id ipsum tabulis demonstrari non potest. si, quas tabulas profers, in his quae habes quo modo habeas scriptum non est, horum autem temporum cum te plurimas res emisse dicis tabulas omnino nullas profers, nonne te et prolatis et non prolatis tabulis condemnari necesse est?

You from Marcus Coelius, a Roman knight, a most choice young man, took at Lilybaeum what you wished; you from Gaius Cacurius, a busy and resourceful and most well-favoured man, did not hesitate to take all his furniture; you from Quintus Lutatius Diodorus, who by Quintus Catulus’s kindness was made a Roman citizen by Lucius Sulla, with all knowing it, took at Lilybaeum the largest and most beautiful citrus-wood table. I do not throw it at you that you despoiled and plundered the man most worthy of your character, Apollonius son of Nicon of Drepanum (who is now called Aulus Clodius), of all his most beautifully made silver. I am silent. For he does not think he has been wronged, because, when he was already a ruined man and was thrusting his neck into the noose, you came to his help, and shared with him the ancestral goods snatched from the orphan-children of Drepanum. I rejoice even, if you took anything from him; and I say nothing was done by you more rightly. But from Lyso of Lilybaeum, the first man, with whom you lodged — the statue of Apollo certainly ought not to have been carried off. You will say you bought it. I know it: for 1,000 sesterces. "So I think." I know it, I say. "I shall produce records." Yet that ought not to have been done. From the orphan-boy Heius, of whom Gaius Marcellus is guardian, from whom you had snatched a great sum of money, the saucers with insets at Lilybaeum — do you say they were bought, or do you confess they were snatched?

tu a M. Coelio, equite Romano, lectissimo adulescente, quae voluisti Lilybaei abstulisti, tu C. Cacuri, prompti hominis et experientis et in primis gratiosi, supellectilem omnem auferre non dubitasti, tu maximam et pulcherrimam mensam citream a Q. Lutatio Diodoro, qui Q. Catuli beneficio ab L. Sulla civis Romanus factus est, omnibus scientibus Lilybaei abstulisti. non tibi obicio quod hominem dignissimum tuis moribus, Apollonium, Niconis filium, Drepanitanum, qui nunc A. Clodius vocatur, omni argento optime facto spoliasti ac depeculatus es; taceo. non enim putat ille sibi iniuriam factam, propterea quod homini iam perdito et collum in laqueum inserenti subvenisti, cum pupillis Drepanitanis bona patria erepta cum illo partitus es; gaudeo etiam si quid ab eo abstulisti, et abs te nihil rectius factum esse dico. A Lysone vero Lilybitano, primo homine, apud quem deversatus es, Apollinis signum ablatum certe non oportuit. dices te emisse. scio, HS mille. ’ ita opinor.’ scio, inquam. ’Proferam litteras.’ tamen id factum non oportuit. A pupillo Heio, cui C. Marcellus tutor est, a quo pecuniam grandem eripueras, scaphia cum emblematis Lilybaei utrum empta esse dicis an confiteris erepta?

But why do I gather his middling wrongs in such matters, which seem to consist only in this man’s thefts and in the losses of those from whom he took? Hear, gentlemen, if you wish, a thing of such a kind that you can see his singular madness and frenzy — not greed — now. Diodorus is a Maltese, who before this gave his testimony before you. He has lived for many years now at Lilybaeum, a man both noble at home and, among those to whom he had betaken himself, splendid and well-favoured for his virtue. About him it was said to Verres that he had very fine embossed work, among them certain cups, called Thericlia, made by the hand of Mentor with the highest art. When this man heard of it, he was so set on fire by greed not only of seeing but even of carrying off, that he summoned Diodorus to him and demanded them. The other, who would not unwillingly have had them, answered that he did not have them at Lilybaeum, that he had left them at Malta with a kinsman of his.

sed quid ego istius in eius modi rebus mediocris iniurias colligo, quae tantum modo in furtis istius et damnis eorum a quibus auferebat versatae esse videantur? accipite, si vultis, iudices, rem eius modi ut amentiam singularem et furorem iam, non cupiditatem eius perspicere possitis. Melitensis Diodorus est, qui apud vos antea testimonium dixit. is Lilybaei multos iam annos habitat, homo et domi nobilis et apud eos quo se contulit propter virtutem splendidus et gratiosus. de hoc Verri dicitur habere eum perbona toreumata, in his pocula quaedam, quae Thericlia nominantur, Mentoris manu summo artificio facta. quod iste ubi audivit, sic cupiditate inflammatus est non solum inspiciendi verum etiam auferendi ut Diodorum ad se vocaret ac posceret. ille, qui illa non invitus haberet, respondit Lilybaei se non habere, Melitae apud quendam propinquum suum reliquisse.

Then this man at once sends sure men to Malta. He writes to certain Maltese to seek out those vases. He asks Diodorus to give a letter to that kinsman of his. Nothing seemed longer to him than till he saw that silver. Diodorus, a thrifty and diligent man, who wished to keep his own, writes to his kinsman to answer those who came from Verres that he had sent that silver to Lilybaeum a few days before. He himself meanwhile withdraws; he preferred to be away from home for a while rather than, present, to lose that silver of the best workmanship. When this man heard, he was so disturbed that, without any doubt, he seemed to all to be mad and frantic. Because he could not himself snatch the silver from Diodorus, he was saying that vases of the best workmanship had been snatched from him. He threatened the absent Diodorus, cried out openly, sometimes could not hold his tears. We have heard in the fables of Eriphyle, of such a greed that, when she had seen a necklace (of gold and gems, I think), inflamed by its beauty, she betrayed her husband’s life. Like to her was this man’s greed — nay, the keener and the more frantic, that she was desiring what she had seen, while this man’s lusts were stirred not only by the eyes but by the ears.

tum iste continuo mittit homines certos Melitam, scribit ad quosdam Melitensis ut ea vasa perquirant, rogat Diodorum ut ad illum propinquum suum det litteras; nihil ei longius videbatur quam dum illud videret argentum. Diodorus, homo frugi ac diligens, qui sua servare vellet, ad propinquum suum scribit ut iis qui a Verre venissent responderet illud argentum se paucis illis diebus misisse Lilybaeum. ipse interea recedit; abesse a domo paulisper maluit quam praesens illud optime factum argentum amittere. quod ubi iste audivit, usque eo commotus est ut sine ulla dubitatione insanire omnibus ac furere videretur. quia non potuerat eripere argentum ipse Diodoro, erepta sibi vasa optime facta dicebat; minitari absenti Diodoro, vociferari palam, lacrimas interdum non tenere. Eriphylam accepimus in fabulis ea cupiditate ut, cum vidisset monile, ut opinor, ex auro et gemmis, pulchritudine eius incensa salutem viri proderet. Similis istius cupiditas, hoc etiam acrior atque insanior, quod illa cupiebat id quod viderat, huius libidines non solum oculis sed etiam auribus excitabantur.

He orders Diodorus to be sought through the whole province. He had now broken camp out of Sicily and packed up his vessels. The man, that he might in some way recall him to the province, devises this method (if it is to be called a method rather than madness). He sets up one of his own dogs to say that he wished to charge Diodorus the Maltese with a capital crime. At first it seemed wonderful to all that Diodorus should be a defendant — a most quiet man, most far removed from any suspicion not only of any deed but even of the smallest fault. Then it became clear that all this was on account of the silver. This man does not hesitate to bid the name be entered; and then for the first time, I think, this man received the name of an absent man.

conquiri Diodorum tota provincia iubet: ille ex Sicilia iam castra commoverat et vasa collegerat. homo, ut aliquo modo in provinciam illum revocaret, hanc excogitat rationem, si haec ratio potius quam amentia nominanda est. apponit de suis canibus quendam qui dicat se Diodorum Melitensem rei capitalis reum velle facere. primo mirum omnibus videri Diodorum reum, hominem quietissimum, ab omni non modo facinoris verum etiam minimi errati suspicione remotissimum; deinde esse perspicuum fieri omnia illa propter argentum. iste non dubitat iubere nomen referri, et tum primum ut opinor istum absentis nomen recepisse.

The thing is famous through all Sicily, that on account of greed for embossed silver men were being made defendants in capital cases, and not only being made defendants but absent. Diodorus at Rome in mourning runs round his patrons and guest-friends and tells everyone the story. Vehement letters are sent to this man by his father, likewise by his friends: that he should see what he was doing in Diodorus’s case, how far he was going. The matter was famous and odious; the man was mad; he would perish on this charge alone unless he took care. This man even then thought his father, if not in the place of a parent, at least in the place of a man. He had not yet sufficiently equipped himself for trial; it was the first year of the province; he was not, as in the case of Sthenius, already gorged with money. So his frenzy was held back a little not by shame but by fear and dread. He does not dare condemn Diodorus in his absence; he removes him from the list of defendants. Meanwhile under this man as praetor Diodorus was nearly three years without his province and his home.

res clara Sicilia tota, propter caelati argenti cupiditatem reos fieri rerum capitalium, neque solum reos fieri, sed etiam absentis. Diodorus Romae sordidatus circum patronos atque hospites cursare, rem omnibus narrare. Litterae mittuntur isti a patre vehementes, ab amicis item, videret quid ageret de Diodoro, quo progrederetur; rem claram esse et invidiosam; insanire hominem, periturum hoc uno crimine, nisi cavisset. iste etiam tum patrem, si non in parentis, at in hominum numero putabat; ad iudicium nondum se satis instruxerat; primus annus erat provinciae, non erat ut in Sthenio, iam refertus pecunia. itaque furor eius paululum non pudore, sed metu ac timore repressus est. condemnare Diodorum non audet absentem, de reis eximit. Diodorus interea praetore isto prope triennium provincia domoque caruit.

The rest — not only Sicilians but even Roman citizens — had laid this down: since this man was going so far in his greed, that there was nothing anyone could think to keep or hold at home of what should somewhat please him. After they understood that the brave man whom the province most expected, Quintus Arrius, was not to succeed — they laid down that they could have nothing so closed and so hidden that it should not lie most open and most ready to this man’s greed. Then he carries off from a splendid and well-favoured Roman knight, Gnaeus Calidius (whose son he knew was a senator and a judge of the Roman people), some noble silver horsemen which had been Quintus Maximus’s.

ceteri, non solum Siculi sed etiam cives Romani, hoc statuerant, quoniam iste tantum cupiditate progrederetur, nihil esse quod quisquam putaret se, quod isti paulo magis placeret, conservare aut domi retinere posse; postea vero quam intellexerunt isti virum fortem, quem summe provincia exspectabat, Q. Arrium, non succedere, statuerunt nihil se tam clausum neque tam reconditum posse habere quod non istius cupiditati apertissimum promptissimumque esset. tum iste ab equite Romano splendido et gratioso, Cn. Calidio, cuius filium sciebat senatorem populi Romani et iudicem esse, eculeos argenteos nobilis, qui Q. Maximi fuerant, aufert.

Imprudent I have fallen here, gentlemen; for he bought, did not carry them off. I would I had not said it. He will toss himself about and ride upon these little horsemen. "I bought; I paid the money." I trust so. "Even the records will be produced." It is worth so much: give me the records. Cleanse, by all means, this Calidian charge, while I can look at the records. Yet what was the cause why Calidius at Rome was complaining that, when he had been doing business in Sicily for so many years, he was so despised, so looked down upon by you alone that he was even, with the rest of the Sicilians, despoiled — if you had bought? What was the cause why he was confirming that he would demand back the silver from you, if he had sold it to you of his own will? Could you, moreover, see to it that you should not return it to Gnaeus Calidius? Especially when he was so familiar with Lucius Sisenna, your defender, and you had returned to the rest of Sisenna’s familiars.

imprudens huc incidi, iudices; emit enim, non abstulit; nollem dixisse; iactabit se et in his equitabit eculeis. ’ emi, pecuniam solvi.’ credo. ’ etiam tabulae proferentur.’ est tanti; cedo tabulas. dilue sane crimen hoc Calidianum, dum ego tabulas aspicere possim. verum tamen quid erat quod Calidius Romae quereretur se, cum tot annos in Sicilia negotiaretur, a te solo ita esse contemptum, ita despectum ut etiam una cum ceteris Siculis despoliaretur, si emeras? quid erat quod confirmabat se abs te argentum esse repetiturum, si id tibi sua voluntate vendiderat? tu porro posses facere ut Cn. Calidio non redderes? praesertim cum is L. Sisenna, defensore tuo, tam familiariter uteretur, et cum ceteris familiaribus Sisennae reddidisses.

Finally, I do not think you will deny that to an honourable man (though not more well-favoured than Gnaeus Calidius), Lucius Curidius, you returned the silver through your friend Potamo. He indeed made the case of the rest harder before you. For when you had assured several that you would return it, after Curidius said in evidence that you had returned it to him, you made an end of returning, because you understood that, with the plunder let go from your hands, you could yet not escape testimony. To Gnaeus Calidius, a Roman knight, under all other praetors it had been allowed to have well-made silver; it had been allowed him to be able from his own household supplies, when he had invited a magistrate or any superior, to adorn and prepare a banquet. Many men were at Calidius’s house with power and command: no one was found so senseless as to snatch that silver so distinguished and so noble; no one so audacious as to demand it; no one so shameless as to ask that he should sell it.

denique non opinor negaturum esse te homini honesto, sed non gratiosiori quam Cn. Calidius est, L. Curidio, te argentum per Potamonem, amicum tuum, reddidisse. qui quidem ceterorum causam apud te difficiliorem fecit. nam cum te compluribus confirmasses redditurum, posteaquam Curidius pro testimonio dixit te sibi reddidisse, finem reddendi fecisti, quod intellexisti praeda te de manibus emissa testimonium tamen effugere non posse. Cn. Calidio, equiti Romano, per omnis alios praetores licuit habere argentum bene factum, licuit posse domesticis copiis, cum magistratum aut aliquem superiorem invitasset, ornare et apparare convivium. multi domi Cn. Calidi cum potestate atque imperio fuerunt: nemo inventus est tam amens qui illud argentum tam praeclarum ac tam nobile eriperet, nemo tam audax qui posceret, nemo tam impudens qui postularet ut venderet.

For it is arrogant, gentlemen, and not to be borne, that a praetor in his province should say to an honourable, well-off, splendid man, "Sell me your embossed vessels." For this is to say, "You are not worthy to have these things which are so well made; those are for my dignity." Are you, Verres, more worthy than Calidius? — who, that I may not weigh your life or standing with his (for they are not to be compared); I shall weigh this very thing in which you feign yourself the higher: that you gave 300,000 sesterces to the distributors that you might be returned as praetor, 300,000 to the prosecutor that he should not be hateful to you. On this account do you despise and look down on the equestrian order? On this account did it seem unworthy to you that anything which pleased you should be possessed by Calidius rather than by you?

Superbum est enim, iudices, et non ferendum dicere praetorem in provincia homini honesto, locupleti, splendido, ’ vende mihi vasa caelata’; hoc est enim dicere, ’ non es dignus tu qui habeas quae tam bene facta sunt, meae dignitatis ista sunt.’ tu dignior, Verres, quam Calidius? qui, ut non conferam vitam neque existimationem tuam cum illius—neque enim est conferenda; hoc ipsum conferam quo tu te superiorem fingis; quod HS ccc divisoribus ut praetor renuntiarere dedisti, trecenta accusatori ne tibi odiosus esset, ea re contemnis equestrem ordinem et despicis? ea re tibi indignum visum est quicquam, quod tibi placeret, Calidium potius habere quam te?

He has long been tossing himself about over Calidius; he tells everyone he bought it. From Lucius Papinius too, a leading man, a wealthy and honourable Roman knight — did you buy a censer? Who said in evidence that you, when you had asked to inspect it, returned it with the inset torn out — that you may understand there was understanding in the man, not greed; that he was eager for the artistry, not the silver. Nor was this restraint his only in Papinius’s case; he kept up this practice in all the censers there were in Sicily. It is incredible how many and how distinguished there were. I trust, when Sicily was flourishing in resources and supplies, there were great works of art on that island. For there was no house, before this praetor, even a little well-off, in which these things were not, even if there was no other silver besides — a great dish with figures and images of the gods, a bowl with which the women would use for sacred rites, a censer. And all these of old work and the highest artistry were so made that this might be supposed: that there had once been at the Sicilians’ houses likewise the rest in proportion; but, although fortune had taken much, those things had nevertheless remained with them which religious sanctity had kept.

iactat se iam dudum de Calidio, narrat omnibus emisse se. num etiam de L. Papinio, viro primario, locupleti honestoque equite Romano, turibulum emisti? qui pro testimonio dixit te, cum inspiciendum poposcisses, evulso emblemate remisisse; ut intellegatis in homine intellegentiam esse non avaritiam, artifici cupidum non argenti fuisse. nec solum in Papinio fuit hac abstinentia; tenuit hoc institutum in turibulis omnibus quaecumque in Sicilia fuerunt. incredibile est autem quam multa et quam praeclara fuerint. credo tum cum Sicilia florebat opibus et copiis magna artificia fuisse in ea insula. nam domus erat ante istum praetorem nulla paulo locupletior qua in domo haec non essent, etiamsi praeterea nihil esset argenti, patella grandis cum sigillis ac simulacris deorum, patera qua mulieres ad res divinas uterentur, turibulum,—haec autem omnia antiquo opere et summo artificio facta, ut hoc liceret suspicari, fuisse aliquando apud Siculos peraeque pro portione cetera, sed, quibus multa fortuna ademisset, tamen apud eos remansisse ea quae religio retinuisset.

I have said, gentlemen, that there were many such things at almost all the Sicilians’; the same I confirm that there is now not even one. What is this? What monster, what portent have we sent into a province? Does he not seem to you to have set himself this task, that not one man’s lust, not his own eyes, but the frenzies of all most greedy men he should fill, when he had returned to Rome? Who, as soon as he had come into any town, those Cibyratan dogs were let loose at once, who tracked and searched out everything. If any large vessel or greater work had been found, they brought it gladly. If they had been able to hunt down anything less of that kind, those at least were taken in place of little hares: dishes, bowls, censers.

dixi, iudices, multa fuisse fere apud omnis Siculos: ego idem confirmo nunc ne unum quidem esse. quid hoc est? quod hoc monstrum, quod prodigium in provinciam misimus? nonne vobis id egisse videtur ut non unius libidinem, non suos oculos, sed omnium cupidissimorum insanias, cum Romam revertisset, expleret? qui simul atque in oppidum quodpiam venerat, immittebantur illi continuo Cibyratici canes, qui investigabant et perscrutabantur omnia. si quod erat grande vas et maius opus inventum, laeti adferebant; si minus eius modi quidpiam venari potuerant, illa quidem certe pro lepusculis capiebantur, patellae, paterae, turibula.

Here what weeping of women, what lamentations are you to suppose were wont to be in these matters? Which perhaps may seem small to you, but they stir up great and bitter grief, especially in little women, when those things are torn from their hands which they were wont to use for sacred rites, which they had received from their own, which had always been in the family. Here do not wait for me to plead these charges from door to door — that this man took a bowl from Aeschylus of Tyndaris, a dish likewise from Thraso of Tyndaris, a censer from Nymphodorus of Agrigentum. When I shall give witnesses from Sicily, let him pick whom he will whom I shall question about dishes, bowls, censers. Not only no town but not even any house a little well-off will be found that is free of this wrong. He, when he had come into a banquet, if he had seen anything embossed, could not, gentlemen, keep his hands off. Gnaeus Pompeius (who had been Philo) was a Tyndaritan. He gave him a dinner at his villa in Tyndaritan territory. He did what the Sicilians did not dare. He, because he was a Roman citizen, thought he could do it the more without punishment. He set out a dish on which were excellent figures. This man, as soon as he saw it, did not hesitate to take that emblem of his household and hospitable gods from the hospitable table; but yet, as I said before about this man’s restraint, with the figures wrenched off, he returned the rest of the silver without any greed.

hic quos putatis fletus mulierum, quas lamentationes fieri solitas esse in hisce rebus? quae forsitan vobis parvae esse videantur, sed magnum et acerbum dolorem commovent, mulierculis praesertim, cum eripiuntur e manibus ea quibus ad res divinas uti consuerunt, quae a suis acceperunt, quae in familia semper fuerunt. hic nolite exspectare dum ego haec crimina agam ostiatim, ab Aeschylo Tyndaritano istum pateram abstulisse, a Thrasone item Tyndaritano patellam, a Nymphodoro Agrigentino turibulum. cum testis ex Sicilia dabo, quem volet ille eligat quem ego interrogem de patellis, pateris, turibulis: non modo oppidum nullum, sed ne domus quidem ulla paulo locupletior expers huius iniuriae reperietur. qui cum in convivium venisset, si quicquam caelati aspexerat, manus abstinere, iudices, non poterat. Cn. Pompeius est, Philo qui fuit, Tyndaritanus. is cenam isti dabat apud villam in Tyndaritano. fecit quod Siculi non audebant; ille, civis Romanus quod erat, impunius id se facturum putavit; adposuit patellam in qua sigilla erant egregia. iste continuo ut vidit, non dubitavit illud insigne penatium hospitaliumque deorum ex hospitali mensa tollere, sed tamen, quod ante de istius abstinentia dixeram, sigillis avulsis reliquum argentum sine ulla avaritia reddidit.

What? To Eupolemus of Calacte, a noble man, the guest-friend and most familiar of the Luculli, who is now with the army with Lucius Lucullus — did he not do the same? He was dining at his house. He had set out the rest of the silver plain, lest he himself be left plain — two cups, not large, but with insets. This man, as if a festive entertainment, lest he should depart from the banquet without his little crown, in that very place, with the guests looking on, saw to it that the insets were torn out. Nor do I now try to enumerate all this man’s deeds; nor is there need, nor can it in any way be done. I produce before you only the tokens and examples of each kind of his various wickedness. For he did not so conduct himself in these matters as if he were sometime to render an account, but plainly as if he were either never going to be a defendant, or, the more he had carried off, the less danger he was going to come into court with. Who handled these things which I am speaking of now not in concealment, not through friends and go-betweens, but openly from his high place by his command and power.

quid? Eupolemo Calactino, homini nobili, Lucullorum hospiti ac perfamiliari, qui nunc apud exercitum cum L. Lucullo est, non idem fecit? cenabat apud eum; argentum ille ceterum purum adposuerat, ne purus ipse relinqueretur, duo pocula non magna, verum tamen cum emblemate. hic tamquam festivum acroama, ne sine corollario de convivio discederet, ibidem convivis spectantibus emblemata evellenda curavit. neque ego nunc istius facta omnia enumerare conor, neque opus est nec fieri ullo modo potest: tantum unius cuiusque de varia improbitate generis indicia apud vos et exempla profero. neque enim ita se gessit in his rebus tamquam rationem aliquando esset redditurus, sed prorsus ita quasi aut reus numquam esset futurus, aut, quo plura abstulisset, eo minore periculo in iudicium venturus esset; qui haec quae dico iam non occulte, non per amicos atque interpretes, sed palam de loco superiore ageret pro imperio et potestate.

When he had come to Catina, a wealthy, honourable, well-stocked town, he orders Dionysiarchus, the proagorus (that is, the highest magistrate), to be summoned to him. To him he openly commands that all the silver which was at any man’s house at Catina should be sought out and brought to him. Phylarchus the Centuripine, a leading man by birth, by virtue, by money — did you not hear him say the same thing on oath: that this man had given him the business and ordered him to seek out, in the city by far the largest and most well-off in all Sicily, all the silver from the Centuripines and to order it to be brought to him? At Agyrium likewise, by this man’s command, the Corinthian vessels through Apollodorus (whom you heard as witness) were carried away to Syracuse.

Catinam cum venisset, oppidum locuples, honestum, copiosum, Dionysiarchum ad se proagorum, hoc est summum magistratum, vocari iubet; ei palam imperat ut omne argentum quod apud quemque esset Catinae conquirendum curaret et ad se adferendum. phylarchum Centuripinum, primum hominem genere, virtute, pecunia, non hoc idem iuratum dicere audistis, sibi istum negotium dedisse atque imperasse ut Centuripinis, in civitate totius Siciliae multo maxima et locupletissima, omne argentum conquireret et ad se comportari iuberet? Agyrio similiter istius imperio vasa Corinthia per Apollodorum, quem testem audistis, Syracusas deportata sunt.

But that is the best of all, that, when he had come to Haluntium, a busy and diligent praetor, he himself would not go up into the town, because the climb was hard and steep, but ordered Archagathus of Haluntium — a man not only at home but throughout all Sicily among the chief noble — to be summoned. To him he gave the business, that whatever there was of embossed silver at Haluntium, or even of Corinthian work, all should be carried at once down to the sea out of the town. Archagathus goes up into the town, a noble man who wished to be loved and respected by his own; he was bearing heavily the province given him by this man, nor knew what to do. He proclaims what has been ordered him; he bids all bring forth what they had. There was the highest fear; for the very tyrant did not depart far. Archagathus and the silver he was awaiting, lying in his litter, by the sea below the town.

illa vero optima est, quod, cum Haluntium venisset praetor laboriosus et diligens, ipse in oppidum noluit accedere, quod erat difficili ascensu atque arduo, Archagathum Haluntinum, hominem non solum domi, sed tota Sicilia in primis nobilem, vocari iussit. ei negotium dedit ut, quidquid Halunti esset argenti caelati aut si quid etiam Corinthiorum, id omne statim ad mare ex oppido deportaretur. escendit in oppidum Archagathus. homo nobilis, qui a suis amari et diligi vellet, ferebat graviter illam sibi ab isto provinciam datam, nec quid faceret habebat; pronuntiat quid sibi imperatum esset; iubet omnis proferre quod haberent. metus erat summus; ipse enim tyrannus non discedebat longius; Archagathum et argentum in lectica cubans ad mare infra oppidum exspectabat.

What concourse do you suppose was made in the town, what cry, what weeping further of women? Who saw it, would say the Trojan horse had been brought in, that the city had been taken. Vessels carried out without their cases; others wrenched from the hands of women; doors of many broken in; bolts torn off. For what do you think? If shields are sometimes sought out from private houses in war and tumult, men yet give them unwilling, although they feel they are giving them for the common safety. Do not think anyone without the greatest grief brought forth embossed silver from his home for another to snatch. Everything is brought down. The Cibyratan brothers are summoned; a few they reject; from those they had approved, the crusts or the insets are torn off. So the Haluntians, with their delights shaken out of their houses, return home with plain silver.

quem concursum in oppido factum putatis, quem clamorem, quem porro fletum mulierum? qui videret equum Troianum introductum, urbem captam diceret. efferri sine thecis vasa, extorqueri alia de manibus mulierum, ecfringi multorum foris, revelli claustra. quid enim putatis? scuta si quando conquiruntur a privatis in bello ac tumultu, tamen homines inviti dant, etsi ad salutem communem dari sentiunt, ne quem putetis sine maximo dolore argentum caelatum domo, quod alter eriperet, protulisse. omnia deferuntur. Cibyratae fratres vocantur; pauca improbant; quae probarant, iis crustae aut emblemata detrahebantur. sic Haluntini excussis deliciis cum argento puro domum revertuntur.

What kind of broom of this sort, gentlemen, was there ever in any province? They were wont to divert something from the public most obscurely, through a magistrate. Even when sometimes from a private man, they took it secretly — and these too were condemned. And if you ask, that I may say something against myself, I think those were prosecutors who pursued the thefts of such men by smell or by some lightly pressed footprint. For we, indeed, what are we doing in the case of Verres, whom we find rolled in mud with the marks of his whole body? It is a great thing to say something against him who, passing by, with his litter set down for a little, not by sleights of hand but openly by his power, by one command, plundered the whole town from door to door. And yet, that he might be able to say he had bought, he commands Archagathus to give to those whose silver had been taken some little coins for form’s sake. Archagathus finds a few who would receive them; to these he gave. Yet this man did not return that money to Archagathus. Archagathus wished to demand it back at Rome; Gnaeus Lentulus Marcellinus dissuaded him, as you have heard him himself say. Read. Testimony of Archagathus and Lentulus.

quod umquam, iudices, huiusce modi everriculum ulla 24 in provincia fuit? avertere aliquid de publico quam obscurissime per magistratum solebant; etiam cum aliquid a privato non numquam, occulte auferebant, et ii tamen condemnabantur. et si quaeritis, ut ipse de me detraham, illos ego accusatores puto fuisse qui eius modi hominum furta odore aut aliquo leviter presso vestigio persequebantur. nam nos quidem quid facimus in Verre, quem in luto volutatum totius corporis vestigiis invenimus? permagnum est in eum dicere aliquid qui praeteriens, lectica paulisper deposita, non per praestigias sed palam per potestatem uno imperio ostiatim totum oppidum compilaverit. ac tamen, ut posset dicere se emisse, Archagatho imperat ut illis aliquid, quorum argentum fuerat, nummulorum dicis causa daret. invenit Archagathus paucos qui vellent accipere; iis dedit. Eos nummos tamen iste Archagatho non reddidit. voluit Romae repetere Archagathus; Cn. Lentulus Marcellinus dissuasit, sicut ipsum dicere audistis. recita. ARCHAGATHI ET LENTVLI TESTIMONIUM.

And lest perhaps you think that he wished to gather without cause this great quantity of insets, see how much he reckoned of you, how much of the standing of the Roman people, how much of the laws and trials, how much of the Sicilian and businessman witnesses. After he had collected such a multitude of insets that he had not left even one to anyone, he set up the largest workshop at Syracuse in the palace. Openly he orders all the artists, the embossers and vase-makers, to be summoned, and he had several of his own. He shuts these in — a great multitude of men. For eight months on end work did not fail them, with no vase being made save in gold. Then those things which he had wrenched off from dishes and censers he so cunningly fitted into golden cups, so neatly set into golden saucers, that you would say they had been born for that purpose. Yet the praetor himself, who says that by his vigilance there was peace in Sicily, was wont to sit in this workshop the greater part of the day, in a dark tunic and cloak.

et ne forte hominem existimetis hanc tantam vim emblematum sine causa coacervare voluisse, videte quanti vos, quanti existimationem populi Romani, quanti leges et iudicia, quanti testis Siculos negotiatores fecerit. posteaquam tantam multitudinem collegerat emblematum ut ne unum quidem cuiquam reliquisset, instituit officinam Syracusis in regia maximam. palam artifices omnis, caelatores ac vascularios, convocari iubet, et ipse suos compluris habebat. Eos concludit, magnam hominum multitudinem. mensis octo continuos his opus non defuit, cum vas nullum fieret nisi aureum. tum illa, ex patellis et turibulis quae evellerat, ita scite in aureis poculis inligabat, ita apte in scaphiis aureis includebat, ut ea ad illam rem nata esse diceres; ipse tamen praetor, qui sua vigilantia pacem in Sicilia dicit fuisse, in hac officina maiorem partem diei cum tunica pulla sedere solebat et pallio.

I would not dare to bring forward these things, gentlemen, did I not fear that perhaps you should say you had heard more about him from others in conversation than from me at the trial. For who is there who has not heard about this workshop, about the gold vases, about that cloak of his? Name any good man you wish from the Syracusan assize; I will produce him. There will be no one who does not say he heard or saw this.

haec ego, iudices, non auderem proferre, ni vererer ne forte plura de isto ab aliis in sermone quam a me in iudicio vos audisse diceretis. quis enim est qui de hac officina, qui de vasis aureis, qui de istius pallio non audierit? quem voles e conventu Syracusano virum bonum nominato; producam; nemo erit quin hoc se audisse aut vidisse dicat.

O the times, O the manners! I shall bring forward nothing too old. There are some not a few of you who knew Lucius Piso, the father of this Lucius Piso who was praetor. He, when he was praetor in Spain, in which province he was killed, somehow or other, while he was practising arms, broke and shattered a gold ring he was wearing. Wishing to make himself a ring, he ordered a goldsmith to be called into the forum at his chair at Corduba, and openly weighed out the gold; he orders the man to set up his chair in the forum and make the ring, with all present. Some will perhaps say this was too diligent. Thus far one will reproach him, if any wishes; nothing further. But it must be granted to him; for he was the son of Lucius Piso, of him who first brought the law on extortion.

O tempora, O mores! nihil nimium vetus proferam. sunt vestrum aliquam multi qui L. Pisonem cognorint, huius L. Pisonis, qui praetor fuit, patrem. ei cum esset in Hispania praetor, qua in provincia occisus est, nescio quo pacto, dum armis exercetur, anulus aureus quem habebat fractus et comminutus est. cum vellet sibi anulum facere, aurificem iussit vocari in forum ad sellam Cordubae et palam appendit aurum; hominem in foro iubet sellam ponere et facere anulum omnibus praesentibus. nimium fortasse dicet aliquis hunc diligentem; hactenus reprehendet, si qui volet, nihil amplius. verum fuit ei concedendum; filius enim L. Pisonis erat, eius qui primus de pecuniis repetundis legem tulit.

It is laughable for me now to speak of Verres, after I have spoken of Piso Frugi. Yet see how much they differ. This man, when he was making vessels of gold for several sideboards, did not labour over what he should hear, not only in Sicily but even at Rome at trial; that man wished, in a half-ounce of gold, that all Spain should know whence the praetor’s ring was made. No wonder that this man approved his own name; that man approved his surname. I cannot in any way pursue all this man’s deeds either by memory or compass them by speech. I desire only to touch briefly on the kinds, as Piso’s ring has just now reminded me of what had wholly slipped my mind. From how many honourable men do you suppose that this man took rings off their fingers? He never hesitated, whenever he was delighted by anyone’s gem or ring. I shall say a thing incredible, but so famous that I do not think even he will deny it.

ridiculum est me nunc de Verre dicere, cum de Pisone Frugi dixerim; verum tamen quantum intersit videte. iste cum aliquot abacorum faceret vasa aurea, non laboravit quid non modo in Sicilia verum etiam Romae in iudicio audiret: ille in auri semuncia totam Hispaniam scire voluit unde praetori anulus fieret. nimirum ut hic nomen suum comprobavit, sic ille cognomen. nullo modo possum omnia istius facta aut memoria consequi aut oratione complecti: genera ipsa cupio breviter attingere, ut hic modo me commonuit Pisonis anulus quod totum effluxerat. quam multis istum putatis hominibus honestis de digitis anulos abstulisse? numquam dubitavit, quotienscumque alicuius aut gemma aut anulo delectatus est. incredibile dicam, sed ita clarum ut ipsum negaturum non arbitrer.

When a letter from Agrigentum had been brought to Valentius, his interpreter, this man by chance noted the seal in the wax. It pleased him; he asked whence the letter was; the answer was, from Agrigentum. He sent letters to those to whom he was wont, that the ring should be brought to him as soon as possible. So by this man’s letters from Lucius Titius, a Roman citizen, a paterfamilias, a ring was drawn off his finger. But that greed of his is incredible. For when he was looking for thirty couches well-made, with the rest of the banquet ornaments, for each of the rooms, which he has not only at Rome but in all his villas, he would seem to be procuring too many things. Yet there was no well-off house in Sicily where he did not set up a weaving-shop.

cum Valentio, eius interpreti, epistula Agrigento adlata esset, casu signum iste animadvertit in cretula. placuit ei; quaesivit unde esset epistula; respondit Agrigento. iste litteras ad quos solebat misit, ut is anulus ad se primo quoque tempore adferretur. ita litteris istius patri familias, L. Titio, civi Romano, anulus de digito detractus est. illa vero eius cupiditas incredibilis est. nam ut in singula conclavia, quae iste non modo Romae sed in omnibus villis habet, tricenos lectos optime stratos cum ceteris ornamentis convivi quaereret, nimium multa comparare videretur; nulla domus in Sicilia locuples fuit ubi iste non textrinum instituerit.

A Segestan woman, very rich and noble, by name Lamia, made him for three years, with her household full of looms, coverlets, dyed in nothing save purple. Attalus, a wealthy man at Netum; Lyso at Lilybaeum; Critolaus at Aetna; at Syracuse Aeschrio, Cleomenes, Theomnastus; Archonidas at Helorus — the day will fail me sooner than the names. "He himself was supplying the purple; only the labour was his friends’." I trust so; for now I am not pleased to bring all charges. As if even this were not enough for charge: that he had so much to give, that he wished to carry off so many things, this finally (which he grants) that the labour of his friends was used in matters of this kind.

mulier est Segestana perdives et nobilis, Lamia nomine, per triennium isti plena domo telarum stragulam vestem confecit, nihil nisi conchylio tinctum Attalus, homo pecuniosus, Neti, Lyso Lilybaei, Critolaus Aetnae, Syracusis Aeschrio, Cleomenes, Theomnastus, Helori Archonidas,—dies me citius defecerit quam nomina. ’ ipse dabat purpuram, tantum operam amici.’ credo; iam enim non libet omnia criminari; quasi vero hoc mihi non satis sit ad crimen, habuisse tam multum quod daret, voluisse deportare tam multa, hoc denique, quod concedit, amicorum operis esse in huiusce modi rebus usum.

Now, do you suppose that for any save him bronze couches and bronze candelabra were being made at Syracuse for three years on end? "He was buying." I trust so. But I am only making you certain, gentlemen, what this man did as praetor in the province, lest he seem perhaps to have been too negligent and not to have furnished and adorned himself enough when he had the power. I come now not to theft, not to greed, not to lust, but to a deed of such a kind that all unspeakable things seem to me to be contained and to lie within it: in which the immortal gods were violated, the standing and authority of the name of the Roman people was lessened, guest-friendship was despoiled and betrayed, all the most friendly kings, and the nations that are in their realm and rule, were alienated from us by this man’s crime.

iam vero lectos aeratos et candelabra aenea num cui praeter istum Syracusis per triennium facta esse existimatis? ’ emebat.’ credo; sed tantum vos certiores, iudices, facio quid iste in provincia praetor egerit, ne cui forte neglegens nimium fuisse videatur neque se satis, cum potestatem habuerit, instruxisse et ornasse. venio nunc non iam ad furtum, non ad avaritiam, non ad cupiditatem, sed ad eius modi facinus in quo omnia nefaria contineri mihi atque inesse videantur; in quo di immortales violati, existimatio atque auctoritas nominis populi Romani imminuta, hospitium spoliatum ac proditum, abalienati scelere istius a nobis omnes reges amicissimi, nationesque quae in eorum regno ac dicione sunt.

For you know that the kings of Syria, the boys, the sons of King Antiochus, were lately at Rome. Who had come not on account of the kingdom of Syria — for that they held without controversy, as they had received it from their father and from their ancestors — but they thought that the kingdom of Egypt belonged to them and to Selene, their mother. They, after they had been by the times of the commonwealth shut out and could not transact through the senate what they wished, set out into Syria into their father’s kingdom. One of them, who is called Antiochus, wished to make his journey through Sicily, and so under this man as praetor came to Syracuse.

nam reges Syriae, regis Antiochi filios pueros, scitis Romae nuper fuisse; qui venerant non propter Syriae regnum, nam id sine controversia obtinebant ut a patre et a maioribus acceperant, sed regnum Aegypti ad se et ad Selenen, matrem suam, pertinere arbitrabantur. ii posteaquam temporibus rei publicae exclusi per senatum agere quae voluerant non potuerunt, in Syriam in regnum patrium profecti sunt. Eorum alter, qui Antiochus vocatur, iter per Siciliam facere voluit, itaque isto praetore venit Syracusas.

Here Verres reckoned an inheritance had come to him, since into his realm and hands he had come whom he had heard had many distinguished things with him, and whom he suspected. He sends gifts to the man liberally enough — for his domestic use — of oil, of wine as much as seemed good, even of wheat as much as was enough, out of his tithes. Then he summoned the king himself to dinner. He adorns the dining-room amply and magnificently. He sets out those things in which he abounded, very many and most beautiful silver vessels — for he had not yet made the gold ones. He takes care that the banquet shall be furnished and prepared in all things. To be brief: the king departed in such a way that he reckoned both that this man was richly furnished and that he himself had been received with honour. Then the king himself summons the praetor to dinner. He sets out all his resources, much silver, not a few cups even of gold (which, as is the royal custom and especially in Syria, were marked with the most distinguished gems). There was also a wine-vase of one very large gem, hollowed out into a ladle, with a gold handle, of which (I trust) you have heard a witness fit enough and weighty enough, Quintus Minucius, speak.

hic Verres hereditatem sibi venisse arbitratus est, quod in eius regnum ac manus venerat is quem iste et audierat multa secum praeclara habere et suspicabatur. mittit homini munera satis large haec ad usum domesticum, olei, vini quod visum est, etiam tritici quod satis esset, de suis decumis. deinde ipsum regem ad cenam vocavit. exornat ample magnificeque triclinium; exponit ea, quibus abundabat, plurima et pulcherrima vasa argentea,—nam haec aurea nondum fecerat; omnibus curat rebus instructum et paratum ut sit convivium. quid multa? rex ita discessit ut et istum copiose ornatum et se honorifice acceptum arbitraretur. vocat ad cenam deinde ipse praetorem; exponit suas copias omnis, multum argentum, non pauca etiam pocula ex auro, quae, ut mos est regius et maxime in Syria, gemmis erant distincta clarissimis. erat etiam vas vinarium, ex una gemma pergrandi trulla excavata, manubrio aureo, de qua, credo, satis idoneum satis gravem testem, Q. Minucium, dicere audistis.

This man took each vase in turn into his hands, praised, marvelled. The king rejoiced that the banquet was pleasing and welcome to the praetor of the Roman people. After they parted thence, this man thought of nothing else (as the matter itself made plain) save how he should send the king out of the province despoiled and stripped. He sends to ask for those vessels which he had seen most beautiful at his house: he says he wishes to show them to his own embossers. The king, who did not know him, gave them most willingly without any suspicion. He sends also to ask for the gem ladle: he wished, he said, to consider it more diligently. That too was sent him.

iste unum quodque vas in manus sumere, laudare, mirari: rex gaudere praetori populi Romani satis iucundum et gratum illud esse convivium. posteaquam inde discessum est, cogitare nihil iste aliud, quod ipsa res declaravit, nisi quem ad modum regem ex provincia spoliatum expilatumque dimitteret. mittit rogatum vasa ea quae pulcherrima apud eum viderat; ait se suis caelatoribus velle ostendere. Rex, qui illum non nosset, sine ulla suspicione libentissime dedit. mittit etiam trullam gemmeam rogatum; velle se eam diligentius considerare. ea quoque ei mittitur.

Now mark the rest, gentlemen, of which both you have heard, and the Roman people will not now first hear, and which has spread among foreign nations even to the most distant lands. A candelabrum of the most distinguished gems, finished by wonderful workmanship, those kings of whom I speak had brought to Rome, that they might set it up on the Capitoline. Because they had found the temple not yet finished, neither could they set it up nor wished commonly to show or bring it forth, that it should both seem the more magnificent when at its own time it should be set up in the cella of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and the more distinguished when its beauty should reach men’s eyes fresh and untouched. They resolved to take it back with them into Syria, that, when they had heard that the image of Jupiter Optimus Maximus had been dedicated, they should send envoys who, with the rest of things, should bring that singular and most beautiful gift to the Capitoline. The matter came to this man’s ears in some manner.

nunc reliquum, iudices, attendite, de quo et vos audistis et populus Romanus non nunc primum audiet et in exteris nationibus usque ad ultimas terras pervagatum est. candelabrum e gemmis clarissimis opere mirabili perfectum reges ii, quos dico, Romam cum attulissent, ut in Capitolio ponerent, quod nondum perfectum templum offenderant, neque ponere potuerunt neque vulgo ostendere ac proferre voluerunt, ut et magnificentius videretur cum suo tempore in cella Iovis optimi maximi poneretur, et clarius cum pulchritudo eius recens ad oculos hominum atque integra perveniret: statuerunt id secum in Syriam reportare ut, cum audissent simulacrum Iovis optimi maximi dedicatum, legatos mitterent qui cum ceteris rebus illud quoque eximium ac pulcherrimum donum in Capitolium adferrent. pervenit res ad istius auris nescio quo modo;

For the king had wished it concealed, not because he feared or suspected anything, but lest many should anticipate it with their eyes before the Roman people should. This man asks the king and begs him in many words to send it to him. He says he longs to inspect it; that he will give the power of seeing it to no others. Antiochus, who was of a mind both boyish and royal, suspected nothing of this man’s wickedness. He bids his men carry it wrapped to the praetorium as secretly as possible. When they had brought it there, and with the wrappings cast off had set it up, this man began to cry out that the thing was worthy of the kingdom of Syria, worthy of a royal gift, worthy of the Capitoline. For it was of that splendour which from the most distinguished and most beautiful gems it had to have, of such a variety of works that art seemed to vie with abundance, of such a size that it could be understood not for the apparatus of men, but for the adornment of the most ample temple, to have been made. When he seemed to have inspected it enough, they begin to take it up to carry it back. He says he wishes to consider it again and again; he is by no means yet sated. He bids them depart and leave the candelabrum. So they then return empty to Antiochus.

nam rex id celatum voluerat, non quo quicquam metueret aut suspicaretur, sed ut ne multi illud ante praeciperent oculis quam populus Romanus. iste petit a rege et eum pluribus verbis rogat ut id ad se mittat; cupere se dicit inspicere neque se aliis videndi potestatem esse facturum. Antiochus, qui animo et puerili esset et regio, nihil de istius improbitate suspicatus est; imperat suis ut id in praetorium involutum quam occultissime deferrent. quo posteaquam attulerunt involucrisque reiectis constituerunt, clamare iste coepit dignam rem esse regno Syriae, dignam regio munere, dignam Capitolio. etenim erat eo splendore qui ex clarissimis et pulcherrimis gemmis esse debebat, ea varietate operum ut ars certare videretur cum copia, ea magnitudine ut intellegi posset non ad hominum apparatum sed ad amplissimi templi ornatum esse factum. cum satis iam perspexisse videretur, tollere incipiunt ut referrent. iste ait se velle illud etiam atque etiam considerare; nequaquam se esse satiatum; iubet illos discedere et candelabrum relinquere. sic illi tum inanes ad Antiochum revertuntur.

The king at first feared nothing, suspected nothing. One day, a second, more: it is not given back. Then he sends, if it should seem good, that he restore it. This man bids them return to him later. It seems wonderful to him; he sends again; it is not given back. He himself addresses the man, asks that he restore it. Learn the face of the man and his marked shamelessness. What he knew — what he had heard from the king himself — was to be set up on the Capitoline; what he saw was being kept for Jupiter Optimus Maximus, for the Roman people — this he began to ask and most vehemently to demand that he should give him as a gift. When the king said that he was hindered both by the religious obligation to Jupiter Capitoline and by men’s standing, because many nations were witnesses of that work and gift, this man began most fiercely to threaten the man. When he sees him no more moved by threats than by prayers, he suddenly bids the man depart from the province before night. He says that he has learned that pirates are coming from his kingdom to Sicily.

Rex primo nihil metuere, nihil suspicari; dies unus, alter, plures; non referri. tum mittit, si videatur, ut reddat. iubet iste posterius ad se reverti. mirum illi videri; mittit iterum; non redditur. ipse hominem appellat, rogat ut reddat. os hominis insignemque impudentiam cognoscite. quod sciret, quod ex ipso rege audisset in Capitolio esse ponendum, quod Iovi optimo maximo, quod populo Romano servari videret, id sibi ut donaret rogare et vehementissime petere coepit. cum ille se et religione Iovis Capitolini et hominum existimatione impediri diceret, quod multae nationes testes essent illius operis ac muneris, iste homini minari acerrime coepit. Vbi videt eum nihilo magis minis quam precibus permoveri, repente hominem de provincia iubet ante noctem decedere; ait se comperisse ex eius regno piratas ad Siciliam esse venturos.

The king, in the largest assembly at Syracuse in the forum (lest anyone perhaps think that I am occupied in some obscure charge and feigning something by men’s suspicion), in the forum at Syracuse, weeping and calling gods and men to witness, began to cry out that a candelabrum made of gems, which he was about to send to the Capitoline, which he had wished to be in that most distinguished temple a monument to the Roman people of his partnership and friendship, had been carried off from him by Gaius Verres. About the rest of the works of gold and gems, which were his own and yet were in the hands of that man, he was not concerned; this seemed to him a wretched and unworthy thing to be torn from him. Although it had been before consecrated by his and his brother’s mind and thought, yet then in that gathering of Roman citizens he was giving, presenting, declaring, consecrating to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and was calling Jupiter himself to witness his own will and his religious obligation. What voice, what lungs, what strength can sustain the complaint of this one charge? King Antiochus, who at Rome had been before the eyes of all of us for almost two years with his royal retinue and ornament, who was a friend and ally of the Roman people, with a most friendly father, grandfather, and ancestors, the most ancient and most distinguished kings, and the most opulent and greatest kingdom — he was driven headlong out of the province of the Roman people.

Rex maximo conventu Syracusis in foro, ne quis forte me in crimine obscuro versari atque adfingere aliquid suspicione hominum arbitretur,—in foro, inquam, Syracusis flens ac deos hominesque contestans clamare coepit candelabrum factum e gemmis, quod in Capitolium missurus esset, quod in templo clarissimo populo Romano monumentum suae societatis amicitiaeque esse voluisset, id sibi C. Verrem abstulisse; de ceteris operibus ex auro et gemmis quae sua penes illum essent se non laborare, hoc sibi eripi miserum esse et indignum. id etsi antea iam mente et cogitatione sua fratrisque sui consecratum esset, tamen 5 tum se in illo conventu civium Romanorum dare donare dicare consecrare Iovi optimo maximo, testemque ipsum Iovem suae voluntatis ac religionis adhibere. quae vox, quae latera, quae vires huius unius criminis querimoniam possunt sustinere? Rex Antiochus, qui Romae ante oculos omnium nostrum biennium fere comitatu regio atque ornatu fuisset, is cum amicus et socius populi Romani esset, amicissimo patre, avo, maioribus, antiquissimis et clarissimis regibus, opulentissimo et maximo regno, praeceps provincia populi Romani exturbatus est.

How do you suppose foreign nations are about to receive this, how the fame of this deed of yours is about to come into the kingdoms of others and into the most distant lands, when they shall hear that by a praetor of the Roman people in the province a king has been violated, a guest-friend despoiled, an ally and friend of the Roman people cast out? Know that your name, gentlemen, and that of the Roman people will be a subject of hatred and bitterness to foreign nations, if this great wrong of his shall depart unpunished. So all will reckon, especially since this fame of the greed and lust of our men has spread, that this is the deed not of him alone, but also of those who have approved it. Many kings, many free states, many private men, opulent and powerful, have surely in mind to adorn the Capitoline as the dignity of the temple and the name of our empire requires. Who, if they shall understand that you have taken it heavily that this royal gift was made away with, will reckon their zeal and gifts welcome to you and to the Roman people. But if they shall hear that you have neglected this in so noble a king, in so singular a thing, in so bitter a wrong, they will not be so senseless as to spend toil, care, money on those things which they shall not reckon will be welcome to you.

quem ad modum hoc accepturas nationes exteras, quem ad modum huius tui facti famam in regna aliorum atque in ultimas terras perventuram putasti, cum audirent a praetore populi Romani in provincia violatum regem, spoliatum hospitem, eiectum socium populi Romani atque amicum? nomen vestrum populique Romani odio atque acerbitati scitote nationibus exteris, iudices, futurum, si istius haec tanta iniuria impunita discesserit. sic omnes arbitrabuntur, praesertim cum haec fama de nostrorum hominum avaritia et cupiditate percrebruerit, non istius solius hoc esse facinus, sed eorum etiam qui adprobarint. multi reges, multae liberae civitates, multi privati opulenti ac potentes habent profecto in animo Capitolium sic ornare ut templi dignitas imperique nostri nomen desiderat; qui si intellexerint interverso hoc regali dono graviter vos tulisse, grata fore vobis populoque Romano sua studia ac dona arbitrabuntur; sin hoc vos in rege tam nobili, re tam eximia, iniuria tam acerba neglexisse audient, non erunt tam amentes ut operam curam pecuniam impendant in eas res quas vobis gratas fore non arbitrentur.

In this place, Quintus Catulus, I call upon you; for I am speaking of your most distinguished and most beautiful monument. You ought to take up not only a judge’s strictness in this charge, but almost the force of an enemy and a prosecutor. For your honour by that temple, by the kindness of the senate and Roman people, the eternal memory of your name is consecrated together with that temple. By you this care is to be taken up, by you this work is to be undertaken: that the Capitoline, as it has been the more magnificently restored, so should be the more copiously adorned than it was; that that flame may seem by the divine will to have come not to destroy the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, but to demand a more distinguished and more magnificent one.

hoc loco, Q. Catule, te appello; loquor enim de tuo clarissimo pulcherrimoque monumento. non iudicis solum severitatem in hoc crimine, sed prope inimici atque accusatoris vim suscipere debes. tuus enim honos illo templo senatus populique Romani beneficio, tui nominis aeterna memoria simul cum templo illo consecratur; tibi haec cura suscipienda, tibi haec opera sumenda est, ut Capitolium, quem ad modum magnificentius est restitutum, sic copiosius ornatum sit quam fuit, ut illa flamma divinitus exstitisse videatur, non quae deleret Iovis optimi maximi templum, sed quae praeclarius magnificentiusque deposceret.

You have heard Quintus Minucius say that King Antiochus stayed at his house at Syracuse; that he himself knew it had been brought to this man, that he himself knew it was not given back. You have heard, and you will hear, all from the Syracusan assize, who shall say so: that in their hearing it had been dedicated and consecrated by King Antiochus to Jupiter Optimus Maximus. If you were not a judge and the matter had been brought to you, you above all would be the proper man to pursue it, you to demand, you to act. Wherefore I do not doubt with what mind you ought to be the judge of this charge, you who before another judge ought to be a much sharper actor and prosecutor than I am.

audisti Q. Minucium dicere domi suae deversatum esse Antiochum regem Syracusis; se illud scire ad istum esse delatum, se scire non redditum; audisti et audies omni e conventu Syracusano qui ita dicant, sese audientibus illud Iovi optimo maximo dicatum esse ab rege Antiocho et consecratum. si iudex non esses et haec ad te delata res esset, te potissimum hoc persequi, te petere, te agere oporteret. quare non dubito quo animo iudex huius criminis esse debeas, qui apud alium iudicem multo acrior quam ego sum actor accusatorque esse deberes.

But to you, gentlemen, what can seem more unworthy or less to be borne than this? Will Verres have at home a candelabrum of Jupiter, finished in gems and gold, by whose splendour the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus ought to glow and be made bright — shall it be set up in his house at the kind of banquets which shall blaze with domestic debaucheries and disgraces? In the house of this most foul pimp, together with the rest of Chelidon’s hereditary ornaments, shall the ornaments of the Capitoline be set up? What sacred thing will there ever be for him, what religious obligation has there been — who does not now feel himself bound by such great crime; who comes into court where he cannot even pray to Jupiter Optimus Maximus and seek his help in the manner of all? From whom even the immortal gods seek back their own in that trial which has been established for men to seek back their own things. Do we wonder that Minerva at Athens, Apollo at Delos, Juno at Samos, Diana at Perga, many gods besides throughout all Asia and Greece were violated by this man — who could not keep his hands from the Capitoline? What private men adorn and shall adorn out of their own moneys, that Gaius Verres did not suffer to be adorned by kings.

vobis autem, iudices, quid hoc indignius aut quid minus ferendum videri potest? Verresne habebit domi suae candelabrum Iovis e gemmis auroque perfectum? cuius fulgore conlucere atque inlustrari Iovis optimi maximi templum oportebat, id apud istum in eius modi conviviis constituetur, quae domesticis stupris flagitiisque flagrabunt? in istius lenonis turpissimi domo simul cum ceteris Chelidonis hereditariis ornamentis Capitoli ornamenta ponentur? quid huic sacri umquam fore aut quid religiosi fuisse putatis qui nunc tanto scelere se obstrictum esse non sentiat, qui in iudicium veniat ubi ne precari quidem Iovem optimum maximum atque ab eo auxilium petere more omnium possit? a quo etiam di immortales sua repetunt in eo iudicio quod hominibus ad suas res repetendas est constitutum. miramur Athenis Minervam, Deli Apollinem, Iunonem Sami, Pergae Dianam, multos praeterea ab isto deos tota Asia Graeciaque violatos, qui a Capitolio manus abstinere non potuerit? quod privati homines de suis pecuniis ornant ornaturique sunt, id C. Verres ab regibus ornari non passus est.

So with this unspeakable crime conceived, in all Sicily afterwards he held nothing to be either sacred or religious. So he conducted himself in that province through three years that war was thought to have been declared by him not only against men but against the immortal gods. Segesta is a very ancient town in Sicily, gentlemen, which men show was founded by Aeneas as he fled from Troy and came into these places. So the Segestans reckon themselves joined to the Roman people not only by perpetual partnership and friendship, but also by kinship. This town once, when that state was waging war with the Carthaginians in its own name and of its own accord, was taken by force and destroyed by the Carthaginians, and all things which could be an ornament to the city were carried from that place to Carthage. There was at the Segestans’ a bronze image of Diana, both endowed with the highest and most ancient religious sanctity and finished with singular work and artistry. Brought to Carthage, it had only changed place and men; the old religious obligation it kept; for on account of its singular beauty even to the enemy it seemed worthy that they should worship it most religiously.

itaque hoc nefario scelere concepto nihil postea tota in Sicilia neque sacri neque religiosi duxit esse; ita sese in ea provincia per triennium gessit ut ab isto non solum hominibus verum etiam dis immortalibus bellum indictum putaretur. Segesta est oppidum pervetus in Sicilia, iudices, quod ab Aenea fugiente a Troia atque in haec loca veniente conditum esse demonstrant. itaque Segestani non solum perpetua societate atque amicitia, verum etiam cognatione se cum populo Romano coniunctos esse arbitrantur. hoc quondam oppidum, cum illa civitas cum Poenis suo nomine ac sua sponte bellaret, a Carthaginiensibus vi captum atque deletum est, omniaque quae ornamento urbi esse possent Carthaginem sunt ex illo loco deportata. fuit apud Segestanos ex aere Dianae simulacrum, cum summa atque antiquissima praeditum religione tum singulari opere artificioque perfectum. hoc translatum Carthaginem locum tantum hominesque mutarat, religionem quidem pristinam conservabat; nam propter eximiam pulchritudinem etiam hostibus digna quam sanctissime colerent videbatur.

Some generations later Publius Scipio took Carthage in the third Punic war. In which victory — see the man’s virtue and diligence, that you may both rejoice in the most distinguished examples of domestic virtue, and judge the more worthy of hatred this man’s incredible audacity — having called together all the Sicilians, since he had learned that Sicily had been longest and most often harassed by the Carthaginians, he orders all things to be sought out; he promises that it shall be of great care to him that all things should be restored to the cities to which they had belonged. Then those things which had been once at Himera, taken away (of which I spoke before), are restored to the Thermitans; then others to the Geloans, others to the Agrigentines; among which was even that famous bull which Phalaris (the most cruel of all tyrants) is said to have had, in which he was wont to send men down alive for punishment and to set fire beneath. Which bull, when Scipio was giving back to the Agrigentines, he is said to have said it was fair for them to consider whether it was more useful to the Agrigentines to serve their own or to obey the Roman people, when they had at the same time the same monument both of domestic cruelty and of our gentleness.

aliquot saeculis post P. Scipio bello Punico tertio Carthaginem cepit; qua in victoria,—videte hominis virtutem et diligentiam, ut et domesticis praeclarissimae virtutis exemplis gaudeatis et eo maiore odio dignam istius incredibilem audaciam iudicetis,—convocatis Siculis omnibus, quod diutissime saepissimeque Siciliam vexatam a Carthaginiensibus esse cognorat, iubet omnia conquiri; pollicetur sibi magnae curae fore ut omnia civitatibus, quae cuiusque fuissent, restituerentur. tum illa quae quondam erant Himera sublata, de quibus antea dixi, Thermitanis sunt reddita, tum alia Gelensibus, alia Agrigentinis, in quibus etiam ille nobilis taurus, quem crudelissimus omnium tyrannorum Phalaris habuisse dicitur, quo vivos supplici causa demittere homines et subicere flammam solebat. quem taurum cum Scipio redderet Agrigentinis, dixisse dicitur aequum esse illos cogitare utrum esset Agrigentinis utilius, suisne servire anne populo Romano obtemperare, cum idem monumentum et domesticae crudelitatis et nostrae mansuetudinis haberent.

At that time to the Segestans with the greatest care this very Diana of which we are speaking is given back. She is brought back to Segesta. In her old seat with the highest congratulation and joy of the citizens she is set up. She had been set at Segesta on a base, very tall, on which in great letters the name of Publius Africanus was carved, and that he, after Carthage was taken, had restored her was inscribed. She was worshipped by the citizens, was visited by all comers. When I was quaestor, nothing was shown me by them sooner. The statue was very ample and tall, with a stole; yet in that great size there was the age and bearing of a maiden. Arrows hung from her shoulder; with the left hand she held a bow; in the right she carried a burning torch.

illo tempore Segestanis maxima cum cura haec ipsa Diana, de qua dicimus, redditur; reportatur Segestam; in suis antiquis sedibus summa cum gratulatione civium et laetitia reponitur. haec erat posita Segestae sane excelsa in basi, in qua grandibus litteris P. Africani nomen erat incisum eumque Carthagine capta restituisse perscriptum. colebatur a civibus, ab omnibus advenis visebatur; cum quaestor essem, nihil mihi ab illis est demonstratum prius. erat admodum amplum et excelsum signum cum stola; verum tamen inerat in illa magnitudine aetas atque habitus virginalis; sagittae pendebant ab umero, sinistra manu retinebat arcum, dextra ardentem facem praeferebat.

When this man, the enemy and the brigand of all sacred things and all religion, had seen it, as if he had been struck by that very torch, so he began to blaze with greed and madness. He commands the magistrates to take it down and to give it to him. He shows that nothing will be more welcome to him. They indeed said that this was unspeakable for them, and that they were held both by the highest religious obligation and by the highest fear of the laws and the courts. This man now begs them, now threatens, now shows hope, now fear. They sometimes set against him the name of Publius Africanus; they said that this was the Roman people’s; that they had no power in this thing which a most distinguished general, with the city of the enemy taken, had wished to be a monument of the victory of the Roman people.

hanc cum iste sacrorum omnium et religionum hostis praedoque vidisset, quasi illa ipsa face percussus esset, ita flagrare cupiditate atque amentia coepit; imperat magistratibus ut eam demoliantur et sibi dent; nihil sibi gratius ostendit futurum. illi vero dicere sibi id nefas esse, seseque cum summa religione tum summo metu legum et iudiciorum teneri. iste tum petere ab illis, tum minari, tum spem, tum metum ostendere. opponebant illi nomen interdum P. Africani; populi Romani illud esse dicebant; nihil se in eo potestatis habere quod imperator clarissimus urbe hostium capta monumentum victoriae populi Romani esse voluisset.

When this man pressed no more lightly — nay, much more vehemently — daily, the matter is treated in the senate. From all sides there is vehement protest. So at that time and on his first coming there is a flat refusal. Afterwards, whatever there was of burden in demanding sailors and rowers, in commanding grain, he was laying on the Segestans beyond the rest — somewhat more than they could bear. Besides, he was summoning their magistrates, was calling each best and noblest man to himself, was dragging them round all the assize-towns of the province, was threatening each one in turn that he would be his ruin, was threatening all together that he would utterly overthrow that state. So at last the Segestans, conquered by many ills and great fear, decreed that they must obey the praetor’s command. With great mourning and groaning of the whole state, with many tears and lamentations of all the men and women, the image of Diana is put out for taking down.

cum iste nihilo remissius atque etiam multo vehementius instaret cotidie, res agitur in senatu: vehementer ab omnibus reclamatur. itaque illo tempore ac primo istius adventu pernegatur. postea, quidquid erat oneris in nautis remigibusque exigendis, in frumento imperando, Segestanis praeter ceteros imponebat, aliquanto amplius quam ferre possent. praeterea magistratus eorum evocabat, optimum quemque et nobilissimum ad se arcessebat, circum omnia provinciae fora rapiebat, singillatim uni cuique calamitati fore se denuntiabat, universis se funditus eversurum esse illam civitatem minabatur. itaque aliquando multis malis magnoque metu victi Segestani praetoris imperio parendum esse decreverunt. Magno cum luctu et gemitu totius civitatis, multis cum lacrimis et lamentationibus virorum mulierumque omnium simulacrum Dianae tollendum locatur.

See how great a religious sanctity there was among the Segestans. Know, gentlemen, that no one was found, neither free nor slave, neither citizen nor stranger, who would dare to touch that statue. Know that some barbarian workmen were brought from Lilybaeum. They at last, ignorant of the whole business and the religious sanctity, with wages received, took it down. When it was being brought out of the town, what gathering of women do you think was made, what weeping of the elders? Some of whom even held in memory that day when this same Diana, brought back to Segesta from Carthage, had announced the victory of the Roman people by her return. How unlike was this day to that time! Then a general of the Roman people, a most distinguished man, was bringing back to the Segestans their fathers’ gods, recovered out of the city of the enemy. Now from the city of the allies a praetor of the same people, a most foul and most impure man, was carrying off those very same gods by an unspeakable crime. What is more known throughout all Sicily than that all the matrons and maidens of Segesta met when Diana was being carried out of the town, anointed her with unguents, heaped her with wreaths and flowers, with incense, with burning perfumes accompanied her even to the borders of the territory?

videte quanta religio fuerit apud Segestanos. repertum esse, iudices, scitote neminem, neque liberum neque servum, neque civem neque peregrinum, qui illud signum auderet attingere; barbaros quosdam Lilybaeo scitote adductos esse operarios; ii denique illud ignari totius negoti ac religionis mercede accepta sustulerunt. quod cum ex oppido exportabatur, quem conventum mulierum factum esse arbitramini, quem fletum maiorum natu? quorum non nulli etiam illum diem memoria tenebant cum illa eadem Diana Segestam Carthagine revecta victoriam populi Romani reditu suo nuntiasset. quam dissimilis hic dies illi tempori videbatur! tum imperator populi Romani, vir clarissimus, deos patrios reportabat Segestanis ex urbe hostium recuperatos: nunc ex urbe sociorum praetor eiusdem populi turpissimus atque impurissimus eosdem illos deos nefario scelere auferebat. quid hoc tota Sicilia est clarius, quam omnis Segestae matronas et virgines convenisse cum Diana exportaretur ex oppido, unxisse unguentis, complesse coronis et floribus, ture, odoribus incensis usque ad agri finis prosecutas esse?

If you, while in command, did not fear this great religious sanctity on account of greed and audacity, do you not now even, in such great peril of yourself and your children, dread it? What man do you think will help you with the immortal gods unwilling, or what god, with such religious sanctities of theirs violated? Did that Diana bring no religious obligation upon you in peace and quiet? She, who, although she had seen the two cities in which she had been placed taken and burned, was twice saved out of the flame and the sword of two wars; who, with her place changed by the victory of the Carthaginians, yet did not lose her religious obligation; who, by the virtue of Publius Africanus, recovered her religious obligation together with her place. With this crime undertaken, when the base was empty and on it the name of Publius Africanus was carved, the matter seemed unworthy and not to be borne to all: that not only had religious obligations been violated, but Gaius Verres had also taken away the glory of the deeds, the memory of the virtue, the monuments of victory of Publius Africanus, that bravest of men.

hanc tu tantam religionem si tum in imperio propter cupiditatem atque audaciam non pertimescebas, ne nunc quidem in tanto tuo liberorumque tuorum periculo perhorrescis? quem tibi aut hominem invitis dis immortalibus aut vero deum tantis eorum religionibus violatis auxilio futurum putas? tibi illa Diana in pace atque in otio religionem nullam attulit? quae cum duas urbis in quibus locata fuerat captas incensasque vidisset, bis ex duorum bellorum flamma ferroque servata est; quae Carthaginiensium victoria loco mutato religionem tamen non amisit, P. Africani virtute religionem simul cum loco recuperavit. quo quidem scelere suscepto cum inanis esset basis et in ea P. Africani nomen incisum, res indigna atque intoleranda videbatur omnibus non solum religiones esse violatas, verum etiam P. Africani, viri fortissimi, rerum gestarum gloriam, memoriam virtutis, monumenta victoriae C. Verrem sustulisse.

When this was reported to him about the base and the writing, he reckoned that men would come into forgetfulness of the whole business if he had taken away the base too as a sign of his crime. So they put it out for taking down by his command — a contract which has been read to you out of the public records of the Segestans in the previous hearing. You now, Publius Scipio, you, I say, the most choice and the most adorned of young men, I call upon. From you I demand and require the duty owed to your line and your name. Why do you fight for this man, who has plundered the praise and honour of your family? Why do you wish him to be defended? Why do I take up your part, why do I sustain your duty? Why does Marcus Tullius look for the monuments of Publius Africanus, while Publius Scipio defends him who took them away? When the custom has been handed down by our ancestors that each man should so defend the monuments of his ancestors as not even to suffer them to be adorned with the name of others, will you stand by this man, who not in any part obstructed the monument of Publius Scipio, but utterly destroyed and took it away?

quod cum isti renuntiaretur de basi ac litteris, existimavit homines in oblivionem totius negoti esse venturos si etiam basim tamquam indicem sui sceleris sustulisset. itaque tollendam istius imperio locaverunt; quae vobis locatio ex publicis litteris Segestanorum priore actione recitata est. te nunc, P. Scipio, te, inquam, lectissimum ornatissimumque adulescentem, appello, abs te officium tuum debitum generi et nomini requiro et flagito. cur pro isto, qui laudem honoremque familiae vestrae depeculatus est, pugnas, cur eum defensum esse vis, cur ego tuas partis suscipio, cur tuum munus sustineo, cur M. Tullius P. Africani monumenta requirit, P. Scipio eum qui illa sustulit defendit? cum mos a maioribus traditus sit, ut monumenta maiorum ita suorum quisque defendat ut ea ne ornari quidem nomine aliorum sinat, tu isti aderis, qui non obstruxit aliqua ex parte monumento P. Scipionis sed id funditus delevit ac sustulit?

Who then, by the immortal gods, will keep watch over the memory of the dead Publius Scipio? Who over the monuments and tokens of his virtue, if you abandon or desert them, and not only suffer them despoiled, but even defend their despoiler and harasser? The Segestans are here, your clients, the allies and friends of the Roman people. They make you certain that Publius Africanus, after Carthage was destroyed, restored the image of Diana to their ancestors, and that it had been set up and dedicated among the Segestans in the name of that general; that Verres saw to it that this should be torn down and carried off, and that the very name of Publius Scipio should be erased and removed. They beg and beseech you, that you should restore to them their religious obligation, to your line its praise and glory; that what through Publius Africanus they had recovered out of the city of the enemy, this through you they may be able to keep safe out of the brigand’s house. What can you either honourably answer them, or they do, save that they implore you and your faith? They are here and implore. You can keep up the amplitude of your domestic praise, Scipio; you can. All those things are in you which either fortune or nature gives men. I do not pluck off the fruit of your duty; I do not seek another’s praise for myself. It is not for my modesty, with Publius Scipio, the most flourishing young man, alive and unhurt, to profess myself the champion of the monuments of Publius Scipio and their defender.

quisnam igitur, per deos immortalis, tuebitur P. Scipionis memoriam mortui, quis monumenta atque indicia virtutis, si tu ea relinques aut deseres, nec solum spoliata illa patieris sed etiam eorum spoliatorem vexatoremque defendes? adsunt Segestani, clientes tui, socii populi Romani atque amici; certiorem te faciunt P. Africanum Carthagine deleta simulacrum Dianae maioribus suis restituisse, idque apud Segestanos eius imperatoris nomine positum ac dedicatum fuisse; hoc Verrem demoliendum et asportandum nomenque omnino P. Scipionis delendum tollendumque curasse; orant te atque obsecrant ut sibi religionem, generi tuo laudem gloriamque restituas, ut, quod per P. Africanum ex urbe hostium recuperarint, id per te ex praedonis domo conservare possint. quid aut tu his respondere honeste potes aut illi facere, nisi ut te ac fidem tuam implorent? adsunt et implorant. potes domesticae laudis amplitudinem, Scipio, tueri, potes; omnia sunt in te quae aut fortuna hominibus aut natura largitur; non praecerpo fructum offici tui, non alienam mihi laudem appeto, non est pudoris mei P. Scipione, florentissimo adulescente, vivo et incolumi me propugnatorem monumentorum P. Scipionis defensoremque profiteri.

Wherefore, if you take up the patronage of your domestic praise, it will fit me not only to be silent about your monuments, but even to rejoice for Publius Africanus. Such is the fortune of the dead, that his honour is defended by those who are of the same family, and no foreign help is required. But if friendship with this man hinders you, if you reckon what I am asking of you to belong less to your duty, I shall succeed as substitute to your office; I shall take up the parts I had reckoned to be another’s. Then let that distinguished nobility cease to complain that the Roman people willingly gives, and has always given, honours to industrious new men. There is nothing to complain of in this state, which on account of virtue rules over all nations, that virtue has the most power. Let there be among others the image of Publius Africanus; let other dead men be adorned by his virtue and his name. Such was that man, so deserving of the Roman people, that he ought to be commended not to one family but to the whole state. There is some share of mine, that I am of that state which he made ample, illustrious, and famous — chiefly that in those things in my own way I am occupied of which he was chief: equity, industry, self-restraint, the defence of the wretched, the hatred of the dishonest. Which kinship of pursuits and arts is almost no less joined than that in which you delight, of birth and of name.

quam ob rem si suscipis domesticae laudis patrocinium, me non solum silere de vestris monumentis oportebit, sed etiam laetari P. Africani. eius modi fortunam esse mortui ut eius honos ab iis qui ex eadem familia sint defendatur, neque ullum adventicium auxilium requiratur. sin istius amicitia te impedit, si hoc quod ego abs te postulo minus ad officium tuum pertinere arbitrabere, succedam ego vicarius tuo muneri, suscipiam partis quas alienas esse arbitrabar. deinde ista praeclara nobilitas desinat queri populum Romanum hominibus novis industriis libenter honores mandare semperque mandasse. non est querendum in hac civitate, quae propter virtutem omnibus nationibus imperat, virtutem plurimum posse. sit apud alios imago P. Africani, ornentur alii mortui virtute ac nomine; talis ille vir fuit, ita de populo Romano meritus est ut non uni familiae sed universae civitati commendatus esse debeat. est aliqua mea pars virilis, quod eius civitatis sum quam ille amplam inlustrem claramque reddidit, praecipue quod in his rebus pro mea parte versor quarum ille princeps fuit, aequitate, industria, temperantia, defensione miserorum, odio improborum; quae cognatio studiorum et artium prope modum non minus est coniuncta quam ista qua vos delectamini generis et nominis.

I demand back from you, Verres, the monument of Publius Africanus. The case of the Sicilians, which I undertook, I leave aside; the trial for extortion, let it not be at this time; the wrongs of the Segestans, let them be neglected. Let the base of Publius Scipio be restored; let the name of the unconquered general be carved on it; let the most beautiful statue, taken from Carthage, be set up. These things from you not the defender of the Sicilians, not your prosecutor, not the Segestans demand, but he who has undertaken to keep watch over and to preserve the praise and glory of Publius Africanus. I do not fear that this duty of mine will not be approved by Publius Servilius the judge — who, when he has done the greatest deeds and is now at the height of setting up monuments of his own deeds and labouring on them, will surely wish to hand them on to be defended not only by his own descendants but also by all brave men and good citizens, not to be despoiled by the dishonest. I do not fear that you, Quintus Catulus, will be displeased — whose monument, the most ample and most distinguished in the world, exists — that there should be as many guardians of monuments as possible, and that all good men should reckon the defence of another’s glory to belong to their own duty.

repeto abs te, Verres, monumentum P. Africani causam Siculorum quam suscepi relinquo, iudicium de pecuniis repetundis ne sit hoc tempore, Segestanorum iniuriae neglegantur: basis P. Scipionis restituatur, nomen invicti imperatoris incidatur, signum pulcherrimum Carthagine captum reponatur. haec abs te non Siculorum defensor, non tuus accusator, non Segestani postulant, sed is qui laudem gloriamque P. Africani tuendam conservandamque suscepit. non vereor ne hoc officium meum P. Servilio iudici non probem, qui cum res maximas gesserit monumentaque suarum rerum gestarum cum maxime constituat atque in iis elaboret profecto volet haec non solum suis posteris verum etiam omnibus viris fortibus et bonis civibus defendenda, non spolianda improbis tradere. non vereor ne tibi, Q. Catule, displiceat, cuius amplissimum orbi terrarum clarissimumque monumentum est, quam plurimos esse custodes monumentorum et putare omnis bonos alienae gloriae defensionem ad officium suum pertinere.

For my part I am moved by this man’s other thefts and disgraces only so as to think them to be reproached. But here I am afflicted with such great grief that nothing seems to me more unworthy, nothing less to be borne. Will Verres adorn his house, full of debauchery, full of disgrace, full of dishonour, with the monuments of Africanus? Will Verres set up the monument of the most self-restrained and most pure man, the image of the maiden Diana, in that house in which the disgraces of harlots and pimps are always going on?

equidem ceteris istius furtis atque flagitiis ita moveor ut ea reprehendenda tantum putem; hic vero tanto dolore adficior ut nihil mihi indignius, nihil minus ferendum esse videatur. Verres Africani monumentis domum suam plenam stupri, plenam flagiti, plenam dedecoris ornabit? Verres temperantissimi sanctissimique viri monumentum, Dianae simulacrum virginis, in ea domo conlocabit in qua semper meretricum lenonumque flagitia versantur?

But this is the only monument of Africanus you have violated. What? From the Tyndaritans, did you not take away the most beautifully made image of Mercury, set up by the same Scipio’s kindness? But how, immortal gods! How audaciously, how lustfully, how shamelessly! You heard the envoys of the Tyndaritans say lately — most honourable men and chief of the city — that Mercury, who was worshipped among them with yearly rites and the highest religious sanctity, whom Publius Africanus, after Carthage was taken, had given to the Tyndaritans not only as a monument of his own victory but also of their faith and partnership, was taken away by the force, the crime, the command of this man. Who, as soon as he came into that town, at once, as if it not only were proper to be done but even necessary, as if the senate had ordered this and the Roman people had bidden it, so on the spot ordered the statue to be torn down and carried away to Messana.

at hoc solum Africani monumentum violasti. quid? a Tyndaritanis non eiusdem Scipionis beneficio positum simulacrum Mercuri pulcherrime factum sustulisti? at quem ad modum, di immortales! quam audacter, quam libidinose, quam impudenter! Audistis nuper dicere legatos Tyndaritanos, homines honestissimos ac principes civitatis, Mercurium, qui sacris anniversariis apud eos ac summa religione coleretur, quem P. Africanus Carthagine capta Tyndaritanis non solum suae victoriae sed etiam illorum fidei societatisque monumentum atque indicium dedisset, huius vi scelere imperioque esse sublatum. qui ut primum in illud oppidum venit, statim, tamquam ita fieri non solum oporteret sed etiam necesse esset, tamquam hoc senatus mandasset populusque Romanus iussisset, ita continuo signum ut demolirentur et Messanam deportarent imperavit.

When this seemed unworthy to those who were present, incredible to those who heard, on his first visit it was not pressed by him. As he was leaving, he charges the proagorus Sopater (whose words you have heard) to take it down. When he refused, he threatens vehemently, and at once departs from the town. Sopater refers the matter to the senate; from all sides there is vehement protest. To be brief, he comes to them again somewhat later. He at once asks about the statue. The answer is that the senate does not allow it; that capital punishment had been established if anyone should touch it without the senate’s leave. At the same time the religious sanctity is recalled. Then this man says, "What religious sanctity do you tell me of, what punishment, what senate? I shall not leave you alive; you shall die by the rods unless the statue is handed over to me." Sopater again, weeping, refers the matter to the senate; he sets out this man’s greed and threats. The senate gives Sopater no answer, but disturbed and troubled departs. He, summoned by the praetor’s messenger, sets out the matter; says it can in no way be done.

quod cum illis qui aderant indignum, qui audiebant incredibile videretur, non est ab isto primo illo adventu perseveratum. discedens mandat proagoro Sopatro, cuius verba audistis, ut demoliatur; cum recusaret, vehementer minatur et statim ex illo oppido proficiscitur. refert rem ille ad senatum; vehementer undique reclamatur. ne multa, iterum iste ad illos aliquanto post venit, quaerit continuo de signo. respondetur ei senatum non permittere; poenam capitis constitutam, si iniussu senatus quisquam attigisset; simul religio commemoratur. tum iste, ’ quam mihi religionem narras, quam poenam, quem senatum? vivum te non relinquam; moriere virgis nisi mihi signum traditur.’ Sopater iterum flens ad senatum rem defert, istius cupiditatem minasque demonstrat. senatus Sopatro responsum nullum dat, sed commotus perturbatusque discedit. ille praetoris arcessitus nuntio rem demonstrat, negat ullo modo fieri posse.

And these things — for nothing of this man’s shamelessness must be passed over — were going on in the assembly openly from his chair and his higher place. It was the highest winter, the weather (as you have heard Sopater himself say) most cold, the rain heaviest, when this man bids the lictors throw Sopater headlong from the colonnade in which he himself was sitting into the forum and set him there naked. Hardly was this fully ordered when you would have seen him stripped and surrounded by the lictors. All thought it was going to come to this: that the wretched and innocent man would be flogged with rods. The opinion deceived these men. Did this man flog without cause an ally and friend of the Roman people? He is not so dishonest. Not all vices are in one man; he was never cruel. He received the man gently and kindly. There are equestrian statues of the Marcelli in the middle of the forum, as in almost the rest of the towns of Sicily. From these this man chose the statue of Gaius Marcellus, whose services to that city and to the whole province were most recent and greatest. On it he orders Sopater — a man both noble at home and endowed with the highest magistracy — to be straddled and bound.

atque haec—nihil enim praetermittendum de istius impudentia videtur—agebantur in conventu palam de sella ac de loco superiore. erat hiems summa, tempestas, ut ipsum Sopatrum dicere audistis, perfrigida, imber maximus, cum iste imperat lictoribus ut Sopatrum de porticu, in qua ipse sedebat, praecipitem in forum deiciant nudumque constituant. vix erat hoc plane imperatum cum illum spoliatum stipatumque lictoribus videres. omnes id fore putabant ut miser atque innocens virgis caederetur; fefellit hic homines opinio. virgis iste caederet sine causa socium populi Romani atque amicum? non usque eo est improbus; non omnia sunt in uno vitia; numquam fuit crudelis. leniter hominem clementerque accepit. Equestres sunt medio in foro Marcellorum statuae, sicut fere ceteris in oppidis Siciliae; ex quibus iste C. Marcelli statuam delegit, cuius officia in illam civitatem totamque provinciam recentissima erant et maxima; in ea Sopatrum, hominem cum domi nobilem tum summo magistratu praeditum, divaricari ac deligari iubet.

With what torture he was afflicted must come into the mind of all, when he was bound, naked, in the open air, in the rain, in the cold. Yet there was no end to this wrong and cruelty until the people and the whole multitude, moved by the atrocity of the thing and by pity, by their cry compelled the senate to promise this man that statue of Mercury. They cried that the immortal gods themselves would avenge themselves; that meanwhile an innocent man should not perish. Then the senate in great number came to him and promised the statue. So Sopater, from the statue of Gaius Marcellus, when he was now nearly stiffened, scarcely alive, was carried off. I cannot accuse him in order, however much I wish: it is the work not only of talent but of a singular artistry.

quo cruciatu sit adfectus venire in mentem necesse est omnibus, cum esset vinctus nudus in aere, in imbri, in frigore. neque tamen finis huic iniuriae crudelitatique fiebat donec populus atque universa multitudo, atrocitate rei misericordiaque commota, senatum clamore coegit ut isti simulacrum illud Mercuri polliceretur. clamabant fore ut ipsi se di immortales ulciscerentur; hominem interea perire innocentem non oportere. tum frequens senatus ad istum venit, pollicetur signum. ita Sopater de statua C. Marcelli, cum iam paene obriguisset, vix vivus aufertur. non possum disposite istum accusare, si cupiam: opus est non solum ingenio verum etiam artificio quodam singulari.

This seems to be one charge, and it is set down by me as one — about the Mercury of Tyndaris. There are several. But how I may divide and separate them I do not know. It is of moneys taken, that he carried off a statue of great value from allies. It is of embezzlement, that he did not hesitate to carry off a public statue of the Roman people, taken out of the spoils of the enemy, set up in the name of our general. It is of treason, that he dared to overthrow and carry off the monuments of our empire, our glory, our deeds. It is of crime, that he violated the highest religious obligations. It is of cruelty, that against an innocent man, against your ally and friend, he devised a new and singular kind of punishment.

Vnum hoc crimen videtur esse et a me pro uno ponitur, de Mercurio Tyndaritano; plura sunt, sed ea quo pacto distinguere ac separare possim nescio. est pecuniarum captarum, quod signum ab sociis pecuniae magnae sustulit; est peculatus, quod publicum populi Romani signum de praeda hostium captum, positum imperatoris nostri nomine, non dubitavit auferre; est maiestatis, quod imperi nostri, gloriae, rerum gestarum monumenta evertere atque asportare ausus est; est sceleris, quod religiones maximas violavit; est crudelitatis, quod in hominem innocentem, in socium vestrum atque amicum, novum et singulare supplici genus excogitavit:

But that further thing — what it is I cannot now say; by what name to call it I do not know — which was done on the statue of Gaius Marcellus. What is this? Was it because he was patron? What then? Whither does it look? Whether ought that thing to weigh for the help or for the calamity of clients and guest-friends? Or that you should show this — that against your force in their patrons there is no protection? Who would not understand that in the command of a present dishonest man there is greater force than in the patronage of absent good men? Or indeed by this is signified your singular insolence, arrogance, contumacy. You thought, of course, that you were taking something from the amplitude of the Marcelli. So now the Marcelli are not the patrons of the Sicilians; Verres has been substituted in their place.

illud vero quid sit iam non queo dicere, quo nomine appellem nescio, quod in C. Marcelli statua. quid est hoc? patronusne quod erat? quid tum? quo id spectat? utrum ea res ad opem an ad calamitatem clientium atque hospitum valere debebat? an ut hoc ostenderes, contra vim tuam in patronis praesidi nihil esse? quis non hoc intellegeret, in improbi praesentis imperio maiorem esse vim quam in bonorum absentium patrocinio? an vero ex hoc illa tua singularis significatur insolentia, superbia, contumacia? detrahere videlicet aliquid te de amplitudine Marcellorum putasti. itaque nunc Siculorum Marcelli non sunt patroni, Verres in eorum locum substitutus est.

What such great virtue or dignity did you reckon there was in you that you should try to translate to yourself the patronage of so splendid, so illustrious a province, to take it away from its surest and most ancient patrons? Can you with that wickedness, stupidity, idleness keep up the patronage not only of all Sicily but of one most slight Sicilian? Was the statue of Marcellus to you as a gallows for the clients of the Marcelli? Did you out of his honour seek punishments against those very men who had paid him the honour? What next? What then did you reckon would be done with your statues? But that thing which happened? For the Tyndaritans threw down this man’s statue — which on account of the Marcelli they had ordered to be set up on a yet higher base — as soon as they heard of his being put off. So now the fortune of the Sicilians has given you Gaius Marcellus as judge, that, by the religious sanctity of him to whose statue the Sicilians under you as praetor were tied up, we may give you over bound and fastened to these judges.

quam in te tantam virtutem esse aut dignitatem arbitratus es ut conarere clientelam tam splendidae, tam inlustris provinciae traducere ad te, auferre a certissimis antiquissimisque patronis? tu ista nequitia, stultitia, inertia non modo totius Siciliae, sed unius tenuissimi Siculi clientelam tueri potes? tibi Man idcelli statua pro patibulo in clientis Marcellorum fuit? tu ex illius honore in eos ipsos qui honorem illi habuerant supplicia quaerebas? quid postea? quid tandem tuis statuis fore arbitrabare? ar vero quod accidit? nam Tyndaritani statuam istius, quam sibi propter Marcellos altiore etiam basi poni iusserat, de- turbarunt simul ac successum isti audierunt. dedit igitur tibi nunc fortuna Siculorum C. Marcellum iudicem, ut, cuius ad statuam Siculi te praetore alligabantur, eius religione te his iudicibus vinctum adstrictumque dedamus.

And first, gentlemen, this man was saying that the Tyndaritans had sold this Mercury to Marcus Marcellus this Aeserninus, and he was hoping that for his sake Marcus Marcellus himself was about to say so — which never seemed credible to me, that a young man born in that station, the patron of Sicily, would lend his name to this man for transferring his charge. But the whole matter was so foreseen and provided against by me, that, even if a man had at the highest been found who longed to take Verres’s fault and crime upon himself, he could yet do nothing. For I have brought such witnesses and carried away such writings, that of this man’s deed there can be no doubt to anyone.

ac primo, iudices, hoc signum Mercuri dicebat iste Tyndaritanos M. Marcello huic Aesernino vendidisse, atque hoc sua causa etiam M. Marcellum ipsum sperabat esse dicturum; quod mihi numquam veri simile visum est, adulescentem illo loco natum, patronum Siciliae, nomen suum isti ad translationem criminis commodaturum. verum tamen ita mihi res tota provisa atque praecauta est ut, si maxime esset inventus qui in se suscipere istius culpam crimenque cuperet, tamen is proficere nihil posset. Eos enim deduxi testis et eas litteras deportavi ut de istius facto dubium esse nemini possit.

The public records show that the Mercury was carried to Messana at public expense; they say at how much; that to this business publicly Polea the legate had been in charge. What? Where is he? He is at hand, he is a witness. By the order of the proagorus Sopater. Who is this man? He who was bound to the statue. What? Where is he? You have seen the man and have heard his words. Demetrius the gymnasiarch saw to its taking down, since he was in charge of that place. What? Do we say this? Indeed he himself in person. Recently at Rome this very man promised to give back that statue to the envoys, if the testimony about that thing were taken away and security given that they would not give testimony — this Zosippus and Ismenias said before you, most noble men and chief of the Tyndaritan state.

publicae litterae sunt deportatum Mercurium esse Messanam sumptu publico; dicunt quanti; praefuisse huic negotio publice legatum poleam. quid? is ubi est? praesto est, testis est. proagori Sopatri iussu. quis est hic? qui ad statuam adstrictus est. quid? is ubi est? vidistis hominem et verba eius audistis. demoliendum curavit Demetrius gymnasiarchus, quod is ei loco praeerat. quid? hoc nos dicimus? immo vero ipse praesens. Romae nuper ipsum istum esse pollicitum sese id signum legatis redditurum si eius rei testificatio tolleretur cautumque esset eos testimonium non esse dicturos,—dixit hoc apud vos Zosippus, et Ismenias, homines nobilissimi et principes Tyndaritanae civitatis.

What? At Agrigentum, did you not take away another monument of the same Publius Scipio — the most beautiful statue of Apollo, on whose thigh in tiny silver letters Myron’s name was inscribed — out of the most religious shrine of Aesculapius? Which thing, gentlemen, when this man had done in secret, when for his crime and that unspeakable theft he had brought in certain dishonest men as leaders and helpers, the city was vehemently moved. For at one time the Agrigentines were missing the kindness of Africanus, their domestic religious obligation, the ornament of the city, the token of victory, the witness of partnership. So by those who were chief in that city it was directed and the business given to the quaestors and aediles that they should keep watch by night at the sacred buildings. For at Agrigentum — I trust, on account of the multitude of those men and their virtue, and because Roman citizens, brave and honourable men, very many, in that town live and do business with the Agrigentines themselves with the closest mind — this man did not dare openly to demand or to take what pleased him.

quid? Agrigento nonne eiusdem P. Scipionis monumentum, signum Apollinis pulcherrimum, cuius in femore litteris minutis argenteis nomen Myronis erat inscriptum, ex Aesculapi religiosissimo fano sustulisti? quod quidem, iudices, cum iste clam fecisset, cum ad suum scelus illud furtumque nefarium quosdam homines improbos duces atque adiutores adhibuisset, vehementer commota civitas est. Vno enim tempore Agrigentini beneficium Africani, religionem domesticam, ornamentum urbis, indicium victoriae, testimonium societatis requirebant. itaque ab iis qui principes in ea civitate erant praecipitur et negotium datur quaestoribus et aedilibus ut noctu vigilias agerent ad aedis sacras. etenim iste Agrigenti—credo propter multitudinem illorum hominum atque virtutem, et quod cives Romani, viri fortes atque honesti, permulti in illo oppido coniunctissimo animo cum ipsis Agrigentinis vivunt ac negotiantur —non audebat palam poscere aut tollere quae placebant.

The temple of Hercules is among the Agrigentines not far from the forum, exceedingly sacred and religious among them. There is a bronze image of Hercules himself, of which I could not easily say I have seen anything more beautiful — although I do not so much understand in these matters as I have seen many things — to the point, gentlemen, that his mouth and chin are a little more rubbed, because in prayers and thanksgivings men are wont not only to revere him but even to kiss him. To this temple, when this man was at Agrigentum, with Timarchides as leader, suddenly in the dead of night a gathering and onset of armed slaves is made. A cry is raised by the watchmen and the keepers of the shrine, who at first, when they tried to resist and defend, were beaten down by clubs and cudgels. Afterwards, with the bars torn off and the doors broken in, they try to take down the statue and shake it loose with crowbars. Meanwhile from the cry the rumour spread through the whole city that the household gods were being taken by storm — not by the unexpected coming of the enemy nor by a sudden onset of brigands, but that out of the house and out of the praetor’s staff a band of runaway slaves had come, drawn up and armed.

Herculis templum est apud Agrigentinos non longe a foro, sane sanctum apud illos et religiosum. ibi est ex aere simulacrum ipsius Herculis, quo non facile dixerim quicquam me vidisse pulchrius—tametsi non tam multum in istis rebus intellego quam multa vidi—usque eo, iudices, ut rictum eius ac mentum paulo sit attritius, quod in precibus et gratulationibus non solum id venerari verum etiam osculari solent. ad hoc templum, cum esset iste Agrigenti, duce Timarchide repente nocte intempesta servorum armatorum fit concursus atque impetus. clamor a vigilibus fanique custodibus tollitur; qui primo cum obsistere ac defendere conarentur, male mulcati clavis ac fustibus repelluntur. postea convulsis repagulis ecfractisque valvis demoliri signum ac vectibus labefactare conantur. interea ex clamore fama tota urbe percrebruit expugnari deos patrios, non hostium adventu necopinato neque repentino praedonum impetu, sed ex domo atque ex cohorte praetoria manum fugitivorum instructam armatamque venisse.

There was no man at Agrigentum either of so great age or of so weak strength but, roused by that news, rose up that night, and snatched up the weapon which chance offered each. So in a short time men gathered to the temple from the whole city. For more than an hour now very many men had been struggling to take down the statue. Yet meanwhile it was not shaken from any quarter, when some, with crowbars set under, were trying to move it; others, having tied it round all its limbs, to drag it to themselves with ropes. Then suddenly the Agrigentines run together; great is the stoning. The night-soldiers of that distinguished general put themselves to flight. Yet they take two very small images, that they might not return wholly empty to that brigand of religious sanctities. Never is it so ill with the Sicilians but they say something witty and apt, as in this matter they were saying: that this most monstrous boar (verres) ought to be reckoned among the labours of Hercules no less than the Erymanthian boar.

nemo Agrigenti neque aetate tam adfecta neque viribus tam infirmis fuit qui non illa nocte eo nuntio excitatus surrexerit, telumque quod cuique fors offerebat arripuerit. itaque brevi tempore ad fanum ex urbe tota concurritur. Horam amplius iam in demoliendo signo permulti homines moliebantur; illud interea nulla lababat ex parte, cum alii vectibus subiectis conarentur commovere, alii deligatum omnibus membris rapere ad se funibus. ac repente Agrigentini concurrunt; fit magna lapidatio; dant sese in fugam istius praeclari imperatoris nocturni milites. duo tamen sigilla perparvula tollunt, ne omnino inanes ad istum praedonem religionum revertantur. numquam tam male est Siculis quin aliquid facete et commode dicant, velut in hac re aiebant in labores Herculis non minus hunc immanissimum verrem quam illum aprum Erymanthium referri oportere.

This virtue of the Agrigentines the Assorines afterwards imitated, brave and faithful men, but by no means from so ample or noble a city. Chrysas is a river which flows through the fields of the Assorines. Among them he is held a god and is worshipped with the highest religious sanctity. His shrine is in the country, near the very road by which one goes from Assorus to Henna. In it is the most beautifully made image of Chrysas in marble. This man did not dare to demand it of the Assorines, on account of the singular religious sanctity of that shrine: he gives the business to Tlepolemus and Hiero. They by night, with a band gathered and armed, come up; they break in the doors of the shrine. The temple-keepers and watchmen feel it in good time. The signal which was familiar to the neighbourhood is given on the horn. Men run together from the fields. Tlepolemus is cast out and put to flight, nor was anything missed from the shrine of Chrysas save one very small bronze statue.

hanc virtutem Agrigentinorum imitati sunt Assorini postea, viri fortes et fideles, sed nequaquam ex tam ampla neque tam ex nobili civitate. Chrysas est amnis qui per Assorinorum agros fluit; is apud illos habetur deus et religione maxima colitur. Fanum eius est in agro, propter ipsam viam qua Assoro itur Hennam; in eo Chrysae simulacrum est praeclare factum e marmore. id iste poscere Assorinos propter singularem eius fani religionem non ausus est; Tlepolemo dat et Hieroni negotium. illi noctu facta manu armataque veniunt, foris aedis effringunt; aeditumi custodesque mature sentiunt; signum quod erat notum vicinitati bucina datur; homines ex agris concurrunt; eicitur fugaturque Tlepolemus, neque quicquam ex fano Chrysae praeter unum perparvulum signum ex aere desideratum est.

Of the Great Mother there is a temple at Engyium — for now I must not only speak briefly about each, but I think very many things must be passed over, that we may come to the greater and more illustrious thefts and crimes of his in this kind. In this temple bronze breastplates and helmets, embossed in Corinthian work, and large hydriae of like kind and finished by the same artistry, that same Scipio — a man surpassing in all things — had set up and inscribed his name. Why should I now say more about this man, or complain? All those things, gentlemen, he carried off; nothing in the most religious shrine save the traces of religion violated and the name of Publius Scipio he left. The spoils of the enemy, the monuments of generals, the honours and ornaments of shrines, with these distinguished names lost, will hereafter be reckoned among the equipment and furniture of Verres.

Matris magnae fanum apud Enguinos est,—iam enim mihi non modo breviter de uno quoque dicendum, sed etiam praetereunda videntur esse permulta, ut ad maiora istius et inlustriora in hoc genere furta et scelera veniamus: in hoc fano loricas galeasque aeneas, caelatas opere Corinthio, hydriasque grandis simili in genere atque eadem arte perfectas idem ille Scipio, vir omnibus rebus praecellentissimus, posuerat et suum nomen inscripserat. quid iam de isto plura dicam aut querar? omnia illa, iudices, abstulit, nihil in religiosissimo fano praeter vestigia violatae religionis nomenque P. Scipionis reliquit; hostium spolia, monumenta imperatorum, decora atque ornamenta fanorum posthac his praeclaris nominibus amissis in instrumento atque in supellectile Verris nominabuntur.

You alone, of course, are delighted by Corinthian vessels; you discern the alloy of that bronze, you most cunningly perceive the lines of the works! These things Scipio — that most learned and most humane man — did not understand: you, with no good art, with no humanity, with no wit, with no learning, understand and judge! See lest he have surpassed not only by self-restraint but even by understanding both you and those of you who wish to be called elegant. For because he understood how beautiful they were, he therefore reckoned that they had been made not for men’s luxury but for the adornment of shrines and towns, that to our descendants they should seem to be religious monuments.

tu videlicet solus vasis Corinthiis delectaris, tu illius aeris temperationem, tu operum liniamenta sollertissime perspicis! haec Scipio ille non intellegebat, homo doctissimus atque humanissimus: tu sine ulla bona arte, sine humanitate, sine ingenio, sine litteris, intellegis et iudicas! vide ne ille non solum temperantia sed etiam intellegentia te atque istos qui se elegantis dici volunt vicerit. nam quia quam pulchra essent intellegebat, idcirco existimabat ea non ad hominum luxuriem, sed ad ornatum fanorum atque oppidorum esse facta, †ut posteris nostris monumenta religiosa esse videantur.

Hear yet his singular greed, gentlemen, his audacity, his madness, especially in polluting those sacred things which it was not lawful to be touched not only by hands, but even violated in thought. There is a shrine of Ceres among the Catinaeans of the same religious sanctity as at Rome, as in the rest of places, as almost in the whole world. In that inmost shrine there was a most ancient statue of Ceres, of which the men did not know not only what kind it was, but not even that it was. For approach into that shrine is not for men; the rites are wont to be performed by women and maidens. This statue, by night, in secret, the slaves of this man took out of that most religious and most ancient place. The next day the priestesses of Ceres and the elders of that shrine, well-respected and noble women, refer the matter to their magistrates. To all it seemed bitter, unworthy, finally lamentable.

audite etiam singularem eius, iudices, cupiditatem, audaciam, amentiam, in iis praesertim sacris polluendis quae non modo manibus attingi, sed ne cogitatione quidem violari fas fuit. sacrarium Cereris est apud Catinensis eadem religione qua Romae, qua in ceteris locis, qua prope in toto orbe terrarum. in eo sacrario intimo signum fuit Cereris perantiquum, quod viri non modo cuius modi esset sed ne esse quidem sciebant; aditus enim in id sacrarium non est viris; sacra per mulieres ac virgines confici solent. hoc signum noctu clam istius servi ex illo religiosissimo atque antiquissimo loco sustulerunt. postridie sacerdotes Cereris atque illius fani antistitae, maiores natu, probatae ac nobiles mulieres, rem ad magistratus suos deferunt. omnibus acerbum, indignum, luctuosum denique videbatur.

Then this man, moved by the atrocity of the business, that the suspicion of that crime might be removed from himself, gives a certain guest-friend of his the business that he should find someone whom he should accuse of having done it, and should see to it that he should be condemned on that charge, lest he himself be on the charge. The matter is not put off. For when this man had departed from Catina, the name of a certain slave is laid; he is accused; feigned witnesses are given against him. The whole senate of the Catinaeans was judging the matter by their laws. The priestesses are summoned. From them is asked secretly in the senate-house what they thought had been done, in what manner the statue had been carried off. They answer that the praetor’s slaves had been seen in that place. The matter, which was not before obscure, by the priestesses’ testimony began to be plain. They go to deliberation; that innocent slave is acquitted by all the votes — that you may the more easily condemn this man by all the votes.

tum iste permotus illa atrocitate negoti, ut ab se sceleris illius suspicio demoveretur, dat hospiti suo cuidam negotium ut aliquem reperiret quem illud fecisse insimularet, daretque operam ut is eo crimine damnaretur, ne ipse esset in crimine. res non procrastinatur. nam cum iste Catina profectus esset, servi cuiusdam nomen defertur; is accusatur, ficti testes in eum dantur. rem cunctus senatus Catinensium legibus iudicabat. Sacerdotes vocantur; ex iis quaeritur secreto in curia quid esse factum arbitrarentur, quem ad modum signum esset ablatum. respondent illae praetoris in eo loco servos esse visos. res, quae esset iam antea non obscura, sacerdotum testimonio perspicua esse coepit. Itur in consilium; servus ille innocens omnibus sententiis absolvitur,—quo facilius vos hunc omnibus sententiis condemnare possitis.

For what do you ask, Verres? What do you hope, what do you await? What god or man do you think will be of help to you? Did you dare to send slaves to despoil a shrine which the free might not approach even for the sake of adorning? Did you not hesitate to lay hands on those things from which the rights of religion compelled you to keep even your eyes? And yet, not even caught by the eyes did you fall into this fraud so wicked and so unspeakable. For you longed for what you had never seen; you fell in love, I say, with what you had not before looked upon. By your ears you conceived such great greed that no fear, no religion, no force of the gods, no men’s standing could hold it in.

Qquid enim postulas, Verres? quid speras, quid exspectas, quem tibi aut deum aut hominem auxilio futurum putas? Eone tu servos ad spoliandum fanum immittere ausus es quo liberos adire ne ornandi quidem causa fas erat? iisne rebus manus adferre non dubitasti a quibus etiam oculos cohibere te religionum iura cogebant? tametsi ne oculis quidem captus in hanc fraudem tam sceleratam ac tam nefariam decidisti; nam id concupisti quod numquam videras, id, inquam, adamasti quod antea non aspexeras; auribus tu tantam cupiditatem concepisti ut eam non metus, non religio, non deorum vis, non hominum existimatio contineret.

But, I trust, you had heard from a good man and on good authority. How can you, who could not have heard even from a man? You heard, then, from a woman, since neither could men have seen nor known it. What do you suppose, gentlemen, was that woman like, how chaste, who would speak with Verres? How religious, who would set forth the method of despoiling a shrine? And it is in no way wonderful that the rites which are performed in the highest chastity of men and women, those same were violated through this man’s debauchery and disgrace. What then? Did he begin to seek by hearing this thing alone, since he himself had not seen it? Indeed several others; out of which I shall pick the despoiling of a most noble and most ancient shrine, about which you have heard the witnesses speak in the previous hearing. Now, please, hear those same things, and attend diligently, as you have done up to now.

at ex bono viro, credo, audieras et bono auctore. qui id potes, qui ne ex viro quidem audire potueris? audisti igitur ex muliere, quoniam id viri nec vidisse neque nosse poterant. qualem porro illam feminam fuisse putatis, iudices, quam pudicam, quae cum Verre loqueretur, quam religiosam, quae sacrari spoliandi rationem ostenderet? ac minime mirum, quae sacra per summam castimoniam virorum ac mulierum fiant, eadem per istius stuprum ac flagitium esse violata. quid ergo? hoc solum auditione expetere coepit, cum id ipse non vidisset? immo vero alia complura; ex quibus eligam spoliationem nobilissimi atque antiquissimi fani, de qua priore actione testis dicere audistis. nunc eadem illa, quaeso, audite et diligenter, sicut adhuc fecistis, attendite.

Malta is an island, gentlemen, separated from Sicily by a sea broad enough and dangerous; in it is a town of the same name, to which this man never came, but which was nevertheless his weaving-shop for three years for the making of women’s clothing. Not far from that town, on a promontory, there is an ancient shrine of Juno, which was always in such great religious sanctity that not only in those Punic wars which were waged and tossed about with naval forces almost in these places, but even in this great multitude of pirates, it was always inviolate and holy. Indeed even this is handed down to memory: that once the fleet of King Masinissa having put in to that place, his royal prefect carried off ivory tusks of incredible size out of the shrine and bore them to Africa and gave them to Masinissa. The king at first was delighted with the gift; afterwards, when he had heard whence they were, at once sent sure men in a quinquereme, that they should put back those tusks. So on them in Punic letters it was written that King Masinissa had received them in ignorance, and, when the matter became known, had taken care that they should be carried back and put back. There was besides a great quantity of ivory, many ornaments, among which were ivory victories of old work and finished with the highest art.

Insula est Melita, iudices, satis lato a Sicilia mari periculosoque diiuncta; in qua est eodem nomine oppidum, quo iste numquam accessit, quod tamen isti textrinum per triennium ad muliebrem vestem conficiendam fuit. ab eo oppido non longe in promunturio fanum est Iunonis antiquum, quod tanta religione semper fuit ut non modo illis Punicis bellis quae in his fere locis navali copia gesta atque versata sunt, sed etiam hac praedonum multitudine semper inviolatum sanctumque fuerit. quin etiam hoc memoriae proditum est, classe quondam Masinissae regis ad eum locum adpulsa praefectum regium dentis eburneos incredibili magnitudine e fano sustulisse et eos in Africam portasse Masinissaeque donasse. Regem primo delectatum esse munere; post, ubi audisset unde essent, statim certos homines in quinqueremi misisse ui eos dentis reponerent. itaque in iis scriptum litteris Punicis fuit regem Masinissam imprudentem accepisse, re cognita reportandos reponendosque curasse. erat praeterea magna vis eboris, multa ornamenta, in quibus eburneae victoriae antiquo opere ac summa arte perfectae.

All these, that I may not delay you, by one onset and one message through Venus’s slaves, whom he had sent for that purpose, he saw to be taken away and carried off. By the immortal gods! What man am I accusing? Whom am I pursuing by the laws or by the right of trial? About whom shall you give your sentence by tablet? The Maltese envoys publicly say that the temple of Juno was despoiled, that this man left nothing in the most religious shrine. To the place into which the fleets of the enemy often came, where pirates almost yearly are wont to winter, which neither did a brigand violate before nor ever an enemy touch — by this man alone was so despoiled that nothing was left at all. Now will this man be called defendant, or I prosecutor, or this trial? For he is convicted on charges or summoned to court on suspicion! Gods are taken off, shrines harassed, cities stripped naked. Of all these things he has left himself no method either of denying or of defending. In all things he is convicted by me, is overcome by witnesses, is pressed by his own confession, is held in manifest crimes — and yet stands and silently takes count with me of his deeds!

haec iste omnia, ne multis morer, uno impetu atque uno nuntio per servos Venerios, quos eius rei causa miserat, tollenda atque asportanda curavit. pro di immortales! quem ego hominem accuso? quem legibus aut iudiciali iure persequor? de quo vos sententiam per tabellam feretis? dicunt legati Melitenses publice spoliatum templum esse Iunonis, nihil istum in religiosissimo fano reliquisse; quem in locum classes hostium saepe accesserint, ubi piratae fere quotannis hiemare soleant, quod neque praedo violarit ante neque umquam hostis attigerit, id ab uno isto sic spoliatum esse ut nihil omnino sit relictum. hic nunc iste reus aut ego accusator aut hoc iudicium appellabitur? criminibus enim coarguitur aut suspicionibus in iudicium vocatur! di ablati, fana vexata, nudatae urbes reperiuntur; earum autem rerum nullam sibi iste neque infitiandi rationem neque defendendi facultatem reliquit; omnibus in rebus coarguitur a me, convincitur a testibus, urgetur confessione sua, manifestis in maleficiis tenetur,—et manet etiam ac tacitus facta mecum sua recognoscit!

I seem to myself too long to dwell in one kind of charges. I feel, gentlemen, that the satiety of your ears and minds must be met. Wherefore I shall pass over many things. But for those things which I am about to say, refresh yourselves, please, gentlemen, by the immortal gods — those very gods of whose religion I have long been speaking — while I recall and bring forth that deed of his by which the whole province was moved. About which, if I shall seem to begin somewhat further off and to recall the memory of religion, forgive me. The size of the matter does not allow me to skim briefly over the atrocity of the charge.

nimium mihi diu videor in uno genere versari criminum; sentio, iudices, occurrendum esse satietati aurium animorumque vestrorum. quam ob rem multa praetermittam; ad ea autem quae dicturus sum reficite vos, quaeso, iudices, per deos immortalis,—eos ipsos de quorum religione iam diu dicimus,—dum id eius facinus commemoro et profero quo provincia tota commota est. de quo si paulo altius ordiri ac repetere memoriam religionis videbor, ignoscite: rei magnitudo me breviter perstringere atrocitatem criminis non sinit.

This is an old opinion, gentlemen, which stands fixed by the most ancient writings and monuments of the Greeks: that the whole island of Sicily is consecrated to Ceres and Libera. As the rest of the nations think this, so the Sicilians themselves are so persuaded that it seems to be set and born in their minds. For both they think these goddesses were born in these places, and that fruits were first found in this land; and that Libera (whom they likewise call Proserpina) was carried off out of the grove of the Hennenses — a place which, because it is set in the middle of the island, is called the navel of Sicily. When Ceres wished to track and seek her out, she is said to have kindled torches at those fires which burst forth from the top of Aetna; carrying which before her, she traversed the whole world.

vetus est haec opinio, iudices, quae constat ex antiquissimis Graecorum litteris ac monumentis, insulam Siciliam totam esse Cereri et Liberae consecratam. hoc cum ceterae gentes sic arbitrantur, tum ipsis Siculis ita persuasum est ut in animis eorum insitum atque innatum esse videatur. nam et natas esse has in his locis deas et fruges in ea terra primum repertas esse arbitrantur, et raptam esse Liberam, quam eandem Proserpinam vocant, ex Hennensium nemore, qui locus, quod in media est insula situs, umbilicus Siciliae nominatur. quam cum investigare et conquirere Ceres vellet, dicitur inflammasse taedas iis ignibus qui ex Aetnae vertice erumpunt; quas sibi cum ipsa praeferret, orbem omnem peragrasse terrarum.

Now Henna, where the things I am speaking of are recorded to have been done, is in a most lofty and high place, on the top of which is a level plain of fields and perennial waters. The whole place is cut and sheer from every approach. Round about it are very many lakes and groves and the most joyous flowers at every season of the year, so that the place itself seems to declare that rape of the maiden which we have heard of from boyhood. For nearby is a certain cave, turned to the north, of unbounded depth, by which they say Father Dis suddenly came out with his chariot, and, having seized the maiden from that place, carried her off with him; and suddenly not far from Syracuse plunged beneath the earth; and a lake suddenly arose in that place, where up to this time the Syracusans hold yearly festal days with the largest gathering of men and women. On account of the antiquity of this opinion, because the traces and almost the cradles of these gods are found in these places, throughout all Sicily there is privately and publicly a wonderful religious sanctity of Hennensian Ceres. For many marvels often declare her power and divinity. In many cases in the most difficult matters her present help has been brought, that this island seems by her not only to be loved but even to be inhabited and watched over.

Henna autem, ubi ea quae dico gesta esse memorantur, est loco perexcelso atque edito, quo in summo est aequata agri planities et aquae perennes, tota vero ab omni aditu circumcisa atque directa est; quam circa lacus lucique sunt plurimi atque laetissimi flores omni tempore anni, locus ut ipse raptum illum virginis, quem iam a pueris accepimus, declarare videatur. etenim prope est spelunca quaedam conversa ad aquilonem infinita altitudine, qua ditem patrem ferunt repente cum curru exstitisse abreptamque ex eo loco virginem secum asportasse et subito non longe a Syracusis penetrasse sub terras, lacumque in eo loco repente exstitisse, ubi usque ad hoc tempus Syracusani festos dies anniversarios agunt celeberrimo virorum mulierumque conventu. propter huius opinionis vetustatem, quod horum in his locis vestigia ac prope incunabula reperiuntur deorum, mira quaedam tota Sicilia privatim ac publice religio est Cereris Hennensis. etenim multa saepe prodigia vim eius numenque declarant; multis saepe in difficillimis rebus praesens auxilium eius oblatum est, ut haec insula ab ea non solum diligi sed etiam incoli custodirique videatur.

Nor only the Sicilians, but the rest of the nations and peoples worship Hennensian Ceres most. For if the Athenian rites are sought with the highest greed — to whom Ceres in that wandering is said to have come and to have brought fruits — how great a religious obligation is it fitting should be that of those among whom it is agreed that she was born and found fruits? So under our fathers, in a bitter and difficult time of the commonwealth, when, with Tiberius Gracchus killed, the fear of great perils was being foretold by portents, in the consulship of Publius Mucius and Lucius Calpurnius, the Sibylline books were resorted to. Out of which it was found that the most ancient Ceres must be appeased. Then from the most ample college of decemvirs the priests of the Roman people, although there was in our city a most beautiful and most magnificent temple of Ceres, yet went all the way to Henna. For so great was the authority and antiquity of that religion that, when they went thither, they seemed to set out not for the temple of Ceres but for Ceres herself.

nec solum Siculi, verum etiam ceterae gentes nationesque Hennensem Cererem maxime colunt. etenim si Atheniensium sacra summa cupiditate expetuntur, ad quos Ceres in illo errore venisse dicitur frugesque attulisse, quantam esse religionem convenit eorum apud quos eam natam esse et fruges invenisse constat? itaque apud patres nostros atroci ac difficili rei publicae tempore, cum Tiberio Graccho occiso magnorum periculorum metus ex ostentis portenderetur, P. Mucio L. Calpurnio consulibus aditum est ad libros Sibyllinos; ex quibus inventum est Cererem antiquissimam placari oportere. tum ex amplissimo collegio decemvirali sacerdotes populi Romani, cum esset in urbe nostra Cereris pulcherrimum et magnificentissimum templum, tamen usque Hennam profecti sunt. tanta enim erat auctoritas et vetustas illius religionis ut, cum illuc irent, non ad aedem Cereris sed ad ipsam Cererem proficisci viderentur.

I shall not dwell longer on this. For long since I fear that my speech may seem foreign to the manner of trials and from the daily custom of speaking. This I say: that this very most ancient, most religious Ceres, the chief of all rites which are performed among all peoples and nations, was taken by Gaius Verres from her own temples and seats. Those of you who came to Henna saw the marble image of Ceres, and in another temple that of Libera. They are very ample and most beautiful, but not so ancient. There was a certain bronze one, of moderate size and singular work, with torches, very ancient, by far the most ancient of all those that are in that shrine. This he took away. And yet not content with that.

non obtundam diutius; etenim iam dudum vereor ne oratio mea aliena ab iudiciorum ratione et a cotidiana dicendi consuetudine esse videatur. hoc dico, hanc ipsam Cererem antiquissimam, religiosissimam, principem omnium sacrorum quae apud omnis gentis nationesque fiunt, a C. Verre ex suis templis ac sedibus esse sublatam. qui accessistis Hennam, vidistis simulacrum Cereris e marmore et in altero templo Liberae. sunt ea perampla atque praeclara, sed non ita antiqua. ex aere fuit quoddam modica amplitudine ac singulari opere cum facibus perantiquum, omnium illorum quae sunt in eo fano multo antiquissimum; id sustulit. ac tamen eo contentus non fuit.

Before the temple of Ceres, in an open and uncovered place, are two statues, one of Ceres, the other of Triptolemus, most beautiful and most ample. Beauty was their peril; size their salvation, because their taking down and carrying off seemed most difficult. There stood on Ceres’s right hand a great image of Victory, most beautifully made. This this man saw to it should be torn off the statue of Ceres and carried off. What sort of mind is his now in the recollection of his crimes, when I myself in their commemoration am stirred not only in mind but even shudder in body? For there comes into my mind that shrine, that place, that religious sanctity. There turn before my eyes all things — that day, when, when I had come to Henna, the priestesses of Ceres with fillets and sacred boughs were before me, the public meeting and gathering of citizens, in which while I was speaking such great groanings and weepings were going on that the bitterest mourning seemed to be at large in the whole city.

ante aedem Cereris in aperto ac propatulo loco signa duo sunt, Cereris unum, alterum Triptolemi, pulcherrima ac perampla. pulchritudo periculo, amplitudo saluti fuit, quod eorum demolitio atque asportatio perdifficilis videbatur. insistebat in manu Cereris dextra grande simulacrum pulcherrime factum victoriae; hoc iste e signo Cereris avellendum asportandumque curavit. qui tandem istius animus est nunc in recordatione scelerum suorum, cum ego ipse in commemoratione eorum non solum animo commovear verum etiam corpore perhorrescam? venit enim mihi fani, loci, religionis illius in mentem; versantur ante oculos omnia, dies ille quo, cum ego Hennam venissem, praesto mihi sacerdotes Cereris cum infulis ac verbenis fuerunt, contio conventusque civium, in quo ego cum loquerer tanti gemitus fletusque fiebant ut acerbissimus tota urbe luctus versari videretur.

They were not complaining of the commands of tithes, not of the plunderings of goods, not of the unjust trials, not of this man’s harsh lusts, not of the force, not of the insults by which they had been harassed and oppressed; the divinity of Ceres, the antiquity of the rites, the religious sanctity of the shrine they wished to be expiated by the punishment of this most criminal and most audacious man; they said they were suffering and neglecting all the rest. The grief was so great that Verres seemed a second Orcus to have come to Henna, and not to have carried off Proserpina but Ceres herself. For that city does not seem a city, but a shrine of Ceres. The Hennenses think that Ceres lives among them, so that to me they seemed not citizens of that state, but all priests, all dwellers near and ministers of Ceres.

non illi decumarum imperia, non bonorum direptiones, non iniqua iudicia, non importunas istius libidines, non vim, non contumelias quibus vexati oppressique erant conquerebantur; Cereris numen, sacrorum vetustatem, fani religionem istius sceleratissimi atque audacissimi supplicio expiari volebant; omnia se cetera pati ac neglegere dicebant. hic dolor erat tantus ut Verres alter Orcus venisse Hennam et non Proserpinam asportasse sed ipsam abripuisse Cererem videretur. etenim urbs illa non urbs videtur, sed fanum Cereris esse; habitare apud sese Cererem Hennenses arbitrantur, ut mihi non cives illius civitatis, sed omnes sacerdotes, omnes accolae atque antistites Cereris esse videantur.

Did you, Verres, dare at Henna to take away the image of Ceres? Did you at Henna try to snatch the Victory from Ceres’s hand and to take goddess from goddess? Of which things they did not dare to violate or to touch even who had in them all things that are nearer to crime than to religion. For under Publius Popilius and Publius Rupilius as consuls slaves, runaways, barbarians, enemies, held that place; but those slaves were not so much slaves of their masters as you of your lusts; nor those runaways so much from their masters as you from right and from the laws; nor those so much barbarians by tongue and birth as you by nature and morals; nor those so much enemies to men as you to the immortal gods. What entreaty therefore is left to him who has surpassed slaves in unworthiness, runaways in rashness, barbarians in crime, enemies in cruelty?

Henna tu simulacrum Cereris tollere audebas, Henna tu de manu Cereris victoriam eripere et deam deae detrahere conatus es? quorum nihil violare, nihil attingere ausi sunt in quibus erant omnia quae sceleri propiora sunt quam religioni. tenuerunt enim P. Popilio P. Rupilio consulibus illum locum servi, fugitivi, barbari, hostes; sed neque tam servi illi dominorum quam tu libidinum, neque tam fugitivi illi ab dominis quam tu ab iure et ab legibus, neque tam barbari lingua et natione illi quam tu natura et moribus, neque tam illi hostes hominibus quam tu dis immortalibus. quae deprecatio est igitur ei reliqua qui indignitate servos, temeritate fugitivos, scelere barbaros, crudelitate hostes vicerit?

You have heard Theodorus and Numenius and Nicasion, the envoys of Henna, publicly say that they had this charge from their fellow citizens: that they should approach Verres and demand back from him the images of Ceres and Victory. If they had obtained this, then to keep up the old custom of the Hennenses, that publicly against him — although he had harassed Sicily, yet, since they had received these things as established by their ancestors — they should give no testimony. But if he had not given them back, then to be at the trial, then to instruct the judges of his wrongs, but most of all to complain of the religion. Do not, by the immortal gods, despise their complaints; do not despise and neglect them, gentlemen! The wrongs of the allies are at stake; the force of the laws is at stake; the standing and truth of trials is at stake. All of which are very great. But this is the greatest: with such great religious sanctity is the whole province bound, such great superstition out of this man’s deed has taken hold of the minds of all the Sicilians, that whatever public and private hurts happen, on account of that, seem to come about by reason of his crime.

Audistis Theodorum et Numenium et Nicasionem, legatos Hennensis, publice dicere sese a suis civibus haec habere mandata, ut ad Verrem adirent et eum simulacrum Cereris et victoriae reposcerent; id si impetrassent, tum ut morem veterem Hennensium conservarent, publice in eum, tametsi vexasset Siciliam, tamen, quoniam haec a maioribus instituta accepissent, testimonium ne quod dicerent; sin autem ea non reddidisset, tum ut in iudicio adessent, tum ut de eius iniuriis iudices docerent, sed maxime de religione quererentur. quas illorum querimonias nolite, per deos immortalis, aspernari, nolite contemnere ac neglegere, iudices! aguntur iniuriae sociorum, agitur vis legum, agitur existimatio veritasque iudiciorum. quae sunt omnia permagna, verum illud maximum: tanta religione obstricta tota provincia est, tanta superstitio ex istius facto mentis omnium Siculorum occupavit ut quaecumque accidant publice privatimque incommoda propter eam causam sceleris istius evenire videantur.

You have heard the Centuripines, the Agyrines, the Catinaeans, the Aetnenses, the Herbitenses, and very many others publicly say what desolation there was in the fields, what wasting, what flight of the farmers, how deserted, how untilled, how abandoned all things were. Although these things happened by many and various wrongs of his, yet this one cause has the most weight in the opinion of the Sicilians: that, with Ceres violated, all the cult and fruit of Ceres in those places they think have perished. Heal the religious obligation of the allies, gentlemen; keep your own. For neither is this a foreign religion to you nor an alien one. But even if it were, if you should not wish to take it on, yet against him who had violated it you ought to wish to set up sanction.

Audistis Centuripinos, Agyrinensis, Catinensis, Aetnensis, Herbitensis complurisque alios publice dicere quae solitudo esset in agris, quae vastitas, quae fuga aratorum, quam deserta, quam inculta, quam relicta omnia. ea tametsi multis istius et variis iniuriis acciderunt, tamen haec una causa in opinione Siculorum plurimum valet, quod Cerere violata omnis cultus fructusque Cereris in iis locis interisse arbitrantur. medemini religioni sociorum, iudices, conservate vestram; neque enim haec externa vobis est religio neque aliena; quodsi esset, si suscipere eam nolletis, tamen in eo qui violasset sancire vos velle oporteret.

But now in the common religion of all peoples, and in those rites which our ancestors fetched and brought from foreign nations and worshipped — which rites, as they were in fact, so they wished them to be called, Greek — if we should desire to be careless and dissolute, how can we? I shall recall also the plundering of one most beautiful and most adorned of all cities, Syracuse, and bring it forth, gentlemen, that I may at last close and define the whole speech of this kind. There is hardly anyone of you who has not often heard in what manner Syracuse was taken by Marcus Marcellus, and sometimes even read it in the annals. Compare this peace with that war, the coming of this praetor with the victory of that general, his impure staff with the unconquered army of the other, this man’s lusts with the other’s self-restraint. By the man who took her, you will say Syracuse was founded; by him who received her established, you will say she was taken.

nunc vero in communi omnium gentium religione, inque iis sacris quae maiores nostri ab exteris nationibus adscita atque arcessita coluerunt,—quae sacra, ut erant re vera, sic appellari Graeca voluerunt,—neglegentes ac dissoluti si cupiamus esse, qui possumus? Vnius etiam urbis omnium pulcherrimae atque ornatissimae, Syracusarum, direptionem commemorabo et in medium proferam, iudices, ut aliquando totam huius generis orationem concludam atque definiam. nemo fere vestrum est quin quem ad modum captae sint a M. Marcello Syracusae saepe audierit, non numquam etiam in annalibus legerit. conferte hanc pacem cum illo bello, huius praetoris adventum cum illius imperatoris victoria, huius cohortem impuram cum illius exercitu invicto, huius libidines cum illius continentia: ab illo qui cepit conditas, ab hoc qui constitutas accepit captas dicetis Syracusas.

And now I leave aside those things which scattered by me in many places shall be said and have been said: that the forum of the Syracusans, which on Marcellus’s coming in was kept clean of slaughter, on the coming of Verres ran with the blood of innocent Sicilians; that the harbour of the Syracusans, which then had been closed both to our fleets and to the Carthaginians’, was open under this man as praetor to a Cilician light vessel and to brigands. I leave aside the force used against the freeborn, the matrons violated, which were not committed in the city even when taken either by the hatred of the enemy or by the licence of soldiers or by the custom of war or by the right of victory. I leave aside, I say, all these things which were carried out by him through three years. Hear those things which are joined to those things of which I spoke before.

ac iam illa omitto quae disperse a me multis in locis dicentur ac dicta sunt, forum Syracusanorum, quod introitu Marcelli purum a caede servatum est, id adventu Verris Siculorum innocentium sanguine redundasse, portum Syracusanorum, qui tum et nostris classibus et Carthaginiensium clausus fuisset, eum isto praetore Cilicum myoparoni praedonibusque patuisse; mitto adhibitam vim ingenuis, matres familias violatas, quae tum in urbe capta commissa non sunt neque odio hostili neque licentia militari neque more belli neque iure victoriae; mitto, inquam, haec omnia, quae ab isto per triennium perfecta sunt; ea quae coniuncta cum illis rebus sunt de quibus antea dixi cognoscite.

You have often heard that the city of Syracuse is the largest of Greek cities, the most beautiful of all. It is, gentlemen, as it is said. For both by its situation it is at once strongly fortified and from every approach (whether by land or by sea) most distinguished to look upon, and it has harbours almost shut in by the buildings and embrace of the city: which, although they have separate approaches between themselves, are joined and flow together at the outlet. By their joining, the part of the town which is called the Island, separated by a narrow sea, is again joined and held together by a bridge.

Vrbem Syracusas maximam esse Graecarum, pulcherrimam omnium saepe audistis. est, iudices, ita ut dicitur. nam et situ est cum munito tum ex omni aditu vel terra vel mari praeclaro ad aspectum, et portus habet prope in aedificatione amplexuque urbis inclusos; qui cum diversos inter se aditus habeant, in exitu coniunguntur et confluunt. Eorum coniunctione pars oppidi quae appellatur Insula, mari disiuncta angusto, ponte rursus adiungitur et continetur.

The city is so great that it is said to consist of four cities; one of which is that I have spoken of, the Island, which, surrounded by two harbours, juts out to the mouth and entry of each. In it is the house which was King Hiero’s, which the praetors are wont to use. In it are several sacred buildings, but two which far surpass the rest — of Diana, and the other (which before this man’s coming was most adorned), of Minerva. At the end of this Island is a fountain of fresh water, whose name is Arethusa, of incredible size, very full of fish, which would be wholly covered by the wave were it not separated by a rampart and breakwater of stones from the sea.

ea tanta est urbs ut ex quattuor urbibus maximis constare dicatur; quarum una est ea quam dixi Insula, quae duobus portibus cincta in utriusque portus ostium aditumque proiecta est; in qua domus est quae Hieronis regis fuit, qua praetores uti solent. in ea sunt aedes sacrae complures, sed duae quae longe ceteris antecellant, Dianae, et altera, quae fuit ante istius adventum ornatissima, Minervae. in hac insula extrema est fons aquae dulcis, cui nomen Arethusa est, incredibili magnitudine, plenissimus piscium, qui fluctu totus operiretur nisi munitione ac mole lapidum diiunctus esset a mari.

The second city of Syracuse is the one whose name is Achradina, in which is the largest forum, the most beautiful colonnades, the most adorned prytaneum, the most ample senate-house, the famous temple of Olympian Jupiter, and the rest of the parts of the city, which, divided by one continuous broad street and by many cross streets, are filled with private buildings. The third city is the one which (because in that part there was an old shrine of Fortune) is named Tycha, in which is a most ample gymnasium and several sacred buildings; and that part is worshipped and is most thickly inhabited. The fourth is the one which (because it was last built up) is named Neapolis. At the top of which is the largest theatre; besides, two splendid temples, one of Ceres, the other of Libera; and the most beautiful and largest image of Apollo, who is called Temenites: which, if this man had been able to carry, he would not have hesitated to take off.

altera autem est urbs Syracusis, cui nomen Achradina est; in qua forum maximum, pulcherrimae porticus, ornatissimum prytanium, amplissima est curia templumque egregium Iovis Olympii ceteraeque urbis partes, quae una via lata perpetua multisque transversis divisae privatis aedificiis continentur. Tertia est urbs quae, quod in ea parte Fortunae fanum antiquum fuit, Tycha nominata est; in qua gymnasium amplissimum est et complures aedes sacrae, coliturque ea pars et habitatur frequentissime. quarta autem est quae, quia postrema coaedificata est, Neapolis nominatur; quam ad summam theatrum maximum, praeterea duo templa sunt egregia, Cereris unum, alterum Liberae, signumque Apollinis, qui Temenites vocatur, pulcherrimum et maximum; quod iste si portare potuisset, non dubitasset auferre.

Now I shall return to Marcellus, that these things may not seem recalled by me without cause. He, when he had taken so distinguished a city by force and resources, did not think it belonged to the praise of the Roman people to destroy and put out this beauty — especially since from it no danger was being shown. So he so spared all buildings, public and private, sacred and profane, as if he had come with the army to defend them, not to assault them. In the adornment of the city he had a regard for victory, he had a regard for humanity. Of victory it seemed to him to be to carry many things to Rome which could be an ornament to the city; of humanity, not to despoil the city plainly — especially one which he had wished to keep safe.

nunc ad Marcellum revertar, ne haec a me sine causa commemorata esse videantur. qui cum tam praeclaram urbem vi copiisque cepisset, non putavit ad laudem populi Romani hoc pertinere, hanc pulchritudinem, ex qua praesertim periculi nihil ostenderetur, delere et exstinguere. itaque aedificiis omnibus, publicis privatis, sacris profanis, sic pepercit quasi ad ea defendenda cum exercitu, non oppugnanda venisset. in ornatu urbis habuit victoriae rationem, habuit humanitatis; victoriae putabat esse multa Romam deportare quae ornamento urbi esse possent, humanitatis non plane exspoliare urbem, praesertim quam conservare voluisset.

In this division of the adornment Marcellus’s victory did not claim more for the Roman people than his humanity reserved for the Syracusans. Those things which were brought to Rome we see at the temple of Honos and Virtus, and likewise in other places. He set up nothing in his own house, nothing in his gardens, nothing in his suburban villa. He thought that, if he should not bring the city’s ornaments to his own house, his own house would be an ornament to the city. But at Syracuse he left very many and excellent things; no god whatever did he violate, none did he touch. Compare Verres — not that you may compare man with man, lest any wrong be done to so great a man dead, but that you may compare peace with war, laws with force, the forum and administration of justice with sword and arms, his coming and retinue with the other’s army and victory.

in hac partitione ornatus non plus victoria Marcelli populo Romano adpetivit quam humanitas Syracusanis reservavit. Romam quae adportata sunt, ad aedem honoris et virtutis itemque aliis in locis videmus. nihil in aedibus, nihil in hortis posuit, nihil in suburbano; putavit, si urbis ornamenta domum suam non contulisset, domum suam ornamento urbi futuram. Syracusis autem permulta atque egregia reliquit; deum vero nullum violavit, nullum attigit. conferte Verrem, non ut hominem cum homine comparetis, ne qua tali viro mortuo fiat iniuria, sed ut pacem cum bello, leges cum vi, forum et iuris dictionem cum ferro et armis, adventum et comitatum cum exercitu et victoria conferatis.

The temple of Minerva is on the Island of which I spoke before, which Marcellus did not touch, which he left full and adorned: which by this man was so despoiled and plundered, not as by some enemy, who would even in war keep some religion and some right of custom, but as by barbarian brigands. There was a cavalry battle of King Agathocles painted on panels most distinguishedly. With these panels the inner walls of the temple were clothed. There was nothing more famous than that painting, nothing at Syracuse that was reckoned more worth looking at. These panels Marcus Marcellus, although he had by that victory of his made all things profane, yet, hindered by religious sanctity, did not touch. This man, although he had received them on account of the long-lasting peace and faithfulness of the Syracusan people as sacred and religious, took off all those panels, and the walls — whose adornment had stood through so many ages, had escaped so many wars — left bare and disfigured.

aedis Minervae est in Insula, de qua ante dixi; quam Marcellus non attigit, quam plenam atque ornatam reliquit; quae ab isto sic spoliata atque direpta est non ut ab hoste aliquo, qui tamen in bello religionem et consuetudinis iura retineret, sed ut a barbaris praedonibus vexata esse videatur. pugna erat equestris Agathocli regis in tabulis picta praeclare; iis autem tabulis interiores templi parietes vestiebantur. nihil erat ea pictura nobilius, nihil Syracusis quod magis visendum putaretur. has tabulas M. Marcellus, cum omnia victoria illa sua profana fecisset, tamen religione impeditus non attigit; iste, cum illa propter diuturnam pacem fidelitatemque populi Syracusani sacra religiosaque accepisset, omnis eas tabulas abstulit, parietes quorum ornatus tot saecula manserant, tot bella effugerant, nudos ac deformatos reliquit.

And Marcellus, who had vowed that, if he should take Syracuse, he would dedicate two temples at Rome, did not wish to adorn what he was going to build with those things he had taken. Verres, who owed his vows not to Honos or Virtus (as he did) but to Venus and Cupid, tried to despoil the temple of Minerva. He did not wish gods to be adorned with the spoils of gods; this man transferred the ornaments of the maiden Minerva to a harlot’s house. Twenty-seven other most beautifully painted panels he took from the same temple, on which were images of the kings and tyrants of Sicily, which delighted not only by the artistry of the painters but also by the recollection of the men and the knowledge of their forms. And see how much fouler this tyrant was to the Syracusans than any of his predecessors, since, although they yet adorned the temples of the immortal gods, this man took even those men’s monuments and ornaments.

et Marcellus qui, si Syracusas cepisset, duo templa se Romae dedicaturum voverat, is id quod erat aedificaturus iis rebus ornare quas ceperat noluit: Verres qui non Honori neque virtuti, quem ad modum ille, sed Veneri et Cupidini vota deberet, is Minervae templum spoliare conatus est. ille deos deorum spoliis ornari noluit, hic ornamenta Minervae virginis in meretriciam domum transtulit. viginti et septem praeterea tabulas pulcherrime pictas ex eadem aede sustulit, in quibus erant imagines Siciliae regum ac tyrannorum, quae non solum pictorum artificio delectabant, sed etiam commemoratione hominum et cognitione formarum. ac videte quanto taetrior hic tyrannus Syracusanis fuerit quam quisquam superiorum, quia, cum illi tamen ornarint templa deorum immortalium, hic etiam illorum monumenta atque ornamenta sustulit.

Now what shall I say about the doors of that temple? I fear lest those who have not seen these things should think that I am too greatly amplifying and adorning all this. Though no one ought to suspect that I am so eager that I should wish so many leading men — especially out of the number of the judges — who were at Syracuse, who saw these things, to be partners of my rashness and lying. I can confirm this clearly, gentlemen: that no doors more magnificent, more perfectly finished in gold and ivory, ever were in any temple. It is incredible to say how many Greeks have left in writing about the beauty of these doors. Perhaps too much these things they wonder at and exalt: be it so. Yet it is more honourable to our commonwealth, gentlemen, that those things which they reckon beautiful our general should have left in war, than that the praetor should have carried them off in peace. Out of ivory most diligently finished there were figures on the doors. He had all those torn off. The most beautiful face of the Gorgon, ringed with snakes, he tore off and carried away; and yet he showed himself drawn not only by artistry but also by price and gain. For all the gold studs from those doors, which were many and heavy, he did not hesitate to carry off; with which this man was delighted not by the work but by the weight. So he left such doors that the doors which once were chiefly for adorning the temple now seem to have been made only for closing it.

iam vero quid ego de valvis illius templi commemorem? vereor ne haec qui non viderunt omnia me nimis augere atque ornare arbitrentur; quod tamen nemo suspicari debet, tam esse me cupidum ut tot viros primarios velim, praesertim ex iudicum numero, qui Syracusis fuerint, qui haec viderint, esse temeritati et mendacio meo conscios. confirmare hoc liquido, iudices, possum, valvas magnificentiores, ex auro atque ebore perfectiores, nullas umquam ullo in templo fuisse. incredibile dictu est quam multi Graeci de harum valvarum pulchritudine scriptum reliquerint. nimium forsitan haec illi mirentur atque efferant; esto; verum tamen honestius est rei publicae nostrae, iudices, ea quae illis pulchra esse videantur imperatorem nostrum in bello reliquisse quam praetorem in pace abstulisse. ex ebore diligentissime perfecta argumenta erant in valvis; ea detrahenda curavit omnia. Gorgonis os pulcherrimum cinctum anguibus revellit atque abstulit, et tamen indicavit se non solum artificio sed etiam pretio quaestuque duci; nam bullas aureas omnis ex iis valvis, quae erant multae et graves, non dubitavit auferre; quarum iste non opere delectabatur sed pondere. itaque eius modi valvas reliquit ut quae olim ad ornandum templum erant maxime nunc tantum ad claudendum factae esse videantur.

Even those grass-stalk spears — for I saw you moved at this name when the witness was speaking — which were of such a kind that to have seen them once was enough (in which there was nothing made by hand and no beauty, but only an incredible size, of which it was enough even to hear, to see them too much more than once) — did you covet even that?

etiamne gramineas hastas—vidi enim vos in hoc nomine, cum testis diceret, commoveri: quod erat eius modi ut semel vidisse satis esset, (in quibus neque manu factum quicquam neque pulchritudo erat ulla, sed tantum magnitudo incredibilis de qua vel audire satis esset, nimium videre plus quam semel,) etiam id concupisti?

For the Sappho which was carried off from the prytaneum gives you a just excuse, almost so as to seem must be granted and forgiven. Should so finished, so elegant, so elaborate a work of Silanion be held by anyone, not only any private man but any people, rather than by the most elegant and most learned man, Verres? Surely nothing can be said against it. For each of us, who are not so blessed as he is, cannot be so refined. If at any time he wishes to see something of that kind, let him go to the temple of Felicitas, to the monument of Catulus, to the colonnade of Metellus. Let him take pains to be admitted to one of those men’s villas at Tusculum. Let him look at the forum adorned, if this man has lent his aediles any of his things. Let Verres have these things at home; let Verres have a house full of the ornaments of shrines and towns, his villas stuffed. Will you yet bear, gentlemen, the studies and delights of this workman? Who is so born, so brought up, so made both in mind and body, that he seems much more fit for carrying than for carrying off statues.

nam Sappho quae sublata de prytanio est dat tibi iustam excusationem, prope ut concedendum atque ignoscendum esse videatur. Silanionis opus tam perfectum, tam elegans, tam elaboratum quisquam non modo privatus sed populus potius haberet quam homo elegantissimus atque eruditissimus, Verres? nimirum contra dici nihil potest. nostrum enim unus quisque, qui tam beati quam iste est non sumus, tam delicati esse non possumus, si quando aliquid istius modi videre volet, eat ad aedem felicitatis, ad monumentum Catuli, in porticum Metelli, det operam ut admittatur in alicuius istorum Tusculanum, spectet forum ornatum, si quid iste suorum aedilibus commodarit: Verres haec habeat domi, Verres ornamentis fanorum atque oppidorum habeat plenam domum, villas refertas. etiamne huius operari studia ac delicias, iudices, perferetis? qui ita natus, ita educatus est, ita factus et animo et corpore ut multo appositior ad ferenda quam ad auferenda signa esse videatur.

And how much longing for itself this carried-off Sappho left can scarcely be told. For not only was it itself excellently made, but a most famous Greek epigram was carved on the base, which this learned man and little-Greek who judges these things subtly, who alone understands, had he known one Greek letter, surely would not have taken away. For now what is written on the empty base declares what was there, and points to its having been carried off. What? The image of Paean, beautifully made, sacred and religious, did you not take away from the shrine of Aesculapius? Which all were wont to look at on account of its beauty, to worship on account of its religious sanctity. What? From the shrine of Liber was not the image of Aristaeus carried off openly by your command?

atque haec Sappho sublata quantum desiderium sui reliquerit, dici vix potest. nam cum ipsa fuit egregie facta, tum epigramma Graecum pernobile incisum est in basi, quod iste eruditus homo et Graeculus, qui haec subtiliter iudicat, qui solus intellegit, si unam litteram Graecam scisset, certe non sustulisset. nunc enim quod scriptum est inani in basi declarat quid fuerit, et id ablatum indicat. quid? signum Paeanis ex aede Aesculapi praeclare factum, sacrum ac religiosum, non sustulisti? quod omnes propter pulchritudinem visere, propter religionem colere solebant. quid? ex aede liberi simulacrum Aristaei non tuo imperio palam ablatum est?

What? From the shrine of Jupiter was not the most religious image of Imperator Jupiter (whom the Greeks call Urios), most beautifully made, taken away by you? What? From the shrine of Libera that most beautiful head of a lamb, which we used to look at, did you hesitate to take? Now that Paean was worshipped with yearly sacrifices together with Aesculapius among them. Aristaeus, who, as the Greeks have it, son of Liber, is said to have been the inventor of oil, was consecrated together with Father Liber in the same temple among them.

quid? ex aede Iovis religiosissimum simulacrum Iovis imperatoris, quem Graeci Vrion nominant, pulcherrime factum nonne abstulisti? quid? ex aede Liberae agninum caput illud pulcherrimum, quod visere solebamus, num dubitasti tollere? atque ille Paean sacrificiis anniversariis simul cum Aesculapio apud illos colebatur; Aristaeus, qui ut Graeci ferunt, liberi filius inventor olei esse dicitur, una cum libero patre apud illos eodem erat in templo in consecratus.

But Imperator Jupiter — in how great honour do you suppose he was in his own temple? You can guess, if you wish to recall in how great religious sanctity was that statue of like aspect and form which Titus Flamininus, taken from Macedonia, had set up on the Capitoline. For there were three statues said to be in the world of Imperator Jupiter, of one kind, most beautifully made: one that Macedonian which we have seen on the Capitoline; the second on the entrance and straits of the Pontus; the third which was at Syracuse before Verres became praetor. That one Flamininus took from his own temple, that he might set it up on the Capitoline — that is, in the earthly home of Jupiter.

Iovem autem imperatorem quanto honore suo templo fuisse arbitramini? conicere potestis, si recordari volueritis quanta religione fuerit eadem specie ac forma signum illud quod ex Macedonia captum in Capitolio posuerat T. Flamininus. etenim tria ferebantur in orbe terrarum signa Iovis imperatoris uno in genere pulcherrime facta, unum illud Macedonicum quod in Capitolio vidimus, alterum in Ponti ore et angustiis, tertium quod Syracusis ante Verrem praetorem fuit. illud Flamininus ita ex aede sua sustulit ut in Capitolio, hoc est in terrestri domicilio Iovis poneret.

The one which is at the entrance of the Pontus — although so many wars have come up out of that sea, and so many have been carried into the Pontus — has been kept whole and inviolate to this day. This third one, which was at Syracuse, which Marcus Marcellus, armed and victorious, had seen, which he had ceded to religious sanctity, which the citizens and dwellers worshipped, which strangers were wont not only to look at but even to revere — this Gaius Verres took from the temple of Jupiter.

quod autem est ad introitum Ponti, id, cum tam multa ex illo mari bella emerserint, tam multa porro in Pontum invecta sint, usque ad hanc diem integrum inviolatumque servatum est. hoc tertium, quod erat Syracusis, quod M. Marcellus armatus et victor viderat, quod religioni concesserat, quod cives atque incolae colere, advenae non solum visere verum etiam venerari solebant, id C. Verres ex templo Iovis sustulit.

That I may again return to Marcellus, gentlemen, hold this thus: that more gods were missed by the Syracusans on the coming of this man, than men by Marcellus’s victory. For Marcellus is said even to have sought out that famous Archimedes, a man of the highest talent and learning, and, when he had heard that he had been killed, to have taken it most heavily. This man sought out all those things which he sought, not to keep but to carry off. Now those things which will seem lighter I shall therefore pass over: that Delphic tables of marble, the most beautiful bronze mixing-bowls, the largest quantity of Corinthian vessels, he took from all the sacred buildings at Syracuse.

Vt saepius ad Marcellum revertar, iudices, sic habetote, pluris esse a Syracusanis istius adventu deos quam victoria Marcelli homines desideratos. etenim ille requisisse etiam dicitur Archimedem illum, summo ingenio hominem ac disciplina, quem cum audisset interfectum permoleste tulisse: iste omnia quae requisivit, non ut conservaret verum ut asportaret requisivit. iam illa quae leviora videbuntur ideo praeteribo, quod mensas Delphicas e marmore, crateras ex aere pulcherrimas, vim maximam vasorum Corinthiorum ex omnibus aedibus sacris abstulit Syracusis.

So, gentlemen, those who are wont to lead guests to the things which are to be seen and to point each one out — whom they call mystagogues — have now their pointing-out reversed. For as before they were showing what was where, so now they show what has been taken away from where. What then? Do you suppose they have been afflicted by middling grief? It is not so, gentlemen. First, because all are moved by religious sanctity, and they think the household gods which they have received from their ancestors must be diligently worshipped and kept by them. Next, this adornment, these works and artistries, statues, painted panels delight Greek men too greatly. So out of their complaints we can understand that those things seem most bitter to them which perhaps to us seem light and to be despised. Believe me, gentlemen — although I know surely that you yourselves are hearing these same things — although the allies and foreign nations have received many calamities and wrongs through these years, the Greeks bear and have borne none more grievously than these despoilings of shrines and towns.

itaque, iudices, ii qui hospites ad ea quae visenda sunt solent ducere et unum quidque ostendere,—quos illi mystagogos vocant,—conversam iam habent demonstrationem suam. nam ut ante demonstrabant quid ubique esset, item nunc quid undique ablatum sit ostendunt. quid tum? mediocrine tandem dolore eos adfectos esse arbitramini? non ita est, iudices, primum quod omnes religione moventur et deos patrios quos a maioribus acceperunt colendos sibi diligenter et retinendos esse arbitrantur; deinde hic ornatus, haec opera atque artificia, signa, tabulae pictae Graecos homines nimio opere delectant. itaque ex illorum querimoniis intellegere possumus haec illis acerbissima videri quae forsitan nobis levia et contemnenda esse videantur. mihi credite, iudices,—tametsi vosmet ipsos haec eadem audire certo scio,—cum multas acceperint per hosce annos socii atque exterae nationes calamitates et iniurias, nullas Graeci homines gravius ferunt ac tulerunt quam huiusce modi spoliationes fanorum atque oppidorum.

Although this man may say he bought, as he is wont to say, believe me this, gentlemen: no city in all Asia and Greece has ever sold any statue, any painted panel, any ornament of the city of its own will to anyone — unless perhaps you reckon that, after strict trials at Rome ceased, the Greeks began to sell these things, which they then not only did not sell, when trials were held, but even bought. Or unless you suppose that Lucius Crassus, Quintus Scaevola, Gaius Claudius, the most powerful men, whose most adorned aedileships we have seen, had no commerce in those things with the Greeks, while those who have been made aediles after the dissolution of the trials had it.

licet iste dicat emisse se, sicuti solet dicere, credite hoc mihi, iudices: nulla umquam civitas tota Asia et Graecia signum ullum, tabulam pictam ullam ullum denique ornamentum urbis sua voluntate cuiquam vendidit; nisi forte existimatis, posteaquam iudicia severa Romae fieri desierunt, Graecos homines haec venditare coepisse, quae tum non modo non venditabant, cum iudicia fiebant, verum etiam coemebant; aut nisi arbitramini L. Crasso, Q. Scaevolae, C. Claudio, potentissimis hominibus, quorum aedilitates ornatissimas vidimus, commercium istarum rerum cum Graecis hominibus non fuisse, iis qui post iudiciorum dissolutionem aediles facti sunt fuisse.

Know that this false and pretended buying is even bitterer to the cities than if anyone had stolen secretly or openly snatched and carried off. For they reckon it is the highest disgrace to be entered in the public records that the city, drawn on by a price — and a small price — had sold and alienated those things which it had received from its ancestors. For the Greeks are wonderfully delighted by those things which we despise. So our ancestors easily suffered these to be at their houses in as great number as possible: among allies, that they should be the most adorned and most flourishing under our empire; among those whom they had made tributary or stipendiary, however, they yet left these things, that those, to whom these things are pleasant which to us seem light, should have these delights and consolations of slavery.

acerbiorem etiam scitote esse civitatibus falsam istam et simulatam emptionem quam si qui clam surripiat aut eripiat palam atque auferat; nam turpitudinem summam esse arbitrantur referri in tabulas publicas pretio adductam civitatem, et pretio parvo, ea quae accepisset a maioribus vendidisse atque abalienasse. etenim mirandum in modum Graeci rebus istis, quas nos contemnimus, delectantur. itaque maiores nostri facile patiebantur haec esse apud illos quam plurima: apud socios, ut imperio nostro quam ornatissimi florentissimique essent; apud eos autem quos vectigalis aut stipendiarios fecerant tamen haec relinquebant, ut illi, quibus haec iucunda sunt quae nobis levia videntur, haberent haec oblectamenta et solacia servitutis.

What do you suppose the Reginians, who are now Roman citizens, would wish to be paid that that famous marble Venus should be taken from them? What the Tarentines, that they should lose the Europa on the bull, the Satyr which is among them in the temple of Vesta, and the rest? What the Thespians, that they should lose the statue of Cupid on whose account alone Thespiae is visited? What the Cnidians, that they should lose the marble Venus? What the Coans, that of paint? What the Ephesians, that of Alexander? What the Cyziceans, that of Ajax or Medea? What the Rhodians, that of Ialysus? What the Athenians, that of marble Iacchus, or the painted Paralus, or the bronze heifer of Myron? It is long and not necessary to recall what is to be seen at each city throughout all Asia and Greece. But this is why I recall these: that I wish you to consider that those out of whose cities these things are carried off receive a wonderful grief.

quid arbitramini Reginos, qui iam cives Romani sunt, merere velle ut ab iis marmorea Venus illa auferatur? quid Tarentinos, ut Europam in tauro amittant, ut Satyrum qui apud illos in aede Vestae est, ut cetera? quid Thespiensis ut Cupidinis signum, propter quod unum visuntur Thespiae, quid Cnidios ut venerem marmoream, quid ut pictam Coos, quid Ephesios ut Alexandrum, quid Cyzicenos ut Aiacem aut Medeam, quid Rhodios ut Ialysum, quid Atheniensis ut ex marmore Iacchum aut Paralum pictum aut ex aere Myronis buculam? longum est et non necessarium commemorare quae apud quosque visenda sunt tota Asia et Graecia; verum illud est quam ob rem haec commemorem, quod existimare vos hoc volo, mirum quendam dolorem accipere eos ex quorum urbibus haec auferantur.

And to leave aside the rest, learn from the Syracusans themselves. To whom when I had come, I first thought thus, as I had received it at Rome from this man’s friends: that the Syracusan state, on account of the inheritance of Heraclius, was no less friendly to him than the Mamertine on account of the partnership of all his plunders and thefts. At the same time I was afraid that, by the favour of those noble and beautiful women at whose discretion he had carried out his praetorship through three years, and of the men with whom they were married, by their too great not only mildness but even liberality toward him I should be opposed, if I should seek anything out of the writings of the Syracusans.

atque ut ceteros omittamus, de ipsis Syracusanis cognoscite. ad quos ego cum venissem, sic primum existimabam, ut Romae ex istius amicis acceperam, civitatem Syracusanam propter Heracli hereditatem non minus esse isti amicam quam Mamertinam propter praedarum ac furtorum omnium societatem; simul et verebar ne mulierum nobilium et formosarum gratia, quarum iste arbitrio praeturam per triennium gesserat, virorumque quibuscum illae nuptae erant, nimia in istum non modo lenitudine sed etiam liberalitate oppugnarer, si quid ex litteris Syracusanorum conquirerem.

So at Syracuse I was with the Roman citizens; I was searching out their records; I was learning of their wrongs. When I had been long in business and care, that I might rest and let go the care of my mind, I would go back to the famous records of Carpinatius, where with Roman knights, the most honourable men of that assize, I unfolded those Verrucii of whom I have spoken before. From the Syracusans I expected absolutely no help, neither publicly nor privately; nor had I in mind to ask for any. While I was doing these things, suddenly Heraclius came to me, the man who then held the magistracy at Syracuse, a noble man, who had been priest of Jupiter — which is the most ample honour among the Syracusans. He treats with me and with my brother that, if it should seem good to us, we should come to their senate; that they were assembled in the senate-house; that he, by order of the senate, was asking us to come.

itaque Syracusis cum civibus Romanis eram, eorum tabulas exquirebam, iniurias cognoscebam. cum diutius in negotio curaque fueram, ut requiescerem curamque animi remitterem, ad Carpinati praeclaras tabulas revertebar, ubi cum equitibus Romanis, hominibus ex illo conventu honestissimis, illius Verrucios, de quibus ante dixi, explicabam; a Syracusanis prorsus nihil adiumenti neque publice neque privatim exspectabam, neque erat in animo postulare. cum haec agerem, repente ad me venit Heraclius, is qui tum magistratum Syracusis habebat, homo nobilis, qui sacerdos Iovis fuisset, qui honos est apud Syracusanos amplissimus. agit mecum et cum fratre meo ut, si nobis videretur, adiremus ad eorum senatum; frequentis esse in curia; se iussu senatus a nobis petere ut veniremus.

At first we doubted what to do. Then it came quickly into our minds that that gathering and place must not be avoided by us. So we came to the senate-house. They rose up honourably; we sat down at the magistrate’s request. He begins to speak who excelled both in authority and in age and (as it seemed to me) in experience of affairs, Diodorus son of Timarchides, whose whole speech had at first this sense: that the senate and people of Syracuse took it heavily and grievously that I, when in the rest of the cities of Sicily I had taught the senate and people what advantage, what safety I was bringing them, and when I had received from all mandates, envoys, letters, and testimonies, in that one city did nothing of the kind. I answered that neither at Rome in the gathering of the Sicilians, when help was being sought from me by the common counsel of all the embassies and the cause of the whole province was being brought to me, had any envoys of the Syracusans been at hand; nor was I asking that anything should be decreed against Gaius Verres in that senate-house in which I saw a gilded statue of Gaius Verres.

primo nobis fuit dubium quid ageremus; deinde cito venit in mentem non esse vitandum illum nobis conventum et locum; itaque in curiam venimus. honorifice sane consurgitur; nos rogatu magistratus adsedimus. incipit is loqui qui et auctoritate et aetate et, ut mihi visum est, usu rerum antecedebat, Diodorus Timarchidi, cuius omnis oratio hanc habuit primo sententiam: senatum et populum Syracusanum moleste graviterque ferre quod ego, cum in ceteris Siciliae civitatibus senatum populumque docuissem quid iis utilitatis, quid salutis adferrem, et cum ab omnibus mandata, legatos, litteras testimoniaque sumpsissem, in illa civitate nihil eius modi facerem. respondi neque Romae in conventu Siculorum, cum a me auxilium communi omnium legationum consilio petebatur causaque totius provinciae ad me deferebatur, legatos Syracusanorum adfuisse, neque me postulare ut quicquam contra C. Verrem decerneretur in ea curia in qua inauratam C. Verris statuam viderem.

After I had said this, so great a groan was made at the sight and recollection of the statue, that that monument set in the senate-house seemed to be one of crimes, not of benefits. Then each man began, as far as he could attain in speech, to teach me those things which a little before I have recalled: that the city had been despoiled, the shrines plundered; that of the inheritance of Heraclius, which he had granted to the trainers, he himself had carried off by far the greatest part; that it ought not to be asked that he loved those trainers, who had even taken away the god who was the inventor of oil; nor was that statue made of public money or given publicly, but those who had been partners in the plundering of the inheritance had seen to its making and setting up; that those same men had been envoys at Rome, helpers of his wickedness, partners of his thefts, accomplices of his disgraces. The less should I wonder if they had failed the common will of the envoys and the safety of Sicily.

quod posteaquam dixi, tantus est gemitus factus aspectu statuae et commemoratione ut illud in curia positum monumentum scelerum non beneficiorum videretur. tum pro se quisque, quantum dicendo adsequi poterat, docere me coepit ea quae paulo ante commemoravi, spoliatam urbem, fana direpta, de Heracli hereditate, quam palaestritis concessisset, multo maximam partem ipsum abstulisse; neque postulandum fuisse ut ille palaestritas diligeret, qui etiam inventorem olei deum sustulisset; neque illam statuam esse ex pecunia publica neque publice datam, sed eos qui hereditatis diripiendae participes fuissent faciendam statuendamque curasse; eosdem Romae fuisse legatos, illius adiutores improbitatis, socios furtorum, conscios flagitiorum; eo minus mirari me oportere si illi communi legatorum voluntati et saluti Siciliae defuissent.

When I learned that their grief at his wrongs was not only not less but almost greater than that of the rest of the Sicilians, then I set forth my mind toward them, then the cause and reasoning of my whole counsel and of the business undertaken; then I urged them not to fail the common cause and safety; to take down that praise which they said they had decreed, compelled by force and fear, in those few days. So, gentlemen, the Syracusans — this man’s clients and friends — do this. First they bring forth to me the public records, which they had stored in the more sacred treasury, in which they show that all those things I have spoken of are entered as carried off, and even more than I could say. And entered in this manner: that out of the temple of Minerva this and that was missing, that out of the temple of Jupiter, that out of the temple of Liber — as each had been in charge of guarding and keeping these things, so it had been entered. When they were rendering account by law and ought to hand over what they had received, they had asked that they might be forgiven for those things being missing; so they had all departed freed and forgiven. Which records I saw to be sealed with the public seal and carried off.

Vbi eorum dolorem ex illius iniuriis non modo non minorem sed prope maiorem quam Siculorum ceterorum esse cognovi, tum meum animum in illos, tum mei consili negotique totius suscepti causam rationemque proposui, tum eos hortatus sum ut causae communi salutique ne deessent, ut illam laudationem, quam se vi ac metu coactos paucis illis diebus decresse dicebant, tollerent. itaque, iudices, Syracusani haec faciunt, istius clientes atque amici. primum mihi litteras publicas, quas in aerario sanctiore conditas habebant, proferunt; in quibus ostendunt omnia quae dixi ablata esse perscripta, et plura etiam quam ego potui dicere; perscripta autem hoc modo: quod ex aede Minervae hoc et illud abesset, quod ex aede Iovis, quod ex aede liberi —ut quisque iis rebus tuendis conservandisque praefuerat, ita perscriptum erat—cum rationem e lege redderent et quae acceperant tradere deberent, petisse ut sibi, quod eae res abessent, ignosceretur; itaque omnis liberatos discessisse, et esse ignotum omnibus. quas ego litteras obsignandas publico signo deportandasque curavi.

About the praise, however, the reckoning was so given me. First, when letters had come from Gaius Verres somewhat before my coming about a praise, nothing had been decreed. Next, when some of his friends were warning that it must be decreed, with the greatest cry and abuse they had been rejected. Afterwards, when my coming approached, he who held the highest power had ordered them to decree. The decree had been so worded that the praise could bring him much more harm than good. This, gentlemen, as it was set forth to me by them, so learn from me.

de laudatione autem ratio sic mihi reddita est. primum, cum a C. Verre litterae aliquanto ante adventum meum de laudatione venissent, nihil esse decretum; deinde, cum quidam ex illius amicis commonerent oportere decerni, maximo clamore esse et convicio repudiatos; postea, cum meus adventus adpropinquaret, imperasse eum qui summam potestatem haberet ut decernerent; decretum ita esse ut multo plus illi laudatio mali quam boni posset adferre. id adeo, iudices, ut mihi ab illis demonstratum est, sic vos ex me cognoscite.

The custom is at Syracuse that, if anything is brought before the senate, anyone who wishes speaks his opinion. No one is asked by name; and yet, as each excels in age and honour, so he is wont first to speak of his own accord, and so it is granted to him by the rest. But if at any time all are silent, then by lot they are compelled to speak. While this custom was, the matter is brought to the senate about the praise of Verres. In which first, that there should be some delay, many interpose: that about Sextus Peducaeus, who had deserved best of that city and the whole province, they had before — when they had heard that business had been stirred against him, and when they had wished to praise him publicly for his many and greatest services — been forbidden by Gaius Verres. That it was unfair that, although Peducaeus would not now use their praise, they should yet not decree first what they had once wished, before what they were now compelled to.

mos est Syracusis ut, si qua de re ad senatum referant, dicat sententiam qui velit; nominatim nemo rogatur, et tamen, ut quisque aetate et honore antecedit ita primus solet sua sponte dicere, itaque a ceteris ei conceditur; sin aliquando tacent omnes, tunc sortito coguntur dicere. cum hic mos esset, refertur ad senatum de laudatione Verris. in quo primum, ut aliquid esset morae, multi interpellant; de Sex. Peducaeo, qui de illa civitate totaque provincia optime meritus esset, sese antea, cum audissent ei negotium facessitum, cumque eum publice pro plurimis eius et maximis meritis laudare cuperent, a C. Verre prohibitos esse; iniquum esse, tametsi Peducaeus eorum laudatione iam non uteretur, tamen non id prius decernere quod aliquando voluissent quam quod tum cogerentur.

All cry out and approve that it ought so to be done. The matter is brought about Peducaeus. As each excelled in age and honour, so each in turn spoke his opinion. Learn that from the senate-decree itself; for the opinions of the chief men are wont to be entered. Read. Whereas words have been spoken about Sex. Peducaeus. It says who first proposed it. It is decreed. The matter is brought next about Verres. Tell, please, in what manner. Whereas words have been spoken about C. Verres — what is written next? — since no one rose up nor gave his opinion — what is this? — the lot is drawn. For what reason? Was there no voluntary praiser of your praetorship, no defender of your perils, especially when one could win favour with the praetor? None. Those very banqueting companions, advisers, accomplices, partners of yours did not dare to make a word. In which senate-house your statue stood, and that of your son naked, in that there was no man whom not even the naked son of a province made naked could move.

conclamant omnes et adprobant ita fieri oportere. refertur de Peducaeo. Vt quisque aetate et honore antecedebat, ita sententiam dixit ex ordine. id adeo ex ipso senatus consulto cognoscite; nam principum sententiae perscribi solent. recita. ’QVOD VERBA FACTA SVNT DE SEX PEDVCAEO.’ dicit qui primi suaserint. decernitur. refertur deinde de Verre. dic, quaeso, quo modo? ’QVOD VERBA FACTA SVNT DE C. VERRE’ —quid postea scriptum est?—’CVM SVRGERET NEMO NEQVE SENTENTIAM DICERET’—quid est hoc?—’ SORS DVCITVR.’ quam ob rem? nemo erat voluntarius laudator praeturae tuae, defensor periculorum, praesertim cum inire a praetore gratiam posset? nemo. illi ipsi tui convivae, consiliarii, conscii, socii verbum facere non audent. in qua curia statua tua stabat et nuda fili, in ea nemo fuit, ne quem nudus quidem filius nudata provincia commoveret.

They also teach me this: that the praisers had so framed the senate-decree that all could understand it was not a praise but rather a mocking which would recall this man’s foul and calamitous praetorship. For it was so written: whereas he had cut down no man with rods — by whom you have learned the most noble and most innocent men were struck with the axe. Whereas he had administered the province vigilantly — whose every vigil it is agreed was spent in debaucheries and adulteries. And of such kind it is agreed that this was written — which the defendant would not dare to bring forth, the prosecutor would not cease to read out: Whereas Verres had kept the brigands far from the island of Sicily — whom he had received even within the Syracusan island.

atque etiam hoc me docent, eius modi senatus consultum fecisse laudatores ut omnes intellegere possent non laudationem sed potius inrisionem esse illam quae commonefaceret istius turpem calamitosamque praeturam. etenim scriptum esse ita: QVOD IS VIRGIS NEMINEM CECIDISSET— a quo cognostis nobilissimos homines atque innocentissimos securi esse percussos; QVOD VIGILANTER PROVINCIAM AD- MINISTRASSET—cuius omnis vigilias in stupris constat adulteriisque esse consumptas; cuius modi constat, hoc vero scriptum esse, quod proferre non auderet reus, accusator recitare non desineret QVOD PRAEDONES PROCVL AB INSVLA SICILIA PROHIBVISSET VERRES —quos etiam intra Syracusanam insulam recepisset.

After I had learned these things from them, I departed with my brother from the senate-house, that, with us absent, they might decree what they wished. They at once decree first that with my brother Lucius public guest-friendship be made, since he had taken upon himself the same will toward the Syracusans which I had always had. This they not only then put in writing, but even handed it to us cut in bronze. By Hercules, your Syracusans love you greatly, whom you so often recall: who reckon a cause sufficiently just for joining themselves to your prosecutor in the fact that he is going to accuse you, and that he has come to inquire against you. Afterwards it is decreed — not by varied votes, but almost unanimously — that the praise which had been decreed for Gaius Verres should be taken down.

haec posteaquam ex illis cognovi, discessi cum fratre e curia, ut nobis absentibus, si quid vellent, decernerent. decernunt statim primum ut cum Lucio fratre hospitium publice fieret, quod is eandem voluntatem erga Syracusanos suscepisset quam ego semper habuissem. id non modo tum scripserunt, verum etiam in aere incisum nobis tradiderunt. valde hercule te Syracusani tui, quos crebro commemorare soles, diligunt, qui cum accusatore tuo satis iustam causam coniungendae necessitudinis putant quod te accusaturus sit et quod inquisitum in te venerit. postea decernitur, ac non varie sed prope cunctis sententiis, ut laudatio quae C. Verri decreta esset tolleretur.

On which, when not only had the division of the house been made, but it had been even written and entered in the records, an appeal is made to the praetor. But who appeals? Some magistrate? No one. A senator? Not even that. Some Syracusan? By no means. Who then appeals to the praetor? He who had been this man’s quaestor, Publius Caesetius. O laughable thing! O man deserted, despairing, abandoned! From a Sicilian magistrate, that the Sicilians should not be allowed to make a senate-decree, that they should not be allowed to keep their right by their own customs, by their own laws — not a friend of his, not a guest-friend, not finally any Sicilian, but a quaestor of the Roman people appeals to the praetor! Who has seen this, who has heard it? The just and wise praetor orders the senate to be dismissed. The greatest multitude runs together to me. First the senators cry that their right is being snatched from them, that their freedom is being snatched from them. The people praises the senate, gives thanks; the Roman citizens never depart from me. On which day nothing was done with greater toil of mine, than that the hands should be kept off that appellant.

in eo cum iam non solum discessio facta esset, sed etiam perscriptum atque in tabulas relatum, praetor appellatur. at quis appellat? magistratus aliqui? nemo. senator? ne id quidem. Syracusanorum aliqui? minime. quis igitur praetorem appellat? qui quaestor istius fuerat, P. Caesetius. O rem ridiculam! o desertum hominem, desperatum, relictum! A magistratu Siculo, ne senatus consultum Siculi homines facere possent, ne suum ius suis moribus, suis legibus obtinere possent, non amicus istius, non hospes, non denique aliquis Siculus, sed quaestor populi Romani praetorem appellat! quis hoc vidit, quis audivit? praetor aequus et sapiens dimitti iubet senatum. concurrit ad me maxima multitudo. primum senatores clamare sibi eripi ius, eripi libertatem, populus senatum laudare, gratias agere, cives Romani a me nusquam discedere. quo quidem die nihil aegrius factum est multo labore meo quam ut manus ab illo appellatore abstinerentur.

When we had come to the praetor in court, he devises sharply enough what he should decree. For before I made a word, he rose from his chair and went away. So we then departed from the forum, since it was now growing dark. Next morning I asked of him that the Syracusans be allowed to give back to me the senate-decree which they had made the day before. But he refuses, and says it is an unworthy deed that I had spoken in a Greek senate, that I had spoken Greek among Greeks — that this can in no way be borne. I answered the man as I could, as I should, as I wished. Among many things I remember saying this also: that it was easy to be seen how much there was between him and that famous Numidicus, the true and German Metellus. The latter had not wished to help with his own praise Lucius Lucullus, his sister’s husband, with whom he was on the best terms; this man arranged praises for a man most foreign to the cities by force and fear.

cum ad praetorem in ius adissemus, excogitat sane acute quid decernat; nam ante quam verbum facerem, de sella surrexit atque abiit. itaque tum de foro, cum iam advesperasceret, discessimus. postridie mane ab eo postulo ut Syracusanis liceret senatus consultum, quod pridie fecissent, mihi reddere. ille enim vero negat et ait in-, dignum facinus esse quod ego in senatu Graeco verba fecissem; quod quidem apud Graecos Graece locutus essem, id ferri nullo modo posse. respondi homini ut potui, ut debui, ut volui. cum multa tum etiam hoc me memini dicere, facile esse perspicuum quantum inter hunc et illum Numidicum, verum ac germanum Metellum, interesset; illum noluisse sua laudatione iuvare L. Lucullum, sororis virum, quicum optime convenisset, hunc homini alienissimo a civitatibus laudationes per vim et metum comparare.

When I understood that recent messengers from him had had much weight, that not commendatory but tribute-bearing tablets had had much weight, on the warning of the Syracusans themselves I make an attack upon those records in which they had entered the senate-decree. But behold a new tumult and brawl, lest you should think that this man is at Syracuse altogether without friends, without guest-friends, plainly naked and deserted! A certain Theomnastus begins to hold back the records, a man laughably mad, whom the Syracusans call Theoractus; who there is of such a kind that boys follow him about, that all laugh when he begins to speak. Yet his madness, which is laughable to others, was then surely troublesome to me. For when he was foaming at the mouth, with his eyes burning, with the loudest voice crying out that I was using force on him, joined together we came to court.

quod ubi intellexi, multum apud illum recentis nuntios, multum tabellas non commendaticias sed tributarias valuisse, admonitu ipsorum Syracusanorum impetum in eas tabulas facio in quibus senatus consultum perscripserant. ecce autem nova turba atque rixa, ne tamen istum omnino Syracusis sine amicis, sine hospitibus, plane nudum esse ac desertum putetis! retinere incipit tabulas Theomnastus quidam, homo ridicule insanus, quem Syracusani Theoractum vocant; qui illic eius modi est ut eum pueri sectentur, ut omnes cum loqui coepit inrideant. huius s tamen insania, quae ridicula est aliis, mihi tum molesta sane fuit; nam cum spumas ageret in ore, oculis arderet, voce maxima vim me sibi adferre clamaret, copulati in ius pervenimus.

Here I began to ask that I might be allowed to seal and carry off the records. He spoke against; he denied that that was a senate-decree, since the praetor had been appealed to; denied that it ought to be handed over to me. I read out the law: that the power of all records and writings was given to me. He, mad, pressed that our laws had nothing to do with him. The understanding praetor said that it did not please him that, when a senate-decree ought not to be valid, that I should carry it to Rome. To be brief: had I not threatened the man more vehemently, had I not read out the sanction and penalty of the law, the power of the records would not have been made over to me. But that mad fellow, who had declaimed against me most vehemently for that man, after he did not obtain his point — in order, I trust, to be reconciled with me — gave me a little book in which were entered the Syracusan thefts of this man, which I had before learned from others and received.

hic ego postulare coepi ut mihi tabulas obsignare ac deportare liceret; ille contra dicere, negare esse illud senatus consultum in quo praetor appellatus esset, negare id mihi tradi oportere. ego legem recitare, omnium mihi tabularum et litterarum fieri potestatem; ille furiosus urgere nihil ad se nostras leges pertinere. praetor intellegens negare sibi placere, quod senatus consultum ratum esse non deberet, id me Romam deportare. quid multa? nisi vehementius homini minatus essem, nisi legis sanctionem poenamque recitassem, tabularum mihi potestas facta non esset. ille autem insanus, qui pro isto vehementissime contra me declamasset, postquam non impetravit, credo, ut in gratiam mecum rediret, libellum mihi dat in quo istius furta Syracusana perscripta erant, quae ego antea iam ab aliis cognoram et acceperam.

Let the Mamertines now praise you by all means, since out of the whole province they alone wish you safe; only let them so praise you that Heius, who is the chief of the embassy, may be present, so let them praise that they may be ready to answer me to those questions which they shall be asked. And lest they be suddenly overwhelmed by me, this I shall ask: do they owe a ship to the Roman people? They will confess. Did they furnish one when Gaius Verres was praetor? They will deny it. Did they not build the largest cargo-ship publicly, which they gave to Verres? They will not be able to deny it. Did Gaius Verres not take grain from them, that he might send it to the Roman people, as the previous praetors? They will deny it. What soldiers or sailors did they give through three years? They will say none was given. That Messana was the receiver of all this man’s thefts and plunders they will not be able to deny. That very many things were exported in many ships from there, finally that this largest ship, given by the Mamertines, set out laden with him, they will confess.

laudent te iam sane Mamertini, quoniam ex tota provincia soli sunt qui te salvum velint, ita tamen laudent ut Heius, qui princeps legationis est, adsit, ita laudent ut ad ea quae rogati erunt mihi parati sint respondere. ac ne subito a me opprimantur, haec sum rogaturus: navem populo Romano debeantne? fatebuntur. praebuerintne praetore C. Verre? negabunt. aedificarintne navem onerariam maximam publice, quam Verri dederunt? negare non poterunt. frumentum ab iis sumpseritne C. Verres, quod populo Romano mitteret, sicuti superiores? negabunt. quid militum aut nautarum per triennium dederint? nullum datum dicent. fuisse Messanam omnium istius furtorum ac praedarum receptricem negare non poterunt; permulta multis navibus illinc exportata, hanc navem denique maximam, a Mamertinis datam, onustam cum isto profectam fatebuntur.

Wherefore have your Mamertine praise, by all means; the Syracusan state, as it has been treated by you, so we see is disposed toward you, among whom even those scandalous Verria have been done away with. For it least befitted that divine honours be paid to him who had taken away the images of the gods. Even by Hercules that would be reproached among the Syracusans rightly — if, when they had taken from their calendar a most frequented and most sacred festal day of games (because on that very day Syracuse is said to have been taken by Marcellus), they should at the same time hold a festal day in the name of Verres, when this man had taken from the Syracusans even what that calamitous day had left. But see the shamelessness and arrogance of the man, gentlemen, who not only set up these foul and laughable Verria out of the money of Heraclius, but even ordered the Marcellia to be taken away — that they should perform sacred rites yearly for him by whose hand they had lost the sacred rites of all the years and their household gods, and abolish the festal days of that family through which they had recovered all their other festal days.

quam ob rem tibi habe sane istam laudationem Mamertinorum; Syracusanam quidem civitatem ut abs te adfecta est ita in te esse animatam videmus, apud quos etiam Verria illa flagitiosa sublata sunt. etenim minime conveniebat ei deorum honores haberi qui simulacra deorum abstulisset. etiam hercule illud in Syracusanis merito reprehenderetur, si, cum diem festum ludorum de fastis suis sustulissent celeberrimum et sanctissimum, quod eo ipso die Syracusae a Marcello captae esse dicuntur, idem diem festum Verris nomine agerent, cum iste a Syracusanis quae ille calamitosus dies reliquerat ademisset. at videte hominis impudentiam atque adrogantiam, iudices, qui non solum Verria haec turpia ac ridicula ex Heracli pecunia constituerit, verum etiam Marcellia tolli imperarit, ut ei sacra facerent quotannis cuius opera omnium annorum sacra deosque patrios amiserant, eius autem familiae dies festos tollerent per quam ceteros quoque festos dies recuperarant.

C icero by Claude

Against Verres, Second Hearing, Book IV

Cite this passage

Support this project