_VERRES._
There are six episodes, or, as I may say, divisions in the life of
Cicero to which special interest attaches itself. The first is the
accusation against Verres, in which he drove the miscreant howling out
of the city. The second is his Consulship, in which he drove Catiline
out of the city, and caused certain other conspirators who were joined
with the arch rebel to be killed, either legally or illegally. The third
was his exile, in which he himself was driven out of Rome. The fourth
was a driving out, too, though of a more honorable kind, when he was
compelled, much against his will, to undertake the government of a
province. The fifth was Cæsar's passing of the Rubicon, the battle of
Pharsalia, and his subsequent adherence to Cæsar. The last was his
internecine combat with Antony, which produced the Philippics, and that
memorable series of letters in which he strove to stir into flames the
expiring embers of the Republic. The literary work with which we are
acquainted is spread, but spread very unequally, over his whole life. I
have already told the story of Sextus Roscius Amerinus, having taken it
from his own words. From that time onward he wrote continually; but the
fervid stream of his eloquence came forth from him with unrivalled
rapidity in the twenty last miserable months of his life.
We have now come to the first of those episodes, and I have to tell the
way in which Cicero struggled with Verres, and how he conquered him. In
74 B.C. Verres was Prætor in Rome. At that period of the Republic there
were eight Prætors elected annually, two of whom remained in the city,
whereas the others were employed abroad, generally with the armies of
the Empire. In the next year, 73 B.C., Verres went in due course to
Sicily with proconsular or proprætorial authority, having the government
assigned to him for twelve months. This was usual and constitutional,
but it was not unusual, even if unconstitutional, that this period
should be prolonged. In the case of Verres it was prolonged, so that he
should hold the office for three years. He had gone through the other
offices of the State, having been Quæstor in Asia and Ædile afterward in
Rome, to the great misfortune of all who were subjected to his handling,
as we shall learn by-and-by. The facts are mentioned here to show that
the great offices of the Republic were open to such a man as Verres.
They were in fact more open to such a candidate than they would be to
one less iniquitous--to an honest man or a scrupulous one, or to one
partially honest, or not altogether unscrupulous. If you send a dog into
a wood to get truffles, you will endeavor to find one that will tear up
as many truffles as possible. A proconsular robber did not rob only for
himself; he robbed more or less for all Rome. Verres boasted that with
his three years of rule he could bring enough home to bribe all the
judges, secure all the best advocates, and live in splendid opulence for
the rest of his life. What a dog he was to send into a wood for
truffles!
To such a condition as this had Rome fallen when the deputies from
Sicily came to complain of their late governor, and to obtain the
services of Cicero in seeking for whatever reparation might be possible.
Verres had carried on his plunder during the years 73, 72, 71 B.C.
During this time Cicero had been engaged sedulously as an advocate in
Rome. We know the names of some of the cases in which he was
engaged--those, for instance, for Publius Oppius, who, having been
Quæstor in Bithynia, was accused by his Proconsul of having endeavored
to rob the soldiers of their dues. We are told that the poor province
suffered greatly under these two officers, who were always quarrelling
as to a division of their plunder. In this case the senior officer
accused the younger, and the younger, by Cicero's aid, was acquitted.
Quintilian more than once refers to the speech made for Oppius. Cicero
also defended Varenus, who was charged with having murdered his brother,
and one Caius Mustius, of whom we only know that he was a farmer of
taxes. He was advocate also for Sthenius, a Sicilian, who was accused
before the Tribunes by Verres. We shall hear of Sthenius again among the
victims in Sicily. The special charge in this case was that, having been
condemned by Verres as Prætor in Sicily, he had run away to Rome, which
was illegal. He was, however, acquitted. Of these speeches we have only
some short fragments, which have been quoted by authors whose works have
come down to us, such as Quintilian; by which we know, at any rate, that
Cicero's writings had been so far carefully preserved, and that they
were commonly read in those days. I will translate here the concluding
words of a short paper written by M. du Rozoir in reference to Cicero's
life at this period: "The assiduity of our orator at the bar had
obtained for him a high degree of favor among the people, because they
had seen how strictly he had observed that Cincian law which forbade
advocates to take either money or presents for then pleadings--which
law, however, the advocates of the day generally did not scruple to
neglect."[97] It is a good thing to be honest when honesty is in vogue;
but to be honest when honesty is out of fashion is magnificent.
In the affair with Verres, there are two matters to interest the
reader--indeed, to instruct the reader--if the story were sufficiently
well told. The iniquity of Verres is the first--which is of so
extravagant a nature as to become farcical by the absurdity of the
extent to which he was not afraid to go in the furtherance of his
avarice and lust. As the victims suffered two thousand years ago, we can
allow ourselves to be amused by the inexhaustible fertility of the man's
resources and the singular iniquity of his schemes. Then we are brought
face to face with the barefaced corruption of the Roman judges--a
corruption which, however, became a regular trade, if not ennobled,
made, at any rate, aristocratic by the birth, wealth high names, and
senatorial rank of the robbers. Sulla, for certain State purposes--which
consisted in the maintenance of the oligarchy--had transferred the
privileges of sitting on the judgment-seat from the Equites, or Knights,
to the Senators. From among the latter a considerable number--thirty,
perhaps, or forty, or even fifty--were appointed to sit with the Prætor
to hear criminal cases of importance, and by their votes, which were
recorded on tablets, the accused person was acquitted or condemned. To
be acquitted by the most profuse corruption entailed no disgrace on him
who was tried, and often but little on the judges who tried him. In
Cicero's time the practice, with all its chances, had come to be well
understood. The Provincial Governors, with their Quæstors and
lieutenants, were chosen from the high aristocracy, which also supplied
the judges. The judges themselves had been employed, or hoped to be
employed, in similar lucrative service. The leading advocates belonged
to the same class. If the proconsular thief, when he had made his bag,
would divide the spoil with some semblance of equity among his brethren,
nothing could be more convenient. The provinces were so large, and the
Greek spirit of commercial enterprise which prevailed in them so lively,
that there was room for plunder ample, at any rate, for a generation or
two. The Republic boasted that, in its love of pure justice, it had
provided by certain laws for the protection of its allied subjects
against any possible faults of administration on the part of its own
officers. If any injury were done to a province, or a city, or even to
an individual, the province, or city, or individual could bring its
grievance to the ivory chair of the Prætor in Rome and demand redress;
and there had been cases not a few in which a delinquent officer had
been condemned to banishment. Much, indeed, was necessary before the
scheme as it was found to exist by Verres could work itself into
perfection. Verres felt that in his time everything had been done for
security as well as splendor. He would have all the great officers of
State on his side. The Sicilians, if he could manage the case as he
thought it might be managed, would not have a leg to stand upon. There
was many a trick within his power before they could succeed in making
good even their standing before the Prætor. It was in this condition of
things that Cicero bethought himself that he might at one blow break
through the corruption of the judgment-seat, and this he determined to
do by subjecting the judges to the light of public opinion. If Verres
could be tried under a bushel, as it were, in the dark, as many others
had been tried, so that little or nothing should be said about the trial
in the city at large, then there would be no danger for the judges. It
could only be by shaming them, by making them understand that Rome would
become too hot to hold them, that they could be brought to give a
verdict against the accused. This it was that Cicero determined to
effect, and did effect. And we see throughout the whole pleadings that
he was concerned in the matter not only for the Sicilians, or against
Verres. Could something be done for the sake of Rome, for the sake of
the Republic, to redeem the courts of justice from the obloquy which was
attached to them? Might it be possible for a man so to address himself
not only to the judgment-seat, but to all Rome, as to do away with this
iniquity once and forever? Could he so fill the minds of the citizens
generally with horror at such proceedings as to make them earnest in
demanding reform? Hortensius, the great advocate of the day, was not
only engaged on behalf of Verres, but he was already chosen as Consul
for the next year. Metellus, who was elected Prætor for the next year,
was hot in defence of Verres. Indeed, there were three Metelluses among
the friends of the accused, who had also on his side the Scipio of the
day. The aristocracy of Rome was altogether on the side of Verres, as
was natural. But if Cicero might succeed at all in this which he
meditated, the very greatness of his opponents would help him. When it
was known that he was to be pitted against Hortensius as an advocate,
and that he intended to defy Hortensius as the coming Consul, then
surely Rome would be awake to the occasion; and if Rome could be made to
awake herself, then would this beautiful scheme of wealth from
provincial plunder be brought to an end.
I will first speak of the work of the judges, and of the attempts made
to hinder Cicero in the business he had undertaken. Then I will endeavor
to tell something of the story of Verres and his doings. The subject
divides itself naturally in this way. There are extant seven so-called
orations about Verres, of which the two first apply to the manner in
which the case should be brought before the courts. These two were
really spoken, and were so effective that Verres--or probably
Hortensius, on his behalf--was frightened into silence. Verres pleaded
guilty, as we should say, which, in accordance with the usages of the
court, he was enabled to do by retiring and going into voluntary
banishment. This he did, sooner than stand his ground and listen to the
narration of his iniquities as it would be given by Cicero in the full
speech--the "perpetua oratio"--which would follow the examination of the
witnesses. What the orator said before the examination of the witnesses
was very short. He had to husband his time, as it was a part of the
grand scheme of Hortensius to get adjournment after adjournment because
of certain sacred rites and games, during the celebration of which the
courts could not sit. All this was arranged for in the scheme; but
Cicero, in order that he might baffle the schemers, got through his
preliminary work as quickly as possible, saying all that he had to say
about the manner of the trial, about the judges, about the scheme, but
dilating very little on the iniquities of the criminal. But having thus
succeeded, having gained his cause in a great measure by the unexpected
quickness of his operations, then he told his story. Then was made that
"perpetua oratio" by which we have learned the extent to which a Roman
governor could go on desolating a people who were intrusted to his
protection. This full narration is divided into five parts, each devoted
to a separate class of iniquity. These were never spoken, though they
appear in the form of speeches. They would have been spoken, if
required, in answer to the defence made by Hortensius on behalf of
Verres after the hearing of the evidence. But the defence broke down
altogether, in the fashion thus described by Cicero himself. "In that
one hour in which I spoke"--this was the speech which we designate as
the Actio Prima contra Verrem, the first pleading made against Verres,
to which we shall come just now--"I took away all hope of bribing the
judges from the accused--from this brazen-faced, rich, dissolute, and
abandoned man. On the first day of the trial, on the mere calling of the
names of the witnesses, the people of Rome were able to perceive that if
this criminal were absolved, then there could be no chance for the
Republic. On the second day his friends and advocates had not only lost
all hope of gaining their cause, but all relish for going on with it.
The third day so paralyzed the man himself that he had to bethink
himself not what sort of reply he could make, but how he could escape
the necessity of replying by pretending to be ill."[98] It was in this
way that the trial was brought to an end.
But we must go back to the beginning. When an accusation was to be made
against some great Roman of the day on account of illegal public
misdoings, as was to be made now against Verres, the conduct of the
case, which would require probably great labor and expense, and would
give scope for the display of oratorical excellence, was regarded as a
task in which a young aspirant to public favor might obtain honor and by
which he might make himself known to the people. It had, therefore, come
to pass that there might be two or more accusers anxious to undertake
the work, and to show themselves off as solicitous on behalf of injured
innocence, or desirous of laboring in the service of the Republic. When
this was the case, a court of judges was called upon to decide whether
this man or that other was most fit to perform the work in hand. Such a
trial was called "Divinatio," because the judges had to get their lights
in the matter as best they could without the assistance of witnesses--by
some process of divination--with the aid of the gods, as it might be.
Cicero's first speech in the matter of Verres is called In Quintum
Cæcilium Divinatio, because one Cæcilius came forward to take the case
away from him. Here was a part of the scheme laid by Hortensius. To deal
with Cicero in such a matter would no doubt be awkward. His purpose, his
diligence, his skill, his eloquence, his honesty were known. There must
be a trial. So much was acknowledged; but if the conduct of it could be
relegated to a man who was dishonest, or who had no skill, no fitness,
no special desire for success, then the little scheme could be carried
through in that way. So Cæcilius was put forward as Cicero's competitor,
and our first speech is that made by Cicero to prove his own superiority
to that of his rival.
Whether Cæcilius was or was not hired to break down in his assumed duty
as accuser, we do not know. The biographers have agreed to say that such
was the case,[99] grounding their assertion, no doubt, on extreme
probability. But I doubt whether there is any evidence as to this.
Cicero himself brings this accusation, but not in that direct manner
which he would have used had he been able to prove it. The Sicilians, at
any rate, said that it was so. As to the incompetency of the man, there
was probably no doubt, and it might be quite as serviceable to have an
incompetent as a dishonest accuser. Cæcilius himself had declared that
no one could be so fit as himself for the work. He knew Sicily well,
having been born there. He had been Quæstor there with Verres, and had
been able to watch the governor's doings. No doubt there was--or had
been in more pious days--a feeling that a Quæstor should never turn
against the Proconsul under whom he had served, and to whom he had held
the position almost of a son.[100] But there was less of that feeling
now than heretofore. Verres had quarrelled with his Quæstor. Oppius was
called on to defend himself against the Proconsul with whom he had
served. No one could know the doings of the governor of a province as
well as his own Quæstor; and, therefore, so said Cæcilius, he would be
the preferable accuser. As to his hatred of the man, there could be no
doubt as to that. Everybody knew that they had quarrelled. The purpose,
no doubt, was to give some colorable excuse to the judges for rescuing
Verres, the great paymaster, from the fangs of Cicero.
Cicero's speech on the occasion--which, as speeches went in those days,
was very short--is a model of sagacity and courage. He had to plead his
own fitness, the unfitness of his adversary, and the wishes in the
matter of the Sicilians. This had to be done with no halting phrases. It
was not simply his object to convince a body of honest men that, with
the view of getting at the truth, he would be the better advocate of the
two. We may imagine that there was not a judge there, not a Roman
present, who was not well aware of that before the orator began. It was
needed that the absurdity of the comparison between them should be
declared so loudly that the judges would not dare to betray the
Sicilians, and to liberate the accused, by choosing the incompetent man.
When Cicero rose to speak, there was probably not one of them of his own
party, not a Consul, a Prætor, an Ædile, or a Quæstor, not a judge, not
a Senator, not a hanger-on about the courts, but was anxious that Verres
with his plunder should escape. Their hope of living upon the wealth of
the provinces hung upon it. But if he could speak winged words--words
that should fly all over Rome, that might fly also among subject
nations--then would the judges not dare to carry out this portion of the
scheme.
"When," he says, "I had served as Quæstor in Sicily, and had left the
province after such a fashion that all the Sicilians had a grateful
memory of my authority there, though they had older friends on whom they
relied much, they felt that I might be a bulwark to them in their need.
These Sicilians, harassed and robbed, have now come to me in public
bodies, and have implored me to undertake their defence. 'The time has
come,' they say, 'not that I should look after the interest of this or
that man, but that I should protect the very life and well-being of the
whole province.' I am inclined by my sense of duty, by the faith which I
owe them, by my pity for them, by the example of all good Romans before
me, by the custom of the Republic, by the old constitution, to undertake
this task, not as pertaining to my own interests, but to those of my
close friends."[101] That was his own reason for undertaking the case.
Then he reminds the judges of what the Roman people wished--the people
who had felt with dismay the injury inflicted upon them by Sulla's
withdrawal of all power from the Tribunes, and by the putting the whole
authority of the bench into the hands of the Senators. "The Roman
people, much as they have been made to suffer, regret nothing of that
they have lost so much as the strength and majesty of the old judges. It
is with the desire of having them back that they demand for the Tribunes
their former power. It is this misconduct of the present judges that has
caused them to ask for another class of men for the judgment-seat. By
the fault and to the shame of the judges of to-day, the Censor's
authority, which has hitherto always been regarded as odious and stern,
even that is now requested by the people."[102] Then he goes on to show
that, if justice is intended, this case will be put into the hands of
him whom the Sicilians have themselves chosen. Had the Sicilians said
that they were unwilling to trust their affairs to Cæcilius because they
had not known him, but were willing to trust him, Cicero, whom they did
know, would not even that have been reasonable enough of itself? But the
Sicilians had known both of them, had known Cæcilius almost as well as
Cicero, and had expressed themselves clearly. Much as they desired to
have Cicero, they were as anxious not to have Cæcilius. Even had they
held their tongues about this, everybody would have known it; but they
had been far from holding their tongues. "Yet you offer yourself to
these most unwilling clients," he says, turning to Cæcilius. "Yet you
are ready to plead in a cause that does not belong to you! Yet you would
defend those who would rather have no defender than such a one as
you!"[103] Then he attacks Hortensius, the advocate for Verres. "Let him
not think that, if I am to be employed here, the judges can be bribed
without infinite danger to all concerned. In undertaking this cause of
the Sicilians, I undertake also the cause of the people of Rome at
large. It is not only that one wretched sinner should be crushed, which
is what the Sicilians want, but that this terrible injustice should be
stopped altogether, in compliance with the wishes of the people."[104]
When we remember how this was spoken, in the presence of those very
judges, in the presence of Hortensius himself, in reliance only on the
public opinion which he was to create by his own words, we cannot but
acknowledge that it is very fine.
After that he again turns upon Cæcilius. "Learn from me," he says, "how
many things are expected from him who undertakes the accusation of
another. If there be one of those qualities in you, I will give up to
you all that you ask."[105] Cæcilius was probably even now in alliance
with Verres. He himself, when Quæstor, had robbed the people in the
collection of the corn dues, and was unable therefore to include that
matter in his accusation. "You can bring no charge against him on this
head, lest it be seen that you were a partner with him in the
business."[106] He ridicules him as to his personal insufficiency.
"What, Cæcilius! as to those practices of the profession without which
an action such as this cannot be carried on, do you think that there is
nothing in them? Need there be no skill in the business, no habit of
speaking, no familiarity with the Forum, with the judgment-seats, and
the laws?"[107] "I know well how difficult the ground is. Let me advise
you to look into yourself, and to see whether you are able to do that
kind of thing. Have you got voice for it, prudence, memory, wit? Are you
able to expose the life of Verres, as it must be done, to divide it into
parts and make everything clear? In doing all this, though nature should
have assisted you"--as it has not at all, is of course implied--"if from
your earliest childhood you had been imbued with letters; if you had
learned Greek at Athens instead of at Lilybæum--Latin in Rome instead of
in Sicily--still would it not be a task beyond your strength to
undertake such a case, so widely thought of, to complete it by your
industry, and then to grasp it in your memory; to make it plain by your
eloquence, and to support it with voice and strength sufficient? 'Have I
these gifts,' you will ask. Would that I had! But from my childhood I
have done all that I could to attain them."[108]
Cicero makes his points so well that I would fain go through the whole
speech, were it not that a similar reason might induce me to give
abridgments of all his speeches. It may not be that the readers of these
orations will always sympathize with the orator in the matter which he
has in hand--though his power over words is so great as to carry the
reader with him very generally, even at this distance of time--but the
neatness with which the weapon is used, the effectiveness of the thrust
for the purpose intended, the certainty with which the nail is hit on
the head--never with an expenditure of unnecessary force, but always
with the exact strength wanted for the purpose--these are the
characteristics of Cicero's speeches which carry the reader on with a
delight which he will want to share with others, as a man when he has
heard a good story instantly wishes to tell it again. And with Cicero we
are charmed by the modernness, by the tone of to-day, which his language
takes. The rapid way in which he runs from scorn to pity, from pity to
anger, from anger to public zeal, and then instantly to irony and
ridicule, implies a lightness of touch which, not unreasonably,
surprises us as having endured for so many hundred years. That poetry
should remain to us, even lines so vapid as some of those in which Ovid
sung of love, seems to be more natural, because verses, though they be
light, must have been labored. But these words spoken by Cicero seem
almost to ring in our ears as having come to us direct from a man's
lips. We see the anger gathering on the brow of Hortensius, followed by
a look of acknowledged defeat. We see the startled attention of the
judges as they began to feel that in this case they must depart from
their intended purpose. We can understand how Cæcilius cowered, and
found consolation in being relieved from his task. We can fancy how
Verres suffered--Verres whom no shame could have touched--when all his
bribes were becoming inefficient under the hands of the orator.
Cicero was chosen for the task, and then the real work began. The work
as he did it was certainly beyond the strength of any ordinary advocate.
It was necessary that he should proceed to Sicily to obtain the evidence
which was to be collected over the whole island. He must rate up, too,
all the previous details of the life of this robber. He must be
thoroughly prepared to meet the schemers on every point. He asked for a
hundred and ten days for the purpose of getting up his case, but he took
only fifty. We must imagine that, as he became more thoroughly versed in
the intrigues of his adversaries, new lights came upon him. Were he to
use the whole time allotted to him, or even half the time, and then make
such an exposition of the criminal as he would delight to do were he to
indulge himself with that "perpetua oratio" of which we hear, then the
trial would be protracted till the coming of certain public games,
during which the courts would not sit. There seem to have been three
sets of games in his way--a special set for this year, to be given by
Pompey, which were to last fifteen days; then the Ludi Romani, which
were continued for nine days. Soon after that would come the games in
honor of Victory--so soon that an adjournment over them would be
obtained as a matter of course. In this way the trial would be thrown
over into the next year, when Hortensius and one Metellus would be
Consuls, and another Metellus would be the Prætor, controlling the
judgment-seats. Glabrio was the Prætor for this present year. In Glabrio
Cicero could put some trust. With Hortensius and the two Metelluses in
power, Verres would be as good as acquitted. Cicero, therefore, had to
be on the alert, so that in this unexpected way, by sacrificing his own
grand opportunity for a speech, he might conquer the schemers. We hear
how he went to Sicily in a little boat from an unknown port, so as to
escape the dangers contrived for him by the friends of Verres.[109] If
it could be arranged that the clever advocate should be kidnapped by a
pirate, what a pleasant way would that be of putting an end to these
abominable reforms! Let them get rid of Cicero, if only for a time, and
the plunder might still be divided. Against all this he had to provide.
When in Sicily he travelled sometimes on foot, for the sake of
caution--never with the retinue to which he was entitled as a Roman
senator. As a Roman senator he might have demanded free entertainment at
any town he entered, at great cost to the town. But from all this he
abstained, and hurried back to Rome with his evidence so quickly that he
was able to produce it before the judges, so as to save the adjournments
which he feared.
Verres retired from the trial, pleading guilty, after hearing the
evidence. Of the witnesses and of the manner in which they told the
story, we have no account. The second speech which we have--the
Divinatio, or speech against Cæcilius, having been the first--is called
the Actio Prima contra Verrem--"the first process against Verres." This
is almost entirely confined to an exhortation to the judges. Cicero had
made up his mind to make no speech about Verres till after the trial
should be over. There would not be the requisite time. The evidence he
must bring forward. And he would so appall these corrupt judges that
they should not dare to acquit the accused. This Actio Prima contains
the words in which he did appall the judges. As we read them, we pity
the judges. There were fourteen, whose names we know. That there may
have been many more is probable. There was the Prætor Urbanus of the
day, Glabrio. With him were Metellus, one of the Prætors for the next
year, and Cæsonius, who, with Cicero himself, was Ædile designate. There
were three Tribunes of the people and two military Tribunes. There was a
Servilius, a Catulus, a Marcellus. Whom among these he suspected we can
hardly say. Certainly he suspected Metellus. To Servilius[110] he paid
an ornate compliment in one of the written orations published after the
trial was over, from whence we may suppose that he was well inclined
toward him. Of Glabrio he spoke well. The body, as a body, was of such a
nature that he found it necessary to appall them. It is thus that he
begins: "Not by human wisdom, O ye judges, but by chance, and by the
aid, as it were, of the gods themselves, an event has come to pass by
which the hatred now felt for your order, and the infamy attached to the
judgment seat, may be appeased; for an opinion has gone abroad,
disgraceful to the Republic, full of danger to yourselves--which is in
the mouths of all men not only here in Rome but through all
nations--that by these courts as they are now constituted, a man, if he
be only rich enough, will never be condemned, though he be ever so
guilty." What an exordium with which to begin a forensic pleading before
a bench of judges composed of Prætors, Ædiles, and coming Consuls! And
this at a time, too, when men's minds were still full of Sulla's power;
when some were thinking that they too might be Sullas; while the idea
was still strong that a few nobles ought to rule the Roman Empire for
their own advantage and their own luxury! What words to address to a
Metellus, a Catulus, and a Marcellus! I have brought before you such a
wretch, he goes on to say, that by a just judgment upon him you can
recover your favor with the people of Rome, and your credit with other
nations. "This is a trial in which you, indeed, will have to judge this
man who is accused, but in which also the Roman people will have to
judge you. By what is done to him will be determined whether a man who
is guilty, and at the same time rich, can possibly be condemned in
Rome.[111]If the matter goes amiss here, all men will declare, not that
better men should be selected out of your order, which would be
impossible, but that another order of citizens must be named from which
to select the judges."[112] This short speech was made. The witnesses
were examined during nine days; then Hortensius, with hardly a struggle
at a reply, gave way, and Verres stood condemned by his own verdict.
When the trial was over, and Verres had consented to go into exile, and
to pay whatever fine was demanded, the "perpetua oratio" which Cicero
thought good to make on the matter was published to the world. It is
written as though it was to have been spoken, with counterfeit tricks of
oratory--with some tricks so well done in the first part of it as to
have made one think that, when these special words were prepared, he
must have intended to speak them. It has been agreed, however, that such
was not the case. It consists of a narration of the villainies of
Verres, and is divided into what have been called five different
speeches, to which the following appellations are given: De Prætura
Urbana, in which we are told what Verres did when he was city Prætor,
and very many things also which he did before he came to that office, De
Jurisdictione Siciliensi, in which is described his conduct as a Roman
magistrate on the island; De Re Frumentaria, setting forth the
abomination of his exactions in regard to the corn tax; De Signis,
detailing the robberies he perpetuated in regard to statues and other
ornaments; and De Suppliciis, giving an account of the murders he
committed and the tortures he inflicted. A question is sometimes mooted
in conversation whether or no the general happiness of the world has
been improved by increasing civilization When the reader finds from
these stories, as told by a leading Roman of the day, how men were
treated under the Roman oligarchy--not only Greek allies but Romans
also--I think he will be inclined to answer the question in favour of
civilization.
I can only give a few of the many little histories which have been
preserved for us in this Actio Secunda; but perhaps these few may
suffice to show how a great Roman officer could demean himself in his
government. Of the doings of Verres before he went to Sicily I will
select two. It became his duty on one occasion--a job which he seems to
have sought for purpose of rapine--to go to Lampsacus, a town in Asia,
as lieutenant, or legate, for Dolabella, who then had command in Asia.
Lampsacus was on the Hellespont, an allied town of specially good
repute. Here he is put up as a guest, with all the honors of a Roman
officer, at the house of a citizen named Janitor. But he heard that
another citizen, one Philodamus, had a beautiful daughter--an article
with which we must suppose that Janitor was not equally well supplied.
Verres, determined to get at the lady, orders that his creature Rubrius
shall be quartered at the house of Philodamus. Philodamus, who from his
rank was entitled to be burdened only with the presence of leading
Romans, grumbles at this; but, having grumbled, consents, and having
consented, does the best to make his house comfortable. He gives a great
supper, at which the Romans eat and drink, and purposely create a
tumult. Verres, we understand, was not there. The intention is that the
girl shall be carried away and brought to him. In the middle of their
cups the father is desired to produce his daughter; but this he refuses
to do. Rubrius then orders the doors to be closed, and proceeds to
ransack the house. Philodamus, who will not stand this, fetches his son,
and calls his fellow-citizens around him. Rubrius succeeds in pouring
boiling water over his host, but in the row the Romans get the worst of
it. At last one of Verres's lictors--absolutely a Roman lictor--is
killed, and the woman is not carried off. The man at least bore the
outward signs of a lictor, but, according to Cicero, was in the pay of
Verres as his pimp.
So far Verres fails; and the reader, rejoicing at the courage of the
father who could protect his own house even against Romans, begins to
feel some surprise that this case should have been selected. So far the
lieutenant had not done the mischief he had intended, but he soon
avenges his failure. He induces Dolabella, his chief, to have Philodamus
and his son carried off to Laodicea, and there tried before Nero, the
then Proconsul, for killing the sham lictor. They are tried at Laodicea
before Nero, Verres himself sitting as one of the judges, and are
condemned. Then in the market place of the town, in the presence of each
other, the father and son are beheaded--a thing, as Cicero says, very
sad for all Asia to behold. All this had been done some years ago; and,
nevertheless, Verres had been chosen Prætor, and sent to Sicily to
govern the Sicilians.
When Verres was Prætor at Rome--the year before he was sent to
Sicily--it became his duty, or rather privilege, as he found it, to see
that a certain temple of Castor in the city was given up in proper
condition by the executors of a defunct citizen who had taken a contract
for keeping it in repair. This man, whose name had been Junius, left a
son, who was a Junius also under age, with a large fortune in charge of
various trustees, tutors, as they were called, whose duty it was to
protect the heir's interests. Verres, knowing of old that no property
was so easily preyed on as that of a minor, sees at once that something
may be done with the temple of Castor. The heir took oath, and to the
extent of his property he was bound to keep the edifice in good repair.
But Verres, when he made an inspection, finds everything to be in more
than usually good order. There is not a scratch on the roof of which he
can make use. Nothing has been allowed to go astray. Then "one of his
dogs"--for he had boasted to his friend Ligur that he always went about
with dogs to search out his game for him--suggested that some of the
columns were out of the perpendicular. Verres does not know what this
means; but the dog explains. All columns are, in fact, by strict
measurement, more or less out of the perpendicular, as we are told that
all eyes squint a little, though we do not see that they squint. But as
columns ought to be perpendicular, here was a matter on which he might
go to work. He does go to work. The trustees knowing their man--knowing
also that in the present condition of Rome it was impossible to escape
from an unjust Prætor without paying largely--went to his mistress and
endeavored to settle the matter with her. Here we have an amusing
picture of the way in which the affairs of the city were carried on in
that lady's establishment; how she had her levee, took her bribes, and
drove a lucrative trade. Doing, however, no good with her, the trustees
settled with an agent to pay Verres two hundred thousand sesterces to
drop the affair. This was something under £2000. But Verres repudiated
the arrangement with scorn. He could do much better than that with such
a temple and such a minor. He puts the repairs up to auction; and
refusing a bid from the trustees themselves--the very persons who are
the most interested in getting the work done, if there were work to
do--has it knocked down to himself for five hundred and sixty thousand
sesterces, or about £5000.[113] Then we are told how he had the
pretended work done by the putting up of a rough crane. No real work is
done, no new stones are brought, no money is spent. That is the way in
which Verres filled his office as Prætor Urbanus; but it does not seem
that any public notice is taken of his iniquities as long as he confined
himself to little jobs such as this.
Then we come to the affairs of Sicily--and the long list of robberies is
commenced by which that province was made desolate. It seems that
nothing gave so grand a scope to the greed of a public functionary who
was at the same time governor and judge as disputed wills. It was not
necessary that any of the persons concerned should dispute the will
among them. Given the facts that a man had died and left property behind
him, then Verres would find means to drag the heir into court, and
either frighten him into payment of a bribe or else rob him of his
inheritance. Before he left Rome for the province he heard that a large
fortune had been left to one Dio on condition that he should put up
certain statues in the market-place.[114] It was not uncommon for a man
to desire the reputation of adorning his own city, but to choose that
the expense should be borne by his heir rather than by himself. Failing
to put up the statues, the heir was required to pay a fine to Venus
Erycina--to enrich, that is, the worship of that goddess, who had a
favorite temple under Mount Eryx. The statues had been duly erected.
But, nevertheless, here there was an opening. So Verres goes to work,
and in the name of Venus brings an action against Dio. The verdict is
given, not in favor of Venus but in favor of Verres.
This manner of paying honor to the gods, and especially to Venus, was
common in Sicily. Two sons[115] received a fortune from their father,
with a condition that, if some special thing were not done, a fine
should be paid to Venus. The man had been dead twenty years ago. But
"the dogs" which the Prætor kept were very sharp, and, distant as was
the time, found out the clause. Action is taken against the two sons,
who indeed gain their case; but they gain it by a bribe so enormous that
they are ruined men. There was one Heraclius,[116] the son of Hiero, a
nobleman of Syracuse, who received a legacy amounting to 3,000,000
sesterces--we will say £24,000--from a relative, also a Heraclius. He
had, too, a house full of handsome silver plate, silk and hangings, and
valuable slaves. A man, "Dives equom, dives pictai vestis et auri."
Verres heard, of course. He had by this time taken some Sicilian dogs
into his service, men of Syracuse, and had learned from them that there
was a clause in the will of the elder Heraclius that certain statues
should be put up in the gymnasium of the city. They undertake to bring
forward servants of the gymnasium who should say that the statues were
never properly erected. Cicero tells us how Verres went to work, now in
this court, now in that, breaking all the laws as to Sicilian
jurisdiction, but still proceeding under the pretence of law, till he
got everything out of the wretch--not only all the legacies from
Heraclius, but every shilling, and every article left to the man by his
father. There is a pretence of giving some of the money to the town of
Syracuse; but for himself he takes all the valuables, the Corinthian
vases, the purple hangings, what slaves he chooses. Then everything else
is sold by auction. How he divided the spoil with the Syracusans, and
then quarrelled with them, and how he lied as to the share taken by
himself, will all be found in Cicero's narrative. Heraclius was of
course ruined. For the stories of Epicrates and Sopater I must refer the
reader to the oration. In that of Sopater there is the peculiarity that
Verres managed to get paid by everybody all round.
The story of Sthenius is so interesting that I cannot pass it by.
Sthenius was a man of wealth and high standing, living at Therma in
Sicily, with whom Verres often took up his abode; for, as governor, he
travelled much about the island, always in pursuit of plunder. Sthenius
had had his house full of beautiful things. Of all these Verres
possessed himself--some by begging, some by demanding, and some by
absolute robbery. Sthenius, grieved as he was to find himself pillaged,
bore all this. The man was Roman Prætor, and injuries such as these had
to be endured. At Therma, however, in the public place of the city,
there were some beautiful statues. For these Verres longed, and desired
his host to get them for him. Sthenius declared that this was
impossible. The statues had, under peculiar circumstances, been
recovered by Scipio Africanus from Carthage, and been restored by the
Roman General to the Sicilians, from whom they had been taken, and had
been erected at Therma. There was a peculiarly beautiful figure of
Stesichorus, the poet, as an old man bent double, with a book in his
hand--a very glorious work of art; and there was a goat--in bronze
probably--as to which Cicero is at the pains of telling us that even he,
unskilled as he was in such matters, could see its charms. No one had
sharper eyes for such pretty ornaments than Cicero, or a more decided
taste for them. But as Hortensius, his rival and opponent in this case,
had taken a marble sphinx from Verres, he thought it expedient to show
how superior he was to such matters. There was probably something of
joke in this, as his predilections would no doubt be known to those he
was addressing.[117]
In the matter Sthenius was incorruptible, and not even the Prætor could
carry them away without his aid. Cicero, who is very warm in praise of
Sthenius, declares that "here at last Verres had found one town, the
only one in the world, from which he was unable to carry away something
of the public property by force, or stealth, or open command, or
favor."[118] The governor was so disgusted with this that he abandoned
Sthenius, leaving the house which he had plundered of everything, and
betook himself to that of one Agathinus, who had a beautiful daughter,
Callidama, who, with her husband, Dorotheus, lived with her father They
were enemies of Sthenius, and we are given to understand that Verres
ingratiated himself with them partly for the sake of Callidama, who
seems very quickly to have been given up to him,[119] and partly that he
might instigate them to bring actions against Sthenius. This is done
with great success; so that Sthenius is forced to run away, and betake
himself, winter as it was, across the seas to Rome. It has already been
told that when he was at Rome an action was brought against him by
Verres for having run away when he was under judgment, in which Cicero
defended him, and in which he was acquitted. In the teeth of his
acquittal, Verres persecuted the man by every form of law which came to
his hands as Prætor, but always in opposition to the law. There is an
audacity about the man's proceedings, in his open contempt of the laws
which it was his special duty to carry out, making us feel how confident
he was that he could carry everything before him in Rome by means of his
money. By robbery and concealing his robberies, by selling his judgments
in such a way that he should maintain some reticence by ordinary
precaution, he might have made much money, as other governors had done.
But he resolved that it would pay him better to rob everywhere openly,
and then, when the day of reckoning came, to buy the judges wholesale.
As to shame at such doings, there was no such feelings left among
Romans.
Before he comes to the story of Sthenius, Cicero makes a grandly
ironical appeal to the bench before him: "Yes, O judges, keep this man;
keep him in the State! Spare him, preserve him so that he, too, may sit
with us as a judge here so that he, too, may, with impartiality, advise
us, as a Senator, what may be best for us as to peace and war! Not that
we need trouble ourselves as to his senatorial duties. His authority
would be nothing. When would he dare, or when would he care, to come
among us? Unless it might be in the idle month of February, when would a
man so idle, so debauched, show himself in the Senate-house? Let him
come and show himself. Let him advise us to attack the Cretans; to
pronounce the Greeks of Byzantium free; to declare Ptolemy King.[120]
Let him speak and vote as Hortensius may direct. This will have but
little effect upon our lives or our property. But beyond this there is
something we must look to; something that would be distrusted; something
that every good man has to fear! If by chance this man should escape out
of our hands, he would have to sit there upon that bench and be a judge.
He would be called upon to pronounce on the lives of a Roman citizen. He
would be the right-hand officer in the army of this man here,[121] of
this man who is striving to be the lord and ruler of our judgment-seats.
The people of Rome at least refuse this! This at least cannot be
endured!"
The third of these narratives tells us how Verres managed in his
province that provision of corn for the use of Rome, the collection of
which made the possession of Sicily so important to the Romans. He
begins with telling his readers--as he does too frequently--how great
and peculiar is the task he has undertaken; and he uses an argument of
which we cannot but admit the truth, though we doubt whether any modern
advocate would dare to put it forward. We must remember, however, that
Romans were not accustomed to be shamefaced in praising themselves. What
Cicero says of himself all others said also of themselves; only Cicero
could say it better than others. He reminds us that he who accuses
another of any crime is bound to be especially free from that crime
himself. "Would you charge any one as a thief? you must be clear from
any suspicion of even desiring another man's property. Have you brought
a man up for malice or cruelty? take care that you be not found
hard-hearted. Have you called a man a seducer or an adulterer? be sure
that your own life shows no trace of such vices. Whatever you would
punish in another, that you must avoid yourself. A public accuser would
be intolerable, or even a caviller, who should inveigh against sins for
which he himself is called in question. But in this man I find all
wickednesses combined. There is no lust, no iniquity, no shamelessness
of which his life does not supply with ample evidence." The nature of
the difficulty to which Cicero is thus subjected is visible enough. As
Verres is all that is bad, so must he, as accuser, be all that is good;
which is more, we should say, than any man would choose to declare of
himself! But he is equal to the occasion. "In regard to this man, O
judges, I lay down for myself the law as I have stated it. I must so
live that I must clearly seem to be, and always have been, the very
opposite of this man, not only in my words and deeds, but as to that
arrogance and impudence which you see in him." Then he shows how
opposite he is to Verres at any rate, in impudence! "I am not sorry to
see," he goes on to say, "that that life which has always been the life
of my own choosing, has now been made a necessity to me by the law which
I have laid down for myself."[122] Mr. Pecksniff spoke of himself in the
same way, but no one, I think, believed him. Cicero probably was
believed. But the most wonderful thing is, that his manner of life
justified what he said of himself. When others of his own order were
abandoned to lust, iniquity, and shamelessness, he lived in purity, with
clean hands, doing good as far as was in his power to those around him.
A laugh will be raised at his expense in regard to that assertion of his
that, even in the matter of arrogance, his conduct should be the
opposite of that of Verres. But this will come because I have failed to
interpret accurately the meaning of those words, "oris oculorumque illa
contumacia ac superbia quam videtis." Verres, as we can understand, had
carried himself during the trial with a bragging, brazen, bold face,
determined to show no shame as to his own doings. It is in this, which
was a matter of manner and taste, that Cicero declares that he will be
the man's opposite as well as in conduct. As to the ordinary boastings,
by which it has to be acknowledged that Cicero sometimes disgusts his
readers, it will be impossible for us to receive a just idea of his
character without remembering that it was the custom of a Roman to
boast. We wait to have good things said of us, or are supposed to wait.
The Roman said them of himself. The "veni, vidi, vici" was the ordinary
mode of expression in those times, and in earlier times among the
Greeks.[123] This is distasteful to us; and it will probably be
distasteful to those who come after us, two or three hundred years
hence, that this or that British statesman should have made himself an
Earl or a Knight of the Garter. Now it is thought by many to be proper
enough. It will shock men in future days that great peers or rich
commoners should have bargained for ribbons and lieutenancies and
titles. Now it is the way of the time. Though virtue and vice may be
said to remain the same from all time to all time, the latitudes allowed
and the deviations encouraged in this or the other age must be
considered before the character of a man can be discovered. The
boastings of Cicero have been preserved for us. We have to bethink
ourselves that his words are 2000 years old. There is such a touch of
humanity in them, such a feeling of latter-day civilization and almost
of Christianity, that we are apt to condemn what remains in them of
paganism, as though they were uttered yesterday. When we come to the
coarseness of his attacks, his descriptions of Piso by-and-by, his abuse
of Gabinius, and his invectives against Antony; when we read his altered
opinions, as shown in the period of Cæsar's dominion, his flattery of
Cæsar when in power, and his exultations when Cæsar has been killed;
when we find that he could be coarse in his language and a bully, and
servile--for it has all to be admitted--we have to reflect under what
circumstances, under what surroundings, and for what object were used
the words which displease us. Speaking before the full court at this
trial, he dared to say he knew how to live as a man and to carry himself
as a gentleman. As men and gentlemen were then, he was justified.
The description of Verres's rapacity in regard to the corn tax is long
and complex, and need hardly be followed at length, unless by those who
desire to know how the iniquity of such a one could make the most of an
imposition which was in itself very bad, and pile up the burden till the
poor province was unable to bear it. There were three kinds of
imposition as to corn. The first, called the "decumanum," was simply a
tithe.
The producers through the island had to furnish Rome with a tenth of
their produce, and it was the Prætor's duty, or rather that of the
Quæstor under the Prætor, to see that the tithe was collected. How
Verres saw to this himself, and how he treated the Sicilian husbandmen
in regard to the tithe, is so told that we are obliged to give the man
credit for an infinite fertility of resources. Then there is the
"emptum," or corn bought for the use of Rome, of which there were two
kinds. A second tithe had to be furnished at a price fixed by the Roman
Senate, which price was considered to be below that of its real value,
and then 800,000 bushels were purchased, or nominally purchased, at a
price which was also fixed by the Senate, but which was nearer to the
real value. Three sesterces a bushel for the first and four for the
last, were the prices fixed at this time. For making these payments vast
sums of money were remitted to Verres, of which the accounts were so
kept that it was hard to say whether any found its way into the hands of
the farmers who undoubtedly furnished the corn. The third corn tax was
the "æstimatum." This consisted of a certain fixed quantity which had to
be supplied to the Prætor for the use of his governmental
establishment--to be supplied either in grain or in money. What such a
one as Verres would do with his, the reader may conceive.
All this was of vital importance to Rome. Sicily and Africa were the
granaries from which Rome was supplied with its bread. To get supplies
from a province was necessary. Rich men have servants in order that they
may live at ease themselves. So it was with the Romans to whom the
provinces acted as servants. It was necessary to have a sharp agent,
some Proconsul or Proprætor; but when there came one so sharp as Verres,
all power of recreating supplies would for a time be destroyed. Even
Cicero boasted that in a time of great scarcity, he, being then Quæstor
in Sicily, had sent extraordinary store of corn over to the city.[124]
But he had so done it as to satisfy all who were concerned.
Verres, in his corn dealings with the Sicilians, had a certain friend,
companion, and minister--one of his favorite dogs, perhaps we may call
him--named Apronius, whom Cicero specially describes. The description I
must give, because it is so powerful; because it shows us how one man
could in those days speak of another in open court before all the world;
because it affords us an instance of the intensity of hatred which the
orator could throw into his words; but I must hide it in the original
language, as I could not translate it without offence.[125]
Then we have a book devoted to the special pillage of statues and other
ornaments, which, for the genius displayed in story-telling, is perhaps
of all the Verrine orations the most amusing. The Greek people had
become in a peculiar way devoted to what we generally call Art. We are
much given to the collecting of pictures, china, bronze, and marbles,
partly from love of such things, partly from pride in ornamenting our
houses so as to excite the admiration of others, partly from a feeling
that money so invested is not badly placed with a view to future
returns. All these feelings operated with the Greeks to a much greater
extent. Investments in consols and railway shares were not open to them.
Money they used to lend at usury, no doubt, but with a great chance of
losing it. The Greek colonists were industrious, were covetous, and
prudent. From this it had come to pass that, as they made their way
about the world--to the cities which they established round the
Mediterranean--they collected in their new homes great store of
ornamental wealth. This was done with much profusion at Syracuse, a
Greek city in Sicily, and spread from them over the whole island. The
temples of the gods were filled with the works of the great Greek
artists, and every man of note had his gallery. That Verres, hog as he
is described to have been, had a passion for these things, is manifest
to us. He came to his death at last in defence of some favorite images.
He had returned to Rome by means of Cæsar's amnesty, and Marc Antony had
him murdered because he would not surrender some treasures of art. When
we read the De Signis--About Statues--we are led to imagine that the
search after these things was the chief object of the man throughout his
three years of office--as we have before been made to suppose that all
his mind and time had been devoted to the cheating of the Sicilians in
the matter of corn. But though Verres loved these trinkets, it was not
altogether for himself that he sought them. Only one third of his
plunder was for himself. Senators, judges, advocates, Consuls, and
Prætors could be bribed with articles of _vertu_ as well as with money.
There are eleven separate stories told of these robberies. I will give
very shortly the details of one or two. There was one Marcus Heius, a
rich citizen of Messana, in whose house Verres took great delight.
Messana itself was very useful to him, and the Mamertines, as the people
of Messana were called were his best friends in all Sicily: for he made
Messana the depot of his plunder, and there he caused to be built at the
expense of the Government an enormous ship called the _Cybea_,[126] in
which his treasures were carried out of the island. He therefore
specially favored Messana, and the district of Messana was supposed to
have been scourged by him with lighter rods than those used elsewhere in
Sicily. But this man Heius had a chapel, very sacred, in which were
preserved four specially beautiful images. There was a Cupid by
Praxiteles, and a bronze Hercules by Myro, and two Can[oe]phræ by
Polycletus. These were treasures which all the world came to see, and
which were open to be seen by all the world. These Verres took away, and
caused accounts to be forged in which it was made to appear that he had
bought them for trifling sums. It seems that some forced assent had been
obtained from Heius as to the transaction. Now there was a plan in vogue
for making things pleasant for a Proconsul retiring from his government,
in accordance with which a deputation would proceed from the province to
Rome to declare how well and kindly the Proconsul had behaved in his
government. The allies, even when they had been, as it were, skinned
alive by their governor, were constrained to send their deputations.
Deputations were got up in Sicily from Messana and Syracuse, and with
the others from Messana came this man Heius. Heius did not wish to tell
about his statues; but he was asked questions, and was forced to answer.
Cicero informs us how it all took place. "He was a man," he said--this
is what Cicero tells us that Heius said--"who was well esteemed in his
own country, and would wish you"--you judges--"to think well of his
religious spirit and of his personal dignity. He had come here to praise
Verres because he had been required to do so by his fellow-citizens. He,
however, had never kept things for sale in his own house; and had he
been left to himself, nothing would have induced him to part with the
sacred images which had been left to him by his ancestors as the
ornaments of his own chapel.[127] Nevertheless, he had come to praise
Verres, and would have held his tongue had it been possible."
Cicero finishes his catalogue by telling us of the manifold robberies
committed by Verres in Syracuse, especially from the temples of the
gods; and he begins his account of the Syracusan iniquities by drawing a
parallel between two Romans whose names were well known in that city:
Marcellus, who had besieged it as an enemy and taken it, and Verres, who
had been sent to govern it in peace. Marcellus had saved the lives of
the Syracusans; Verres had made the Forum to run with their blood. The
harbor which had held its own against Marcellus, as we may read in our
Livy, had been wilfully opened by Verres to Cilician pirates. This
Syracuse which had been so carefully preserved by its Roman conqueror,
the most beautiful of all the Greek cities on the face of the earth--so
beautiful that Marcellus had spared to it all its public ornaments--had
been stripped bare by Verres. There was the temple of Minerva from which
he had taken all the pictures. There were doors to this temple of such
beauty that books had been written about them. He stripped the ivory
ornaments from them, and the golden balls with which they had been made
splendid. He tore off from them the head of the Gorgon and carried it
away, leaving them to be rude doors, Goth that he was!
And he took the Sappho from the Prytaneum, the work of Silanion! a thing
of such beauty that no other man can have the like of it in his own
private house; yet Verres has it--a man hardly fit to carry such a work
of art as a burden, not possess it as a treasure of his own. "What,
too!" he says, "have you not stolen Pæan from the temple of
Æsculapius--a statue so remarkable for its beauty, so well-known for the
worship attached to it, that all the world has been wont to visit it?
What! has not the image of Aristæus been taken by you from the temple of
Bacchus? Have you not even stolen the statue of Jupiter Imperator, so
sacred in the eyes of all men--that Jupiter which the Greeks call
Ourios? You have not hesitated to rob the temple of Proserpine of the
lovely head in Parian marble."[128] Then Cicero speaks of the worship
due to all these gods as though he himself believed in their godhead. As
he had begun this chapter with the Mamertines of Messana, so he ends it
with an address to them. "It is well that you should come, you alone out
of all the provinces, and praise Verres here in Rome. But what can you
say for him? Was it not your duty to have built a ship for the Republic?
You have built none such, but have constructed a huge private
transport-vessel for Verres. Have you not been exempted from your tax on
corn? Have you not been exempted in regard to naval and military
recruits? Have you not been the receptacle of all his stolen goods? They
will have to confess, these Mamertines, that many a ship laden with his
spoils has left their port, and especially this huge transport-ship
which they built for him!"
In the De Suppliciis--the treatise about punishments, as the last
division of this process is called--Cicero tells the world how Verres
exacted vengeance from those who were opposed to him, and with what
horrid cruelty he raged against his enemies. The stories, indeed, are
very dreadful. It is harrowing to think that so evil a man should have
been invested with powers so great for so bad a purpose. But that which
strikes a modern reader most is the sanctity attached to the name of a
Roman citizen, and the audacity with which the Roman Proconsul
disregarded that sanctity. "Cives Romanus" is Cicero's cry from the
beginning to the end. No doubt he is addressing himself to Romans, and
seeking popularity, as he always did. But, nevertheless, the demands
made upon the outside world at large by the glory of that appellation
are astonishing, even when put forward on such an occasion as this. One
Gavius escapes from a prison in Syracuse, and, making his way to
Messana, foolishly boasts that he would be soon over in Italy, out of
the way of Prætor Verres and his cruelties. Verres, unfortunately, is in
Messana, and soon hears from some of his friends, the Mamertines, what
Gavius was saying. He at once orders Gavius to be flogged in public.
"Cives Romanus sum!" exclaims Gavius, no doubt truly. It suits Verres to
pretend to disbelieve this, and to declare that the man is a runagate
slave. The poor wretch still cries "Cives Romanus!" and trusts alone to
that appeal. Whereupon Verres puts up a cross on the sea-shore, and has
the man crucified in sight of Italy, so that he shall be able to see the
country of which he is so proud. Whether he had done anything to deserve
crucifixion, or flogging, or punishment at all, we are not told. The
accusation against Verres is not for crucifying the man, but for
crucifying the Roman. It is on this occasion that Cicero uses the words
which have become proverbial as to the iniquity of this proceeding.[129]
During the telling of this story he explains this doctrine, claiming for
the Roman citizen, all the world over, some such protection as
freemasons are supposed to give each other, whether known or unknown.
"Men of straw," he says, "of no special birth, go about the world. They
resort to places they have never seen before, where they know none, and
none know them. Here, trusting to their claim solely, they feel
themselves to be safe--not only where our magistrates are to be found,
who are bound both by law and by opinion, not only among other Roman
citizens who speak their language and follow the same customs, but
abroad, over the whole world, they find this to be sufficient
protection."[130] Then he goes on to say that if any Prætor may at his
will put aside this sanctity, all the provinces, all the kingdoms, all
the free states, all the world abroad, will very soon lose the feeling.
But the most remarkable story is that told of a certain pirate captain.
Verres had been remiss in regard to the pirates--very cowardly, indeed,
if we are to believe Cicero. Piracy in the Mediterranean was at that
time a terrible drawback to trade--that piracy that a year or two
afterward Pompey was effectual in destroying. A governor in Sicily had,
among other special duties, to keep a sharp lookout for the pirates.
This Verres omitted so entirely that these scourges of the sea soon
learned that they might do almost as they pleased on the Sicilian
coasts. But it came to pass that on one day a pirate vessel fell by
accident into the hands of the governor's officers. It was not taken,
Cicero says, but was so overladen that it was picked up almost
sinking.[131] It was found to be full of fine, handsome men, of silver
both plated and coined, and precious stuffs. Though not "taken," it was
"found," and carried into Syracuse. Syracuse is full of the news, and
the first demand is that the pirates, according to Roman custom, shall
all be killed. But this does not suit Verres. The slave-markets of the
Roman Empire are open, and there are men among the pirates whom it will
suit him better to sell than to kill. There are six musicians,
"symphoniacos homines," whom he sends as a present to a friend at Rome.
But the people of Syracuse are very much in earnest. They are too sharp
to be put off with pretences, and they count the number of slaughtered
pirates. There are only some useless, weak, ugly old fellows beheaded
from day to day; and being well aware how many men it must have taken to
row and manage such a vessel, they demand that the full crew shall be
brought to the block. "There is nothing in victory more sweet," says
Cicero, "no evidence more sure, than to see those whom you did fear, but
have now got the better of, brought out to tortures or death."[132]
Verres is so much frightened by the resolution of the citizens that he
does not dare to neglect their wishes. There are lying in the prisons of
Syracuse a lot of prisoners, Roman citizens, of whom he is glad to rid
himself. He has them brought out, with their heads wrapped up so that
they shall not be known, and has them beheaded instead of the pirates! A
great deal is said, too, about the pirate captain--the arch-pirate, as
he is called. There seems to have been some money dealings personally
between him and Verres, on account of which Verres kept him hidden. At
any rate, the arch-pirate was saved. "In such a manner this celebrated
victory is managed.[133] The pirate ship is taken, and the chief pirate
is allowed to escape. The musicians are sent to Rome. The men who are
good-looking and young are taken to the Prætor's house. As many Roman
citizens as will fill their places are carried out as public enemies,
and are tortured and killed! All the gold and silver and precious stuffs
are made a prize of by Verres!"
Such are the accusations brought against this wonderful man--the truth
of which has, I think, on the whole been admitted. The picture of Roman
life which it displays is wonderful, that such atrocities should have
been possible; and equally so of provincial subjection, that such
cruelties should have been endured. But in it all the greatest wonder is
that there should have risen up a man so determined to take the part of
the weak against the strong with no reward before him, apparently with
no other prospect than that of making himself odious to the party to
which he belonged. Cicero was not a Gracchus, anxious to throw himself
into the arms of the people; he was an oligarch by conviction, born to
oligarchy, bred to it, convinced that by it alone could the Roman
Republic be preserved. But he was convinced also that unless these
oligarchs could be made to do their duty the Republic could not stand.
Therefore it was that he dared to defy his own brethren, and to make the
acquittal of Verres an impossibility. I should be inclined to think that
the day on which Hortensius threw up the sponge, and Verres submitted to
banishment and fine, was the happiest in the orator's life.
Verres was made to pay a fine which was very insufficient for his
crimes, and then to retire into comfortable exile. From this he returned
to Rome when the Roman exiles were amnestied, and was shortly afterward
murdered by Antony, as has been told before.