Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics) (54 page)

barring only him
: Verres.

your own father’s Acilian law
: the
lex Acilia
, the law of 122 (or 123) which set up a new permanent extortion court with equestrian juries. The law was part of Gaius Gracchus’ legislative programme, designed in part to
win equestrian support for his agrarian scheme; it was carried by the elder Manius Acilius Glabrio, a tribune (about whom nothing else is known). A fragmentary bronze inscription, the so-called
Tabula Bembina
, gives the text of an extortion law which also prescribes equestrian juries; this law is usually presumed to be the
lex Acilia
(see M. H. Crawford (ed.),
Roman Statutes
(London, 1996), i. 39–112).

your grandfather Scaevola
: Glabrio’s maternal grandfather, Publius Mucius Scaevola, consul in 133,
pontifex maximus
from 130, and an eminent jurist (hence the description ‘wise’ above); he trained Glabrio in oratory and law. As consul he advised Tiberius Gracchus and refused to take violent action against him.

your father-in-law Scaurus
: Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, consul in 115, censor in 109, and
princeps senatus
(leader of the senate). He was closely connected with the Metelli; he married Caecilia Metella, who after his death married Sulla. Aemilia, the daughter of Scaurus and Metella, was married first to Glabrio, and then taken from him by Sulla and married to Pompey.

people who collectively refused … the lictors of consuls
: see §§25, 27.

after forty days have gone by
: see §31.

the census
: the census was a register of all adult male citizens, compiled by the censors in theory every five years, but in practice at irregular intervals. It was abandoned in 89, held in 86 and 70, and abandoned in 65 and 64. In 70 the census recorded 910,000 names.

leaders of our country
: Cicero refers to the brothers Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus. Lucius was the consul of 74, who in 70 was in Asia Minor fighting Mithridates; Marcus was consul in 73, and in 71 celebrated a triumph for successes in Macedonia. Together they prosecuted one Servilius, perhaps in 91. Details of this trial are uncertain, but it is possible that it was an extortion trial, and that Servilius was convicted.

has openly plundered … public or private
: in the preceding speech,
Ver
. 2.4, Cicero recounted Verres’ theft of works of art from temples and from secular places, and from communities and private individuals.

from runaway slaves and from the threat of war
: Sicily was in serious danger from Spartacus’ slave revolt in southern Italy (see first note on §5 below); further afield, the Third Mithridatic War (73–63) was in progress in Asia Minor.

Manius Aquillius
: commander of the army against the Cimbri and Teutoni in Gaul in 103 (standing in for Marius), and, as consul in 101 (with Marius), commander in the Second Sicilian Slave War (104–100). He completed the war as governor of Sicily in 100–99, killing Athenio, the
leader of the slaves, in a hand-to-hand fight. He was accused of extortion, perhaps in 97, but, although guilty (
Flac
. 98), was successfully defended by Marcus Antonius; Marius was a character witness for him. Later, in 88, he precipitated the First Mithridatic War (88–85), and was defeated, captured, and cruelly executed by Mithridates.

Marcus Antonius
: consul in 99 and censor in 97. He was an important orator, heard and admired by Cicero (who later gave him a prominent role in his
De oratore
); he did not publish his speeches. He was murdered by the Marians in 87. (See further first note on
Imp
. 33 below.)

under a specific law
: the
lex Cornelia de repetundis
(Cornelian law concerning extortion).

the war against the slaves
: i.e. the war against Spartacus (73–71). This was a revolt of slaves and the rural poor in southern Italy led by Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator from Capua. There were eventually as many as 70,000–120,000 insurgents, and they were remarkably successful for two years, defeating both consuls in 72; they would have crossed into Sicily, but failed to obtain transport from the pirates. In 71 Marcus Licinius Crassus defeated most of them, crucifying the survivors (Spartacus was killed in battle); a last remnant was then destroyed by Pompey in the north. Pompey’s claim of the credit for completing the war soured relations permanently between him and Crassus; the two men went on to hold the consulship together in 70.

I suppose … to Sicily
: cf. Sallust,
Histories
4 fr. 32 Maurenbrecher ‘Gaius Verres strengthened the coastline close to Italy.’

there have been slave wars in Sicily in the past
: the First (135–132
BC
) and Second (104–100) Sicilian Slave Wars, the second of which was ended by Manius Aquillius (first note on §3 above).

Lucius Domitius
: Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, governor of Sicily in
c
. 97, consul in 94. His severity is understandable in view of the fact that the Second Sicilian Slave War was only just over; but on the other hand the Domitii Ahenobarbi were a notably cruel family, later to produce the emperor Nero (Suetonius,
Nero
1–5).

Gaius Norbanus
: a ‘new man’; governor of Sicily at some point during the Social War (91–87, the war between Rome and her Italian allies); consul in 83 (after him, Cicero was the next new man to attain the consulship). He was not as inactive as Cicero implies: he defeated an Italian attack on Regium. Cicero speaks disparagingly of him because Verres’ trial took place before Sullan jurors: Norbanus was a prominent Marian, committing suicide in 82 to avoid falling into Sulla’s hands.

he himself would like to be aired
: because they back up his case regarding the reality of the danger of slave risings.

at an earlier date
: 104
BC
, at the beginning of the Second Sicilian Slave War.

some act of theft or looting
: i.e. committed by Verres.

Verres … summoned him to appear
: Leonidas would have been anxious for
his slaves not to be convicted, because, if they were, they would be executed, and he would suffer financial loss.

tied to the post
: for flogging, prior to crucifixion.

people of the popular or the aristocratic faction
: Cicero is using Roman terms but is thinking of Greek situations, i.e. of democrats and oligarchs. He will be thinking particularly of the amnesty at Athens which followed the disastrous defeat at Aegospotami in 405
BC
, at the end of the Peloponnesian War.

Paullus, Scipio, and Marius
: Lucius Aemilius Paullus (consul in 182 and 168
BC
, censor in 164), who defeated Perseus of Macedon at Pydna (168); his son Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus (consul in 147 and 134, censor in 142), the destroyer of Carthage (146) and Numantia (133); and the new man Gaius Marius (consul in 107, 104–100, 86), victor over Jugurtha (105), the Teutoni (102), and the Cimbri (101). Cicero’s argument at this point seems particularly unfair.

Gaius Matrinius
: mentioned at
Ver
. 2.3.60 as having been imprisoned for two days at Leontini by Verres’ crony Apronius. The amount Verres took from him, 600,000 sesterces, was a vast sum: the property qualification for equestrian rank was 400,000 sesterces.

Lucius Flavius
: also an
eques
(§155; also
Ver
. 2.1.14).

Gnaeus Lentulus
: Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus, consul of 72 and censor in 70. As consul he proposed a motion in the senate to protect the Sicilians from Verres (
Ver
. 2.2.94–8); in the same year he was twice defeated by Spartacus, and withdrawn from his command. As censor with Lucius Gellius Publicola (who had been his colleague as consul), he expelled sixty-four men from the senate as being unworthy. Later, in 67, he served as one of Pompey’s legates against the pirates. Cicero says that he looked intelligent, but was not, and was an indifferent orator (
Brut
. 234).

(Apollonius’ aged father … for some time
.): Cicero adds this information to explain why Apollonius’ father did not come too.

rods of office
: the
fasces
(see Glossary).

there is a general lack of fine soldiers
: ironic. We are expected to think of Pompey and Crassus (who had recently crushed Spartacus’ revolt), and compare Verres unfavourably with them.

Quintus Maximus … Gaius Marius
: Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (consul in 233, 228, 215, 214, and 209, censor in 230, dictator in 221 and 217) was one of the leading generals in the Second Punic War (218–201
BC
), noted for his successful policy of avoiding direct confrontation with Hannibal (hence his nickname ‘Cunctator’, ‘Delayer’). The elder Africanus (Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, consul in 205 and 194, censor in 199) was the conqueror of Hannibal (202). For the others, see note on §14 above.

the first roses
: i.e. decorating his dining room (since he allegedly spent his
days eating and seldom ventured out of doors). Dining rooms were strewn with rose petals at Roman banquets.

Cannae
: 216
BC
, the battle during the Second Punic War at which Hannibal inflicted on the Romans their worst-ever defeat, killing almost 80,000 men.

because that is when the slaves … stand in their way
: this long parenthesis gives a list of reasons why the slaves were more likely to revolt at harvest time, and therefore why the governor needed to keep a close eye on them.

where the gulf … towards the city
: i.e. on the tip of Ortygia, an island (though connected to the mainland by a bridge) projecting across, and so serving to narrow, the natural mouth of the Great Harbour. I have preserved the slight obscurity of Cicero’s description in the translation.

King Hiero
: Hiero II, king of Syracuse (
c
. 271–216
BC
) at the peak of its prosperity.

(and it is remarkable … in Syracuse
): a criticism of the Syracusans. Cicero criticizes the Syracusans because some of them supported Verres against himself.

separated … by violence and trickery
: Verres had obtained his mistress Tertia by forcibly taking her from her partner, the piper, and marrying her to his friend Docimus, who then allowed him to pursue his relationship with her (
Ver
. 2.3.78).

The aristocratic wife of Cleomenes … and the wife of Aeschrio
: named Nice and Pipa respectively (§§81–2).

But this Hannibal … not by birth
: in the Second Punic War, Hannibal offered Carthaginian citizenship to anyone who killed an enemy of Carthage, regardless of their birth. The reference would have been familiar from Ennius’
Annales
(234–5 Skutsch). To Cicero its value consists largely in the scope it provides for contrasting Verres with a famous general, in order to ridicule Verres’ claim to have been a fine general himself.

that old oratorical trick … the first to use
: see §3 above.

pulled out of the forum … pulled in it
: i.e. hired out to a male customer by a pimp, rather than, as a free agent, persuaded to submit to another man’s sexual desires without payment (the latter being less disgraceful). This meaning (which is either misunderstood or obfuscated by earlier scholarship) is confirmed by the last sentence of this section, which again refers (again obliquely) to the young Verres being prostituted for cash.

the gambler from Placentia
: identity unknown. Placentia was in Cisalpine Gaul; today the place is Piacenza, and the outline of the Roman camp is still visible in the modern street layout.

the consulship of Lucius Lucullus and Marcus Cotta
: Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Marcus Aurelius Cotta were consuls in 74, the year when Verres held the city praetorship.

he used to have himself carried back inside the city
: thus technically resigning
his command (cf. note on
Ver
. 45 above) and invalidating the vows that had been made—a serious matter.

When I was elected to the quaestorship
: in 76, the office being held in 75.

the holy games for Ceres … described as ‘Roman’
: Cicero describes here, in calendar order, the games which he was required to put on the following year as plebeian aedile (that this passage shows him to have been plebeian, not curule, aedile is demonstrated by L. R. Taylor,
AJP
60 (1939), 194–202). Ceres (goddess of growth, i.e. of crops, the Greek Demeter), Liber Pater (‘Father Liber’, god of fertility and wine, the Greek Dionysus), and Libera (the Greek Kore or Persephone) were the Aventine triad, introduced to Rome in 493
BC
; their temple was supervised by the plebeian aediles, who put on the
ludi Ceriales
(Cerial Games) in April. Flora was an Italian goddess of flowering plants, especially cereals; her games, the Floralia, dated to 240, and had been celebrated annually since 173, later in April. Jupiter (Zeus), Juno (Hera), and Minerva (Athena) were the Capitoline triad; their temple was dedicated in 509. Their games that Cicero refers to here were the Plebeian Games (4–17 November), held by the plebeian aediles, not the Roman Games (4–18 September), which were held by the curule aediles; misunderstanding on this point led to the belief, disproved by Taylor, that it was the curule aedileship which Cicero held.

the purple-bordered toga … a portrait mask of myself to posterity
: these benefits are normally associated only with curule magistracies, but, as Taylor argues (see previous note), must have been extended to plebeian aediles by this date, no doubt by Sulla.

your election as praetor
: in 75, for office in 74.

When time after time … with that office
: the centuriate assembly, by which the praetors were elected, consisted of 193 centuries. Eighty-five of the centuries consisted of seniors, men over 45, eight-five consisted of juniors, men under 46 (the juniors were liable to active service). The crier announced the choice of each century as it was made, so a successful candidate would hear his name announced many times before his election was confirmed (never, however, 193 times: the process was stopped once the required number of magistrates had obtained a majority). See further second note on
Phil
. 2.82 below.