Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics)

by Cicero

  Since that is how things stand, this depraved lunatic has chosen another means of fighting me. He is not, in truth, setting out to use somebody’s eloquence against me, nor is he relying on anyone’s influence, authority, or power. He pretends that these are the things he is relying on, but I can see what he is up to. Indeed, he makes no great secret of it. He confronts me with the empty names of nobility, in other words of arrogant aristocrats, who do not so much damage my case by their nobility as help it by their notoriety. He makes out that he is relying on their protection, while all the time he has been engineering something different. [16] I will go on to tell you briefly, gentlemen, what hopes he has in his heart and what he is planning; but first please let me explain to you how he has dealt with the situation from the outset.

  As soon as he returned from his province, a contract was undertaken, at great cost, for buying up this court. The contract remained on its original terms and conditions up to the point when the rejection of jurors was held. Once this had taken place—since the good fortune of the Roman people had shattered Verres’ hopes when the lots were cast,* and my own carefulness had triumphed over the opposition’s shamelessness when the rejection of jurors was held—the entire agreement was repudiated. [17] For me, then, everything was going splendidly. Everyone had a copy of the list of your names as members of this court; it seemed impossible that any mark, colour, or smudge could be put on the voting-tablets.* Verres, having formerly been confident and optimistic, suddenly appeared so downcast and crushed that he gave the impression, not just to the Roman people but even to himself, of a condemned man. But suddenly in the past few days, since the consular elections,* lo and behold, the same old intrigues of his are being revived, but with even more money than before, and the same attacks are being organized, through the same people—attacks on your reputation and on everyone’s fortunes.

  This information was first revealed to me, members of the jury, by a tiny piece of suggestive evidence. But once the door of suspicion had been opened, a direct route led me to all the secret plans of Verres and his supporters. [18] An enormous crowd was escorting Quintus Hortensius home from the Campus Martius as consul-elect, and Gaius Curio* happened to get caught up in it. Now my reference to this gentleman should not be taken as derogatory, but as a mark of respect. Indeed, if he did not wish the remark which I am about to quote to be repeated, he would not have made it so openly and publicly, and in the presence of such a large crowd of people. Even so, I will repeat it with some hesitation and diffidence, so that it will be clear that I am paying due consideration both to the friendship between us and to his high rank. [19] Curio, then, was at the Arch of Fabius,* and among the crowd he caught sight of Verres. He called out to him, and loudly shouted his congratulations. To Hortensius who had just been elected consul, and to his friends and relations who were with him, he said not a word. Instead, it was Verres he went to talk to, Verres he embraced, Verres he told not to worry. ‘I formally declare* to you,’ he said, ‘that at today’s elections you have been acquitted!’

  A large number of people of the greatest respectability witnessed this remark, and so I was immediately informed of it; or rather, whenever I met anyone it was the first thing they said to me. To some it appeared scandalous, to others absurd—absurd to those who thought that the trial depended on the reliability of the witnesses, the handling of the charges, and the power of the jurors, rather than the outcome of a consular election; and scandalous to those who looked deeper and realized that these congratulations pointed to the corruption of the court. [20] For this is what they concluded, this is what those respectable individuals said to each other and to me: that it was now clear and obvious that the courts did not exist. How can a defendant one day consider himself convicted, and then the next day, when his advocate is elected consul, be acquitted? How can this be? What about the fact that the whole of Sicily, all its inhabitants, all its business community, all its public and private records are here in Rome—does this count for nothing? Nothing, if the consul-elect so decides. Really? Will the jury take no account of the charges, or the witnesses, or the opinion of the Roman people? No: everything will be subject to the power and influence of one man.

  I will speak frankly, gentlemen. This made me deeply concerned. All the best people were saying: ‘Verres will escape your clutches—but we will no longer be in charge of the courts. For once Verres has been acquitted, who will be able to stop the transfer of the courts?’* [21] Everyone was dismayed; and it was not the sudden joy of this criminal that upset them so much as the unheard-of congratulations uttered by so distinguished a personage. I wanted to hide the fact that I too was dismayed; I wanted to conceal my anguish by looking unconcerned and cover it up by saying nothing.

  Then a few days later, when the praetors-elect were drawing lots* and Marcus Metellus* obtained the presidency of the extortion court, I was suddenly informed that Verres had been warmly congratulated on this and had actually sent some slaves back to his house to tell his wife the good news. [22] Naturally, I was not very pleased at this; but I did not think that Metellus’ gaining the extortion court was anything for me to worry about particularly. But one thing I did discover, from certain individuals who kept me informed of everything, was that a number of chests filled with money from Sicily had been conveyed by a certain senator to a Roman equestrian;* that out of the original number, about ten chests had been kept back at the senator’s house and earmarked for use at my election;* and that bribery-agents for all the tribes had been summoned to Verres’ house at night. [23] One of these agents, a man who considered himself duty-bound to help me in any way he could, came to see me that very night and told me what Verres had said to them. He had reminded them how generously he had treated them in the past, both when he had been standing for the praetorship* and at the recent consular and praetorian elections; then he had immediately promised them as much money as they wanted in return for blocking my election to the aedileship. At this some replied that they dared not try it, others that they did not think it could be done. However, they managed to find a trusty friend of his from the same clan, Quintus Verres of the Romilian tribe,* a bribery-agent of the old school, a pupil and friend of Verres’ father, who promised that he would see the job done for half a million sesterces down; and some of the others then said that they would join him. In view of this, my friend kindly advised me to take every possible precaution.

  [24] So I had to face a number of extremely worrying problems all within a narrow space of time. My election was imminent, and here I had an enormous sum of money fighting against me. The trial was also coming up, and in this matter too those chests from Sicily were threatening me. Fear about the election prevented me from making the necessary preparations for the trial; and because of the trial it was impossible for me to concentrate on my candidature. Furthermore, there was no point in my threatening the bribery-agents, because I could see that they were well aware that I would be completely preoccupied and tied down by the present trial.* [25] It was at this moment that I heard for the first time how Hortensius had summoned the Sicilians to attend at his home; and how they, realizing why they had been sent for, showed themselves to be free agents and stayed away. The election, meanwhile, began to take place. Verres thought that he was lord and master of it, as of all the other elections this year. Accompanied by his suave and ingratiating son, this great potentate rushed from tribe to tribe, canvassing and meeting with all his family friends—that is, with the bribery-agents. But the Roman people, once they had noticed and understood what was going on, ensured most wholeheartedly* that the man whose riches had not succeeded in diverting me from my duty was similarly unsuccessful in using money to dislodge me from my office.

  [26] Released from my considerable anxiety about the election, I began, my mind now much more free and at ease, to devote all my thoughts and actions exclusively to the trial. And I discovered, members of the jury, that the plan which my opponents had formed and set in motion was this: to spin out
the proceedings by whatever means necessary so that the case might then be heard before Marcus Metellus as praetor. There were several advantages to this. First, Marcus Metellus himself would be on their side. Secondly, not only would Hortensius be consul, but Quintus Metellus* too, and I ask you to take note of how good a friend he is to Verres: for he has given him such a preliminary vote of confidence that he seems already to have repaid Verres for delivering to him the preliminary votes at his election.*

  [27] So did you expect me to say nothing about such important matters? At such a critical moment for the country and for my own reputation, did you suppose I would have a thought for anything except my duty and my own position? The second consul-elect* summoned the Sicilians; some of them came, mindful of the fact that Lucius Metellus* was governor of Sicily. He then spoke to them as follows: ‘I am consul. One of my brothers is governor of Sicily; the other is about to become president of the extortion court. We have gone to great lengths to make sure that Verres comes to no harm.’* [28] I ask you, Metellus: intimidating witnesses, particularly ruined and fearful Sicilians, and not just with your own authority but with the fear inspired by the position of consul and the power of two praetors*—if this is not judicial corruption, then could you please tell me what is? What would you not do for someone who was innocent and a relative of yours, seeing that you abandon your duty and the dignity of your position for a criminal who is unrelated to you, and lead those who do not know you to conclude that what he keeps saying about you is true? [29] For I am told that Verres says that you were made consul not by fate,* like the other members of your family, but by his own efforts.

  So he will have two consuls and the president of the court on his side.* ‘And,’ he says, ‘we won’t merely escape a president of the court who is too conscientious by far, and far too protective of his good reputation—Manius Glabrio.* No, we will have this other advantage too: Marcus Caesonius is currently a member of the jury, the colleague of our prosecutor,* a man who has already been tried and tested as a juror, and someone we certainly don’t want in a court that we are in any way trying to corrupt. Before, when he was a juror in Junius’ court,* he didn’t just disapprove of the terrible corruption that took place, he actually exposed it. So after 1 January, we won’t have him in the jury. [30] And as for Quintus Manlius and Quintus Cornificius,* two strict and incorruptible jurors, they will both be tribunes of the plebs, and so we won’t have them on the jury either. Publius Sulpicius,* another severe and incorruptible juror, will have to take up his post on 5 December. Marcus Crepereius, who comes from a strict and traditional equestrian family, Lucius Cassius, whose family is rigorous in everything and particularly in jury service, and Gnaeus Tremellius,* who is extremely conscientious and scrupulous—these three men of the old school have all been elected military tribunes, and so from 1 January will not be on the jury. And we shall also be having a supplementary ballot to fill Marcus Metellus’ place,* since he is becoming president of this court. After 1 January, then, both the presiding magistrate and virtually the entire jury will have changed.* This will allow us to escape the serious threats of the prosecutor and the great expectations that there are regarding the outcome, and to arrange things exactly as we choose.’

  [31] Today is 5 August, and you did not convene until 4 p.m.: they think that today does not even count. There are ten days to go before Gnaeus Pompeius holds the Votive Games;* these will take up fifteen days. The Roman Games then follow immediately. This means that there will be an interval of nearly forty days before they reckon they need to reply to what I am going to say. Then they think that by making speeches and obtaining adjournments they can easily spin the trial out until the Games of Victory, after which the Plebeian Games immediately follow; and after that there will be either no or very few days on which legal business can take place. By this time the prosecution will have gone off the boil and run out of steam, and the whole case will then come up before the new president of the court, Marcus Metellus. As regards this gentleman, if I had had any doubts about his honesty, I would have included him among the jurors I rejected.* [32] Now, however, my feeling is that I would rather see the trial out with him as a juror than as president of the court, and I would rather trust him on oath and with his own voting-tablet than not on oath and with the voting-tablets of the others.

  Now, gentlemen, I should like to ask you what you think I should do. But I am sure that without even speaking you will advise me to take the course I realize I must follow. If I devote the time to which I am entitled to making a speech, I will certainly reap the fruits of my effort, industry, and conscientiousness, and through my prosecution I will ensure that no one in the whole of history ever came to court more ready, more vigilant, or better prepared. But amidst all the praise I will receive for my hard work, there is a real danger that the defendant will slip away. So what can be done? The answer is not, I think, obscure or hard to find. [33] The fruits of glory that could be reaped from a full-scale speech, these I must keep back for some other time; for the present I must prosecute the defendant instead with account books, witnesses, and public and private certified documents and evidence.

  The whole business, Hortensius, will be between you and me. Let me speak frankly. If I thought that you were genuinely competing with me in speaking and in explaining away the charges in this trial, I would accordingly devote my efforts to making a prosecution speech and detailing the charges. But since you have begun to fight against me in a way that is determined not by your own character but by Verres’ desperate situation, it is necessary for me to find some means of countering the sort of tactics you have adopted. [34] Your plan is to begin your answer to me only after the first two sets of games; mine is to reach the adjournment before the first set of games begins. The result will be that your strategy will be admired as a clever tactic, whereas mine will be thought of simply as the necessary response to it.

  But as to what I had begun to say, that the business would be between you and me, what I meant was this. When I took on this case at the request of the Sicilians, I thought it a considerable credit to myself that the people who had previously put my innocence and self-restraint to the test* should now wish to put my integrity and conscientiousness to the test also. Yet once I had taken the case on, I decided to adopt a more ambitious aim, one which would allow the Roman people to witness my devotion to our country. [35] To prosecute a man already convicted by universal public opinion hardly seemed to me a task worth all the effort I would have to spend on it—were it not for the fact that that intolerable arrogance of yours and the greed that you have displayed in various trials of recent years are now being brought into play once again in defence of such an utterly worthless person. So now, since you take so much pleasure in your tyrannical domination of the courts, and since there exist men who are neither ashamed nor tired of their own selfish and scandalous behaviour, who seem almost deliberately to incur the hatred and detestation of the Roman people, I therefore declare that I have taken on a task which, though it may be a difficult and dangerous one for me personally, is nevertheless one which is fully worthy of my devoting to it all my youthful energy* and effort.

  [36] Since our entire order* is being oppressed by the wickedness and criminality of a few individuals and is tainted by the bad reputation of the courts, I declare to men of this type that I intend to be their hated prosecutor and their hateful, unrelenting, and bitter adversary. I am going to take on this role, indeed I claim this role, which I shall fulfil in my magistracy, which I shall fulfil in that place* from which the Roman people have asked me, from 1 January, to collaborate with them over our national affairs and over the criminal elements. I promise the Roman people that this will be the grandest and the most impressive spectacle of my aedileship.* Let me advise, warn, and give notice:* those who deposit bribes or accept them or guarantee them or promise them or act as intermediaries or as agents for corrupting a court, and those who have volunteered their power or their effrontery for this purpose, all suc
h persons must, in the present trial, keep their hands and their minds free from this heinous crime. [37] Hortensius will then be consul, with a consul’s power and authority, whereas I will be aedile—that is to say, little more than an ordinary citizen. Yet the action which I am promising to take is so welcome and so agreeable to the Roman people that, on this issue, the consul himself will appear, compared to me, less even (if such a thing were possible) than an ordinary citizen.