CHAPTER VIII.

PUBLIC SPEECHES.

SECTION I.

Cicero against Verres.

THE HE time is come, Fathers, when that which has long been wished for, towards allaying the envy your order has been fubject to, and removing the imputations against trials, is effectually put in our

power.

An opinion has long prevailed, not only here at home, but likewife in foreign countries, both dangerous to you, and pernicious to the state, -that, in profecutions, men of wealth are always fafe, however clearly convicted. There is now to be brought upon his trial before you, to the confufion, I hope, of the propagators of this flanderous imputation, one whofe life and actions condemn him in the opinion of all impartial perfons; but who, according to his own reckoning and declared dependence upon his riches, is already acquitted; Caius Verres. I demand juftice of you, Fathers, upon the robber of the public treasury, the oppreffor of Afia Minor and Pamphylia, the invader of the rights and privileges of Romans, the fcourge and curfe of Sicily. If that fentence is paffed upon him which his crimes deferve, your authority, Fathers, will be venerable and facred in the eyes of the public; but if his great riches hould bias you in his favour, I fall ftill gain one

I

mean

point,-to make it apparent to all the world, that what was wanting in this cafe, was not a criminal nor a profecutor, but justice and adequate punish

ment.

To pass over the shameful irregularities of his youth, what does his quæftorfhip, the first public employment he held, what does it exhibit, but one continued fcene of villanies? Cneius Carbo plundered of the public money by his own treasurer, a conful stripped and betrayed, an army deserted and reduced to want, a province robbed, the civil and religious rights of a people violated. The employment he held in Asia Minor and Pamphylia, what did it produce but the ruin of those countries in which, houses, cities, and temples were robbed by him. What was his conduct in his prætorship here at home? Let the plundered temples, and public works neglected, that he might embezzle the money intended for carrying them on, bear witnefs. How did he difcharge the office of a judge? Let those who fuffered by his injustice answer. But his prætorship in Sicily crowns all his works of wickedness, and finishes a lasting monument to his infamy. The mischiefs done by him in that unhappy country, during the three years of his iniquitous administration, are fuch, that many years, under the wifeft and beft of prætors, will not be fufficient to restore things to the condition in which he found them: for it is notorious, that during the time of his tyranny, the Sicilians neither enjoyed the protection of their own original laws; of the regulations made for their benefit by the Roman fenate, upon their coming under the protection of the commonwealth; nor of the natural

His nod has de

and unalienable rights of men. cided all caufes in Sicily for thefe three years. And his decifions have broken all law, all precedent, all right. The fums he has, by arbitrary taxes and unheard of impofitions, extorted from the industrious poor, are not to be computed. The most faithful allies of the commonwealth have been treated as enemies. Roman citizens have, like flaves, been put to death with tortures. The moft atrocious criminals, for money, have been exempted from the deferved punishments; and men of the most unexceptionable characters, condemned and banished unheard. The harbours, though fufficiently fortified, and the gates of strong towns, have been opened to pirates and ravagers. The foldiery and failors, belonging to a province under the protection of the commonwealth, have been ftarved to death. Whole fleets, to the great detriment of the province, fuffered to perish. The ancient monuments of either Sicilian or Roman greatness, the ftatues of heroes and princes have been carried off; and the temples ftripped of the images. Having, by his iniquitous fentences, filled the prifons with the most induftrious and deferving of the people, he then proceeded to order numbers of Roman citizens to be ftrangled in the gaols fo that the exclamation, "I am a citizen. of Rome!" which has often, in the most distant regions, and among the most barbarous people, been a protection, was of no fervice to them; but, on the contrary, brought a fpeedier and more fevere punishment upon them.

I ask now, Verres, what thou haft to advance against this charge? Wilt thou pretend to deny it? Wilt thou pretend, that any thing false, that even

any thing aggravated, is alleged against thee? Had any prince, or any ftate, committed the fame outrage against the privilege of Roman citizens, should we not think we had fufficient ground for demanding fatisfaction? What punishment ought, then, to be inflicted upon a tyrannical and wicked prætor, who dared, at no greater distance- than Sicily, within fight of the Italian coaft, to put to the infamous death of crucifixion, that unfortunate and innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cofanus, only for his having afferted his privilege of citizenship, and declared his intention of appealing to the juftice of his country, against a cruel oppreffor, who had unjustly confined him in prifon at Syracufe, whence he had juft made his efcape? The unhappy man, arrested as he was going to embark for his native country, is brought before the wicked prætor. With eyes darting fury, and a countenance distorted with cruelty, he orders the helpless victim of his rage to be stripped, and rods to be brought; accufing him, but without the leaft fhadow of evidence, or even of fufpicion, of having come to Sicily as a fpy. It was in vain that the unhappy man cried out, "I am a Roman citizen: I have ferved under Lucius Pretius, who is now at Panormus, and will atteft my innocence." The blood-thirfty prætor, deaf to all he could urge in his own defence, ordered the infamous punishment to be inflicted. Thus, Fathers, was an innocent Roman citizen publicly mangled with fcourging; whilft the only words he uttered, amidft his cruel sufferings, were, "I am a Roman citizen!" With thefe he hoped to defend himself from violence and infamy. But of fo little fervice was this pri vilege to him, that, while he was thus afferting his

citizenship, the order was given for his execution, -for his execution upon the cross !—

O liberty!-O found once delightful to every Roman ear!-O facred privilege of Roman-citizenfhip-once facred!-now trampled upon !-But what then! Is it come to this? Shall an inferior magistrate, a governour, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within fight of Italy, bind, scourge, torture with fire and red hot plates of iron, and at last put to the infamous death of the crofs, a Roman citizen? Shall neither the cries of innocence expiring in agony, nor the tears of pitying spectators, nor the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, nor the fear of the juftice of his country, reftrain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monfter, who, in confidence of his riches, ftrikes at the root of liberty, and fets mankind at defiance ?

I conclude with expreffing my hopes, that your wisdom and justice, Fathers, will not, by fuffering the atrocious and unexampled infolence of Caius Verres to escape due punishment, leave room to apprehend the danger of a total fubverfion of authority, and the introduction of general anarchy and confufion. CICERO'S ORATIONS.

SECTION II.

Speech of Adherbal to the Roman Senate, imploring their protection against Jugurtha.

FATHERS!

It is known to you, that king Micipfa, my father, on his death-bed, left in charge to Jugurtha,