what was wanting in this cafe, was not a criminal nor a profecutor, but juftice and adequate punishment.

To pafs over the fhameful 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 ftripped and betrayed, an army deferted and reduced to want, a province robbed, the civil and religious rights of a people violated. The employment he held in Afia Minor and Pamphylia, what did it produce but the ruin of those countries? in which houfes, 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 injuftice anfwer. But his prætorfhip in Sicily crowns all his works of wickedness, and finishes a lafting monument to his infamy. The mif chiefs done by him in that unhappy country, during the three years of his iniquitous adminiftration, 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 and unalienable rights of men. His nod has decided all caufes in Sicily for these three years. And his decifions have broken all law, all precedent, all right. The fums he has, by arbitrary taxes and unheard of impositions, extorted from the industrious poor, are not to be computed. The most faithful allies of the commonwealth have been treated as enemies. Roman citizens haye, like flaves, been put to death with tortures. The most atrocious criminals, for money, have been exempted from the deferved punishments; and men of the moft unexceptionable characters, condemned and banished unheard. The har bours, 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, fuf

fered to perish. The ancient monuments of either Sicilian or Roman greatnefs, 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 speedier and a 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 falfe, 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 diftance 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 justice of his country, against the cruel oppreffor, who had unjustly confined him in prifon at Syracufe, whence he had just made his escape? 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 spy. 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." blood-thirty 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, amidst his cruel fufferings, were, "I am a Roman citizen!" With thefe he hoped to defend himself from violence and infamy. But of fo little fervice was this privi

The

lege 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 citizenship! once facred! now trampled upon! But what then! Is it come to this? Shall an inferior magistrate, a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within fight of Italy, bind, fcourge, torture with fire and red hot plates of iron, and at last put to the infamous death of the cross, a Roman citizen? Shall neither the cries of innocence expiring in agony, nor the tears of pitying fpectators, nor the majesty of the Roman commonwealth, nor the fear of the justice of his country, restrain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster, who, in confidence of his riches, strikes at the root of liberty, and sets 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 confusion. CICERO'S ORATIONS.

SECTION II.

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

FATHERS!

Ir is known to you, that king Micipfa, my father, on his death-bed, left in charge to Jugurtha, his adopted fon, conjunctly with my unfortunate brother Hiempfal and myfelf, the children of his own body, the administration of the kingdom of Numidia, directing us to confider the fenate and people of Rome as proprietors of it. He charged us to use our beft endeavours to be ferviceable to the Roman commonwealth; affuring us, that your protection would prove a defence againft all enemies; and would be instead of armies, fortifications, and treasures. While my brother and I were thinking of nothing but how to regulate ourfelves according to the directions of our deceafed father, Jugurtha, the most infamous of mankind, breaking through all ties of gratitude and of common humanity, and trampling on the authority of the Roman commonwealth, procured the murder of my unfortunate brother; and has driv

en me from my throne and native country, though he knows I inherit, from my grandfather Maffiniffa, and my father Micipfa, the friendship and alliance of the Romans. For a prince to be reduced by villany, to my diftressful circumstances, is calamity enough; but my misfortunes are heightened by the confideration, that I find myself obliged to folicit your affiftance, fathers, for the fervices done you by my ancestors, not for any I have been able to render you in my own perfon. Jugurtha has put it out of my power to deferve any thing at your hands; and has forced me to be burdenfome, before I could be useful to you. And yet, if I had no plea, but my undeserved mifery, a once powerful prince, the defcendant of a race of illustrious monarchs, now, without any fault of my own, deftitute of every fupport, and reduced to the neceffity of begging foreign affiftance, against an enemy who has feized my throne and my kingdom, if my unequalled diftreffes were all I had to plead, it would become the greatness of the Roman commonwealth, to protect the injured, and to check the triumph of daring wickednefs over helpless innocence. But, to provoke your refentment to the utmoft, Jugurtha has driven me from the very dominions, which the senate and people of Rome gave to my ancestors; and from which, my grandfather, and my father, under your umbrage, expelled Syphax and the Carthagenians. Thus, fathers, your kindness to our family is defeated; and Jugur. tha, in injuring me, throws contempt upon you.

O wretched prince! Oh cruel reverfe of fortune! Oh father Micipfa! is this the confequence of thy generofity; that he, whom thy goodness raised to an equality with thy own children, thould be the murderer of thy children? Muft, then, the royal house of Numidia always be a scene of havoc and blood? While Carthage remained, we fuffered, as was to be expected, all forts of hardships from their hoftile attacks; our enemy near; our only powerful ally, the Roman commonwealth, at a distance. When that fcourge of Africa was no more, we congratulated ourselves on the profpect of established peace. But, instead of peace, behold the kingdom of Numidia, drenched with royal blood! and the only furviving fon of its late king, flying from an adopted murderer, and feeking that fafety in foreign parts, which he cannot command in his own kingdom.

Whither, Oh! whither fhall I fly? If I return to the royal palace of my ancestors, my father's throne is feized by the

murderer of my brother. What can I there expect, but that Jugurtha fhould hasten to imbrue in my blood, those hands which are now reeking with my brother's? If I were to fly for refuge, or for affiftance, to any other court, from what prince can I hope for protection, if the Roman commonwealth give me up? From my own family or friends I have no expectations. My royal father is no more. He is beyond the reach of violence, and out of hearing of the complaints of his unhappy fon Were my brother alive, our mutual fympathy would be fome alleviation. But he is hurried out of life, in his early youth, by the very hand which should have been the laft to injure any of the royal family of Numidia. The bloody Jugurtha has butchered all whom he fufpected to be in my intereft. Some have been destroyed by the lingering torment of the crofs. Others have been given a prey to wild beafts; and their anguifh made the sport of men more cruel than wild beasts. If there be any yet alive, they are fhut up in dungeons, there to drag out a life more intolerable than death itself.

Look down, illuftrious fenators of Rome! from that height of power to which you are raised, on the unexampled diftreffes of a prince, who is, by the cruelty of a wicked intruder, become an outcaft from all mankind. Let not the crafty infinuations of him who returns murder for adoption, prejudice your judgment. Do not listen to the wretch who has butchered the fon and relations of a king, who gave him power to fit on the fame throne with his own fons. I have been informed, that he labours by his emiffaries to prevent your determining any thing against him in his abfence; pretending that I magnify my distress, and might, for him, have ftaid in peace in my own kingdom. But, if ever the time comes, when the due vengeance from above fhall overtake him, he will then diffemble as I do. Then he, who now, hardened in wickedness, triumphs over those whom his violence has laid low, will, in his turn, feel diftrefs, and fuffer for his impious ingratitude to my father, and his blood-thirsty cruelty to my brother.

Oh murdered, butchered brother! Oh dearest to my heart-now gone forever from my fight !-but why should I lament his death? He is, indeed, deprived of the bleffed light of heaven, of life, and kingdom at once, by the very perfon who ought to have been the firft to hazard his own life, in defence of any one of Micipfa's family. But, as things are, my brother is not fo much deprived of thefe