a ducibus fugitivorum: the gladiator Spartacus and his fellow fugitivi (runaway slaves) held out against the Roman armies and ravaged Italy until finally defeated by Marcus Licinius Crassus in 71 B.C.
332. cuius rei…esset (333): REL. CL. OF CHARACTERISTIC, not part of what Verres claimed to have found out, but rather res, the incorporated antecedent of the cl., refers to Verres’ charge, a circumstance of which there was….
index:witness, informer.
vestigium:track, trace, evidence.
334. verberari: verberare, to beat.
caedebatur: caedere,to cut, beat, slay; the imperf. tense, with its idea of continuous action, adds vividness and pathos.
335. gemitus: groan.
336. crepitum: crepitus, rattling, rustling, noise.
plagarum: plaga,blow, wound.
337. commemoratione: commemoratio, mention, remembrance.
338. cruciatum: cruciatus, torture, torment.
340. ut…deprecaretur: deprecari, to avert, ward off (by entreaty); NOUN CL. OF RESULT, in appos. with hoc.
341. usurparet: usurpare, to claim, employ, repeatedly mention.
crux:cross.
342. aerumnoso: distressed, troubled.
345. lex Porcia: passed ca. 198 B.C., this law forbade the infliction of capital or corporal punishment by a magistrate without the right of appeal and a trial before the assembly.
leges…Semproniae: these laws, passed by Gaius Sempronius Gracchus in 123 B.C., granted a citizen the right of appeal even against an official to whom dictatorial power had been given.
346. tribunicia potestas: the tribunes were essentially the protectors and leaders of Rome’s lower classes. By ca. 80 B.C. Sulla’s reformed, pro-senatorial constitution had limited their powers considerably (hence, graviter desiderata); but in 70 B.C., just before Cicero’s prosecution of Verres, the consuls Pompey and Crassus restored the tribunes’ authority, including the right to try criminal cases before the assembly.
hucine: interrog. form of huc, to this (place, point).
347. reciderunt: recidere, to fall back, return, be reduced.
ut…caederetur (349): RESULT CL.
348. foederatorum: allies (allied with Rome by a treaty, foedus).
beneficio: i.e., by his election to the office of praetor.
349. fascis et securis: acc. pl., rods and axes, the familiar symbol of Roman officials, including praetors and consuls, who held the imperium.
Gavius’ crucifixion was a brutal violation of the dignity and rights of Roman citizenship.
Theater, 3rd century B.C. Syracuse, Sicily, Italy
Robert I. Curtis.
O nomen dulce libertatis! O ius eximium nostrae civitatis! O 345 lex Porcia legesque Semproniae! O graviter desiderata, et aliquando reddita plebi Romanae, tribunicia potestas! Hucine tandem omnia reciderunt, ut civis Romanus in provincia populi Romani, in oppido foederatorum, ab eo qui beneficio populi Romani fascis et securis haberet deligatus in foro virgis caederetur? 350 Quid? cum ignes ardentesque laminae ceterique cruciatus admovebantur, si te illius acerba imploratio et vox miserabilis non inhibebat, ne civium quidem Romanorum qui tum aderant fletu et gemitu maximo commovebare? In crucem tu agere ausus es quemquam qui se civem Romanum esse diceret? (V. 163)
350. ardentes: ardere, to be on fire, blaze, burn.
laminae: lamina,thin plate, layer; here, iron plates (heated for torture).
ceteri…cruciatus:other forms of torture.
353. fletu: fletus, weeping, lamentation.
commovebare: -re is a common alternate pass. ending for -ris.
in crucem…agere:to crucify.
354. quemquam: quisquam is regularly used after a negative or an implied negative; here the incredulity implicit in the question provides the negative connotation.
355. exploratum est: explorare, to search out, ascertain.
loco: locus, because of its very meaning, is often used without a prep. in a place construction; here the meaning is figurative, plight, condition.
356. quid…sit: i.e., what is going to happen to you; the fut. act. periphrastic often serves, as here, to indicate future action in a subjunct. cl.
agam: here, I shall deal.
