In 52 B.C. he was elected to the augurate, a prestigious state priesthood, and then in 51–50 he was dispatched to serve as proconsular governor of Cilicia, taking with him his young son Marcus (born in 65). When he returned to Rome this time, Cicero found the state embroiled in civil war after the split between Caesar and Pompey. Pompey was soon defeated, and, to Cicero’s great dismay, Caesar was elected to a series of consulships and ultimately appointed dictator for life. During this same period Cicero divorced Terentia for suspected financial improprieties, and, plunged into despair over their daughter’s death in 45, he withdrew entirely from public life and turned to philosophy, authoring several important works on ethics and religion (discussed below in the introduction to “Cicero’s Philosophica”).
After Caesar’s assassination in 44, Cicero returned briefly but with a passion to the political scene, vehemently attacking Caesar’s former lieutenant and would-be successor, Mark Antony, in a series of speeches known as the “Philippics.” When Antony joined ranks in the “second triumvirate” with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Octavian (Caesar’s adoptive son and the future emperor Augustus), Cicero’s fate was sealed; at Antony’s insistence, his name was included among those proscribed on the triumvirs’ enemies list and he was hunted down and beheaded on the 7th of December, 43 B.C.—a grim and unmerited conclusion to a brilliant life and career.
Cicero, 1st century B.C. Museo Capitolino, Rome, Italy
Alinari/Art Resource, NY.
One of the many bright moments in that career was in 75 B.C., when at the age of 31 Cicero took his first step on the traditional course of political offices known as the cursus honorum and was elected to the financial post of quaestor. Cicero served his quaestorship in the province of Sicily, and he administered the office with such integrity that he won the enduring esteem and affection of the provincials. In 70 B.C., after the notoriously corrupt and rapacious Gaius Verres had governed the island for three years (73–71), the Sicilians called upon Cicero to represent them in prosecuting their former governor in the extortion courts for his crimes against the province and its people. Verres enjoyed the support of not a few prominent men in Rome and had every expectation of escaping justice through his influence, bribery, and the postponement of his trial to the following year, when the composition of the court would be more favorable to his defense. Cicero, however, by his rapid amassing of evidence and the immediate presentation of witnesses during the trial’s opening phase, the so-called Actio Prima, provided such damning testimony that Verres’ lawyer, Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, withdrew from the case and Verres fled into voluntary exile in Massilia (modern Marseilles).
This stunning victory made unnecessary the more formal presentation of the case which Cicero had prepared for the second phase of the trial, the Actio Secunda, but he nevertheless polished and published in five volumes the text of his planned speeches, rightly considering them good publicity for a political aspirant and a rising orator. Hortensius’ reputation as the leading lawyer of the day was soon eclipsed by Cicero’s; and Verres himself died in exile, proscribed by Mark Antony, ironically, for his art collection, much of which had been stolen from the Sicilians.
The passages from the Verrines excerpted in this book include some of the most interesting sections of both the Actio Prima and the Actio Secunda. Focusing on the enormity of Verres’ crimes, in particular his plundering of Syracuse, capital of the province, and his torture and crucifixion of Publius Gavius, a Roman citizen who had dared to speak out against Verres, the selections provide valuable insights into provincial administration and the juridical process in the first century B.C. as well as a generous sampling of Cicero’s spectacular rhetorical powers.
1. quod: the antecedent is id (3).
unum:alone or especially.
2. vestri ordinis: OBJ. GEN.; i.e., the senatorial class (vs. the equestrians, or businessmen, and the urban plebs, or common people). Senatorial juries, commonly biased in favor of any fellow senator who was tried before them on the charge of extortion, had a bad reputation, hence invidiam and infamiam. In this case, however, Cicero felt that he had managed to secure a reliable jury and wanted to indict Verres as quickly as possible, since both he and Verres had reason to believe that the senatorial court of the following year would be more easily swayed by Verres and acquit him.
vestri…vobis (4): some manuscripts have nostri…nobis, which could be the correct reading, since Cicero, as a former quaestor, was himself a member of the senate.
iudiciorum: iudicium can mean not only a judgment or trial but also a court or jury (i.e., those who gave the judgment).
sedandam: sedare,to settle, check, stop, mitigate.
3. prope: adv., nearly, almost.
divinitus: adv., divinely, providentially.
4. summo: here, most critical.
5. inveteravit: inveterascere, to grow old, become established; note the emphasis achieved both by placing the main verb at the beginning of the sentence and by employing CHIASMUS (the ABBA order in the phrase perniciosa rei publicae vobisque periculosa).
7. exteras nationes: i.e., the provinces.
sermone: not sermon, but conversation, talk; the IND. STATE. pecuniosum…posse (8–9) depends on this speech word.
percrebruit: percrebrescere,to spread abroad.
8. pecuniosum: i.e., as long as he is wealthy.
neminem: emphatic for nullum.
9. discrimine: discrimen, turning point, crisis, critical moment; a bill had been proposed (and was subsequently passed) limiting the authority of the senate over the courts.
10. qui…conentur (11): REL. CL. OF PURPOSE, (when men are ready) to attempt. contionibus: contio, meeting, assembly, speech.
11. reus: defendant.
12. vita atque factis: ABL. OF CAUSE.
omnium: depends on opinione.
13. pecuniae…absolutus (14): sc. sed; both the omission of the conj. (ASYNDETON) and the parallelism of the two cls. emphasize the contrast between damnatus and absolutus.
praedicatione: praedicatio,proclamation, declaration; with spe, according to his own hopeful assertion, an example of HENDIADYS (use of two nouns connected by a conj., instead of one modified noun, to convey vividly a single complex idea).
14. absolutus: absolvere, to absolve, acquit.
IN C. VERREM: ACTIO PRIMA
Confidence in the incorruptibilty of the senatorial jury, which now has the opportunity to redeem Rome’s honor in the eyes of the world.
SICILY
Map by R. A. LaFleur, Tom Elliott, Nicole Feldl, Alexandra Retzleff, and Joyce Uy. Copyright 2001, Ancient World Mapping Center (http://www.unc.eduldeptslawmc)
Quod erat optandum maxime, iudices, et quod unum ad invidiam vestri ordinis infamiamque iudiciorum sedandam maxime pertinebat, id non humano consilio sed prope divinitus datum atque oblatum vobis summo rei publicae tempore videtur. 5 Inveteravit enim iam opinio perniciosa rei publicae vobisque periculosa, quae non modo apud populum Romanum sed etiam exteras nationes omnium sermone percrebruit: his iudiciis, quae nunc sunt, pecuniosum hominem, quamvis sit nocens, neminem posse damnari. Nunc in ipso discrimine ordinis iudiciorumque 10 vestrorum, cum sint parati qui contionibus et legibus hanc invidiam senatus inflammare conentur, reus in iudicium adductus est C. Verres, homo vita atque factis omnium iam opinione damnatus, pecuniae magnitudine sua spe ac praedicatione absolutus.
16. actor: here, not actor, but prosecutor, attorney.
augerem: augere,to increase, enlarge.
17. communi: i.e., which both the senate and Cicero himself shared.
