49. indicta: lit., not spoken = untried, unheard; with causa (49), ABL. ABS.
eiecti: i.e., into exile.
portus:ports, harbors.
52. fame: fames, hunger, starvation.
classes: classis,fleet; maintained by the Sicilians as a defense against pirates. opportunissimae: here, most serviceable.
54. partim: adv., partly.
55. locupletissimorum: locuples, rich, wealthy.
illi: the antecedent is regum; e.g., Hiero II, king of Syracuse ca. 270–216 B.C. ornamento urbibus: DOUBLE DAT.
56. imperatorum: e.g., Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who recaptured Syracuse from the Carthaginians in 212 B.C. and spared its public monuments, and Scipio Aemilianus, who after his victory in the Third Punic War restored to the Sicilians a number of statues that had been removed to Carthage.
57. spoliavit: spoliare, to rob, plunder.
59. delubra: delubrum, shrine, temple.
60. in: in the case of, in respect to.
stupris: stuprum,debauchery.
flagitiis: flagitium,shameful act, disgrace.
63. consili: PARTITIVE GEN.
profecto: adv., surely, actually, really.
taciti: agrees with the subj. of dabitis.
egomet: -met is a suffix appended to prons. for emphasis.
64. necessario: adv.
65. legitimo: i.e., the time allotted by law for Cicero’s prosecution of the case.
66. ut…videatur (68): NOUN CL. OF RESULT, common after perficere, efficere, accidere, etc.
post: our idiom says within.
67. compositior: compositus, put together, arranged, prepared, calm.
68. reus ne elabatur (69): elabi, to slip away, escape; FEAR CL., dependent on periculum est.
70. absconditum: concealed, hidden.
71. perpetua: uninterrupted, complete.
72. hominem: here, contemptuous compared with virum.
tabulis: tabula,board, writing tablet, document, record.
testibus: testis,witness.
Cicero’s strategy: immediate presentation of evidence and witnesses without formal development of the case.
Doric temple, 5th century B.C. Segesta, Sicily, Italy
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.
Nunc ego, iudices, iam vos consulo quid mihi faciendum putetis. Id enim consili mihi profecto taciti dabitis quod egomet mihi necessario capiendum intellego. Si utar ad dicendum meo 65 legitimo tempore, mei laboris, industriae, diligentiaeque capiam fructum, et ex accusatione perficiam ut nemo umquam post hominum memoriam paratior, vigilantior, compositior ad iudicium venisse videatur. Sed in hac laude industriae meae, reus ne elabatur summum periculum est. Quid est igitur quod fieri possit? 70 Non obscurum, opinor, neque absconditum. Fructum istum laudis, qui ex perpetua oratione percipi potuit, in alia tempora reservemus; nunc hominem tabulis, testibus, privatis publicisque litteris auctoritatibusque accusemus.
74. mihi certum est: I am determined.
committere: here, permit + ut cl.
praetor: Glabrio, the incumbent praetor, was unbiased, but the praetor-elect, under whom the case of Verres would be tried if delayed to the next year, was prejudiced in Verres’ favor.
nobis: DAT. OF REF., implying disadvantage.
75. mutetur: sg. because the compound subj. is viewed as a single entity.
76. homines: here, simply human beings.
