A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

VERRES. VERRES. 1243
posts; and the exports of the vineyards, the afterwards unblushing corruption, had been his
arable land, and the loom, be saddled with heavier steps to preferment. He was supported by the
burdens. By capricious changes or violent abro- Metelli, the Scipios, and Hortensius, because their
gation of their compacts, Verres reduced to beg- interests were accidentally involved with his. But
gary both the producers and the farmers of the the reasons which detract from the individual imrevenue. On the native Greeks, he accumulated portance of Verres add historical value to the imworse evils than the worst of their ancient despots, peachment. Verres was the representative of the
the worst of their mobs, or the worst of their pre- grosser elements of a revolutionary era, as Catiline
vious praetors had inflicted. His three years' rule was of its periodical crimes and turbulence. And
desolated the island more effectually than the two with every allowance for exaggeration on Cicero's
recent servile wars, and than the old struggle be- part, Verres was a type of Roman provincial gotween Carthage and Rome for the possession of vernors, and, as such, his career forms no unimthe island. Messana alone, where he deposited his portant chapter in the annals of the expiring comspoils and provided for himself a retreat, was monwealth.
spared by Verres; but even Messana sighed for Cicero had been Lilybaean quaestor in Sicily
the mild government of Sacerdos, and for the ar- in B. c. 75, and on his departure from that island
rival of the new praetor Arrius, whom the war had promised his good offices to the Sicilians, whenwith Spartacus detained in Italy, and whose de- ever they might demand them. They committed
tention added eighteen months to the sufferings to him the prosecution of Verres. For a rising
of the Sicilians. Verres, therefore, instead of re- advocate at the bar, depending on his own exerturning to Italy in B. c. 72, remained nearly three tions alone for preferment, the opportunity was
years in his government, and so diligently em- critical, whether for advancement or defeat. On
ployed his opportunities, that he boasted of having the one hand, Cicero's attack on the aristocracy
amassed enough for a life of opulence, even if he would win for him the equites' and the people;
were compelled to disgorge two-thirds of his on the other, it closed upon him an effective
plunder in stifling inquiry or purchasing an ac- source of patronage, and involved him with a party
quittal. The remainder of Verres's life is con- which he deserted on the first occasion. He
tained in the history of the Verrine orations, which seems, however, without scruple to have redeemed
we shall presently examine. On his condemnation, his promise to the Sicilians, and to have heartily
he retired to Marseilles, retaining so much of his entered into their cause. The Verrine trial is onle
ill-gotten wealth, as to render him careless of of the three eras of Cicero's life, and perhaps that
public opinion, and so many of his treasures of art, in which his cause was best, and his motives were
as to cause, eventually, his proscription by M. most pure. He may have amplified the vices of
Antonius in B. C. 43. Before his death, Verres had Verres; lie could scarcely exaggerate the faults of
the consolation of hearing of the murder of his the provincial government of Rome. In the congreat enemy Cicero, and during his long exile of duct of the prosecution, he infringed upon no law:
twenty-seven years, had the satisfaction of wit- on obtaining his verdict, he displayed no offennessing from his retreat the convulsions of the sive vanity. In Catiline and Antonius, he was oprepublic, and the calamities of the friends who posed to political rivals: in Verres, he encountered
abandoned, and of the judges who convicted him. the enemy of the law, of social and domestic sancVerres married a sister of a Roman eques, Vettius tities, of the faith of compacts, and the security
Chilo (Versin. ii. 3. 71, 72), by whom he had a of life and property. Neither during his adminison, whom, at fifteen years of age, he admitted as stration, nor after his return to Rome, had Verres
the spectator and partner of his vices (lb. 9. 68; neglected to enlist for himself staunch and numePseudo Ascon. in loc.), and a daughter, who was rolls supporters. With some, a bribe in its crudest
married at the time of her accompanying Verres to form sufficed; but in many cases it was accomSicily. (Sen. Suas. p. 43, Bip. ed.; Lactant. Div. panied with some choice production of the chisel,
Inst. ii. 4.) the easel, or the loom. But his services were
The trial of Verres was a political as well as a most in demand when his partisans in their official
judicial cause. From the tribunate of the Gracchi characters exhibited games in the forum. Horten(B. C. 133-123), when the judicia were trans- sius and the Metelli were thus enabled to exhibit,
ferred to the equites, to the dictatorship of Sulla for the first time, to a Roman mob many of the
(B. C. 81-79), who restored them to the senate, most exquisite specimens of Mentor, Myron, and
there had been an eager contest at Rome for the Polycleitus, collected from nearly every province
judicial power. The equites and the senators had from the foot of Mount Taurus to the Lilybaean
proved equally corrupt, and the Marian party, sup- promontory. The practice of borrowing works of
ported by the Italians and the provincials, cla- art from the provincials with which to adorn the
moured loudly for a reform of the courts. Verres capital on festivals, was not indeed peculiar to
was a criminal whose condemnation might justify Verres or his age. But neither the refined CorSulla's law, whose acquittal would prove the unfit- nelii nor the rude Mummii had, when the occasion
ness of the senate for the judicial office. Cicero, ended, adorned their own villas with these treaaccordingly, in his introductory speech ( Verin. i.), sures, or distributed them among ttie galleries of
puts "this alternative prominently forward." In their friends and adherents.
Verres's condemnation, he urges upon the senato. Meanwhile, neither threats nor offers were
rian bench of judices, " lies your order's safety; in spared. Hortensius and Verres at Rome, and M.
his acquittal, your degradation now and hence- Metellus, the successor of Verres in Sicily, alterforward." This rather than the weight of evi- nately flattered and bullied the deputies of that
dence adduced was the h priori ground for Verres's island, and Cicero more than once insinuates that
condemnation. The defendant himself had neither money, was indirectly offered to himself. The
previous reputation nor ancestral honours to re- prosecutors, however, had nothing further to lose,
commend him. At first, guilty compliance, and and were desperate; Cicero had reputation to