This speech was delivered against C. Verres, in 70 B.C.
The translation is by L.H.G. Greenwood (1928). Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each section. Click on ** to go to the translator's footnotes.
[1.] L [1] All prosecutors who are neither instigated by personal enmity, nor suffering under private injury, nor stimulated by the hope of reward, all whose motive is simply patriotism, must consider, gentlemen, not merely the heavy burden they are shouldering for the time being, but the grave responsibility they are seeking to take upon themselves for life. To call another man to account for his conduct is to impose upon ourselves the necessity of integrity, of self-restraint, of all the virtues, especially if, as I have said, our action is due to no motive other than the public advantage. [2] For when a man has deliberately set out to criticise the character and censure the misdeeds of other men, what mercy can he look for if at any point he turns aside from the path of his bounden duty ? Because of this, the applause and esteem of the public, due in any case to the patriot who relieves his country of a rascal, are yet more due to him for the assurance and guarantee he gives them that his own life will, and must be, upright and honourable, since for him the general disposition towards virtue and duty is reinforced by a yet more compelling necessity. [3] That, gentlemen, is why the famous orator Lucius Crassus was often heard to say that he regretted nothing so much as his ever having prosecuted Caius Carbo. In every way he was thenceforward less free to do what he would; and he felt with regret that his career was being watched by too many critical eyes. And Crassus was a man protected by the advantages of his genius and his fortune ; yet he felt himself hampered by this consideration, because he had committed himself to it not as a man of mature judgement but in early youth. For there is less assurance of the virtue and integrity of those who enter these lists in extreme youth than of those who do so when they are of maturer years. Those young men prosecute, to win fame and show off their powers, while as yet unable to understand the greater freedom of life enjoyed by those who have never prosecuted : we older men, having already shown the extent of both our powers and our understandings, must hold our passions under comfortable control, or we should never be deliberately depriving ourselves of this freedom to conduct our lives as we choose.
[2.] L [4] And indeed it is this which makes my own burden heavier than that of any other prosecutor - or if "burden" is not the right name for a load carried with satisfaction and pleasure, it is this, let me say, which makes my undertaking more extensive than those of others - that the world does thus require men to keep especially clear of the vices for which they have denounced other men. You have prosecuted someone for theft or robbery ? then you must for ever avoid all suspicion of covetousness. You have charged someone with inhumanity and cruelty ? then you must for ever take care not to give the impression of having been, in any matter, harsh or inconsiderate. Or with seduction or adultery ? then see to it carefully that your life reveal no trace of licentiousness. Everything, in fact, for which you have brought others to justice, you must yourself shun with all your might. For assuredly not only prosecution but even abuse is intolerable from one who denounces another man for offences that may be denounced in himself. [5] Now I am denouncing a single man for all the offences of which an abandoned scoundrel can be guilty; I assert that in this one man's life you may discern all the possible signs of licentious and unscrupulous wickedness. And it follows, gentlemen, that in prosecuting him I am imposing upon myself the need for a life that shall be felt neither to have now, nor ever to have had, any feature that may in the least resemble either any of this man's deeds or words, or even the surly and contemptuous expression which, as you see, his face now wears. To this, gentlemen, I submit ; nor am I ill contented that the behaviour which hitherto I have adopted freely because it pleased me should, through the law I now impose upon myself, henceforth become not merely pleasant but compulsory.
[3.] L [6] But can you, Hortensius, continue to ask me, the man being what he is, what feelings of private enmity, what personal wrong, can have led me to undertake his prosecution? I will not, for the moment, take account of the obligation imposed upon me by my close connexion with the people of Sicily ; I will give you a direct answer in this matter of private enmity. Why, think you that any enmity between human beings can be more bitter than such as arises from the conflict of their ideals, from the diversity of their aims and purposes ? Can one who holds loyalty the most sacred thing in life help hating a man who, being as quaestor admitted to his consul's secrets, given the charge of his money, trusted in every way, then did not scruple to rob and desert him, to betray him and fight against him? Can one who reverences modesty and chastity contemplate with indifference that man's daily adulteries, his school of mistresses and his household of panders ? When one who seeks to maintain the sanctions of religion meets this universal plunderer of sanctuaries, this shameless maker of profit at the expense even of the wheels of the sacred coaches, how can he fail to hate him? Shall one who believes in equal justice for all not be your bitter enemy, Verres, when he thinks of your judicial pronouncements, shifted to suit your wanton pleasure? Shall one who deplores our allies' wrongs and our provinces' misfortunes feel no resentment towards you for stripping Asia, and making havoc of Pamphylia, and plunging Sicily into tears and mourning ? Shall one who would have the rights and liberties of Roman citizens held sacred everywhere not inevitably be your enemy, and more than your enemy, when he remembers how you dealt with Roman citizens, scourging them, beheading them, setting up crosses to crucify them? [7] Why, had the man by some decision of his in some respect wronged me in my private purse, you would allow, Hortensius, that I was justified in hating him: his whole career has wronged the purses and attacked the principles, damaged the interests and outraged the feelings, of every honest man - and then do you ask why I should hate this man who is loathed by the Roman nation? I, of all men, who must be ready to serve the nation's will by undertaking even heavier tasks and even greater services than those which it is every man's duty to perform.
[4.] L Nay, there are facts that seem less grave, and yet are enough to excite any man's resentment against him. There is the fact that your friendship, Hortensius, and the friendship of all men of rank and birth, is more freely available for this unprincipled rogue than for any of us honest and honourable men. When men have risen from the ranks, you resent their industry, you scorn their honesty, you laugh at their sense of decency, you seek to thwart and suppress their abilities and their virtues, and you are devoted to - Verres! [8] Ah well, he may lack virtue and industry and integrity, the sense of honour and the sense of decency ; but no doubt you enjoy his conversation, his culture, his good taste? He has no such quality ; on the contrary, his whole conduct is defiled not more by extreme indecency and vileness than by exceptional stupidity and coarseness. When anyone opens his house to such a man, is it opened, think you ? does it not open itself, is it not a mouth seeking food? This is the man who enjoys the favour of your hall-porters and footmen ; this is the man who gains the devotion of your freedmen and manservants and maidservants ; it is he whom they bid come in before his turn, he who alone is admitted to your presence, while the rest of us, good honest men, are often denied admission. Whence we may conclude that your most valued friends are men whose lives have been such that without your protection they cannot escape disaster. [9] And then again, do you suppose that anyone can find it tolerable that while we honest men, slender as our means are, have no wish to add one penny to our wealth, but make our merit, and not our money, the means whereby we maintain our dignity and justify the favours conferred upon us by the Roman nation, this indiscriminate robber should escape all punishment and enjoy a luxurious superfluity of everything? that from him comes silver to adorn the banquets of you and your friends, and statues and pictures to adorn the forum and comitium, in spite of the abundance of all such things with which your own campaigns have enriched you? that Verres should be the man who equips your country-houses with his spoils ? that Verres should be outdoing Lucius Mummius, that we should find him plundering more cities of our allies than Mummius plundered cities of our enemies, and decorating more country-houses with ornaments taken from temples than Mummius decorated temples with spoils taken from our enemies? And shall your devotion to him be stimulated by the prospect of thus inducing other men the more readily to risk their own destruction in order to minister to your greedy passions ?
[5.] L [10] However, I have spoken of this already, and will return to it on another occasion ; I will now go on to deal with the rest of my charges. But first, gentlemen, let me in a few words ask a favour of you. In all the earlier part of my speech I have enjoyed your close attention, to my very great satisfaction ; but my satisfaction will be greater still if you kindly continue to give me that attention. For whereas in all that has hitherto been said the very variety and novelty of the facts and charges have yielded you some entertainment, I now proceed to deal with the agricultural part of my case ; and though this is in in substance, in the extent of the wrongs committed, the most important part of the whole prosecution, the exposition of it will be less diversified and less attractive. But it is eminently fitting that the attention of men so responsible and so competent as yourselves should be secured by considerations of solemn duty rather than of pleasure. [11] Keep before you, gentlemen, the fact that when you investigate the agricultural part of this case you will be investigating the position and welfare of the whole Sicilian people, the property of those Roman citizens who are farmers in Sicily, the revenues we have: inherited from our forefathers, the sources of the food and subsistence of the Roman nation. If you take these matters to be of great, nay, of supreme importance, do not be anxious lest my handling of them should lack richness and variety.
You must all be aware, gentlemen, that so far as the interests af the Roman nation are concerned, the general utility and advantage of our province of Sicily is mainly derived from the corn which it sends us ; its other contributions are useful to us, but this on is the food we live on. This section of the prosecution will fall into three parts. [12] I shall deal first with corn tithe, then with corn purchase, and finally with corn commutation.
[6.] L Let me remind this Court of the differences in the system of land taxation between Sicily and our other provinces. In the others, either a fixed tax has been imposed, which is called a "tribute," as for example that imposed on the Spaniards and most of the Carthaginians, which may be considered as the reward of victory and penalty of defeat; or else the taxation system is regulated by censors' contracts, as in Asia under the Sempronian Law. But to the Sicilian city-states we granted conditions of trust and friendship by which their old rights were maintained, and their position as subjects of Rome remained the same as it had been under their own rulers. [13] A very few of them our ancestors subdued by force of arms ; though the territory of these few thus became the property of the Roman state, it was restored to their possession, and this land is regularly subject to censors' contracts. Two cities, that of the Mamertines and Tauromenium, have special treaties of alliance, and no contracts are made for collecting tithes from them ; five others, though not allies by treaty, are free states exempt from taxation, namely, Centuripa, Halaesa, Segesta, Halicyae, Panhormus. With these exceptions, all the lands of the Sicilian cities are subject to payment of tithe, an and were so, under regulations voluntarily made by their own inhabitants, before the days of Roman sovereignty. [14] I would draw your attention to the wise action of our forefathers in this matter. Having secured to our country by the acquisition of Sicily, a valuable source of strength in peace and war, they were so earnestly resolute to secure and maintain the loyalty of its people, that they refrained not only from imposing any new tax upon Sicilian land, but even from altering either the conditions of the sale of the right to collect the tithe or the time and place of such sale, so that the Sicilians should continue to sell these rights at a fixed time of year, locally in Sicily, and, finally, as provided by the Lex Hieronica. They resolved that the Sicilians should manage their own affairs themselves, and should not be irritated either by new laws or even by the old laws under new names. [15] And so they decided that the collection of tithe should always be sold as provided by the Lex Hieronica, desiring to make the discharge of this duty less irksome to the Sicilians by preserving to them, under their new sovereigns, not only the institutions but the name of the most popular of their kings. They enjoyed these rights uninterruptedly, until Verres became praetor; he was the first man who dared to uproot and transform an order of things established everywhere, a usage inherited from their fathers, their constitutional privilege and right as the friends and the allies of Rome.
[7.] L [16] Now herein, Verres, my first step as prosecutor is to demand why you made any sort of change in a system so long and so regularly maintained. Did your powerful brain detect some fault in it? Were your understanding and your judgement superior to those of all the able and distinguished men who governed the province before you? That is what we should expect from you, from a mind so profound and active as yours - thus much I am willing to allow you. I am aware that, when you were praetor in Rome, your edict put strangers in possession of estates instead of the dead man's children, reversionary heirs instead of original heirs, your own sweet will instead of statute law. I am aware that you corrected a fault in the edicts of all your predecessors, and granted possession of estates not to men who produced wills in support of their claim but to men who merely said that such wills existed. These innovations which you devised and set going did, I am also aware, prove highly profitable to yourself. I remember that it was you too who also changed or annulled the censors' regulations that govern contracts for the upkeep of public buildings, refusing the right of contract to the person most concerned, forbidding the guardians and relatives of a minor to take steps to save him from being stripped of all he possessed; you who cut down the time allowed for completing a contract, in order to debar everyone else from undertaking it, while not holding your own contractor to any fixed period at all. [17] I am consequently not surprised that you should have devised a new law for corn-tithes, after showing so much judgement, and gaining so much experience, with praetor's edicts and censors' regulations : I am not surprised, I repeat, at your working out some such idea. The charge that I do as prosecutor bring against you is that you tampered with the rights of the Sicilian province on your own responsibility, without orders from the people of this country or the authority of the Senate.
[18] During the consulship ** of Lucius Octavius and Gaius Cotta, the Senate did authorise the sale at Rome, hitherto always conducted in Sicily by the quaestors, of the right to collect tithes of wine, oil and minor crops, and made for this business such regulations as it thought fit. When notice of sale was given, the tax-farmers asked the Senate to make certain additions to these regulations ; all of them, be it noted, in accordance with the regulations made by the censors for our other provinces This request was opposed by a man who happened to be in Rome at the time - a man who was your host, Verres; your host, I repeat, and your familiar acquaintance - Sthenius of Thermae, now here present. The consuls held an inquiry ; and after consulting the most eminent and important men in Rome, they declared that in accordance with these men's advice they would have the sale conducted in accordance with the Lex Hieronica.
[8.] L [19] Here is a contrast indeed! These men of ripe judgement, whose opinions all must respect, to whom the Senate had given, and the Roman People confirmed, full authority to make regulations for the sale of these tax-collecting rights - these men, because a single Sicilian protested, refused to change, even nominally, the Lex Hieronica, though to do so meant increased returns from taxation. And yet you, who are a man of no judgement, whose opinions no one respects, have without any authorisation by Senate or People abolished the law of Hiero completely, immensely lessening, if not altogether ending, the productiveness of the taxes, and this in the face of protests from the whole of Sicily.
[20] And I bid you note, gentlemen, the character of the law with which he tampers, which in fact he wholly abolishes: note the ability and care with which it was framed. It subjected the farmer {arator} to all possible safeguards, and gave the tax-collector such power over him that, whether the corn were in the field, or on the floor, or in the barn, or being taken to the coast, or being exported, he could not, without incurring the heaviest penalties, defraud the collector of a single grain. The carefulness of this law's provisions shows that its author had no other resources of taxation; their shrewdness shows him a Sicilian, their severity an autocrat. None the less, it would be in the interests of the Sicilian farmer ; for carefully as the rights of the tithe-collector are secured by it, the farmer cannot be forced to hand over more than the amount of the tithe.
[21] And now after all these years, nay, centuries, behold, Verres has arisen, not merely to interfere with these admirable arrangements, but to overthrow them, to take these measures, framed and devised of old to secure the existence of our allies and the advantage of our country, and pervert them to a source of dishonest gain for himself. In the first place, he appointed certain special persons to be nominally tithe-collectors but really the servants and ministers of his own greedy passions, by whose agency, as I will show you, gentlemen, the province has for three years been so thoroughly ravaged and devastated that not even after many years and a succession of honest and able governors shall we be able to repair the damage done.
[9.] L [22] Of all the persons thus entitled tithe-collectors, the foremost was the notorious Quintus Apronius, now present in court. You have heard the words in which responsible deputations have denounced this man's unique rascality. Look, gentlemen, at the expression the fellow's countenance is wearing; and from the defiant boldness that it retains, now when all else is lost, picture to yourself what the fury of his nostrils must have been in those Sicilian days. This is Apronius, the man whom Verres, after scouring the whole province for scoundrels and bringing into it with him plenty who were like himself, adjudged most like himself in villainy, profligacy and reckless wickedness ; with the result that in a very short time, without any business connexion, or bond of rational interest, or recommendation by other persons, the mere resemblance of their depraved aims and tastes made them bosom friends. [23] You are aware of Verres' foul and wicked character: conceive, if you can, a man who can match him in every branch of unspeakable indulgence in every kind of vileness : that man will be the famous Apronius, who proclaims himself by his life, nay, by his very shape and countenance, a vast devouring human morass, replete with all manner of villainies and abominations. It is he who was Verres' right-hand man in his debaucheries, in his sacrilegious robberies, in his filthy carouses : and to such sympathy and affection does similarity of character give rise that Apronius, whom all others regarded as an uncouth savage, appeared to Verres an agreeable and cultivated person. Everyone else loathed him and shunned the sight of him: Verres could not live without him. Others could not drink in the same room with him: Verres would drink out of the same cup with him, and the disgusting smell of the man's breath and body, which we are told not even animals could endure, to him, and to him alone, seemed sweet and pleasant. Apronius sat next his chair of office, shared the privacy of his chamber, and was the master spirit of his festive gatherings - notably when, with the governor's young son present, he proceeded to dance stark naked before the company.
[10.] L [24] Such is the man whom Verres, as I was about to tell you, chose for his right-hand man in this business of plundering and ruining the farming class. Such is the man to whose impudent depravity and cruelty, as you are to learn, gentlemen, our loyal allies and worthy fellow-citizens were assigned and delivered during the praetorship of Verres, in virtue of his new ordinances and edicts, by which, as I have already stated, the entire law of Hiero was thrust aside and repudiated.
[25] Let us look, gentlemen, at the first of these remarkable edicts. It ordered that whatever amount of corn the collector might declare due to him from the farmer, that amount the farmer should be forced to hand over to the collector. In other words, he must hand over as much as Apronius asks for. What are we to call this ? A regulation made by a Roman magistrate for our allies, or a despotic decree made by a tyrannical madman for conquered enemies? Am I to hand over just as much as he asks for? He will ask for my whole harvest. For my whole harvest, do I say? For more still, it appears, if he likes. And what then? Why, what do you suppose? either you will hand it over, or you will be found guilty of disobeying the edict. By the immortal gods, what can this mean? It is incredible. [26] You may think nothing too bad to be true of this man Verres; but I feel sure that this thing, at least, you cannot believe. Though all Sicily should declare it true, I myself would not dare to assert it unless I could quote the edict word for word from his own records, as I will. - Kindly hand this to the clerk, and ask him to read aloud from the volume the passage about the returns to be made. - Read it, please. - (The passage is read aloud). - He says I am not reading all of it.- this appears to be what he means by shaking his head. - Well, what am I leaving out? Is it the bit where you do after all safeguard the Sicilians and take thought for these hapless farmers? You there state that if a collector takes more than his due, you will allow him to be sued for eight times the amount. - I would not have anything passed over ; read us also all the passage he asks for. Now, please. - (The clause about permission to sue for eight times the amount is read.) - Permission for a farmer to sue a collector? What a miserable piece of injustice! You drag the poor fellow from his farm to the city, from his plough to a plaintiff's bench, from the familiar life of the countryside to the strange world of the law-courts.
[11.] L [27] In taxation cases everywhere else, in Asia, Macedonia, Spain, Gaul, Africa, Sardinia, in the tax-paying districts of Italy itself - in all these, I say, the tax-gatherer regularly sues and pays his deposit ** ; he cannot seize and occupy the defendant's property :would you take one of the most worthy, honest and respectable sections of society, the farming class, and give men rights over them that are the direct opposite of what holds good everywhere else in the world ? Which way lies justice, in the collector's having to claim corn, or in the farmer's having to claim it back? in deciding the case before, or after, the corn has passed out of the owner's hands ? Who should be in possession meanwhile, the man whose hands have toiled to produce it, or the man whose finger has been raised to bid for it ? Look you now, what of the farmers who have but a single yoke of oxen, and toil unceasingly with their own hands, - and to this class, before you became governor, a great number and a large proportion of the Sicilians belonged, - what shall such men do when they have handed over to Apronius all he demanded ? Shall they desert their fields and homes? shall they make for Syracuse, to sue your heart's delight Apronius before the doubtless impartial Court of Claims over which your worship presides ? [28] Well, suppose it so: some farmers, let us say, will be found with enough boldness, and enough experience, after handing over to the collector as much as the collector declares is due to him, to sue the collector and claim eightfold restitution. We shall look to see the edict enforced and the magistrate do strict justice: we are for the farmer, and hope Apronius will be sentenced to make eightfold restitution. What precisely is the farmer's petition ? simply the right to sue for eightfold restitution as the edict directs. Apronius? quite willing. The governor? he orders the selection of a court. "May I have the names of the panel? " ** "Panel?" says Verres; "your court shall be chosen from my own staff." "Oh, and who are the members of your staff?" "Why, Volusius my diviner, and Cornelius my physician, and those hounds you see licking the steps of my seat of judgement." In fact, he never appointed a judge, or a member of a Court of Claims, from among the inhabitants of the districts ; he used to assert that everyone who owned a foot of land was prejudiced against the tithe-collectors. So claimants had to bring their cases against Apronius before men still heavy with the fumes of what they had drunk at his last party. [12.] L What a distinguished and memorable court! how strictly it administered the law, and what an ark of refuge it was for the farmers !
[29] And if you would know what was thought of those hearings of claims for eightfold restitution, and of the members of those Courts chosen from Verres' staff, let me tell you something. Would you expect to find that a collector, being thus freely authorised to take from the farmers as much corn as he might demand, now and then demanded more than his due ? Ask yourselves whether you would or would not expect this, remembering that it might have happened through inadvertence as well as greed. It was bound to happen repeatedly. I assure you, indeed, that every one of them carried off more, and a great deal more, than his ten per cent. - Very well: name me one of them, during your three years of office, who was sentenced to make eightfold restitution. Sentenced, do I say ? name me one against whom a claimant sought to proceed under the terms of your edict. It would appear that none of the farmers could complain of illegal treatment; that none of the collectors claimed a grain more than was really due to them. So far from that, Apronius used to seize and carry away as much corn as he chose from everyone, and all over the country there were farmers declaring that he had robbed and plundered them; and in spite of that, it will be found that no actions were brought against him. [30] Now what does this mean ? why did all these fine, honourable, influential men, - all these Sicilians, all these Roman knights - after being thus injured by this dirty scoundrel, why did they not seek to exact the eightfold penalty that without question had been incurred? Why was it? what was their reason? They had one reason, - and you, gentleman, see what it was. It was that they knew they would lose, and would come away from the hearing mocked and insulted into the bargain. For indeed, what manner of hearing would it have been that a trio of these so-called Judges of Claims sat down to conduct, satellites of Verres taken from his filthy and vicious following, men not even passed on to him by his father, but recommended to him by his wretched mistress? [31] The farmer would have been pleading his case, of course, relating how Apronius had left him no corn at all, how his belongings had been plundered as well, how he himself had been cudgelled and beaten. Those worthy gentlemen would have been putting their heads together, talking about some drunken revel, or about the chance of getting hold of some loose girl or other on her way back from the governor's quarters, while apparently attending to business. Then up would have got Apronius, a fine new fashion in tax-gatherers, not shabby and dusty as you would expect a collector to be, but plastered with perfumes, and flabby with drink and late hours. His first movement, the first breath he uttered, would have filled the place with the smell of wine and perfume and the man's own body. He would have said what he usually did say everywhere - that he had not bought the tithe rights, but the farmers' property and fortunes: that he was not Apronius the tithe-collector, but a second Verres, the farmers' lord and master. And when he had finished, the excellent gentlemen selected from Verres' staff to form the Court would not have proceeded to discuss letting Apronius off, but would have tried to see if they could somehow find the claimant himself guilty of. something alleged against him by Apronius.
[13.] L [32] When you had thus given the collectors - in other words, given Apronius - this full liberty to plunder the farmers {aratores} by demanding as much as he chose and taking as much as he demanded, was this all the defence you were laying up for yourself against the day of your trial - the statement in your edict that you would allow the hearing of claims for eightfold restitution? Upon my word, even had you drawn upon the full company of those eminent and highly respected persons who were on the roll of the Syracusan district, and allowed the farmer not merely to challenge but to choose those who should hear his claim, there would have been no bearing the injustice of this unheard-of procedure, by which a man must first deliver over all his harvest to the tax-gatherer and see his property pass out of his control, and then claim back what is his own and bring an action in court for its recovery. [33] And seeing that what is nominally described in your edict as a hearing of claims was in reality a farce performed by the entirely worthless members of your retinue in collusion with your allies (or rather your agents) the tithe-collectors, do you dare, in the face of that, to make any reference to your hearing claims? especially as any such defence is refuted not merely by my arguments but by the plain facts: for with all the wrongs endured by the farmers and inflicted by the collectors, we find that no single hearing, such as your precious edict allowed, was ever held or even applied for.
[34] Still, we shall find him treating the farmers less severely than might appear. For whereas his edict undertook to allow collectors to be sued for eight times the amount wrongly exacted, it also allowed farmers to be sued for no more than four times the amount wrongly withheld. Who now will dare to allege that he was hostile or unfriendly to the farmers? How much more severe he is towards the tax-gatherers! Well, ** his edict required the local official to force the farmer to deliver the amount that the collector declared to be due to him : what possible room is there for allowing any other legal proceedings against the farmer? "Oh," thinks Verres, "no harm in the farmer's having this threat hanging over him, so that, when his corn has been got from him, the fear of further proceedings may keep him quiet." - Will you use the law-courts to get my corn from me? then keep the local official out of the business. Do you prefer this latter form of compulsion? then what room is there for the law-courts ? And besides, anyone would rather give your collectors all they demand than be condemned by your satellites to hand over four times as much.
[14.] L [35] Then again there is the admirable clause in your edict providing that any dispute between a farmer and a tithe-collector shall, at the request of either party, come before a court appointed by yourself. To begin with, I ask what dispute can possibly arise between parties one of whom, instead of claiming his corn, simply takes it, and takes not the amount due to him but the amount that suits his pleasure, while the other has no chance of recovering his own by suing the man who has taken it. Note, further, this fool's pretensions to skill and experience, when he uses the words "shall at the request of either party come before a court appointed by myself." What an ingenious thief he thinks himself! He empowers both of them to apply to him ; but it matters nothing whether his words are "at the request of either party" or "at the request of the collector," for no request to be heard by those courts of yours will ever be made by a farmer.
[36] Next let us look at the emergency edict that he produced at the instigation of Apronius. A Roman knight of high standing, named Quintus Septicius, stood up to Apronius, and declared that he would give him no more than the due tithe: whereupon there suddenly appeared a special edict, forbidding any farmer to remove his grain from the threshing-floor until he had come to terms with the collector. Submitting even to this piece of iniquity, Septicius was leaving the corn on his floor to go rotten in the rain, when behold, without warning, the birth of another edict destined to bring in a rich harvest, requiring all tithes to be delivered at the seaports by the first of August. [37] The result of this edict was not so much to bring ruin and disaster to the Sicilians - the man's previous edicts had seen well enough to that - as to hand over tied and bound to Apronius even those Roman knights who had supposed them selves able to maintain their rights against him, men of high rank whom other governors had treated with every consideration. Do but observe what these two edicts mean. "Shall not remove," says the first, "grain from the floor unless he has come to terms...." Enough by itself to force the acceptance of unfair terms: one would rather hand over too much than leave one's corn too long on the floor. Ah, but you find this of no avail against Septicius and some others like him, who say, "Rather than accept such terms, I will let my corn lie." Such men are met with the order, "Deliver your corn before the first of August." Very good: then I will. "No, unless you have come to terms, you shall not move it." You see? the fixing of a date for delivery compelled the removal of corn from the floor; and the prohibition of that removal until the farmer had come to terms with the collector meant that those terms were not accepted freely but forced upon him.
[15.] L [38] And then for a thing that violates not only the Lex Hieronica, not only the usage of previous governors, but all the rights which the Sicilians enjoy as the gift of the Roman senate and people, whereby no man may be required to appear ** in a court beyond the limits of his own district. Verres ordained that a farmer must appear in court wherever the collector might choose, so that Apronius might summon a man to go for this purpose all the way from Leontini to Lilybaeum, and thus make a further profit out of the unhappy, farmers by bringing false actions against them. **
However, for making profit out of false actions there was another especially ingenious method devised, the regulation that farmers should make returns of their acreage of land under crop. This, as I will explain, was highly effective for compelling unjust settlements with the collectors, and tended in no way to the public advantage; but besides that, it was effective in involving all whom Apronius chose to involve in these false actions. [39] No sooner did a man express opposition to his wishes than a summons was applied for against him on the charge of making an untrue return of acreage: and fear of prosecution on this charge led to large quantities of corn being carried off, and large sums of money extorted, from a great many people. Not that there was any difficulty about returning the acreage as what it was or even as more than it was; that was of course safe enough. No, but the charge alleged in the application for the summons was that the regulation had been disobeyed and no return made at all. You cannot but be aware of what sort of hearing such charges would get when Verres was praetor, if you bear in mind the character of his staff and personal following.
Now, gentlemen, what is the point that I wish made clear regarding the result of these iniquitous new regulations? The wrong done to our allies? you see that for yourselves. The man's repudiation of the authority of his predecessors' opinions? This he will not dare to deny. [16.] L [40] The vast power, during his governorship, enjoyed by Apronius? He cannot help admitting this. But it may be that in this connexion you will ask, as the law bids you ask, whether he has made money himself out of these doings. I will prove that he has made a great deal. I will establish the fact that all the iniquities I have already referred to were devised by him for his personal profit. But first I must weaken his defence by levelling the rampart on which he counts for protection against all my assaults upon him.
"I sold the tithe-rights," he tells us, "for a high price." - What, you knave, you fool? Was it tithe-rights that you sold? was it those portions ** of the harvest which the Roman senate and people intended you to sell? or was it the complete harvest, nay, the whole property and livelihood of the farmers? If the crier had announced publicly by your orders that the sale was not of one-tenth of the corn but of one-half, and buyers had made their offers on the understanding that it was one-half they were buying, nobody would be surprised if you sold that half for a greater sum than other magistrates got for the tenth parts. Well then, if the crier announced one-tenth for sale, but in actual fact - allowing, that is, for the terms and conditions your edict offered - the sale was of still more than one-half: in the face of that will you boast of getting more for selling what you had no right to sell than all the others got for selling the proper quantity ? You got more for those tithes than anyone else, did you? [41] And how did you achieve that result? By your honesty ? Look yonder at the temple of Castor, ** and then talk of your honesty if you dare. By your carefulness? Cast your eyes over the erasures ** in that section of your records that concerns Sthenius of Thermae, and then dare to call yourself careful. By your ability? After declining to examine the witnesses at the first hearing, and preferring to show them your face without speaking a word, you may claim as much ability as you choose for yourself and your advocates. How then did you achieve the result you speak of? You deserve great credit if you have surpassed your predecessors in competence and left your successors a precedent for their guidance. Very likely there has been no one good enough to be a model for yourself, whereas you, as the deviser of sound methods and the chief authority for them, will be the model for us all. [42] What farmer, during your term of office, paid ten per cent of his crop? or twenty percent? What farmer did not think himself very kindly treated if he got off with thirty per cent instead of ten - except for a few of them who, by being your accomplices in robbery, paid nothing at all? Compare your savagery with the benevolence of the Senate. When a national emergency obliges the Senate to order the exaction of an additional tithe, its decree prescribes the payment of money to the farmers for this second tithe, in order that the amount taken beyond what is due may be looked on as a purchase and not as an impost. You exacted the tithe, you tore it from them, many times over; your authority was not the Senate, but your own edicts, with their abominable regulations such as no one ever heard of before: and then do you count it a great achievement to have got a higher price than was got by Lucius Hortensius the father of Quintus your advocate, or by Gnaeus Pompeius, or by Gaius Marcellus, who made no departure from what was fair, legal and recognised custom ?
[43] Is it that you were to consider the results of one year, or of two years, and care nothing for the preservation of Sicily, for the interests of agriculture, for the welfare of the nation in all the years to follow ? You took over a system under which Rome was being adequately supplied with corn from Sicily, and under which, at the same time, the farmers could farm and cultivate their land profitably: and what did you effect, what did you achieve? To add some trifling sum to the national profits on the tithes, you brought about the abandonment and desertion of the corn-lands. Your successor was Lucius Metellus. Are you an honester man than Metellus ? or more eager to gain distinction and public office ? It is very likely that while you were ambitious for the consulship, Metellus was indifferent to an office held by his father and grandfather before him! Well, he sold those tithes for much less than you did, for much less than even your predecessors sold them. [17.] L Now if he could not think out for himself how to get the highest possible price for them, could he not even follow in the still fresh footprints of the previous governor, and make use of your edicts and regulations, so admirably thought out and discovered by you originally!
[44] But he felt that the last way to show himself a Metellus would be to follow your lead in anything ; and so he did what no man is known ever to have done before : when he was still in Rome, and thinking it was time for him to set forth for his province, he wrote a letter to the Sicilian communities, urging and entreating them to plough and sow their land. The governor asked this of them, as a favour, some time before his arrival there ; and at the same time he informed them that he would sell the tithe-rights as directed by the code of Hiero ; in fact, that so far as the whole tithe system was concerned he would not follow the lead of Verres at all. And when he did this, he was not led by any desire of personal advantage to write letters thus in advance to another man's province : it was an act of prudence ; once the sowing season was past, we might not get one grain of corn from the province of Sicily. [45] Listen, please, to his letter. - Read it aloud. (The letter is read.)
[18.] L It is the letter from Metellus, gentlemen, to which you have just listened, that has grown all the corn we have had from Sicily this season. If Metellus had not sent off that letter, in all the tithe-paying areas of Sicily not one man would have turned one clod of soil. Now I ask you - did this occur to him by a miracle? or was it suggested to him by the Sicilians who had flocked to Rome in large numbers, and by merchants connected with Sicily? It is common knowledge that large deputations were constantly being sent to members of the Marcellus family, those historic patrons of Sicily, to Gnaeus Pompeius, at that time consul-designate, and to all the other friends of the province. And this, gentlemen, is a thing that has never happened to any other man - to be publicly accused, in his own absence, by men over whose property and whose families he possesses absolute command and authority. So keenly did these men feel their wrongs that they were ready to suffer anything, if they might but utter their plaintive appeal against his wickedness. [46] And though Metellus sent to every city in Sicily this letter that was almost a humble petition, even so he could nowhere succeed in getting corn sown on the old scale; for, as I will now show you, a great many of the people had gone away, deserting not their cornfields only, but the homes where they were born, hunted thence by the wrongs that Verres had done them.
I will not, believe me, gentlemen, exaggerate the facts to strengthen my case against Verres: I will put before you truthfully, and as vividly as I can, the impression my own eyes and understanding conveyed to me. [47] When I arrived in Sicily after a four years' absence, it had to my eyes the look we associate with countries that have been the seat of a cruel and protracted war. The fields and the hill-sides that I had once seen green and flourishing I now saw devastated and deserted ; the countryside seemed itself to feel the loss of the men who once tilled it, and to be in mourning for its old masters. The corn-lands of Herbita and Henna, of Murgentia and Assorus, of Imachara and Agyrium, were for the most part so completely abandoned that we looked in vain not only for the cattle but for the proprietors who were once so numerous: and the land round Aetna that used to be so richly cultivated, and that headquarters of corn-farming, the plain of Leontini, whose aspect formerly was such that to see it under crop removed any fears that corn would be scarce and dear - these were so wild and miserable a waste that there, in Sicily's most fertile regions, nothing reminded us of Sicily. The year before had dealt the farmers a staggering, blow; this last year had ruined them altogether.
[19.] L [48] And now will you dare to tell me of your sale of tithe-rights? After such dishonesty, after such cruelty, after the infliction of so many grievous wrongs ; when you know that Sicily's welfare rests on her farming and the rights of her farmers ; when her farmers have been utterly ruined, and her lands deserted ; when in all that rich and well-stocked province you have left no man anything to have or even to hope for: will you then conceive yourself able to gain applause by telling us that you got more than anyone else for the rights of collecting tithe ? One would think that this was what the nation desired, that this was what the Senate instructed you to do, from the way in which, after tearing the farmers' whole livelihood from them under the pretext of those tithes, and robbing Rome of all her profit and advantage from the growing of corn in the years to come, you then imagine that, if you have added some portion of your plunder to the amount the tithes bring in, you have done good service to the state and to the people of Rome.
Now I am speaking as though the reason for inveighing against the man's misconduct were merely that, thirsting for the glory of having outstripped certain other governors in the total sum he secured for corn-tithe, he introduced an over-harsh law and over-severe regulations by edict, and refused to be guided by the judgement of all his predecessors. [49] You sold the tithe-rights for a high price, did you ? Well then, if I prove that you diverted into your own coffers not less than you sent under the heading of tithe-profits to Rome, how much applause is your plea likely to win for you, after your appropriating for yourself, from a province that belongs to the nation, as much as you sent home for the nation's benefit ? I further prove that you embezzled twice as much corn as you sent home for the nation, shall we even then look to see your advocate, when he handles this charge, indulge in theatrical gestures and in appeals to the fringe of spectators present ? You, gentlemen, have already heard these facts. But you may have heard them only on the authority of rumour and popular talk. Let me now inform you of the immense sums of money seized under the heading of corn-tithe. As you listen you will appreciate the force of the scoundrel's impudent remark that his gains from tithe alone would buy him protection against all his perils.
[20.] L [50] We have been told long before this - I am sure, gentleman, that every one of you has been told many times - that the tithe-collectors were his partners. Now I believe this to be the only false thing said of him by the people who think ill of him. We must define "partners" as those who share in the profits ; and I assert that the whole fortunes and property of the farmers went to himself, and that Apronius, and the slaves of Venus - the new class of tax-gatherers that dates from Verres' praetorship - and all the rest of the tithe-collectors, were his agents and assistants, robbed other people to make money for himself. [51] How do I prove this? I prove this as I have proved ** that the plunder from that contract for the temple columns went to him : and the best argument, I take it, is that his regulations violated established rights and usage. Who ever set about upsetting men's rights wholesale, and changing customs universally observed, so as to incur abuse and gain nothing? I will go further, and press this point. - You sold those tithe-rights on unjust conditions in order to sell them dearer. Why, when they were knocked down and sold already, when it was now too late to get more for them, though not too late to get much more for yourself, did those new emergency regulations suddenly spring into existence? That the farmer must appear in answer to the collector's summons wherever the collector chose, that he must not move his corn from the floor before settling terms with the collector, that he must have his tithes transported to the coast by the first of August - all these orders I assert that you made in your third year of office after the tithes were already sold. Had their object been the public advantage, they would have been stated openly at the time of the sale. Their object was your own advantage ; and that is why, when your wits were sharpened by the opportunity for gain, you pounced upon devices that your lack of foresight had let slip before. [52] Is anyone going to believe that, unless it meant profit, and very great profit, for yourself, the vile discredit and the fearful risk to your status and fortunes troubled you so little that, though the groans and complaints of all Sicily came to your ears daily, though by your own admission you were expecting to be prosecuted, though the danger you run in this trial is no greater than you then supposed it, - that nevertheless you allowed those innocent farmers to be thus persecuted and plundered? Most assuredly, even though no man is our match in unscrupulous cruelty, you would not have set the whole province against you, you would not have had all those men of wealth and standing become your deadly enemies, had not financial greed, and the immediate prospect of loot, overpowered such rational consideration for your own safety. -
[53] I cannot, indeed, display to you, gentlemen, the full extent and number of his outrages. It would be an endless task to recount the misfortunes of each of his victims one by one. I will, therefore, by your leave, merely relate typical instances. **
[21.] L There is a man of Centuripa named Nympho, an active, hard-working man, a careful and experienced farmer. He had a large farm, which he held as leasehold, a common practice in Sicily even for well-to-do persons such as he is ; and he had invested a large sum in equipment to keep the place going. But he was treated by Verres with such overwhelming injustice that he not only deserted his farm, but actually fled from Sicily, and came here to Rome, along with many others whose exile was due to Verres. Verres had caused a collector to state that Nympho had not made any return of the acreage he had under crop, as was required by that precious edict of his, the sole purpose of which was to secure gains of this kind for him. [54] Nympho having declared his readiness to defend conduct before an impartial court, Verres appointed some excellent fellows to try the case: that same physician of his, Cornelius alias Artemidorus, who in his own town of Perga had formerly been Verres' leader and instructor in the spoliation of Diana's temple there ; his diviner Volusius, and his crier Valerius. Nympho was sentenced before he had fairly taken his place in court. ** To what penalty, you may ask. The edict fixed no penalty - and he was sentenced to pay all the corn he had on his threshing-floors. Thus did this tithe-collector Apronius carry off from Nympho's farm not the due tithe, not some portion of corn removed to a hiding-place, but 7000 good medimni of wheat, as a penalty for infringing the edict, and not by any right his contract gave him
[22.] L [55] The wife of a well-born citizen of Menae named Xeno had an estate which was let to a tenant. The tenant, unable to endure the ill-treatment he received from the collectors, had deserted his farm. Verres authorised the prosecution of Xeno on his favourite fatal charge of not making a proper return of acreage. Xeno denied liability ; the estate, he pointed out, had been let to another person. Verres directed the court to find Xeno guilty if it shall appear that the acreage of the farm in question exceeds the area stated by the tenant. Xeno argued not only that he had not been farming the land - which was in itself a valid defence - but that he was not the owner or the lessor of the estate in question ; that it belonged to his wife; that she managed her own business, and had let the place herself. His defence was conducted by Marcus Cossutius, a man of high distinction and held in great respect. Verres none the less committed him for trial, fixing the penalty ** at 50,000 sesterces. Though Xeno was aware that the court to try his case was being made up from that company of bandits, he none the less agreed to accept its verdict. Thereupon Verres, speaking loudly so that Xeno should hear him, ordered his temple slaves to keep the man under arrest while the case was proceeding, and to bring him before himself as soon as it was settled ; adding that Xeno might be rich enough to be indifferent to the penalty if he were found guilty, but would probably not be indifferent to a flogging as well. Intimidated by this violence, Xeno paid the collectors as much as he was ordered by Verres to pay.
[23.] L [56] Polemarchus, a good respectable inhabitant of Murgentia, was ordered to pay a tithe of 700 medimni ** on a farm of 50 iugera. Because he refused, he was marched off to appear before Verres, in Verres' own house ; ** and as our friend was still in bed, the prisoner was brought into the bedroom, a privilege otherwise extended only to collectors and women. There he was knocked about and kicked so brutally that, after refusing to settle for 700 medimni, he promised to pay 1000.
Eubulidas Grospus of Centuripa is a man whose character and birth, and also his wealth, make him the chief man in his own town. Know, then, gentlemen, that this most honoured member of an honoured community was left not merely with no more corn, but with no more life and blood in his body, than the will and pleasure of Apronius saw fit to leave him. Violence, suffering and blows induced him to pay not the amount of corn that he should have paid but the amount he was forced to pay.
[57] In the same city there were three brothers working in partnership, whose names were Sostratus, Numenius and Nymphodorus. They fled from their land because they were ordered to pay over more than the total yield of their harvest; whereupon Apronius invaded the farm with a band of followers, seized all the stuff, carried off the slaves, and drove off the live stock. Nymphodorus went later to see him at Aetna, and pleaded to have his own property restored to him. While he was doing so, Apronius ordered him to be seized and suspended from a wild olive-tree that grows in the market-place of Aetna. Gentlemen, this friend and ally of Rome, this farmer and landowner of yours, hung there from that tree, in the market-place of a town in our empire, for as long as Apronius chose to let him hang.
[58] All this time I have been putting before you the various types of the countless injustices done, by quoting one case of each, and passing over innumerable others, I ask you to see for yourselves, to imagine in your own minds, how from one end of Sicily to the other there were these onslaughts from the collectors, these plunderings of the farmers ; the savagery of Verres, and the tyranny of Apronius. Verres despised the Sicilians - thought of them as hardly human - believed that they themselves would show no vigour in seeking satisfaction, and that you would hear of their wrongs with little concern.
[24.] L [59] Well, well; he had a false conception of them, and an unflattering conception of you ; but at least, ill as he served the Sicilians, of course he courted the Roman citizens there, was indulgent to them, did his best to satisfy and conciliate them. Did he indeed ? Why, he hated them and persecuted them beyond all other men. I say nothing of the chains and prisons, of the floggings, of the executions ; I pass over the crucifixion whereby he sought to express to the Roman citizens his clemency and goodwill towards them ; of all these things, I repeat, I say nothing - I reserve them for another part of my speech. I am discussing corn-tithes, and the treatment of Roman citizens on their farms ; and how they were handled, gentlemen, you have heard from their own lips ; they have told you how they were robbed. [60] Still, in so good a cause, ** such things must be endured - that justice should go for nothing, and established custom for nothing ; and as for material injuries, gentlemen, none are so serious that a brave man, a man of high and generous disposition, finds them unendurable. But what now if, while yonder man was governor, Roman knights - not obscure and unknown, but eminent and distinguished Roman knights - had violent hands laid upon them by Apronius without the smallest hesitation? Is that not enough for you? is there anything further you feel that I should say ? or should we not do our best to settle the fate of Verres quickly, that we may the sooner proceed to deal with Apronius, as before I left Sicily I promised him we should? Apronius, gentlemen, seized Matrinius, the excellent, hard-working, popular Gaius Matrinius, and for two days kept him prisoner in an open spot at Leontini. Yes, gentlemen, by the orders of Quintus Apronius, the orders of a man born in shame, bred to foulness, and shaped to serve the vices and lusts of Verres, know that a Roman knight was for two days denied food and shelter, was for two days kept in custody by the guards of Apronius in the market-place at Leontini, and not let go until he had agreed to the terms that Apronius demanded.
[25.] L [61] I come now to the case of that respected and honoured Roman knight Quintus Lollius. The affair that I am about to describe is celebrated ; known of, and talked of, throughout Sicily. He was a farmer in the Aetna district ; and when that area was delivered like the rest into the hands of Apronius, trusting to the respect and goodwill traditionally attaching to those of his order, he declared that he would not give the collectors more than he was bound to give them. His words were reported to Apronius. Apronius laughed, of course, and wondered that Lollius had not heard about Matrinius and all the other affairs. Then he sent his temple slaves for Lollius. Note that fact too: a tithe-collector had official attendants assigned to him by the governor : I would ask if that can be held a weak piece of evidence that Verres made full use of the pretext of tithe-collection to enrich himself. Lollius was led in, or rather dragged in, by the slaves, just as Apronius had come back from the playing-fields {palaestra} and laid himself down by the dinner-table he had had spread for him in the market-place of Aetna. Lollius was made to stand upright before those ruffians as they began carousing at that early hour. [62] I assure you, gentlemen, I should disbelieve the truth of this story, even after hearing it everywhere, unless the old man, when thanking me with tears in his eyes for my readiness to undertake this prosecution, had told me of it himself in a way that completely convinced me. This old Roman knight of nearly ninety was made to stand, as I tell you, before this festive gathering of Apronius, who meanwhile proceeded to smear his own head and face with perfume. "What's all this, Lollius?" says he; "can't you do the proper thing unless you are punished and made to?" The poor fellow, in spite of his great age and the respect in which he was held, could not tell what line to take, whether to reply or to hold his tongue, or in fact what to do. As he stood there, Apronius was ordering in the dinner and drinks; and his slaves, men just like their masters in character, birth and antecedents, were carrying in everything past the nose of Lollius, amid the laughter of the guests and loud guffaws from Apronius himself - not much chance, you will agree, that he was not laughing while he was drinking and amusing himself, if he cannot restrain his laughter even now when he is threatened with ruin. Well, to cut the story short, gentlemen, you are to know that Quintus Lollius was constrained, by this humiliating treatment, to fall in with the terms and conditions imposed by Apronius. [63] Age and infirmity have prevented his being able to come here and give his evidence. But the evidence of Lollius is not needed. Everyone knows this story is true. Not one of your friends, Verres, not one person whom you may produce, whom you may cross-examine, will allege that he now hears it for the first time. We have here Marcus, the son of Lollius, a young man of excellent character, and his testimony the Court shall hear. The other son Quintus, formerly the prosecutor of Calidius, ** a fine upright young man of outstanding ability, was so moved by hearing of his father's wrongs and humiliations that he set off ** for Sicily - and was killed on his way there. It is the revolted slaves who are said to be responsible for his death ; but as a matter of fact no one in Sicily has any doubt that he was murdered because he could not keep his intentions regarding Verres a secret. And we may add that Verres would have no doubt that a man whose public spirit had already led him to prosecute someone else was likely to be ready to deal with himself on his return, seeing that it was a personal grievance, his own father's wrongs, that had now aroused his indignation.
1.(↑) 75 B.C.
2.(↑) The word 'pignerator', not found elsewhere, is of uncertain meaning. The above rendering suits the argument of the passage: the plaintiff has to pay a deposit as a guarantee that he believes his claim just. For a different interpretation see Long's note on the passage, p. 309.
3.(↑) The plaintiff expects to be allowed to challenge certain names from a list of Sicilians out of whom the praetor will, he assumes, select the members of the court: which is what the praetor ought to do.
4.(↑) This word is to indicate that the irony of the previous sentences is dropped at this point: a change in the tone of voice would show this in the spoken Latin.
5. * Literally "promise security" : i.e. undertake to appear in court, and give some sort of material guarantee - a deposit, or bail - that the undertaking will be fulfilled.
6.(↑) However groundless the claim or charge, the victim, to avoid a long and costly journey, would pay Apronius to withdraw the summons against him.
7.(↑) That is, the rights of collecting these portions.
8.(↑) See II. i. § 130-154.
9.(↑) See II. ii. § 101.
10.(↑) See II. i. § 150 "nunc ne argumentemur . . ."
11.(↑) Literally, "the actual classes of his outrages" : this is, however, done by giving characteristic instances of each class.
12.(↑) Or perhaps ''before the facts of the case had been plainly stated" (let alone the establishment of Nympho's guilt). Cicero tacitly admits, in any case, that Nympho had not made the prescribed return.
13.(↑) i.e. if the court should find him guilty.
14.(↑) The Sicilian 'medimnus' was about 1¼ bushels, and the 'iugerum' about ⅔ of an acre: the demand was therefore even more outrageous than the English rendering would suggest.
15.(↑) Probably a magistrate could, by law or custom, only try accused persons when sitting on his tribunal (Long).
16.(↑) Presumably the enrichment of Verres. If we read casus for causa, translate "Still, since things happened as they did, . . ."
17.(↑) No doubt this is the case mentioned in the Actio Prima, § 38.
18.(↑) Presumably from Rome.
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