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8/16/2019 Cicero - Against Verres, 2.1.53-86 (OpenBook, 2011)
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CICERO
G INST
VERRES
2.1.53-86
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Cicero gainst Verres 2.1.53-86:
Latin Text with
Introduction
Study
Questions Commentary and English
Translation
Ingo
Gildenhard
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ublishers
Open Book Publishers CIC Ltd.,
40 Devon
s
hire Road, Cambridge,
CB1 2BL, United
Kingdom
http://www.openbookpubli
s
her
s.com
2011
Ingo
Gildenhard
Some rights are reserve
d. This
book
is
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Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Work
s 2.0 UK:
England Wales
License.
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se allows
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tated.
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trictions are available
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her
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ISBN Hardback: 978-1-906924-54-6
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pdf): 978-1-906924-55-3
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Cover Image: Statue of Cicero at
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stice in
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ontents
age
Acknowledgement
s
Vll
Preface
lX
Introduction
1
Latin
Text and
Study
Questions
2
Commentary
55
List
of Abbreviations 67
List
of
Rhetorical
Term
s
69
Tran
s
lation 75
Appendix
I
ss
ues for
Further
iscu
ss
ion
89
Map of
Italy
and the Greek East 93
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Acknowledgements
I am
very
grateful to the friends
and
colleagues who provided
comments
and feedback
during
my
work
on
thi
s volume, notably Benjamin
Biesinger, Wolfgang
Havener, Ted
Kaizer,
Myle
s
Lavan, who
also
generously
s
hared
forthcoming work of his own, Mathew Owen,
and
Rik Van Wijlick. Closer to home, I would like to acknowledge
the help
of
Norbert Gildenhard who read through an early
draft
,
offering
comments
and corrections
page by page,
and
Paola Ceccarelli who
volunteered
to design the
map.
I had hoped to
include
a reprint of Catherine Steel s
superb analysis
of the Lampsac
us
episode ( Being
Economical
with the
Truth: What Really Happened at
Lampsacu
s? , in J Powell and J Paterson
(eds.), Cicero the Advocate
Oxford:
Oxford
University Press, 233-51
in
th i
s volume; unfortunately, problems to
do with copyright
interfered,
but
I am neverthele
ss
very grateful for
her per
sonal agreement
and
support.
Alessandra Tosi and
Corin Throsby
at
Open
Book Publis
her
s
have
simply
been wonderful in
accommodating thi
s rather unus
ual
project as well as
its urgent time frame. I also benefited much from the speedy endorsement
and
feedback offered
by
the two anonymous
ref
erees.
As
previous
work, this volume profited
considerably from the library resource
s of
the
Philologische
Seminar of
Tiibingen
Univer
sity, and I
am
once
again
extremely grateful to Professo r Maennlein-Robert for offering hospitality.
My most
significant
debt
is
to three PhD students
in
the Department
of
Classics Ancient His
tory at Durham
University. Zara Chadha,
Louise
Hodgso
n, and
Lauren Knifton generously volunteered to read through
the penultimate
draft
, provided
invaluable
annotations, and agreed
to join
in
a
serie
s
of workshops
(
having fun with
Cicero )
devoted
to
discu
ss
ing issues to do with the volume large
and small.
Their eagle
eyes
spotted
more embarrassing
mistal
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...
Cicero gainst Verres 2.1.53- 86lll
their good sen se and sensibility
vas
tly improved the final product Their
critical
engagement
with
the commentary
and ability
to improve upon
my
own reading of
Cicero
exemplify
my notion
of
this
vo
lume s
id
eal
reader It is thus a particular pleasure
to
de
dicat
e th is book
to
them and
th
e
ir
s
pirit of int
e
llectual camaraderie
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reface
This little vol
um
e has its origins
in
a coincidence. I
had
just finished writing
Creative Eloquence: The onstruction o Reality in Cicero s Speeches (Oxford, 2011),
w hich involved some close analysis of Cicero s orations against Verres,
when
I
wa
s as
ked
to
give
a lecture on how
be
st to teach a new set-
text
that
the Examination Board
of Oxford
,
Cambridge
, and
the
Royal Society of
Arts (OCR) has specified for their A-Level
Latin
exam
ination for the ye ars
2012-2014.
The pass
age
in
question, in
Verrem
2.1.53-69,
consists of some
paragraphs on Verres looting of artworks from Greek cities in Asia Minor
during
hi
s l
ega
teship
und
er Dolabella
(§§ 53-62)
and
of about
a third
of
the infamous
episode
at Lampsacus. Paragraphs 63
-
69 contain
an
account
of w
hat
happened
when
Verres visited
the
Greek city. According to Cice
ro
,
he
tried to abduct
and
rape
the
daughter of the local notable Philodamus,
which resulted in
th
e death of one of his lictors and broug
ht
the inhabitants
of the town to the brink of rioting. Paragraphs
70--86
deal with
th
e aftermath
of the sordid affair,
includin
g the trial and public execution of
Philodamu
s
and his son
in
what Cice
ro portra
ys as a blatant miscarriage of justice
des
ign
ed
to
cover
up
Verre
s
c
rim
es.
Part
of th
e brief
was
to talk a
bout th
e resources available for teaching
th
e
text. These
turned
out to be
rather
less spectacular
than
the c
ho
sen passage.
There is,
of cour
s
e
T. N. Mitchell s s
uperb
Aris Phillips edition w
ith
tran
slation and commentary of Verrines II.1 (London, 1986),
which
remains
an invaluable port of call for anyone work
ing
on, or teaching, (portions of) the
speech.
Yet
one of the main
purpo
ses of the
edi
tion is to render the oration
accessible to students wi
th
out Latin, and thus the commentary, w
hich
is
keyed
to
th
e
tran
s
lati
on, focuses
on
hi
storical co
nt
ext
rath
er
than
d
eta
ils
of lang
uage
and style (even
though
Mitchell s explication of
the
rhetorical
texture is
uniforml
y excellent). And
other
than
that
, one
pretty
much draws
a
blank
, at least
in
term s of co
mm
e
ntari
es. I th
ere
for e decided
to
w ri te
up
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x Cicero Against Verres 2.1.53 86
my own set of notes,
drawing
on
the work
done for Creative Eloquence.
Feedback
from the
Latin
teachers to whom I had the
chance
to circulate a
draft
version
in June was sufficiently encouraging to explore
the
possibility
of
making
the material more generally available, not least since it seemed
an excellent
opportunity to
link
re
sea
rch
and
outreach.
For the
commentary, it
seemed inadvisable
to
follow
OCR
in
their
understandable) decision
to
chop the Lamp
sac
us episode
in
half. Hence
the present volume includes Ver. 2.1.53-86 rather than
just
§§ 53-69.
And
while I have to agree
with one
of
the anonymous
referees that a full-scale
linguistic
commentary
on the entire speech
would have been very de
sirable,
exigencies of
timing
militated against including more.
For one thing
,
extending the coverage from
the
33 paragraphs
now
covered to
the
full
158 that
comprise
the oration
would
have rendered the exercise use
less
for
the current generation of Latin A-level students.
There
is
only
so much one
can
do in
the course of a summer.
At
the
same
time, A-level students
are
not the only
constituency I had in mind
when
designing th is volume. The
portion
of Cicero explicated here would al
so
seem to lend itself for study
in
other settings, such as
Latin
summer schools, undergraduate reading
courses
in
American or British universitie
s,
or postgraduate Latin
courses
at MA-level. I have
therefore
added content
meant
to widen the
appeal,
even
though not
all of it will seem immediately rele
va
nt to all
user
s.
The
edition now tries to cater to students as well
as
their teachers, to dedicated
students of Latin as well as to
language
learners (s
uch
as
ancient
historians
at po
stgraduate level) who study
Latin
perhaps not so much for its own
sake but as a
research
tool.
All users, however, should be able to relate to the primary
mi
ss
ion
of
the commentary:
it
is to render Cicero s text intelligible and reso
nant
with
m eaning and thereby to enhance appreciation and enjoyment of the chosen
pa
ssage as a fascinating historical
document
and a s
uperb
specimen of
rhetorical artistry.
The
commentary offers help in
three
areas in particular.
First, while a basic grasp of Latin grammar and syntax is presupposed, the
notes explicate more unusual grammatical
phenomena
as well as difficult
syntax
and
sentence construction. Secondly, the commentary pays careful
attention to the craftsmanship of Cicero s text, not
lea
st in showing how his
rhetorical
de
s
ign
interacts
with,
and
reinforces,
hi
s
arguments
and
theme
s
And thirdly,
the edition
tries to situate Cicero s prose within
wider
contextual
and historical frames, such as the courtroom
setting
and Rome s system of
imperial exploitation.
The
principle that
informs the
commentary is simple:
the more one sees in his
text
, the
more
enjoyable,
indeed
exciting, reading
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Preface
•
l
Cicero becomes. A
nd
he merits re-r
eading:
it took som e time, for
in
s
tan
ce,
for the penny to drop that the eight connectives Cicero uses
in
the massive
se
nt
ence
in
§ 82 produce a pleasing s
ymm
e
tr i
c
al
p a
tt
e
rn
.
1
Th
e example is a
good illustration of
th
e c
ar
e Cicero took o
ver th
e
mo
st insi
gn
ificant detail,
easily overlooked: his verbal craftsm anship is simply extraor
din
ary,
and
I am
sure the text under discu
ss
ion hides many m ore delights
than
I mana
ge
d to
spot: I encoura
ge eve
ry student to ponder, discover, and enjoy.
n an atte
mpt
to render th is edition as useful as possible to as many
different e
nd
-users as p ossible, I have included the following features:
(a)
Introduction:
exce
ll
e
nt
acco
unt
s of
th
e w
id
er
hi
stori
ca
l
ba
ckgro
und
and the l
eg
al c
ir
c
um
s
tan
ces of Cicero s prosec
uti
on of Verres exist
in
abundance (
and
are c
it
ed in
th
e
introdu
ction .
t
neve
rth
eless
seemed u
se
ful to
includ
e a rudime
nt
ary s
ur
vey of s
om
e basic
facts
and
figures,
and
brief indications of k
ey
i
ss
ues
and
them es
to help
or
ie
nt tho
se who are new to Cicero and
hi
s speech es. The
introdu
ction
th
ere fo re p rovides br ief biogra
phi
cal sketches of Cicero
and
Ve
rr
es, offers information on
th
e trial, s
itu
ates
th
e p assage
und
er c
on
s
id
eration w
ithin
th
e
Verrines
as a w hole, di
sc
usses
so
m e
imp
ortant asp ects of Cicero s o ratory
and
relates the text in
qu
estion
to developments
in
late re
publi
c
an
history and c
ultur
e. In all, it is
m
ea
nt to p ro vide
qui
ck
and
easy access to
so
m e basic contextual
information, w
ith
references to
wo
rks of seco
nd
ary li tera
tu
re for
th
ose who wish to
pur
su e a specific aspect
furth
er.
(b) The Latin text: the Latin text of Cicero s
Verrines
is available online in
various formats. The text printed here is taken from The La
tin
Library
(
www.th
elatinlibrary.com/cicero/verres.2.l .shtml), w
ith
s
om
e
mino
r
changes and corrections, mainly of a typographical na
tu re.
I h ave
cons
ult
ed the a
pparatu
s of the standard critical edition (W. Peterson s
Oxford Classical Text ,
but
discuss variants only occasionally. Even these
rare
in
s
tan
ces might be cons
id
ered too much for
an
edition such as
this, which is primarily addressed to students still in the process of
learning the language. But even at this stage, an occasio
nal
reminder
that
an
y classic
al
text
we
n
owad
ays re
ad
is not
an
autograph,
but
the
res
ult
of
tran
s
mi
ssion
and
e
dit
orial constitution, seemed
appr
o
pr i
ate.
From the point of view of transmission, at any rate, the chosen
pa
ssage
1.
atque, et, et, e
t
-que, -que, -que,
atqu
e.
See f
ur
ther below,
p
159.
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xii Cicero Against
Verres
2.1.53- 86
is fairly
unpr
oble
mati
c. t is wo
rth
me
nti
oning, too, that
th
e text of
Cicero's
Verrines
is freely available on the website of
th
e Perseus Project
(http://www.perseus.
tuft
s.e
du
/), w
hi
ch offers the
Oxford
Classical
Text
e
dition
w
ith
critical a
pparatu
s
and
hyperlinks
of
each w
or
d to
th
e
Lewis Short Latin Dictionary.
I
imagin
e
th
at
man
y s
tud
e
nt
s will want
to r
ea
d
th
e text o
nlin
e
in
th i
s fo
rmat
, pe
rh
aps w
ith th
e co
mm
e
ntary
op ened in a separate w
indo
w (or in hardcopy on th e desk).
(c)
Study questions far grammar and syntax, style and theme:
each par
ag raph
of
th
e
Latin
text is followed by som e s
tud
y ques
tion
s designed
to
draw
atte
nti
on to fea
tu
res
in th
e p
assage th
at are either difficult or
interes
tin
g o r both). Th
ey
are meant as gateways in to the passage.
The distinction bet
wee
n grammar and syntax' and style and
th
em e
is of course som ewh at artificial, but seem ed n
eve
rtheless wo rth
m a
kin
g for didactic reasons,
eve
n
th
ou gh some of
th
e
qu
estions
deliberately
tr
y to
blur th
e
bound
ary.
Answe
rs to
th
e
qu
estions c
an
us
uall
y be fo
und
e
mb
e
dd
ed
in
th
e co
mm
e
ntar
y
(th
ough
they
are
not ex
pli
citly
mark
ed
up
as su ch
).
(
d) Help with grammar and syntax:
I assume that users of th is edition,
w ho
ar
e still
in
th
e
pro
cess
of
ac
quirin
g facility w
ith
th
e t
ec
hni
cal
terminology of
Latin
grammar and syntax, will h ave access to a
Latin grammar, su ch as J
ames Mo
rwood's excellent Latin Grammar
(
Ox
ford 1999), which is a m odel of con cision and clarity and is as
accessible as
it
is affordable.
2
t includes a Gl
oss
ary o f Grammatical
Terms on pages ix-xv, and I h ave tr ied to abide b y his terminology.
I
am aware th
at
diff
ere
nt
systems of gra
mm
atic
al
nom encla
tur
e exist,
but, despite
th
e suggestion of one
of th
e referees, fe
lt th
at multiple
labe
llin
g of
ph
en om ena (su ch as
e
th i
c
dative
or
th
e 'p o
li t
e d ati
ve
or - the way I learned
it
-
th
e
dativus ethicus
would add a lot of
clutt
er
for fairly limited returns. I have therefore only supplied alternative
terminology occasionally, w hen
it see
m ed especially
appr
o
pri
ate for
one reason or another.
(e) Technical terms for figures o speech: fig
ur
es of speech (*anaphora,
*chia
s
mu
s, *pl
eo
n asm, etc.) are prefaced by a sta r *)
in th
e co
mm
entary
2.
A
note
of
cautio
n:
not
every
gr
ammatical
and
sy
ntactical f
eatu
re
in the set passage
f
inds
explication in
Morwood.
When it comes to
the use of
t
he
subjun ctive in rel
ative
clauses,
for
example, he
covers
the
t
wo most
f
reque
nt
types,
i.e.
exp
r
ession of pur
p
ose (under
Pu rpose clauses, p. 97)
an
d the generic
or
consecutive use
(under
Result Clauses,
p
p.
100
-1
),
but has no
th i
ng
on the - ad mitted ly less frequent - use of
th
e subjunctive in a
re
lative clause to
convey
a
causal
or concessive sense.
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reface
...
xm
and briefly glossed
in the
List of Rhetorical
Term
s on p. 169. Apart
from enabling students to acquire familiarity and ease
with
a range of
rhetorical fig
ure
s,
the
star-system is al
so de
s
igned
to
draw
attention
to recurrent f
eatur
es of Cicero s style and could be used to raise
qu
estions to do with aesthetic value. Readers may wish to ponder,
for instance, whether Cicero s use of *alliteration in the
pa
ssage
is
excessive , a sign of his youthful exuberance, to be scaled back in his
more mature writing.
3
Enhanced awarene
ss
of figures of speech is a
significant s
ide
benefit of studying Latin
and
of a classical education
more
generally;
but
the identification of rhetorical features can eas
ily
turn into a
mechanical
exercise (along the lines of
give
m e three
tricola and a climax, please ). To
draw
attention to
the
risk of turning
the hunt for rhetorical figures into
an
end in itse
lf
and to highlight
the powerful presence of cla
ss
icizing rhetoric in the wes
tern
cultural
tradition, I have chosen to illustrate
th
e terms in
th
e glossary
with
exa
mples drawn from
Shakespeare,
esp ecially the staging
of
the Pyramus-and-Thisbe episo de from
Ovid,
Metamorphoses 4,
towards the
end of
A Midsummer Night s Dream. The
passage
is
arguably the greatest
s
poof
of
rhetorical
ornamentation ever written,
full of frivolous fun with fig
ur
es and
forms,
not least excessive
*alliteration and a
brilliant
reductio ad absurdum of classical rhetoric.
A compare
-a
nd-contrast exercise on the (effective) use of
figur
es in
Cicero
and
Shakespeare s
hould
produce
inter
es
ting
res
ult
s.
(f) References
to
secondary literature:
in the introduction
and throughout
the commentary I have included, in footnotes, a very selec
tiv
e - but,
I
hop
e, judicious - s
ampl
e of som e
of th
e best
sc
holarly literature
available on
th
e
variou
s
them
es
menti
oned
in
or
raised
by
th
e
pa
ssage
from Cicero considered here. The reasons behind this practice, which
is unusual for a commentary keyed to language
learner
s, are various.
So
me
i
ss
ues
ma
y capture the
imagination
of readers who want to
pur
sue them further.
The
references offer
teach
ers the opportunity
to introduce ex
tra material
or
per
spectives according to personal
preference,
perhap
s via s
tud
ent reports.
And so
me of
the
language
students may
come
from sub-disciplines of cla
ss
ics s
uch
as ancient
hi
s
tor
y
where greater knowledge of the background gathered
by
following up
on
som e
of th
e secondary literature will
enhance
the
3. Cf. Hofman, J B., Szantyr, A. (1965), Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik vol. 2 Munich, 701.
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xiv Cicero Against Verres 2.1.53
86
inh
ere
nt
in terest of
th
e Latin text. E
ve
n for th
ose
users w ho do not f
ee
l
th
e n eed
or
desire to c
ha
se up any of
th
e
it
ems m e
nti
oned,
th
e
pr
esence
of references m ay be of benefit: it serves as a u
se
ful reminder that a
mountain
of
scholars
hip
exists, h as accumulated over centuries and
is g r
owin
g
on
a daily
ba
sis.
Thi
s mountain does
not
obstru ct ou r view
of
th
e ancie
nt
world, but ena
bl
es
it
, even if
th
e vi
ew
from
th
e top and
more gra
duall
y
from
any of
th
e lower foothills is constantly changing.
While
mo
st of
th
e referen ces are to secondary litera
tur
e
in En
glish,
I
ha
ve n ot shied
away from
titles
in va
rious
Eur
ope
an
la
ngua
ges,
partl
y to acknowled
ge int
elle
ctual
debts and p a
rt l
y to
und
erscore
th
e
point that classics is, a
nd
h as always been, an international ente
rpri
se.
An
y su ch material, h
oweve
r, has been confined to the footnotes. I cite
all
it
ems in full on
th
e spot (sacrific
in
g economy and el
ega
nce in
pr
ese
ntati
on to c
onveni
ence of u se) w ith fo
ur
exce
ption
s: r
ec
urr
e
nt
references to G
ild
e
nhard
(2011), Mitchell (1986), Mor
woo
d (1999),
a
nd
St
ee
l 2004) are
pr
ese
nt
ed
in th
e H arv
ard sys
tem of
auth
or s
nam
e year of
publi
cation. Full details are included in the List of
Abbreviation
s on p age 167.
(g)
Translation:
I
ha
ve decided to
includ
e m y own
tran
slation of
th
e
p assage.
t
is soleiy m eant as an aid to understanding
th
e original
and stays as close to
th
e Latin as p
oss
ibl
e.
As such,
it
h as no literary
value. Put differentl
y,
m em orizing
this
ve rsion for
th
e
exa
m
wo
n t
e
arn
students any style-p oints.
(h) Map:
th
e edition
includ
es a
map
of
th
e geog
raphi
cal
nam
es
mention ed
in
th
e co
mm
e
ntary.
The
hard
c
op
y is a sn apshot
of
a m ap
designed w ith the help
of
C
oo
gle Earth.
Th
e (in te
ra
ctive) 3D ve rsion
of
th
e
map
is available
und
er
Ex
t
ra
R
eso
ur
ces on
th
e book s
we
bs
it
e
at
Open Book
Publi
sh ers.
(i)
Appendix
issues for
further
discussion: finall
y,
I h
ave
included an
a
pp
endix
th
at fl
ags
up som e big them es and op en-ended questions
raise d by the t
ex
t. They le
nd th
emselves for debate and
gr
oup
di
scu ssion and sho
uld
h elp to
re
late
th
e detailed
wor
k on
th
e
p assage to w
id
er
fram
es of referen ce.
For
an
y on e
rea
der
th
e edition m
ay includ
e information
th
at m
ay appea
r
e
ith
er t
oo
basic or too advanced. Less m ay perhaps have been more, but
in th
e end I decided to trust in
th
e ability of all u sers to screen o
ut
d ata
d
ee
m ed superfluous. Selecti
ve
re
adin
g for pe
rtin
e
nt inf
ormation i
s, in
any
case, an
in
creasingly important transferable skill .
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ntroduction
n
70 BC, w hen Gnaeus
Pomp
ei us
and
M arcus Licinius Crassus shared
th
e
cons
ul
ship for
th
e
fi rs
t
tim
e, Rome's ris
in
g star
in ora
tor
y
Marcus Tullius
Cicero, su ccessfully p rosec
ut
ed Ga
iu
s V
erres
on
th
e ch
arge
of misconduct,
especially
ex
to
rt i
on,
durin
g
hi
s te
rm
as
govern
or of Sicily
(73-7
1 BC). Cicero
wo
n
th
e case
again
st
major
resis
tan
ce. Verr
es po
ckets were sufficient y
deep for an extensive camp aign of bribery. In Quintus Caecilius Mete
llu
s
Pius Scipio N asica,
Lu
c
iu
s Cornelius Sise
nn
a and Quintus Ho
rt
ens
iu
s
Horta
lu
s,
th
e consul design ate fo r 69 and a formidable public sp eaker,
Ve rres
man
aged to recruit a
gro
up of defence ad vocates brimming w ith
n obility
and tal
e
nt
. Not
th
e l
eas
t of
th
e
ir
skills
was
th
e ability to
think
up pr
oce
dur
al she
naniga
ns to derail or at l
eas
t
de
l
ay
th
e trial
until
th
e
following year. These included the no
min
ation
of Ve
rres fo
rm
er quaestor
Quintus Caecilius Niger as a
riv
al p rosecutor, w hich meant that Cicero had
to
ar
gue for
th
e rig
ht
to bring Ve rres to
ju
stice
in
a
pr
eliminary h e
arin
g (he
obviously won) . O
th
er powerful s
upp
orters chipped
in
by emba
rkin
g upon
strat
eg
ic intimidation of
th
e Sicilian w
itn
esses. None of this m a
tt
ered: at
th
e
ac
tual
trial, Cicero
triumph
ed res
oundin
gly by o
ut-
w
ittin
g, o
ut-p
rep
arin
g,
and o
ut-talkin
g
th
e o
ppos
ition.
Hi
s stunning su ccess helped to eclip
se
H
or
tensiu
s
reputation as Rom e's leading
ora
tor and esta
bli
sh Cicero as
th
e
'kin
g of
th
e co
urts ,
a m o
nik
er
pr
eviously
ow
ned by
hi
s ri
va
l.
After the co
nclu
sion of the pr
ocee
dings, Cicero publish ed
th
e
se
t of
speeches he had given
in th
e context of
pro
secuting Verres as well as th
ose
he h ad p rep ared f
or
delivery - 'p
re
pared f
or
delivery becau
se
the case
ca
m e to a p
re
m a
tu
re end bef
ore th
e sp
eec
hes co
uld
be deli
vere
d. Soon
after
th
e first h
earin
g
actio prima),
Ve
rr
es w
ithdr
ew int
o vo
lunt
ary exile;
he was fo
und
g
uilt
y in absentia without
th
e need for a second hea
rin
g
actio secunda). The so-called Verrine Orations thus comprise
th
e Divinatio
in Caecilium
('
Pr
eliminary hea
rin
g against
Cae
ciliu
s
), w
hi
ch won
him th
e
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2
Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53-86
right to act as prosecutor of Verres; the decisive
speec
h he gave during the
first hearing (in Verrem 1); and
the
material Cicero prepared for the second
hearing
, repackaged into five
undeli
ve
red
orations
(in Verrem
2.1-5).
4
The
di
ssemination
of this
corpus
of speeches constituted
an unprec
ede
nted
enterprise,
the largest single publication of [his]
entire
career, if
not
the
biggest such
undertaking
in the first
century
B.C.
5
Cicero s rationale for
publishing the speeches against Verres in written form was most likely
complex
and
will have involved his desire to
consolidate
his standing as
an orator and
the wish
to
broadca
st the
enormous amount
of
work
he had
put into
the
trial.
The orations
are brilliant models of
eloquence
(as well as spin)
by
arguably the supreme prose stylist
ever
to write in Latin.
The
Verrines are
full of magnificent pass
age
s
that
illustrate Cicero at
hi
s best: as a s
uperb
raconteur who generates a
gripping
s
tor
y out of precious few facts; as
a h eavy-hitting
cross-examiner
who
lay
s into his
adversaries
with a
remor
sele
ss
flurry of rhetorical questions; as a master in the projection or
portrayal of
character
(so-called
ethos
or ethopoiea) and the manipulation of
emotions
(so-called pathos);
and,
not
lea
st, as a creative individual
gifted
with an
impi
sh
imagination
who
know
s
how
to
entertain. The
pa
ssage
under
discussion
here is no exception.
t
covers a series
of
lurid
incident
s
from an early s
tage
of Verres career,
which,
so Cicero
argues,
all originated
in the defendant s insatiable lust for two primary sources of
plea
sure: art
and
sex. First,
we
get a detailed account of
the
s
hameless
looting of artistic
trea
sures Verres committed as
legate
in the Greek East in the late 80s BC.
This is followed by an account of the infamous episo de at Lampsacus,
which revolves around an unsuccessful attempt
to
abduct and
rap
e a local
woman
that resulted
in
the death
of a
Roman
official,
provincial
s
pu
s
hed
to
the
brink of rioting,
and
judicial murder. Cicero s version of what
happened
at
Lampsacus is the
centrepiece of
the first oration he prepared for the
second
hearing (i.e. in Verrem 2.1) and affords a priv
ileged glimpse of
the
sor
did
underbelly of Roman imperialism- whatever degree of truth we are
willing
to
grant
to his s
pin
on the events.
4. I follow the p ractice
of
the Oxford Latin Dictionary in
referring
to the speeche
s, but
reference
sys
tems
va
r
y.
Some
cite
th
e five speech
es
d
es
ign
ed
for
th
e
seco
nd
act
io
as
V
e
r
l,
2
Ver 2 etc.
or u
se
a Roman numeral (Ver 11.1 11.2 etc.).
5. Settle, J N. (1962),
The publication
of
Ci
cero
s orations,
Diss. North
Carolina
, 83,
cited
by
Fraze , T D. (2004), The
Composition
and Circulation of Cicero's
In Verrem ,
Cla
ssic
al
Quarterly n.s. 54,
128-42
(133).
See
also Gurd, S. (2010),
'Verres and
the
Sce
ne
of
Rewriting',
Phoenix 64, 80-101.
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Introduction
3
This introduction
contains
some background material des
igned
to aid
in the understanding of the rhetorical and histo rical dimension of the
chosen pa
ssage.
Sec
tion
1 provides a
minimum
of biographical informat ion
on Cicero
and
Verres. Sec
tion
2
tak
es a look at
the circumstances
of
th
e
trial and situates
th
e chosen
pa
ssage within the
corpus
as a whole. Section 3
outlines the
main
m odes of persuasion in (ancient)
rhetoric
and
briefly
indicate
s how Cicero applies them
in
our passage. Section 4 explores so
me
pertinent
issues
in late republican histo ry. And Section 5 offers a s
hort
introduction to the
type
of law
court
in which Verres stood trial. Each
sec
tion
is s
uppo
sed to
give
easy access to
pertin
ent contextual information,
with a sprinkling of references to works of secondary literature for those
who wish to pursue a specific aspect further.
1
he
Protagonists: Cicero and Verres
The
Oxford
Classical
Dictionary
(3rd revised edition,
edited
by S. Hornblower
and
A. Spawforth, Oxford, 2003) offers good overviews
of the
lives
and
careers
of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Ve rres.
6
About
the former
we
know more
than about an
y
other per
so
n
from
antiquit
y
mainl
y
from
his
own
writings;
about th
e latter
we know
very little beyo
nd
what Cicero tells us
n
the
Verrines
Given
the lack
of
independent evidence, one
of th
e
greatest
challenges
in dealing
with
Cicero s orations against Verres is d oing Verres justice. This
ma
y sound perverse, but Cicero was an
absolute
genius when
it came
to the
tactical (mis-)representation of evidence.
Ind
eed, his talent for s
pin
was
only topped
by his ability to assassinate someone s character.
Helped
by
the
fact
that
ancient Rome had
no
s
lander
or libel laws, he verbally
tarred and
feathered
hi
s
adversaries
with
imaginative
gusto.
7
While
Cicero
took care
that
his recourse to personal abuse always aided the
aims
of his argument,
he
mu
st have made up many of what we
would consider
s
landerou
s or
libe
llou
s details that he hurled
at
his opponents, blurring
th
e boundary
6. B
ewa
re, though: l
ooking
for Cicero in
the
OCD und er Cicero will prove futile. He is
entered under his nomen gentile Tullius, Marcus Cicero See Morwood (1999) 149 for a
br
ief
introduc
tion to Roman names.
7.
On
Cicero and invective, see the papers in Booth, J (ed.) (2007), Cicero on the Attack:
Invective and Subversion in
the
Orations and Beyond
Swansea. For the problem
of
plau
sibility
in ab use,
see
Craig, C (2004),
Audience
Expectations, Invective,
and Proof ,
in
J
Powell
and J Paterson (eds.), Cicero the Advocate Oxford, 187-213. Mo re general studies
include
Corbeill, A. (1996), Controlling Laughter: Political Humor in the Late Roman Republic
Princeton
and
Edwards, C (1993), The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome Cambridge.
Both monographs
are
excellent pieces of scholars
hip
as
we
ll as highly
enter
t
aining
reads.
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4 Cicero Against Verres, 2 .1.53- 86
between fact and fiction, hard data and rhetorical invention. It is therefore
unwise to
take anythin
g he says
ab
out
th
e character of
an
y
of hi
s see
min
gly
socio
pathi
c villains
at
face v
alu
e -
includin
g Ve
rr
es.
In
the context
of
the
Verrines ,
the
opp
o
rtunit
y
of in
ve
ntin
g
hi
s
fa
cts was
particul
arly availa
bl
e
when Cice
ro
covered
th
e early stages of Verres c
ar
eer, which h e did in in
Verrem 2.1.
Thi
s is not to s ay
th
at Ve rres was a p articularly delightful
human
being .
The son of a first-generation senator, h e did
we
ll for himself in the turbulent
ye
ar
s of
th
e civil w
ar
bet
wee
n
Mariu
s and S
ulla
a
nd
afterwards as a minor
m
ag
is
tr
ate in
th
e (w ild) East during the p eriod
th
at saw Rome s
pr
otr acted
struggle w ith King Mithrad ates of
Pontu
s, not least by showing a fin e
sense of
jud
ge
m ent when best to doublecross his superiors. His service as
qua
es
tor und
er the cons
ul
Gnaeus Papirius Carbo c
am
e to an
abrupt
and
disgraceful e
nd
wh en h e scarpered with the public m oney entrusted to
him
(some h a
lf
million sesterces) to Carbo s enem y S
ull
a.
8
And
a couple of
years later he repaid
th
e support he had enjoyed as legate under Gnaeus
Dolabella in Cilicia by
acting
as prime w itne
ss
in
th
e extortion trial
th
at
Dolabella faced upon
hi
s return to Rom
e.
9
C
omplaint
s about his
abuse
of p
owe
r d
ogge
d
hi
s
gove
rn
ors
hip
in
Sicily
throu
gh o
ut
hi
s te
rm
in
o
ffi
ce,
even n ecessit ating the (futile) intervention of a consul
in
72 BC. But Cice
ro
put
an
e
nd
to Ve rres cr
im
es
an
d his career: after the
tr i
al, Verres remained
in exile
until
his death in 43 BC.
f
Ve rr
es advanced
hi
s career b y m e
an
s of
hi
s strategic
tr
eacher
y
Cicero,
the s
on
of a
kni
ght (equ
es
) and hence a so-called n
ew
man (homo no
vu
s),
that is,
so
m eone w ithout
se
natorial an ces tors in the fa
mil
y
in
vested in a
s
up
e
rb
edu
ca
tion as a m eans of
ge
tting
ah
ead .
10
He w as under no
illu
sion:
batt lefie
ld
su ccess
wa
s
th
e
pri
vil
ege
d
path
way to glory at Rome
and
Cicero
did
hi
s best t o accumulate military accolades wh en
th
e occas
ion pr
ese
nt
ed
it
se
lf - as it did during
hi
s stint as
pr
o-consul in Cilic
ia
in 51, the s
am
e
province in which Ve rres se r
ve
d as legate
thirt
y
yea
rs previously. On the
basis of some
mino
r military victories, he
un
successfully petitioned his
8.
See be
low § 77.
9. See again bel
ow§
77.
10. Wi
se
ma
n,
T.
P.
(1971),
New en in
the R oman Senate,
O
xf
o
rd;
G
ild
e
nhard,
I
(2011),
Creative Eloquence: The Construction of Reality in Cicero s Speeches, O xfo
rd
, 50-58, w hich
includes a d iscuss ion of how Cicero p
os
itions h ims
elf
v is-a-vis the es tablished ruling
e
li t
e in the Ven ines . A good accoun t of ed ucational practices in the late Roman republic
can be fo
und
in
Corb
eill, A. (2002), R
he t
orical
Ed
ucation in
Cicero
s You th , in
J M. May
(
ed
.),
Brill s Companion
to
Cicero: Oratory and Rhetoric,
L
eiden
, Bos ton, Co logne, 2
3-48
.
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Introduction 5
senatorial peers for the right to celebrate a
triumph.
In the main,
however
,
Cicero built his career,
and
even more
so
his legacy on s
upreme
ability
in
the realm
s of language, literature,
and
thought.
He
was
the be
st
orator
Rome produced, authored
a large
number
of
rhetorical and
philo
so
phical
works,
and
also distinguished himself as a poet (though few of his verses
have survived). n the law courts, he saw his role
mainly
as an advocate for
the oppressed. Even in
the case
against
Verres, where he
acted
as prosecutor,
he stressed that he
entered
into
the
fray as an advocate of
the
Sicilians.
Overall, the careers of Cicero and Verres s
hare
a series of
coincidental
parallel
s that
are
fun to ponder. In the
years before
their showdown in
70 BC, each of the two men s
pent
time
in
the Greek East and
in
Sicily.
Some years after his consulship in 63
BC
, Cicero suffered the
same
fate as Verres:
vo
luntary exile. And
several ancient authors
comment
on the remarkable irony that Cicero and Verres died in the
sa
me year,
pro
scr
ibed by
th
e same m n
th
e former for his tongu e, the latter for hi s
art
collection.U A
bar
e skeleton of their respective careers in the
form
of
a table
would
lo ok so m ething like this:
Year Verres
Cicero
c.115 BC born
106
born
90
-
88
Military Service
84
Service as quaestor under the
consul
Cn. Papiriu s Carbo
Continuing service probably
83
as
pro-quaestor; desertion
to
Sulla
81
F
irst surviving
public speech
pro Quinctio)
Service as
legatus, then
also
80
as pro-quaestor
under
Cn.
Dolabella, proconsul in Cilicia
continued)
11. See Pliny the Elder, N tur l History 34.6; Seneca the Elder, Suasori e 6.24 (citing a brilliant
passage from As inius Pollio s history, in which the Caesar ian contrasts the brave death
of Verres with the
pitiable
death of Cicero, in
th
e
context
of an ingeniously
malicious
appraisal
of
Cicero s character overall); and Lactantius,
Divine Ins
ti
tu
tes 2.4.37.
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6
Cicero
Against
Verr es
2.1.53-
86
continued)
ear Verres Cicero
79-77
Rh
etorical a
nd
philosophical
studies in Rhodes and Athens
Trial and conviction of
78
Dol
abe
lla for e
xt
ortion; Ve
rr
es
acting as main
wi
tness for
th
e
pr
osecution
75 Qua
est
or in
Sicily
74
Urban
Pr
aetor
73
-
71
Gove
rn
a
nc
e of Sicily as
pr
o-pr
ae
tor
70 Trial and
vo
luntary
ex
ile
Pr
osec
uti
on of Verres
69
Aedile
66
Praetor
63 Consul
Pushed in to exile on account
58 of the execution of the
Catilinarian
s (till
57
51 Pro-consu l in
Ci
licia
43
Proscription by Mark Antony; Proscription by Mark Antony;
d eath d eath
2.
The
Trial of Verres and Cicero s Set of
peeches
against Verres
2.1 The
run-up
12
When
th
e Sicilians turned to Rome for help
again
st the plundering and
extortion perpetrated by Verres, Cicero
was
a
natural
po
int of
contact: he
12. For issues of chronology, see
Ma
rinone, N. (1950), Quaestiones Verrinae T
urin
; and (1977),
Cronologia
Ciceroniana,
Rome, 65- 7. Many more deta iled accou
nt
s of the circumstances
of the trial exist than the bare-bone coverage
prov
ided here. T
wo
of the best are
Berry,
D. H. (2006), Cicero.
Political
Speeches:
A New Translation, Oxford, 3-
12, and
Lintott,A
(2008), Cicero
and
the C
itad
el of the Allie
s ,
in
Cicero
as Evidence: A Historian s Companion,
Oxford, 81-100.
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Introduction 7
had been quaestor in Sicily
only
a few years earlier, knew the
province
well,
had close ties with various
leading
locals, and saw himself as
their
patron.
13
He
agreed to act as
the
Sicilians legal represe
ntati
ve,
in
what s
haped up
as a
case for
one of
Rome
s s
tanding
courts ,
th
e so-called
quaestio de repetundis.
14
Because Roman officials enjoyed immunity from prosecution during
their
time
in office, the trial could
not
start before Verres period as pro-magistrate
finished at the end of 71 BC. His return to the s
tatu
s of
privatus
( an individual
not
holding public office ) set in motion the following procedural steps:
postulatio c.
10
January
70):
in early January
of 70, Cicero
applied
to
the
praetor
pre
s
iding over the
extortion
court,
Manlius Acilius Glabrio, for
p e
rmi
ss
ion
to
pro
sec
ut
e V
erres
(pos
tu
latio
.
divinatio c. 20 January 70): no
doubt
at the
in
s
tigation
of Verres or his
advocate
Hort
ens
iu
s Verres
quae
s
tor Q.
Caecilius
Niger
al
so applied
for the
leave
to prosecute; such rival requests entailed the
need
for a
so-called divinatio, which consisted of a hearing before a jury
pre
sided
over
by
the praetor
at
which
th
e rival parties staked
th
eir
claim
s. Cicero
triumphed with the (surviving) speech Divinatio in Caecilium,
in
which
he showed that his adver
sa
ry
was
just
not
up to the task.
nominis delatio and nominis receptio
(c. 20
Januar
y 70 or s
oon
thereafter):
after
hi
s
victory over
Caeciliu
s,
Cicero submitted a formal charge
(nominis delatio),
which was
accepted
by the prae
tor
(nominis receptio .
inquisitio:
to
pr
epare
hi
s case, Cicero asked for,
and was
granted, 110
days, during
which
he travelled to Sicily to secure witnesses and
documentation.
Tim
e was prec
iou
s:
he was aware of the fact
that
th
e
defence
wanted
to de
la
y
th
e trial
until th
e following year. At various
place
s
in
the
Verrines,
he
boasts
about the
sp
ee
d
with
which
he
mar
s
halled
evidence. Thus he calls the period he requested for gathering evidence
as tonis
hingly
brief
(Ver.
1.6:
dies pere
xigu
).
About sixty of
the
110
day
s
h e had available, he spent on a trip to Sicily, priding
himself
on the
speed of his return (Ver. 2.1.16: ce leritas reditionis .
2.2
The
trial
After the selection of the jury in
th
e second
half
of
Jul
y, the trial
began
on
5
August.
As already mentioned, Verres and
hi
s supporters tried to
pr
olong
13. Brunt, P. A (1980),
Pa
tronage and Politics in the Verrines , Chiron 10, 273-89.
14. See below Section
5:
The Roman extortion co
ur t
.
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8 Cicero Against
Verres
2.1.53- 86
the trial
until
the foll
ow
ing year. In 69, Ho
rt
ens
iu
s, on e of
hi
s
ad
vocates,
and Q. Caecilius Metellus Creticus, one of his main frie
nd
s a
nd
supporters,
wo
uld have been cons
ul
s, and M. Caecilius
Me
tellus (a
broth
er of the
aforem enti
oned
Me
te
llu
s) would have
pr
es
id
ed over the ex tortion cou rt as
praeto r.
n
a society
th
at
pl
aced a p re
mium
on esteem for m agist
ra
tes,
thi
s
would h ave m eant a powe rful boost to
Ve rr
es
ca
use. Likewise, there was
the pr
os
p
ec
t of a more favourable jury
(th
at is, on e
mor
e liable to corruption)
since several of the chosen jury m embers were due to leave
Rom
e in 69 BC to
take up offi ces, ruling them
out
of ju ry duty.
15
At
on
e p oint, w hen it looked
as
i
the pl
oy
were to succeed, a third bro
th
er,
L. Cae
cilius
Me
tellus, who
h ad taken over the govern
ors
hip of Sicily from Verres as p
ro
-praetor, tried
to
intimid
ate the Sicilians against g
ivin
g tes
tim
on y ag
ain
st
Ve rr
es, b
oastin
g
so
m
ewhat pr
em aturely that
Ve
rr
es
acquittal w as ce
rtain
a
nd
that it was
in
the Sicilian
s
own
int
erest not to cau
se
diffic
ulti
es. As a counte
rmove
and
to accelerate proceedings, Cicero brok e w ith con ve
nti
ons in his opening
sp eech : instead of a lengthy
di
s
qui
sit ion
se
tting out all of the ch arges
(oratio perpetua), followed by a prolo
ng
ed h
ea
ring of supporting w itnesses,
he
qui
ckly and summarily s ketched out each of the ch arges and
pr
oduced
a
limit
ed
numb
er of s
upp
o
rtin
g w
itn
esses.
Ve rr
es
ad vocate Hortens
iu
s did n ot expect this devi
ation
from standard
p rocedure
an
d faced a difficult challenge. As M. Alexand
er
points out, he
was put
in
the invidious p osition of having to reply to ch arges that
had
not
been fully
ar
gu ed, a
nd
while [he]
pr
obably h ad a good
idea
of
th
e arg
um
ents
which Cicero would be m aking at the seco
nd
hearing, he would not ha
ve
wanted to give credence to
th
em by stating them
him
self,
an
d then trying
to refute
th
em . 1
6
In the
Orator,
a
rh
etorical
tr
eatise he w rote
in
46 BC, Cicero
seem s to
impl
y
th
at H o
rt
ens
iu
s never
gave
a fo
rmal
speech
in
re
pl
y
an
d o
nl
y
cross-examined some w itnesses during the first h e
arin
g (Orat. 129).
17
With
the actio prima completed on 13 August, the court adjourned for the Vo tive
Gam es that began on 16 Au gust (comperendinatio ).
t
never reconvened:
Verres consid
ere
d the case that Cicero p resented aga
in
st him dur
in
g the fi
rs
t
h
ear
ing so co
mp
elling
th
at he we
nt int
o vo
luntary
exile. The
actio secunda,
f
or
15. For details,
see
Marshall, A. J. (1967), Verres and Judicial Corruption ,
Classical Quarterly
17, 408- 13; McDer
mott,
W.
C. (1977),
Th
e Ver
rine
J
ur
y ,
Rheinisches
useum
120, 64-75.
16. Alexa nder, M. (1976), Ho rtensius Speech
in
Defense
of
Verres , Phoenix 30, 46-53 (52).
17. The
speech
of Ho
rt
ensius that
Qui
ntilian read (Institutio Oratoria 10.1.23) might have
been a mere literary composition o r the
one he
delive
red at the litis aestimatio, af ter
Verres condemnation in absence :
Bru
nt, P. A. (1980),
Patrona ge and
Politics
in the
Verrines , Chiron
10, 273-89 (280 n. 44).
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Introducti
on 9
which
Cicero had prepared a massive amount of material adding up to five
full s
peeche
s, never
took
place.
2.3
The
corpus of speeches
18
n the aftermath of the trial, Cicero not only publis
hed
the iv
inati
o in
Caecilium
and the
speech he gave during
the
actio
prima
(commonly
labelled
in
Verrem 1), but also
the
five sp eeches he
had
pre
par
ed for
th
e actio sec
unda
(in Verrem
2.1-5). In outline, we have the following corpus:
iv
inati
o in Caecilium [deliv
ere
d January 70 BC]
in Verrem
1
[delivered Augu
st 70 BC,
during the actio
prima
]
in
Verrem
2
[plann
ed for the
actio secunda,
but never delivered]
in Verrem
2.1: Verres youthandpubliccareerpriortohi
s governorship
of Sicily
in
Verrem 2.2: Sicil
y-
abuse of
judicial powe
r
in Verrem 2.3: Sic
ily-
extortion of taxes
in Verrem 2.4:
Sicily-
robbery of artworks
in
Verrem 2.5:
Sicily - Verres as magistrate with
imperium,
res
pon
sible
for public safety and endowed
with
the power to punish
Cicero only decided to
publish
a selection of
his
s
peeche
s.
19
The
fact
that he
circulated
all the speeches to do with the trial of Verres indicates his high
opinion of the set and his beliefin the
ir
value as documents ofself-promotion.
Scholars
have
debated, more or less inconclusively whether and, i f so, to
what degree Cicero revised speeches after delivery before circulating them
in written form. No clear
consensus ha
s emerged, not least since his practice
will
mo
st likely have differed from case to case,
ranging from
almost instant
relea
se w ith only minor adjustments to significant revision and publication
several years after
th
e original delivery.
20
The speeches that Cicero prepared
for the second hearing belong to those that he anyway ne ver gave, so
here
18. For an excellent account of the
co
rpus and its context, see Vasaly,
A.
(2002), Cicero s
Early Speeches ,
in J.
M.
May
(ed.),
Brill s Companion to Cicero: Oratory and Rhetoric,
Leiden, Boston, Co
logne, 71 - 111 (87-
10
3).
19.
For
th
ose
speeches
that
he dec
id
ed not to
disseminat
e in w
ritt
en form,
see
Cr
awford,
J.
W.
(1984),
M
Tullius
Cicero:
The Lost and Unpublished Orations, Go ttingen .
20. Excellent recent discussions include Berry, D.
H
(2004), The Publication of Cicero s Pro
Roscio Amerino , Mnemosyne 57, 80-87, Gurd, S. (2007),
C
icero and Editorial Revision ,
Classical Antiquity 26
,
49-80
, and Lintott, A. (2008),
Cicero
as
Evidence: A Historian s
Commentary, Oxford , 15-9.
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10 Cicero, Against Verres, 2 .1.53- 86
the question is
moot
. Still, it be
ar
s s
tr
ess
ing
that
in
the fo
rm
w e have
th
em
they are indis
tin
guishable from the w ritten versions of th
ose
sp eeches he
actually delive red. In all
of hi
s
publi
shed
oration
s, Cicero
maintain
s the
illusion that
the text is the record of a pe
rforman
ce. (Devices that sus
tain
th is illus
ion
include direct addresses to the audience, in p articul
ar th
e
defendant, me
mb
ers of
th
e ju ry or opposing
ad
vocates, orders to the cle
rk
to read out documents, and the use
of
deictic
pronoun
s su ch as iste that
suggest the
pr
esence of the person thus referred to.) t w ould have been
Cicero s practice in
an
y ca
se
to wo
rk
up extensive w ritten notes for a speech
before its oral delivery - which of course does not m ean
th
at he read from a
script in cour and h e m ost likely h ad his
contributi
on to the actio secunda
m ore or less ready to go by
th
e
tim
e the trial b
ega
n.
21
The first sp eech
in t
e
nd
ed for
th
e sec
ond
h
earing
(Ver. 2.1),
from
w
hi
ch
our
pa
ss a
ge
com es, co
ntain
s an exh austive discussion of Ve rres car
ee
r
before he took on the governorship of Sicily. In outline the speech breaks
d
ow
n in to the foll
ow
ing sections:
1-2
3:
Pr
eface
24-
3
1:
Ex
planation
wh y Cicero
didn
t
indict in
detail
durin
g
th
e
actio prima
32- 34: Blueprint of
th
e actio secunda
22
34--4
0:
Verres quaestorship
41- 102: Ve rr
es
stint as legate
and
pro-quaestor of Dolabella in Cilicia
41-61: Verres thefts of artwo
rk
s
62
-8
6
a:
The
Lamp
sacus e
pi
s
od
e
86
b-90:
The
th
eft at Miletus
90- 102:
Ve
rr
es
c
rim
es as a g
uardian
and pr
o-
qu
aestor
103- 58: Verres urban prae
tor
ship
103- 27: Abu
ses
of his judicial po
we
rs
128
-54
: Misco
nduct
as a s
up
ervisor of the mainten ance of
public buildin
gs
155- 58: His jury-tampering in other
tr i
als
21. See Frazel, T. (2004),
Th
e Composition and Circulation of Cic
er
o s In Verrem , Classic
al
Quarterly
n.s. 54, 128
-42
.
22. Cicero u
ses pra
ete
ri
tio to pa ss o
ver
Verres (singularly depraved) youth, limiting his
covera
ge
of Verres cr
ime
s to the four p eriods
in
w hich he acted as a magis
tra
te of the
Roman peopl
e:
his quaes
tor
ship,
hi
s legatesh
ip in
Asia Minor,
hi
s urban praetorsh
ip
,
and
his govern orshi p of Sicily
§
34). Ver. 2.1
dea
ls wi th the firs t three parts of thi s fourfold
d ivision (quadripertita di ributio), Ver. 2.2- 5 w ith the fourth.
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Introduction
11
The
Lamp
sacus episode stands out as
the
centrepiece of
the
oration - a
sustained and largely self-co
ntained
unit, in which Cicero explores Verres
pa
st in
particular
depth
and
detail. Yet
while
it is
the
centre of Ver 2.1, in
the
trial as a
whole
this
particular oration (and
hence the
Lamp
sacus e
piso
de
as well) is a bit of a sid eshow. f one only reads an excerpt from
th i
s speech,
it is easy to forget
that
Verres
was
not or had
ever
been on trial for
any
of his actions as legate. Cicero here
recon
siders
events
that happened
about a decade earlier,
in
an effort to portray Verres as evil
thr
ough
and
through. True, consistency of character was
an important argument in
Roman law
courts-
anyone who
could be
shown to
have
a criminal record
was considered more likely to have perpetrated the crime for which he was
on
trial
, whereas an unblemished past
could
be marshalled in s
upport
of a
plea
of innocence. Thus Cicero does his
be
st to depict Verres as a
heinou
s
and hardened criminal, with a particular penchant for debauchery from
his early youth. But in th e larg
er
schem e of
thing
s,
Ver 2.1 is primarily
a warm-up to his account of Verres' governorship of Sicily to which he
de
vo
ted
th
e four subsequent speeches.
23
3
odes
of
persuasion
4
Public sp
eak
ing is designed to persuade an audience of a specific po
int
of
view. f
the
setting is a court of law, the
pro
secu
tor
tries to convince those
who judge
the
case of the
guilt
of
the
defendant, whereas
the
advocate
aims to achieve a verdict of innocence. But how does
one
s
ucceed
in
causing
another
perso
n to
consent
to one's own
point
of view and to act according y?
Is it th
e rational force of the be
tter
argument?
Or
is it the authority of
th
e
speal
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12 Cicero
Against
Verres
2.1.53-86
his arguments plausible by
mean
s of logos (that is, reasoning, analysis and
argument),
ethos (that is, the characters of the individuals involved in the trial,
especially that
of
the
defendant and the
speaker), or
pathos
(that is, strong
emotions
roused
by
the speaker
in his
audience).
25
The chosen
pa
ssage
showca
ses
Cicero s resourceful
handling of
all
three modes.
3.1 Reasoning and argument
n his
handling
of the affair at Lamp
sac
us, Cicero opts for a
two-pronged
approach
to prove Verres guilt: to begin with, he simply presupposes
that
the sequence of
events
has as
it
s unifying factor Verres
inability
to
keep
hi
s
lecherou
s
in
s
tincts under control. In hi
s
account of what happened at
Lamps
acu
s
and
the
aftermath (the trial and execution of
Philodamus
and
hi
s so
n)
Verres is
prese
nted as
the ma
s
termind
behind the
scene
, first
by
plotting sexual assault, then by trying to cover up hi s guilt.
By
showing
the
defendant
in action (as it were), Cicero thus makes narration (or a
narrative) do the work
of
argumentation.
26
Only after
he
ha
s
established
his version of the event as a compelling
point
of reference does he switch
into a more explicitly argumentative mode. In §§ 78- 85, he
explores and
rebut
s potential lines of defence Verres might have adopted to cast doubt
on Cicero s interpretation
and give
an
alternative
explanation of
what
happened.
According
to Cicero, Verres counter-arguments
do
not amount
to
much
and crumble under
scrutiny.
When
all is
said and done,
so Cicero
claims repeatedly Verres is unable to explain why
what
occurred did occur.
And this, so Cicero asserts, means that his own
version
of
th
e events, for
which he
ha
s two reliable
witne
ss
es, must represe
nt
the truth.
After
reading
the passage,
are
you
convinced
that Cicero has proved Verres
guilt?
3.2 Ethopoiea
Cicero
take
s
great care
to provide
vivid portrayal
s of the
characters he deal
s
with in hi
s s
peeche
s.
27
The Verrines are
no exceptions.
The greatest
effort
25. The classic treatment
of
ethos and pathos in ancient
rh
etoric is Wisse, J (1989), Ethos and
Pathos from Aristotle
to Cicero
Amsterdam.
26.
One ma
y
wish
to
di
s
tin
guish the
act
of
narrati
on or the r
es
ult thereof, i.e. a story
or
narrative,
fr
om the technical term
narratio which
is u
se
d of
that part
of a f
ore
nsic speech
in
w hich the spea
ker
se ts
out
the fa cts of the case: see Levene, D.
S.
(2004), Reading
Cicero s Narratives ,
in
J. Powell and J Pater
so
n (eds.),
Cicero
the Advocate
Oxford,
117-46 (117).
27. On ethopoiea: Gildenhard (2011) 20-22 wi th
much
further bibli
og
raphy.
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Introduction
3
goes of
course
into his
characterization
of Verres.
But
Cicero also gives us
ins
idiou
s character
apprai
sals of Gnaeus Dolabella, the
governor
of Cilicia
and Verres superior in
command, and
Gaius Nero,
the governor
of Asia,
that
is, the prov
ince
in
which
Lampsacus was located.
Th
e traits Cicero
emphasizes in the former are his
murd
erous villainy and conspicuous
stupidity whereas the latter comes into Cicero s rhetorical crosshairs for
his yellow-bellied cowardice. Cicero also spends so
me time
on Verres
worthless entourage, notably Rubrius. And even
individual
s or
groups that
only
make
a cameo appearance in his text have a distinct (if often one-sided)
identity and per
sonality profile
that
enables the audience to relate to them.
Example
s of minor
characters
include envoys legati)
from Asia
and Achaia
§ 59), lanitor, Verres host in Lampsacus §§ 63-4), the Roman citizens
who were
in Lamp
s
acu
s for business
reaso
ns § 69),
the
Roman creditors
of the Greeks § 73), one of whom acts as accuser of Philodamus § 74),
and
th
e
praefecti and
tribuni
militares
of Dolabe
lla
§ 73). Cicero also
knows
how to underscore the reliability of his two
prime
witnesses:
P.
Tettius
and
C. Varro, who both
serve
d on the staff of Nero
§
71).
When
it comes to
the
depiction of character, Cicero likes to
paint
in black
and
white. Whereas Verres
andhi
s ilk
appear
as villains
and
perve
rt
s,
he
lavis
hes
prai
se upon
the
inhabitants of
Lamp
sacus and in particular Philodamus and
his son. Cicero
portra
ys Verres and Dolabella
in
such a way as to remove them
from civilized soc
ie t
y: they come across as beasts
ruled
either by their passions
or even worse
in
stincts such as delight in cruelty;
th
e Lampsacenes,
in
contrast,
represent a peace-loving community that cherishes pr iva
te
and public values
dear to the Romans as well, such as devotion to family members, unselfish
courage,
and
commitment
to
civic life. One r
ewarding
exerci
se
in responding
to Cicero s ethopoi
ea
is to colour
in
s
had
es of
grey
-
that
is,
to int
erroga
te hi
s
categorical condemnations as well as his unqualified embraces,
in
an effort to
arrive at a more realistic picture
of
his perso
nneP
8
n th is context, it is also worth
noting
how Cicero constantly engages the
audience: he
appeals
to them as persons endowed with a special dis
po
sition
and committed to certain values,
but
does
not
h esita te to let them
know
how disas
trous
it would be i they did not
decide
the
case at hand in his
fa
vo
ur.
In
particular
, it
wo
uld
put
the judges at the
sa
me
level
as
the
defendant.
A
keynote
of
the
s
peech
(2.1:
eminem vestrum
ignorare
arbitror,
iudices
... ) is
that
Cicero s
audience
is
in
the
know:
Verres
28.
For
Cicero s tendency to sp lit his
personnel into
the good and the
bad
and
to character
ize
accordingly s
ee
Gilden
hard
(2011) 74-98 ( The good, the
bad, and
the in-between ).
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14 Cicero
Against
Verres
2.1.53-86
shenanigans, trickery, and
attempts
at deception
cannot
fool them.
29
But
since his
guilt
is so glaring and well-established, a verdict of
innocent
would
reveal the
judge
s inevitably as
corrupt and
unfit for their role.
3.3 Pathos
Cicero s report of Verres looting of artworks and his narrative of
the
Lampsacus affair are both fraught
with patho
s, meant to
generate indignation,
i f not downright outrage, at Verres conduct. In addition, the portion of
te
xt under consideration here includes
two
paragraphs that are especially
de
s
igned
to appeal to
the
emotions. n § 59, Cicero recalls one of the rare
occasions in which Verres adorned
the
city
of
Rome with
hi
s
plundered
treas
ure
s for public viewing. By chance casu), a great
number
of embassies
from the
town
s Verres had ravaged happ
ene
d to be in Rome at the time,
and Cicero describes heart-wre
nching
scenes
of
Greek
ambassadors
se
tting
eyes on long lost treasures, often statues
of gods
and
goddesses
of profound
religious value and significance, breaking
down
on the spot,
in
public,
in
worship and tears. And
in
§ 76, Cicero describes the public execution of
Philodamus and his son in the city of Laodicea as a tragic
specta
cle matching
the bestial
cruelty
crudelitas) of the Roman officials Verres and Dolabella
against the
humanitas humanity)
and the family-values of
the
condemned.
The
sight, so Cicero, even moved the presiding Roman magistrate Nero to
tears - precisely the sort of response he wishes to generate in his
pre
sent
audience as well, grounded in sympathy
and compassion
for Verres victims
and righteous
anger at
his
abuse
of power and violation of
Roman
values.
4 Rome and the Mediterranean
n
the Late
Republic
Ver . 2.1.53-86
can
serve as an excellent
point
of departure for branching out
into Roman history
and
culture,
especially the imperial culture of the late
republic
and theme
s to
do
with
the imp
erial expansion of Rome across the
Mediterranean
world, in
particular the
Greek
East. In turn, a basic grasp of
historical facts
and
figures will
aid
in
under
sta
nding our pa
ssage.
29.
The
judges
are addre
ss
ed in the second perso
n
plural or
as
iud
ices
throughout
our
passage: 53: sc
itis, aud i
st
is;
57: cognosc
i
te
;
58:
iud i
ces
;
60:
iudices;
62:
existimatis?;
63:
iudices;
71:
potestis dubita
re ..
. ?
72:
audite, qua
eso iu
dices et
..
. miser
emi
ni ... et ostendite . .
; 76:
· ? 81
·
?
82
N z·
· · ·
a
·
1
86 · ·
1
putatrs
;
: parcetts. ; : o 1
te
... coger
e
... ms1 vos
vm zcatls.
; : a
cc
tptte nunc.
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Introduction 5
4 1 Rome s military
conquest of
Greece and Asia
Minor
30
While
Rome
stood in contact with the wider, Greek-dominated world
of
the Mediterranean from early
on
(witness the legend of Aenea
s
arriving
in Italy after the
de
struction of Troy, as
preliminary
s
tep
towards the
foundation of the city),
it
had no military
pre
sence
in
the Greek East
until the end of the third century BC. Yet after the so-called First Illy
rian
War
(229 BC)
matter
s
proceeded quickl
y
In
167 BC,
the Greek
his
torian
Polybius considered
Rome s conquest of Greece
(and th
e
known world
more
generally) an accomplished fact.
That
a
ss
e
ss
ment, though,
may
have
been somewhat premature as further military
adventure
s
and
significant
territorial
gains
continued
to
happen afterwards . The driving forces and
motivations behind
Rom
e s imperial expansion have been the subject
of
much controversial
debate
31
But
whatever
the
in t
ent,
by
the tim e of the
Verrines the
rise of Rome from a town on the Tiber to the centre of
an
empire that spanned the
entire
Mediterranean world was
by
and large
complete. Landmark