Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics) (57 page)

since they have given me … before them
: by electing him aedile for 69
BC
.

breaking the law themselves
: the jurors, by accepting his bribes.

jurors that I myself have chosen and approved
: Cicero did not in fact choose any jurors, though he did approve them in the sense that he did not reject them (on the rejection of jurors see first note on
Ver
. 10 above).

smeared not so much with wax as with mud
: the voting-tablets were coated with wax; cf.
Ver
. 17 and 40 above, with notes.

your and your friends’ tyrannical domination of the courts
: i.e. the exclusively senatorial juries imposed by Sulla in 81
BC
.

on the day … tribunes of the plebs back
: see first note on
Ver
. 44 above.

Quintus
: for Cicero to address Hortensius by his first name in this way is presumptuous, very unusual, and very striking.

the text of a bill on new courts and juries has been published
: i.e. the
lex Aurelia
, put forward by the praetor Lucius Aurelius Cotta, which Cicero speaks of as if it were going to prescribe exclusively equestrian juries (cf. ‘a different order’), but which in the event enacted a compromise, making juries effectively two-thirds equestrian and one-third senatorial.

the Roman people will put that juror on trial
: i.e. at an assembly. Both of the alternatives proposed by Cicero in this sentence assume that the
lex Aurelia
will have been passed (and that it will have prescribed exclusively equestrian juries). A juror who has taken bribes will either be tried before the people, who will have voted for the
lex Aurelia
and whose hostility to senatorial jurors can therefore be assumed, or in the new court staffed by jurors from ‘a different order’ (§177): in either case, his conviction will be a foregone conclusion.

without them even having to get out of bed
: elections began at the crack of dawn. Cicero was an early riser, doing much of his correspondence and his literary work in the early hours. In the passage which begins here,
Cicero expresses the resentment felt by ‘new men’ such as himself towards the ‘nobles’ (for these terms, see Glossary); his aim is of course to convince the jury that he is serious in his threat to prosecute any jurors who accept bribes.

Marcus Cato
: Marcus Porcius Cato the elder (234–149
BC
), the new man from Tusculum who became consul in 195 and censor in 184. He was forever prosecuting his enemies, such as the Scipios and their friends, and was unusually severe in his revision of the senate. He may have been the author of the Porcian laws mentioned at §163.

Quintus Pompeius
: another new man, the consul of 141 and, in 131, the first plebeian censor.

Gaius Fimbria, Gaius Marius, and Gaius Coelius
: a further three new men who reached the consulship, Gaius Flavius Fimbria in 104, Gaius Marius (the enemy of Metellus Numidicus and Sulla) in 107, 104–100, and 86, and Gaius Coelius Caldus in 94.

It is impossible … we might perform
: though Cicero did not know it, his subsequent career was to demonstrate the falsity of this statement.

whose royal offering
: the reference is to a jewelled candelabrum which the two sons of Antiochus, king of Syria, had had specially made and were keeping ready to dedicate in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol once its rebuilding (see note on §48 above) was complete; Verres made the elder prince lend it to him, and then kept it. The sentence which begins here continues until the close of the speech (I was wrong in
Defence Speeches
to say in my second note on
Mil
. 72 that
Mil
. 72–5 is the longest sentence in Cicero: this is longer). In this translation I have stopped the sentence (not before time, some might feel) in the middle of §188.

whose holy and beautiful image
: a statue of Zeus Ourios (sender of favouring winds), stolen from a temple at Syracuse.

Melita and Samos
: in this list Cicero will include acts of sacrilege from Verres’ whole career, particularly from the period of his legateship under Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella in 80–79. Melita is the modern Malta.

at Syracuse … roof and walls
: Verres allegedly removed the ancient paintings of battle-scenes with which the temple was decorated, and placed them in a brothel.

Latona … Delos
: Latona (Leto) gave birth to the twins Apollo and Diana (Artemis) at Delos. Verres stole some statues from the famous temple to Apollo there, but they were recovered when his ship was wrecked in a storm.

Perga
: in Pamphylia.

Publius Africanus
: i.e. Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus, in the Third Punic War (149–146
BC
).

Mercury … Tyndaris
: Verres persuaded the senate of Tydaris to give him their statue of Mercury (Hermes) only after binding their chief
magistrate naked to a bronze statue in the forum of Tyndaris in freezing weather. Hermes was the patron god of athletics and his statue was often placed in public exercise-grounds.

he attempted to … carry away
: the attempt was unsuccessful: the slaves were driven off by the townspeople.

holy mother of Ida
: Rhea, mother of Jupiter (Zeus), who bore him on Crete and gave him to the Curetes (to whom the Engyium temple was dedicated) on Mount Ida in Crete to look after.

except for the name of Africanus
: Verres removed some bronze urns and armour which Scipio Aemilianus had dedicated, but left the dedicatory inscription behind.

from whose temple … profit and plunder
: when he was city praetor in 74, Verres profited from having an imaginary defect in the columns of the temple of Castor and Pollux corrected (the temple was at the south-west corner of the forum, and the senate often met there—hence ‘the great deliberations’).

whose route … for his own profit
: also during his praetorship, but we do not know the details; on the face of it, this hardly seems something to offend the gods. If Verres had instead neglected the road, Cicero would no doubt have criticized him at least as strongly.

Ceres and Libera … grandeur and mystery
: a reference to the Eleusinian mysteries, held at Eleusis near Athens in honour of Demeter (Ceres) and Persephone (Libera); on these gods, see first note on §36 above. The omission of Liber (Bacchus, Dionysus), the third member of the Aventine triad, is striking. Cicero does not claim that Verres outraged Liber (or indeed Venus), for obvious reasons; cf. §§27 ‘he concluded that he owed the rest of his time to Venus and to Bacchus’, 142 ‘a devotee of Venus’.

its rightful home at Henna
: see note on §99 above.

the spot where I am now standing
: the rostra.

to defending my friends in their hour of need
: i.e. speaking for his friends in court as their advocate. The prosecution of Verres need not be seen as an exception to this pattern, since that could be represented as a defence of Cicero’s friends the Sicilians. Note the play on words, ‘time … hour’.

because of successive reruns … the votes of all the centuries
: for the procedure for the election of praetors by the centuriate assembly, see second note on
Ver
. 2.5.38 above. Cicero was the choice of each century until he had obtained the support of sufficient centuries (97 out of 193) to be declared elected; he obtained a majority of the centuries before any of the other candidates did; and although the election was held all over again twice (because of postponements we otherwise know nothing about, no doubt caused by violence), he achieved the same result each time.

Asia
: references to ‘Asia’ denote the Roman province of Asia, i.e. the western end of Asia Minor, the former kingdom of Attalus III of Pergamum, bequeathed to Rome in 133
BC
.

Bithynia, which is now a province of yours
: since it was bequeathed to Rome by Nicomedes IV in late 75 or early 74.

the kingdom of Ariobarzanes
: Cappadocia. It bordered with the Roman province of Cilicia.

his successor
: Manius Acilius Glabrio, the consul of 67, appointed as commander in Bithynia and Pontus in 66. See note on
Ver
. 4 above.

that man
: Mithridates. Cicero refers to his ‘Asiatic vespers’ of 88
BC
.

Lucius Sulla … and so did Lucius Murena
: both triumphs were held in 81, Sulla’s having been delayed as a result of the civil war with the Marians.

and Murena by Sulla
: I suspect there is just a hint of criticism of Sulla here, for not allowing Murena to complete the job. Criticism of Sulla would be appropriate before a popular audience (cf. note on §47 below).

the kingdom of the Bosporus
: i.e. the Cimmerian Bosporus, the kingdom immediately to the east of the Crimea.

to the chiefs
: in fact to one Roman commander, the rebel Sertorius (for whom see note on
Ver
. 2.5.72 above). Cicero’s choice of the word ‘chief’ denies Sertorius the privilege of being considered a Roman; the rhetorical plural makes the reference still vaguer. An equally colourful account of Mithridates’ dealings with Sertorius is given at
Mur
. 32: ‘This king, after spending some years making the necessary plans and preparing his forces for war, had such high hopes for himself that he fully expected to link the Atlantic Ocean with the Black Sea and the forces of Sertorius with his own.’ The topic was clearly a gift to any orator with imagination.

your forefathers wanted Corinth … extinguished
: in 146
BC
four Roman envoys addressing an assembly of the Achaean League at Corinth were insulted and perhaps treated with violence. The Romans under Lucius Mummius then destroyed the city, one of the richest and most historic in Greece, as an example to the other Greek states. Cicero expresses his disapproval of this action at
Off
. 3.46 (and less unequivocally at1.35).

who put a legate of the Roman people … and then killed him
: Manius Aquillius, the consul of 101, had led the commission to Asia which restored Nicomedes IV to his throne in Bithynia, but had then forced him to invade Pontus, thus precipitating the First Mithridatic War (88–85
BC
). Upon Aquillius’ capture by Mithridates in 88, he was tied to a donkey and paraded around wearing a placard; afterwards he was executed by having molten gold poured down his throat. Mithridates then proceeded to his next atrocity, the ‘Asiatic vespers’, referred to twice in this paragraph.

two kings
: Mithridates and Tigranes.

especially seeing that you have already sent someone else
: i.e. Glabrio (whom Cicero refrains from complimenting).

even though it is for a naval war that he has come
: the war against the pirates, now completed.

wars against Antiochus, Philip, the Aetolians, and the Carthaginians
: i.e. the Antiochean War (192–189
BC
) against Antiochus III of Syria and the Aetolians, the First and Second Macedonian Wars (214–205, 200–197) against Philip V of Macedon, and the three Punic Wars (264–241, 218–201, 149–146) against the Carthaginians. All these wars were undertaken at least nominally in defence of allies.

the harbour duty, the tithes, and the grazing tax
: the harbour duty (
portorium
) was a 2½ per cent duty levied on imports and exports at the borders of provinces (cf. ‘the size of its exports’, §14 above); the tithe (
decuma
) was a 10 per cent tax on crops, fruit, and wine (cf. ‘the productiveness of its soil, the variety of its crops’); and the grazing tax (
scriptura
) was a charge imposed for grazing cattle on public land (cf. ‘the extent of its pasturage’).

in the guard-posts
: probably lookout posts designed to prevent goods being smuggled into or out of the province without the harbour duty being paid.

at the beginning of our hostilities with him
: in 88
BC
, after the ‘Asiatic vespers’.

A large and well-equipped fleet … by this same commander
: Sertorius (see second note on § 9 above) had sent Mithridates a representative, Marcus Marius (a senator), whom the king had put in charge of a part of his fleet; in 72 Lucullus destroyed this fleet at Lemnos and executed Marius. On the reading ‘puffed up’ (
inflata
) for the manuscripts’ ‘set on fire’ (
inflammata
), see my note at
CQ
, NS 55 (2005), 309–10.

Sinope and Amisus … his approach and arrival
: both in fact withstood long sieges before being taken. Sinope was the capital of Pontus and the birthplace of Mithridates.

with other kings in other countries
: with Tigranes, with his son Machares, ruler of the kingdom of the Bosporus, and with Arsaces, king of Parthia.

the famous Medea
: in myth, Medea was the daughter of Aeëtes, the king of Colchis. She fell in love with Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, helped him to obtain the golden fleece, and ran away with him in his ship. Her father pursued them, and to prevent him catching them up, Medea murdered her brother Absyrtus and scattered his limbs in the sea for her father to collect.

in the earlier war
: the first.

a certain extremely wealthy … temple
: probably the temple of Nanaea of Anaïtis in Elymais (between Susa and the Persian Gulf), previously the object of raids by Parthian and Syrian kings. It was in fact much too far away for Lucullus to think of going to. His ultimate goal was Artaxata, in the opposite direction.

one city from Tigranes’ kingdom
: Tigranocerta. Cicero’s wording contains a veiled criticism, that Lucullus only succeeded in capturing one city out of many.

to them the name of king is something great and venerated
: to the Romans, on the other hand, it was detested. They were proud of having expelled their last king, Tarquinius Superbus, in 509
BC
.