a profit in the massacres and
plunderings which Sulla commanded or permitted, not one was baser than
Caius Verres. The crimes that he committed would be beyond our belief if
it were not for the fact that he never denied them. He betrayed his
friends, he perverted justice, he plundered a temple with as little
scruple as he plundered a private house, he murdered a citizen as boldly
as he murdered a foreigner; in fact, he was the most audacious, the most
cruel, the most shameless of men. And yet he rose to high office at home
and abroad, and had it not been for the courage, sagacity, and eloquence
of one man, he might have risen to the very highest. What Roman citizens
had sometimes, and Roman subjects, it is to be feared, very often to
endure may be seen from the picture which we are enabled to draw of a
_Roman magistrate_.

Roman politicians began public life as quaestors. (A quaestor was an
official who managed money matters for higher magistrates. Every
governor of a province had one or more quaestors under him. They were
elected at Rome, and their posts were assigned to them by lot.) Verres
was quaestor in Gaul and embezzled the public money; he was quaestor in
Cilicia with Dolabella, a like-minded governor, and diligently used his
opportunity. This time it was not money only, but works of art, on which
he laid his hands; and in these the great cities, whether in Asia or in
Europe, were still rich. The most audacious, perhaps, of these robberies
was perpetrated in the island of Delos. Delos was known all over the
world as the island of Apollo. The legend was that it was the birthplace
of the god. None of his shrines was more frequented or more famous.
Verres was indifferent to such considerations. He stripped the temple of
its finest statues, and loaded a merchant ship which he had hired with
the booty. But this time he was not lucky enough to secure it. The
islanders, though they had discovered the theft, did not, indeed,
venture to complain. They thought it was the doing of the governor, and
a governor, though his proceedings might be impeached after his term of
office, was not a person with whom it was safe to remonstrate. But a
terrible storm suddenly burst upon the island. The governor's departure
was delayed. To set sail in such weather was out of the question. The
sea was indeed so high that the town became scarcely habitable. Then
Verres' ship was wrecked, and the statues were found cast upon the
shore. The go