hem should be
declared so loudly that the judges would not dare to betray the
Sicilians, and to liberate the accused, by choosing the incompetent man.
When Cicero rose to speak, there was probably not one of them of his own
party, not a Consul, a Praetor, an AEdile, or a Quaestor, not a judge, not
a Senator, not a hanger-on about the courts, but was anxious that Verres
with his plunder should escape. Their hope of living upon the wealth of
the provinces hung upon it. But if he could speak winged words--words
that should fly all over Rome, that might fly also among subject
nations--then would the judges not dare to carry out this portion of the
scheme.

"When," he says, "I had served as Quaestor in Sicily, and had left the
province after such a fashion that all the Sicilians had a grateful
memory of my authority there, though they had older friends on whom they
relied much, they felt that I might be a bulwark to them in their need.
These Sicilians, harassed and robbed, have now come to me in public
bodies, and have implored me to undertake their defence. 'The time has
come,' they say, 'not that I should look after the interest of this or
that man, but that I should protect the very life and well-being of the
whole province.' I am inclined by my sense of duty, by the faith which I
owe them, by my pity for them, by the example of all good Romans before
me, by the custom of the Republic, by the old constitution, to undertake
this task, not as pertaining to my own interests, but to those of my
close friends."[101] That was his own reason for undertaking the case.
Then he reminds the judges of what the Roman people wished--the people
who had felt with dismay the injury inflicted upon them by Sulla's
withdrawal of all power from the Tribunes, and by the putting the whole
authority of the bench into the hands of the Senators. "The Roman
people, much as they have been made to suffer, regret nothing of that
they have lost so much as the strength and majesty of the old judges. It
is with the desire of having them back that they demand for the Tribunes
their former power. It is this misconduct of the present judges that has
caused them to ask for another class of men for the judgment-seat. By
the fault and to the shame of the judges of to-day, the Censor's
authority, which has hitherto always been regarded as odious and stern,
even that is now requested by the people."[102] Then he goes on to show
that, if justice is intended, this