Even if they were silent they would say plainly enough why they are unwilling. But they
 are not silent; and yet will you offer yourself, when they are most unwilling to accept
 you! Will you still persist in speaking in the cause of others? Will you still defend
 those men who would rather be deserted by every one than defended by you? Will you still
 promise your assistance to those men who do neither believe that you wish to give it for
 their sake, nor that, if you did wish it, you could do it? Why do you endeavour to take
 away from them by force the little hope for the remainder of their fortunes which they
 still retain, built upon the impartiality of the law and of this tribunal? Why do you
 interpose yourself expressly against the will of those whom the law directs to be
 especially consulted? Why do you now openly attempt to ruin the whole fortunes of those
 of whom you did not deserve very well when in the province? Why do you take away from
 them, not only the power of prosecuting their rights, but even of bewailing their
 calamities? If you are their counsel, whom do you expect to come forward of those men who are now
 striving, not to punish some one else by your means, but to avenge themselves on you
 yourself, through the instrumentality of some one or other? 
 But this is a well established fact, that the Sicilians especially
 desire to have me for their counsel; the other point, no doubt, is less clear,—namely,
 by whom Verres would least like to be prosecuted! Did any one ever strive so openly for
 any honour, or so earnestly for his own safety, as that man and his friends have striven
 to prevent this prosecution from being entrusted to me? There are many qualities which
 Verres believes to be in me, and which he knows, O Quintus Caecilius, do not exist in
 you: and what qualities each of us have I will mention presently; at this moment I will only say this, which you must silently agree to, that there is no
 quality in me which he can despise, and none in you which he can fear. Therefore, that
 great defender Cicero alludes to Hortensius, indeed, the name of
 Hortensius appears in the text in some editions. and friend of his votes for
 you and opposes me; he openly solicits the judges to have you preferred to me; and he
 says that he does this honestly, without any envy of me, and without any dislike to me.
 “For,” says he, “I am now asking for that which I usually obtain when I strive for it
 earnestly. I am not asking to have the defendant acquitted; but I am asking this, that
 he may be accused by the one man rather than by the other. Grant me this; grant that
 which is easy to grant, and honourable, and by no means invidious; and when you have
 granted that, you will, without any risk to yourself, and without any discredit, have
 granted that he shall be acquitted in whose cause I am labouring.” He says also, in order that some alarm may be mingled with the exertion of his
 influence, that there are certain men on the bench to whom he wishes their tablets to be
 shown, and that that is very easy, for that they do not give their votes separately, but
 that all vote together; and that a tablet, “The judges were
 provided with three tabellae , one of which was
 marked with A, i.e. absolvo , I acquit; the second
 with C, i.e. condemno , condemn; and the third with N
 L, i.e. non liquet . It is not clear to me, why
 Cicero ( pro Mil. 6 ) calls the first litera salutaris , and the second litera tristis . It would seem that in some trials the tabellae were
 marked with the lettera L, libero , and D, damno , respectively.” Smith's Dict. Ant. v. Tabella . In trials like this between Cicero and Caecilius
 it is probable that the two tabellae had the names of the different candidates
 inscribed on them. The circumstance alluded to in the text was that a short time
 before this Terentius Varro had been accused of extortion and defended by Hortensius,
 who bribed the judges, and then in order to be sure that they voted as they had
 promised, caused tablets to be given to them smeared with coloured wax, so that he
 could easily recognize their votes in the balloting urn. covered with the
 proper wax, and not with that illegal wax which has given so much scandal, is given to
 every one. And he does not give himself all this trouble so much for the sake of Verres,
 as because he disapproves of the whole affair. For he sees that, if the power of
 prosecuting is taken away from the high-born boys whom he has hitherto played with, and
 from the public informers, whom he has always despised and thought insignificant (not
 without good reason), and to be transferred to fearless men of well-proved constancy, he
 will no longer be able to domineer over the courts of law as he pleases. I now beforehand give this man notice, that if you determine that this cause shall be
 conducted by me, his whole plan of defence must be altered, and must be altered in such
 a manner as to be carried on in a more honest and honourable way than he likes; that he
 must imitate those most illustrious men whom he himself has seen, Lucius Crassus and
 Marcus Antonius; who thought that they had no right to bring anything to the trials and
 causes in which their friends were concerned, except good faith and ability. He shall
 have no room for thinking, if I conduct the case, that the tribunal can be corrupted
 without great danger to many.