I, who as all men know, am so much concerned in the forum and the courts of justice,
 that there is no one of the same age, or very few, who have defended more causes, and
 who spend all my time which can be spared from the business of my friends in these
 studies and labours, in order that I may be more prepared for forensic practice and more
 ready at it, yet, (may the gods be favourable to me as I am saying what is true!)
 whenever the thought occurs to me of the day when the defendant having been summoned, I
 have to speak, I am not only agitated in my mind, but a shudder runs over my whole
 body. Even now I am surveying in my mind and thoughts what party spirit will be shown by men;
 what throngs of men will meet; how great an expectation the importance of the trial will
 excite; how greet a multitude of hearers the infamy of Caius Verres will collect; how
 great an audience for my speech his wickedness will draw together And when I think of
 these things, even now I am afraid as to what I shall be able to say suitable to the
 hatred men bear him who are inimical and hostile to him, and worthy of the expectation
 which all men will form, and of the importance of the case. Do you fear nothing, do you think of nothing are you anxious about nothing of all this?
 Or if from some old speech you have been able to learn, “I entreat the mighty and
 beneficent Jupiter ,” or, “I wish it were
 possible, O judges,” or something of the sort, do you think that you shall come before
 the court in an admirable state of preparation? And, even if no one were to answer you, yet you would not, as I think, be able to state
 and prove even the cause itself. Do you now never give it a thought, that you will have
 a contest with a most eloquent man, and one in a perfect state of preparation for
 speaking, with whom you will at one time have to argue, and at another time to strive
 and contend against him with all your might? Whose abilities indeed I praise greatly,
 but not so as to be afraid of them, and think highly of, thinking however at the same
 time that I am more easily to be pleased by them than cajoled by them. 
 He will never put me down by his acuteness; he will never put me out
 of countenance by any artifice; he will never attempt to upset and dispirit me by
 displays of his genius. I know all the modes of attack and every system of speaking the
 man has. We have often been employed on the same, often on opposite sides. Ingenious as
 he is, he will plead against me as if he were aware that his own ability is to same
 extent put on its trial. But as for you, O Caecilius, I think that I see already how he will play with you, how
 he will bandy you about; how often he will give you power and option of choosing which
 alternative you please,—whether a thing were done or not, whether a thing be true or
 false; and whichever side you take will be contrary to your interest. What a heat you
 will be in, what bewilderment! what darkness, O ye immortal gods! will overwhelm the
 man, free from malice as he is. What will you do when he begins to divide the different
 counts of your accusation, and to arrange on his fingers each separate division of the
 cause? What will you do when he begins to deal with each argument, to disentangle it, to
 get rid of it? You yourself in truth will begin to be afraid lest you have brought an
 innocent man into danger.