And, to say nothing of the stains and disgraces of his youth, what other remarkable
 event is there in his quaestorship, that first step to honour, except that Cnaeus
 Carbo was robbed by his quaestor of the public money? that the consul was plundered
 and betrayed? his army deserted? his province abandoned? the holy nature and
 obligations imposed on him by lot Because the provinces which
 involved all these obligations were distributed by lot to the different
 magistrates. violated?—whose lieutenancy was the ruin of all Asia and Pamphylia , in which provinces he plundered many houses, very many
 cities, all the shrines and temples; when he renewed and repeated against Cnaeus
 Dolabella his ancient wicked tricks when he had been quaestor, and did not only in
 his danger desert, but even attack and betray the man to whom he had been
 lieutenant, and proquaestor, “The proconsul or praetor who had
 the administration of a province was attended by a quaestor. This quaestor had
 undoubtedly to perform the same offices as those who accompanied the armies into
 the field..They had also to levy those parts of the public revenue which were not
 farmed by the publicani.... In the provinces they had the same jurisdiction as the
 curule aediles at Rome .... The relation
 existing between a praetor or proconsul and his quaestor was according to ancient
 custom regarded as resembling that between a father and his son. When a quaestor
 died in his province, the praetor had the right to appoint a proquaestor in his
 stead.”—Smith, Dict. Ant. p. 814, v. Quaestor . and whom he had brought into odium by his crimes; —whose only praetorship was the destruction of the sacred temples and the public
 works, and, as to his legal decisions, was the adjudging and awarding of property
 contrary to all established rules and precedents. But now he has established great
 and numerous monuments and proofs of all his vices in the province of Sicily , which he for three years so harassed and
 ruined that it can by no possibility be restored to its former condition, and
 appears scarcely able to be at all recovered after a long series of years, and a
 long succession of virtuous praetors. While this man was praetor the Sicilians enjoyed neither their own laws, nor the
 degrees of our senate, nor the common rights of every nation. Every one in
 Sicily has only so much left as either
 escaped the notice or was disregarded by the satiety of that most avaricious and
 licentious man. No legal
 decision for three years was given on any other ground but his will; no property was
 so secure to any man, even if it had descended to him from his father and
 grandfather, but he was deprived of it at his command; enormous sums of money were
 exacted from the property of the cultivators of the soil by a new and nefarious
 system. The most faithful of the allies were classed in the number of enemies. Roman
 citizens were tortured and put to death like slaves; the greatest criminals were
 acquitted in the courts of justice through bribery; the most upright and honourable
 men, being prosecuted while absent, were condemned and banished without being heard
 in their own defence; the most fortified harbours, the greatest and strongest
 cities, were laid open to pirates and robbers; The coast of
 Sicily being much infested by pirates,
 it was the custom of the praetors to fit out a fleet every year for the protection
 of trade. This fleet was provided by a contribution of the maritime towns, each of
 which usually furnished a ship, properly appointed with men and provisions; but
 Verres, for a sufficient bribe, often excused them from providing the ship, and
 always discharged as many men as were willing to pay for it. On one occasion a
 fleet was fitted out, and the command of it given, not to any Roman officer, but
 to Cleomenes, a Syracusan, who being both incapable, and also short of hands from
 the proceedings of Verres, was attacked in the port of Pachynus, two of his ships
 taken, and the rest burnt, after which the pirates sailed into the port of
 Syracuse , and returned back in
 safety; but Verres compelled all the captains of Cleomenes' fleet to sign a
 document testifying that this disaster had not happened through any deficiency in
 the equipment of their ships, which were fully provided with everything necessary,
 and then he put them to death. the sailors and soldiers of the Sicilians,
 our own allies and friends, died of hunger; the best built fleets on the most
 important stations were lost and destroyed, to the great disgrace of the Roman
 people. This same man while praetor plundered and stripped those most ancient monuments,
 some erected by wealthy monarchs and intended by them as ornaments for their cities;
 some, too, the work of our own generals, which they either gave or restored as
 conquerors to the different states in Sicily . And he did this not only in the case of public statues and
 ornaments, but he also plundered all the temples consecrated in the deepest
 religious feelings of the people. He did not leave, in short, one god to the
 Sicilians which appeared to him to be made in a tolerably workmanlike manner, and
 with any of the skill of the ancients. I am prevented by actual shame from speaking
 of his nefarious licentiousness as shown in rapes and other such enormities; and I
 am unwilling also to increase the distress of those men who have been unable to
 preserve their children and their wives unpolluted by his wanton lust. But, you will say, these things were done by him in such a manner as not to be
 notorious to all men. I think there is no man who has heard his name who cannot also
 relate wicked actions of his; so that I ought rather to be afraid of being thought
 to omit many of his crimes, than to invent any charges against him. And indeed I do
 not think that this multitude which has collected to listen to me wishes so much to
 learn of me what the facts of the case are, as to go over it with me, refreshing its
 recollection of what it knows already. And as this is the case, that senseless and profligate man attempts
 to combat me in another manner. He does not seek to oppose the eloquence of any one
 also to me, he does not rely on the popularity, or influence, or authority of any
 one. He pretends that he trusts to these things; but I see what he is really aiming
 at; (and indeed he is not acting with any concealment.) He sets before me empty
 titles of nobility, that is to say the names of arrogant men, who do not hinder me
 so much by being noble, as assist me by being notorious,—he pretends to rely on
 their protection; when he has in reality been contriving something else this long
 time.