e judges for taking bribes, and then plunder a
province himself. He did not speak grandly of the duty of a patron to
his clients, and then open his hands to illicit payments. He did not
call upon the Senate for high duty, and then devote himself to luxury
and pleasure. He had a _beau ideal_ of the manner in which a Roman
Senator should live and work, and he endeavored to work and live up to
that ideal. There was no period after his Consulship in which he was not
aware of his own failure. Nevertheless, with constant labor, but with
intermittent struggles, he went on, till, at the end, in the last fiery
year of his existence, he taught himself again to think that even yet
there was a chance. How he struggled, and in struggling perished, we
shall see by-and-by.

What Cicero did as Quaestor in Sicily we have no means of knowing. His
correspondence does not go back so far. That he was very active, and
active for good, we have two testimonies, one of which is serious,
convincing, and most important as an episode in his life. The other
consists simply of a good story, told by himself of himself; not
intended at all for his own glorification, but still carrying with it a
certain weight. As to the first: Cicero was Quaestor in Lilybaeum in the
thirty-second year of his life. In the thirty-seventh year he was
elected AEdile, and was then called upon by the Sicilians to attack
Verres on their behalf. Verres was said to have carried off from Sicily
plunder to the amount of nearly L400,000,[94] after a misrule of three
years' duration. All Sicily was ruined. Beyond its pecuniary losses, its
sufferings had been excruciating; but not till the end had come of a
Governor's proconsular authority could the almost hopeless chance of a
criminal accusation against the tyrant be attempted. The tyrant would
certainly have many friends in Rome. The injured provincials would
probably have none of great mark. A man because he had been Quaestor was
not, necessarily, one having influence, unless he belonged to some great
family. This was not the case with Cicero. But he had made for himself
such a character during his year of office that the Sicilians declared
that, if they could trust themselves to any man at Rome, it would be to
their former Quaestor. It had been a part of his duty to see that the
proper supply of corn was collected in the island and sent to Rome. A
great portion of the bread eaten in Rome was grown in Sicily, and much
of it was