an unknown port, so as to
escape the dangers contrived for him by the friends of Verres.[109] If
it could be arranged that the clever advocate should be kidnapped by a
pirate, what a pleasant way would that be of putting an end to these
abominable reforms! Let them get rid of Cicero, if only for a time, and
the plunder might still be divided. Against all this he had to provide.
When in Sicily he travelled sometimes on foot, for the sake of
caution--never with the retinue to which he was entitled as a Roman
senator. As a Roman senator he might have demanded free entertainment at
any town he entered, at great cost to the town. But from all this he
abstained, and hurried back to Rome with his evidence so quickly that he
was able to produce it before the judges, so as to save the adjournments
which he feared.

Verres retired from the trial, pleading guilty, after hearing the
evidence. Of the witness, and of the manner in which they told the
story, we have no account. The second speech which we have--the
Divinatio, or speech against Caecilius, having been the first--is called
the Actio Prima contra Verrem--"the first process against Verres." This
is almost entirely confined to an exhortation to the judges. Cicero had
made up his mind to make no speech about Verres till after the trial
should be over. There would not be the requisite time. The evidence he
must bring forward. And he would so appall these corrupt judges that
they should not dare to acquit the accused. This Actio Prima contains
the words in which he did appall the judges. As we read them, we pity
the judges. There were fourteen, whose names we know. That there may
have been many more is probable. There was the Praetor Urbanus of the
day, Glabrio. With him were Metellus, one of the Praetors for the next
year, and Caesonius, who, with Cicero himself, was AEdile designate. There
were three Tribunes of the people and two military Tribunes. There was a
Servilius, a Catulus, a Marcellus. Whom among these he suspected can
hardly say. Certainly he suspected Metellus. To Servilius[110] he paid
an ornate compliment in one of the written orations published after the
trial was over, from whence we may suppose that he was well inclined
toward him. Of Glabrio he spoke well. The body, as a body, was of such a
nature that he found it necessary to appall them. It is thus that he
begins: "Not by human wisdom, O ye judges, but by chance, and by the
aid, as it were, of the gods th