emselves, an event has come to pass by
which the hatred now felt for your order, and the infamy attached to the
judgment seat, may be appeased; for an opinion has gone abroad,
disgraceful to the Republic, full of danger to yourselves--which is in
the mouths of all men not only here in Rome but through all
nations--that by these courts as they are now constituted, a man, if he
be only rich enough, will never be condemned, though he be ever so
guilty." What an exordium with which to begin a forensic pleading before
a bench of judges composed of Praetors, AEdiles, and coming Consuls! And
this at a time, too, when men's minds were still full of Sulla's power;
when some were thinking that they too might be Sullas; while the idea
was still strong that a few nobles ought to rule the Roman Empire for
their own advantage and their own luxury! What words to address to a
Metellus, a Catulus, and a Marcellus! I have brought before you such a
wretch, he goes on to say, that by a just judgment upon him you can
recover your favor with the people of Rome, and your credit with other
nations. "This is a trial in which you, indeed, will have to judge this
man who is accused, but in which also the Roman people will have to
judge you. By what is done to him will be determined whether a man who
is guilty, and at the same time rich, can possibly be condemned in
Rome.[111]If the matter goes amiss here, all men will declare, not that
better men should be selected out of your order, which would be
impossible, but that another order of citizens must be named from which
to select the judges."[112] This short speech was made. The witnesses
were examined during nine days; then Hortensius, with hardly a struggle
at a reply, gave way, and Verres stood condemned by his own verdict.

When the trial was over, and Verres had consented to go into exile, and
to pay whatever fine was demanded, the "perpetua oratio" which Cicero
thought good to make on the matter was published to the world. It is
written as though it was to have been spoken, with counterfeit tricks of
oratory--with some tricks so well done in the first part of it as to
have made one think that, when these special words were prepared, he
must have intended to speak them. It has been agreed, however, that such
was not the case. It consists of a narration of the villainies of
Verres, and is divided into what have been called five different
speeches, to which the following appellations are given: