eputation of adorning his own city, but to choose that
the expense should be borne by his heir rather than by himself. Failing
to put up the statues, the heir was required to pay a fine to Venus
Erycina--to enrich, that is, the worship of that goddess, who had a
favorite temple under Mount Eryx. The statues had been duly erected.
But, nevertheless, here there was an opening. So Verres goes to work,
and in the name of Venus brings an action against Dio. The verdict is
given, not in favor of Venus but in favor of Verres.

This manner of paying honor to the gods, and especially to Venus, was
common in Sicily. Two sons[115] received a fortune from their father,
with a condition that, if some special thing were not done, a fine
should be paid to Venus. The man had been dead twenty years ago. But
"the dogs" which the Praetor kept were very sharp, and, distant as was
the time, found out the clause. Action is taken against the two sons,
who indeed gain their case; but they gain it by a bribe so enormous that
they are ruined men. There was one Heraclius,[116] the son of Hiero, a
nobleman of Syracuse, who received a legacy amounting to 3,000,000
sesterces--we will say L24,000--from a relative, also a Heraclius. He
had, too, a house full of handsome silver plate, silk and hangings, and
valuable slaves. A man, "Dives equom, dives pictai vestis et auri."
Verres heard, of course. He had by this time taken some Sicilian dogs
into his service, men of Syracuse, and had learned from them that there
was a clause in the will of the elder Heraclius that certain statues
should be put up in the gymnasium of the city. They undertake to bring
forward servants of the gymnasium who should say that the statues were
never properly erected. Cicero tells us how Verres went to work, now in
this court, now in that, breaking all the laws as to Sicilian
jurisdiction, but still proceeding under the pretence of law, till he
got everything out of the wretch--not only all the legacies from
Heraclius, but every shilling, and every article left to the man by his
father. There is a pretence of giving some of the money to the town of
Syracuse; but for himself he takes all the valuables, the Corinthian
vases, the purple hangings, what slaves he chooses. Then everything else
is sold by auction. How he divided the spoil with the Syracusans, and
then quarrelled with them, and how he lied as to the share taken by
himself, will all be found in Cicero's narrative. Herac