ublic enemies,
and are tortured and killed! All the gold and silver and precious stuffs
are made a prize of by Verres!"

Such are the accusations brought against this wonderful man--the truth
of which has, I think, on the whole been admitted. The picture of Roman
life which it displays is wonderful, that such atrocities should have
been possible; and equally so of provincial subjection, that such
cruelties should have been endured. But in it all the greatest wonder is
that there should have risen up a man so determined to take the part of
the weak against the strong with no reward before him, apparently with
no other prospect than that of making himself odious to the party to
which he belonged. Cicero was not a Gracchus, anxious to throw himself
into the arms of the people; he was an oligarch by conviction, born to
oligarchy, bred to it, convinced that by it alone could the Roman
Republic be preserved. But he was convinced also that unless these
oligarchs could be made to do their duty the Republic could not stand.
Therefore it was that he dared to defy his own brethren, and to make the
acquittal of Verres an impossibility. I should be inclined to think that
the day on which Hortensius threw up the sponge, and Verres submitted to
banishment and fine, was the happiest in the orator's life.

Verres was made to pay a fine which was very insufficient for his
crimes, and then to retire into comfortable exile. From this he returned
to Rome when the Roman exiles were amnestied, and was shortly afterward
murdered by Antony, as has been told before.

CHAPTER VII.

_CICERO AS AEDILE AND PRAETOR._

[Sidenote: B.C. 69, aetat. 38.]

The year after the trial of Verres was that of Cicero's AEdileship. We
know but little of him in the performance of the duties of this office,
but we may gather that he performed them to the satisfaction of the
people. He did not spend much money for their amusements, although it
was the custom of AEdiles to ruin themselves in seeking popularity after
this fashion; and yet when, two years afterward, he solicited the
Praetorship from the people, he was three times elected as first Praetor
in all the comitia--three separate elections having been rendered
necessary by certain irregularities and factious difficulties. To all
the offices, one after another, he was elected in his first year--the
first year possible in accordance with his age--and was elected first in
honor, the first as Praetor,