Contrast the ‘leisurely’ and exactly parallel constructions vetus oppidum et nobile and (with added *hyberbaton) hoc signum … et illud with the absence of connectives here: Cicero uses none between reliquisse and evecta exportataque esse, ex fanis and ex locis publicis, or palam, spectantibus omnibus, and plaustris. When the Sicilians turned to Rome for help against the plundering and extortion perpetrated by Verres, Cicero was a natural point of contact: he had been quaestor in Sicily only a few years earlier, knew the province well, had close ties with various leading locals, and saw himself as their patron.13 He agreed to act as the Sicilians’ legal representative, in what shaped up as a case for one of Rome’s ‘standing courts’, the so-called quaestio de repetundis.14 Because Roman officials enjoyed immunity from prosecution d… Skip navigation Sign in. 31 For Rome’s imperial presence and diplomatic interaction with civic communities within the provinces and beyond see e.g. . ''Looting, despoiling temples, attempted rape and judicial murder: these are just some of the themes of this classic piece of writing by one … While it may go too far to see this institution, in which members of Rome’s ruling elite sat in judgement over their peers, as a means by which Rome’s imperial republic maintained for itself the myth of beneficial imperialism, in practice the court can be considered ‛the chief countervailing force against the all-powerful Roman magistrate and his companions in the military field and provincial government.’36, 31In the course of its history, arrangements of who could act as prosecutor and who manned the juries underwent several changes. Two of the best are Berry, D. H. (2006), Cicero. 1 I follow the practice of the Oxford Latin Dictionary in referring to the speeches, but reference s ; 2 Settle, J. N. (1962), The publication of Cicero’s orations, Diss. 6Given the lack of independent evidence, one of the greatest challenges in dealing with Cicero’s orations against Verres is doing Verres justice. The speech of M. T. Cicero as the advocate of P. Quinctius. edit. Dickinson College CommentariesDepartment of Classical StudiesDickinson CollegeCarlisle, PA  17013 USAdickinsoncommentaries@gmail.com(717) 245-1493. 2.1.16: celeritas reditionis). Oppidum est : in in, on, at; in accordance with/regard to/the case of; within in, auf, nach, an, gegen dans, sur, à, conformément à l'/ ce qui concerne les / le cas d'; dans in, su, su, in conformità con / per quanto riguarda / il caso di; all'interno en, sobre, en; de conformidad con / respecto a / el caso de, dentro de [Ingo Gildenhard; Marcus Tullius Cicero] The contrast between what Cicero will not say and what he is saying (non dicam – hoc dico). Cicero, at any rate, typically characterized his audience as being more knowledgeable than it most likely was. The passage under discussion here is no exception. Graeca, -ōrum, n., pl., Greek writing, Greek. Thus he calls the period he requested for gathering evidence ‛astonishingly brief’ (Ver. (2008), ’Cicero and the Citadel of the Allies’, in Cicero as Evidence: A Historian’s Companion, Oxford, 81-100. Difficile est autem quod Aspendius citharista faciebat: ut non uteretur cantu utraque manu, sed omnia, id est universam cantionem, intus et sinistra tantum manu complecteretur. And in § 76, Cicero describes the public execution of Philodamus and his son in the city of Laodicea as a tragic spectacle, matching the bestial cruelty (crudelitas) of the Roman officials Verres and Dolabella against the humanitas (humanity) and the family-values of the condemned. (2009), The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy, Princeton. 2.1 1–32 Introduction More general studies include Corbeill, A. In 69, Hortensius, one of his advocates, and Q. Caecilius Metellus Creticus, one of his main friends and supporters, would have been consuls, and M. Caecilius Metellus (a brother of the aforementioned Metellus) would have presided over the extortion court as praetor. Cicero Actionis secundae in C. Verrem Liber Quintus. The greatest effort goes of course into his characterization of Verres. But Cicero also gives us insidious character appraisals of Gnaeus Dolabella, the governor of Cilicia and Verres’ superior in command, and Gaius Nero, the governor of Asia, that is, the province in which Lampsacus was located. 15 For an excellent account of the corpus and its context, see Vasaly, A. This nuance, however, which Cicero does not explicitly emphasize in the text itself, would only have been apparent to those members of Cicero’s audience familiar with the Greek proverb, and it is by no means certain that all (or any) of them were (see also next note, de quo saepe audistis). How does geopolitical space feature in this paragraph? (2002), ’Cicero’s Early Speeches’, in J. M. May (ed. Staff of provincial governors also included such functionaries as lictors, messengers (viatores), heralds (praecones), and scribes (scribae). Some cite the five speeches designed for the second actio as 2Ver. Iunt. Verr. The problem is of course less acute when we imagine the context of reception to be not an oral performance during a public trial, but a private reading session at a villa: in that case, any reader unfamiliar with the proverb and interested in ascertaining its wider significance could have found out by quizzing one of his learned Greek slaves. 25 For Cicero’s tendency to split his personnel into the good and the bad and to characterize accordingly see Gildenhard (2011) 74-98 (’The good, the bad, and the in-between’). His stunning success helped to eclipse Hortensius’ reputation as Rome’s leading orator and establish Cicero as the ‛king of the courts’, a moniker previously owned by his rival. Get this from a library! Ich sitze grade an In Verrem 1, 2-4 und hänge seit über einer Stunde an folgendem Satz: About sixty of the 110 days he had available, he spent on a trip to Sicily, priding himself on ‛the speed of his return’ (Ver. intus canere: as discussed above, the expression refers to a technique of playing only that side of the cithara which is turned away from the audience: Cicero quips that Verres has outdone the activity represented by the statue by hiding it away in the innermost part of his house. 1, 2Ver. 27 For a highly readable and very stimulating account of how Rome became involved with the Greek world that includes all the important facts and figures with a hard look at scholarly orthodoxies, see Gruen, E. S. (2004), ’Rome and the Greek World’, in H. I. Looting, despoiling temples, attempted rape and judicial murder: these are just some of the themes of this classic piece of writing by one of the world's greatest orators. Yet after the so-called ‛First Illyrian War’ (229 BC) matters proceeded quickly. 12 For details, see Marshall, A. J. Ingo Gildenhard, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Latin Texts & Translations. Alliteration of vi- [vi et virtute] The two alliterated words, vi et virtute, are both very masculine words, meaning force and virtue, and the repeated vi- sound being associated with these words draws attention to the qualities of Publius which Cicero is trying to present. II.2 etc.). 129).14 With the actio prima completed on 13 August, the court adjourned for the Votive Games that began on 16 August (comperendinatio). My name is Fadil Nohur, a.k.a. It is thus … 15The first speech intended for the second hearing (Ver. Verr. In a society that placed a premium on esteem for magistrates, this would have meant a powerful boost to Verres’ cause. To provide readers of Greek and Latin with high interest texts equipped with media, vocabulary, and grammatical, historical, and stylistic notes. Ich hab kein Plan, wie das geht, hab mich auch schon nach andren Übersetzungen totgesucht und auch teilweise den andren Text gefunden, aber ich bräuchte mal, falls einer das hat, ne Übersetzung zum ersten Abschnitt der ersten Verres-Rede: Vérifiez si votre institution a déjà acquis ce livre : authentifiez-vous à OpenEdition Freemium for Books. Such commissions could be either ad hoc or permanent (‛standing’). http://dcc.dickinson.edu/cicero-verres/53. ; 82: Nolite... cogere,... nisi vos vindicatis! 2After the conclusion of the proceedings, Cicero published the set of speeches he had given in the context of prosecuting Verres as well as those he had prepared for delivery – ‛prepared for delivery’ because the case came to a premature end before the speeches could be delivered. secuti Baiter, Kayser, Mueller.Habent non modo apud ext. 2.1 deals with the first three parts of this fourfold division (quadripertita distributio), Ver. Par auteurs, Par personnes citées, Par mots clés, Par dossiers, Their staff or subordinates, some of whom with official or semi-official designations: thus Verres was a legate of Dolabella; and Cicero’s two witnesses Tettius and Varro were part of Nero’s staff in Asia: the former as a so-called. 2.1), from which our passage comes, contains an exhaustive discussion of Verres’ career before he took on the governorship of Sicily. It would have been Cicero’s practice in any case to work up extensive written notes for a speech before its oral delivery – which of course does not mean that he read from a script in court – and he most likely had his contribution to the actio secunda more or less ready to go by the time the trial began.18. Ven. C - 13013 Marseille FranceVous pouvez également nous indiquer à l'aide du formulaire suivant les coordonnées de votre institution ou de votre bibliothèque afin que nous les contactions pour leur suggérer l’achat de ce livre. Latin Cicero In Verrem 2.1 Chapter 53 Translation [Click Info tab for entire description] Hello! The most important handbook on invention and style in classical and classicizing rhetoric is Lausberg, H. (1998), Handbook of Literary Rhetoric, Leiden. 19 Cicero uses *praeteritio to pass over Verres’ (singularly depraved) youth, limiting his coverage of Verres’ crimes to the four periods in which he acted as a magistrate of the Roman people: his quaestorship, his legateship in Asia Minor, his urban praetorship, and his governorship of Sicily (§ 34). Roman magistrates and pro-magistrates relied on an extensive staff (called apparitores) in the execution of their office. Cicero contrasts a selective removal of ‘this or that statue’ with Verres’ approach to plunder, which is meticulously comprehensive: ‘none was left, all were taken’. At various places in the Verrines, he boasts about the speed with which he marshalled evidence. ), Cicero the Advocate, Oxford, 187-213. plenissimum: Cicero is very fond of ‘extreme’ expressions, such as superlatives (as here; see also optimorum and intimis) or adjectives that articulate extremes or a sense of totality, such as nullus and omnis (which in this paragraph alone occurs three times): see next note. Even in the case against Verres, where he acted as prosecutor, he stressed that he entered into the fray as an advocate of the Sicilians. Non dicam: ‘an effective form of comparatio, rising from a lesser variety of wrongdoing to a greater’: Mitchell (1986) 185. hoc dico…: Latin authors frequently add a demonstrative pronoun to verbs of thinking and stating that introduce an accusative + infinitive construction to give special emphasis to the indirect statement: ‘This I say, namely that you…’ The feature gains in force and prominence here by way of contrast to the non-dicam clause, where Cicero does not use it. For details, see Vasaly, A. ; 76: pntatis? scitis … te…, Verres: the second person plural addressing the judges, the deictic pronoun, and the vocative are all features that produce and sustain the illusion of a life-performance: Cicero wants his audience to re-imagine the courtroom setting and him turning to and directly addressing the main parties involved in the trial: here he makes a gesture to the judges before turning to the defendant. Section 2 takes a look at the circumstances of the trial and situates the chosen passage within the corpus as a whole. For excellent and accessible treatments see Richardson, J. The evidence is murky.44 In 44 BC, when he wrote the de Divinatione, Cicero was familiar with local lore (Div. If one only reads an excerpt from this speech, it is easy to forget that Verres was not – nor had ever been – on trial for any of his actions as legate. This is followed by an account of the infamous episode at Lampsacus, which revolves around an unsuccessful attempt to abduct and rape a local woman that resulted in the death of a Roman official, provincials pushed to the brink of rioting, and judicial murder. Pseudo-Asconius’ commentary on this passage is worth quoting in full since it brings out an otherwise obscure nuance of Cicero’s text:45, cum canunt citharistae, utriusque manus funguntur officio. ), Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire, London, 10-24. These included the nomination of Verres’ former quaestor Quintus Caecilius Niger as a rival prosecutor, which meant that Cicero had to argue for the right to bring Verres to justice in a preliminary hearing (he obviously won). 11 See below Section 5: The Roman extortion court. See also Kennedy, G. (1994), A New History of Classical Rhetoric, Princeton; and, for the afterlife of ancient rhetoric, Kennedy, G. (1980), Classical Rhetoric and its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times, Chapel Hill. Non dicam illinc hoc signum ablatum esse et illud. ; 81: parcetis? Beitrag Verfasst: 15.01.2014, 17:51 . (2008), Cicero as Evidence: A Historian’s Commentary, Oxford, 15-9. All provinces were required to submit tribute to Rome, which was collected by the so-called publicani (‛tax-farmers’).30 The nature of the Roman presence varied greatly across the provinces. – 1. viii Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53–86 their good sense and sensibility vastly improved the final product. And in each province, the Romans interacted with a complex patchwork of communities as well as – when the province was located at the border of Rome’s imperial sway – with neighbouring kings and peoples. On the basis of some minor military victories, he unsuccessfully petitioned his senatorial peers for the right to celebrate a triumph. unaffected by the mood-swings of the electorate, and who can therefore ensure a certain degree of institutional continuity from one legislative period to the next. 53-69 9 Notes 14 Vocabulary 22 ‛By chance’ (casu), a great number of embassies from the towns Verres had ravaged happened to be in Rome at the time, and Cicero describes heart-wrenching scenes of Greek ambassadors setting eyes on long lost treasures, often statues of gods and goddesses of profound religious value and significance, breaking down on the spot, in public, in worship and tears. Pamphylia: a region on the Southern coast of Asia Minor, between Lycia in the West and ‘rough’ Cilicia in the East; at the time of the trial it was part of the Roman province of Cilicia, though until recently it had also served as a stronghold of pirates – suppressed in 77 BC by Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus (see below § 56). In §§ 78-85, he explores and rebuts potential lines of defence Verres might have adopted to cast doubt on Cicero’s interpretation and give an alternative explanation of what happened. (When cithara-players perform, they make use of both hands: the right hand uses the plectron and this is called ‘to perform outside’; the fingers of the left hand pluck the strings and this is called ‘to perform inside’. In outline, we have the following corpus: Divinatio in Caecilium [delivered January 70 BC]in Verrem 1 [delivered August 70 BC, during the actio prima]in Verrem 2 [planned for the actio secunda, but never delivered]in Verrem 2.1: Verres’ youth and public career prior to his governorship of Sicilyin Verrem 2.2: Sicily – abuse of judicial powerin Verrem 2.3: Sicily – extortion of taxesin Verrem 2.4: Sicily – robbery of artworksin Verrem 2.5: Sicily – Verres as magistrate with imperium, responsible for public safety and endowed with the power to punish, 14Cicero only decided to publish a selection of his speeches.16 The fact that he circulated all the speeches to do with the trial of Verres indicates his high opinion of the set and his belief in their value as documents of self-promotion. 17 Excellent recent discussions include Berry, D. H. (2004), ’The Publication of Cicero’s Pro Roscio Amerino’, Mnemosyne 57, 80-87, Gurd, S. (2007), ’Cicero and Editorial Revision’, Classical Antiquity 26, 49-80, and Lintott, A. Nōn dīcam illinc hoc signum ablātum esse et illud. By varying the verbs (reliquisse; evecta exportataque esse), Cicero manages to apply both of the antithetical poles ‘none’ and ‘all’ to Verres’ despoilment of Aspendos, in keeping with his preference for ‘extreme’ expressions (see note on plenissimum above). In the context of the Verrines, the opportunity of inventing his facts was particularly available when Cicero covered the early stages of Verres’ career, which he did in in Verrem 2.1. Political Speeches: A New Translation, Oxford, 3-12, and Lintott, A. I. Gildenhard, Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53–86: Latin Text with Introduction, Study Questions, Commentary and English Translation, OpenBook Publishers (www.openbookpublishers.com), Cambridge, 2011. Even after the climactic nullum signum, the ending -um continues Cicero’s habit of underscoring thematic coherence by means of stylistic coherence: in his discussion of the one item of art singled out for special attention, that is the introspective cithara-player, *homoioteleuton recurs (illum Aspendium citharistam; illum ipsum). Private Enterprise in the Service of the Roman Republic, Oxford. It is impossible to reproduce this construction literally in English: one can either turn the relative clause into a main clause or add the verb in apposition, i.e. 4 On Cicero and invective, see the papers in Booth, J. hoc dico, nullum te Aspendi signum, Verres, reliquisse: Cicero uses *homoioteleuton as a stylistic device to connect three main themes of the paragraph: (i) the town of Aspendos, (ii) its rich treasure of statues, and (iii) their plunder by Verres. Section 3 outlines the main modes of persuasion in (ancient) rhetoric and briefly indicates how Cicero applies them in our passage. 24 On ethopoiea: Gildenhard (2011) 20-22 with much further bibliography. 8If Verres advanced his career by means of his strategic treachery, Cicero, the son of a knight (eques) and hence a so-called ‛new man’ (homo novus), that is, someone without senatorial ancestors in the family, invested in a superb education as a means of getting ahead.7 He was under no illusion: battlefield success was the privileged pathway to glory at Rome and Cicero did his best to accumulate military accolades when the occasion presented itself – as it did during his stint as pro-consul in Cilicia in 51, the same province in which Verres served as legate thirty years previously. ), Law, Politics and Society in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Sheffield, 156-92; and Kaizer, T. and Facella, M. (2010), ’Introduction’, in idem (eds. authentifiez-vous à OpenEdition Freemium for Books. (1993), Imperium Romanum. Valet hoc proverbium et in eos qui multum intestinis suis commodis consulunt praeter honestatem. One rewarding exercise in responding to Cicero’s ethopoiea is to colour in shades of grey – that is, to interrogate his categorical condemnations as well as his unqualified embraces, in an effort to arrive at a more realistic picture of his personnel.25. Cicero here reconsiders events that happened about a decade earlier, in an effort to portray Verres as evil through and through. In Verrem ("Against Verres") is a series of speeches made by Cicero in 70 BC, during the corruption and extortion trial of Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily.The speeches, which were concurrent with Cicero's election to the aedileship, paved the way for Cicero's public career. In the years before their showdown in 70 BC, each of the two men spent time in the Greek East and in Sicily. Conversely, he makes a damning reference to Roman money-lenders active in the region and their unscrupulous greed (§ 74). ... Cicero In Verrem 2.1, 53-58 andyjkeen. 13 Alexander, M. (1976), ’Hortensius’ Speech in Defense of Verres’, Phoenix 30, 46-53 (52). In outline the speech breaks down into the following sections: 1-23: Preface24-31: Explanation why Cicero didn’t indict in detail during the actio prima32-34: Blueprint of the actio secunda1934-40: Verres’ quaestorship41-102: Verres’ stint as legate and pro-quaestor of Dolabella in Cilicia41-61: Verres’ thefts of artworks62-86a: The Lampsacus episode86b-90: The theft at Miletus90-102: Verres’ crimes as a guardian and pro-quaestor103-58: Verres’ urban praetorship103-27: Abuses of his judicial powers128-54: Misconduct as a supervisor of the maintenance of public buildings155-58: His jury-tampering in other trials, 16The Lampsacus episode stands out as the centrepiece of the oration – a sustained and largely self-contained unit, in which Cicero explores Verres’ past in particular depth and detail. Some may consider a recurrent um-ending plodding, or even cacophonous in principle, but here it produces an *onomatopoetic effect that enhances Cicero’s feeling of outrage at Verres’ misdeeds.43. nat. In Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, Lucius Cornelius Sisenna, and Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, the consul designate for 69 and a formidable public speaker, Verres managed to recruit a group of defence advocates brimming with nobility and talent. Likewise, there was the prospect of a more favourable jury (that is, one more liable to corruption) since several of the chosen jury members were due to leave Rome in 69 BC to take up offices, ruling them out of jury duty.12 At one point, when it looked as if the ploy were to succeed, a third brother, L. Caecilius Metellus, who had taken over the governorship of Sicily from Verres as pro-praetor, tried to intimidate the Sicilians against giving testimony against Verres, boasting somewhat prematurely that Verres’ acquittal was certain and that it was in the Sicilians’ own interest not to cause difficulties. Aspendioi kitharistai – that is, cithara-players of Aspendos – were known for their custom of playing the instrument, designed for both hands, with their left hand only, which was placed between the cithara and the player (hence intus), without using the right hand that held the plectron and was placed ‘outside’, facing the audience. hoc signum … et illud … nullum … signum … omnia: The sentence explains what happened to the richness of the city. fiddle_n, the author of these sets back in 2011-2012. 7 Wiseman, T. P. (1971), New Men in the Roman Senate, Oxford; Gildenhard, I. 1.88: Amphilochus et Mopsus Argivorum reges fuerunt, sed iidem augures, iique urbis in ora maritima Ciliciae Graecas condiderunt), but this is just the sort of information he could have picked up during his pro-consulship in Cilicia in 51 BC. Answer this question with reference to, What is the technical term of the stylistic device that links. 9Overall, the careers of Cicero and Verres share a series of coincidental parallels that are fun to ponder. (2002), ’Rhetorical Education in Cicero’s Youth’, in J. M. May (ed. Betreff des Beitrags: Cicero, In Verrem 1, 2-4. 2.1.53 You know that Aspendus is an ancient and noble town in Pamphylia, full of very fine statues. 2 non modo apud nos sed apud exteras nationes Harl. 23Ver. 54, 128-42. 20When it comes to the depiction of character, Cicero likes to paint in black and white. plaustris wagon, cart, wain; constellation of Great Bear/Big Dipper; euecta carry away, convey out; carry up; exalt; jut out, project; exportō, -āre, -āvī, -ātum, [ex + portō], 1, a., carry away, send away, export. Verres’ pockets were sufficiently deep for an extensive campaign of bribery. The driving forces and motivations behind Rome’s imperial expansion have been the subject of much controversial debate.28 But whatever the intent, by the time of the Verrines, the rise of Rome from a town on the Tiber to the centre of an empire that spanned the entire Mediterranean world was by and large complete. Book 2 1 Book 2 2 Book 2 3 Book 2 4 Book ... 1. [full essay], Aspendum vetus oppidum et nobile in Pamphylia scitis esse, plenissimum signorum optimorum. 19Cicero takes great care to provide vivid portrayals of the characters he deals with in his speeches.24 The Verrines are no exceptions. 2 Settle, J. N. (1962), The publication of Cicero’s orations, Diss. intus – intimus: a *paronomasia; Cicero plays with the fact that the two words are etymologically related. Get this from a library! Badian, E. (1958), Foreign Clientelae: 264-70 BC, Oxford; Gruen, E. (1984), The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome, Berkeley; Williams, C. (2008), ’Friends of the Roman People. ; 72: andite, qnaeso, indices et... miseremini... et ostendite...! It is therefore unwise to take anything he says about the character of any of his seemingly sociopathic villains at face value – including Verres. I hope this is useful to those of you teaching or soon to teach this text. Cicero’s main aim in this paragraph is to illustrate the magnitude of Verres’ greed, in particular how it manifests itself in comprehensive looting. A good account of educational practices in the late Roman republic can be found in Corbeill, A. This proverb also applies to those who look much after their own personal interests at the expense of moral rectitude.). (Cicero, In Verrem, 2.1.53.) The Trial of Verres and Cicero’s Set of Speeches against Verres, 4. In the light of this observation, Cicero seems to be cracking a complex joke here: in addition to the analogy between the ‘hiding away’ performed by the statue and by Verres (the former shielding his playing of music from the audience, the latter concealing his plunder from public viewing), the statue itself is proverbially associated with thievery, which means that Verres imitates and outdoes his looted artwork. When all is said and done, so Cicero claims repeatedly, Verres is unable to explain why what occurred did occur. Towards the end of the republican period, legates who travelled in the company of pro-magistrates were also given lictors, especially when they represented their superior in military command or jurisdiction.