[13]
And though all this was done, yet know ye, that there was but one single city,
that, namely, of the Mamertines, which by public resolution sent ambassadors to
speak in his favour. But you heard the chief man of that embassy, the most noble man
of that state, Caius Eleius, speak on his oath, and say, that Verres had had a
transport of the largest size built at Messana, the work being contracted for at the expense of the city.
And that same ambassador of the Mamertines, his panegyrist, said that he had not
only robbed him of his private property, but had also carried away his sacred
vessels, and the images of the Di Penates, which he had received from his ancestors,
out of his house. A noble panegyric; when the one business of the ambassadors is
discharged by two operations, praising the man and demanding back what has been
stolen by him. And on what account that very city is friendly to him, shall be told
in its proper place. For you will find that those very things which are the causes
of the Mamertines bearing him good-will, are themselves sufficiently just causes for
his condemnation. No other city, O judges, praises him by public resolution.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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