[63]
Metellus had acted admirably on his first arrival, in rescinding and making of no
effect all the unjust acts of that man which he could rescind. He had ordered
Heraclius to be restored to his property; he was not restored. Every Syracusan
senator who was accused by Heraclius he ordered to be imprisoned. And on this ground
many were imprisoned. Epicrates was restored at once. Other sentences which had been
pronounced at Lilybaeum, at Agrigentum, and at Panormus, were reviewed and reformed. Metellus showed that he did not
mean to attend to the returns which had been made while Verres was praetor. The
tithes which he had sold in a manner contrary to the Lex Hieronica, he said that he
would sell according to that law. All the actions of Metellus went to the same
point, so that he seemed to be remodeling the whole of Verres's praetorship. As soon
as I arrived in Sicily, he changed his
conduct.
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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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