[23]
You know the depraved and licentious habits of Verres. Imagine to yourselves, if
you can, any one who can be in every respect equal to him in the wicked and
dissolute commission of every crimes that man will be Apronius; who, as he shows not
only by his life, but by his person and countenance, is a vast gulf and whirlpool of
every sort of vice and infamy. Him did Verres employ as his chief agent in all his
adulteries, in all his plundering of temples, in all his debauched banquets; and the
similarity of their manners caused such a friendship and unanimity between them,
that Apronius, whom every one else thought a boor and a barbarian, appeared to him
alone an agreeable and an accomplished man; that, though every one else hated him,
and could not bear the sight of him, Verres could not bear to be away from him;
that, though others shunned even the banquets at which Apronius was to be presents
Verres used the same cup with him; lastly, that, though the odour of Apronius's
breath and person is such that even, as one may say, the beasts cannot endure him,
he appeared to Verres alone sweet and pleasant. He sat next to him on the
judgment-seat; he was alone with him in his chamber; he was at the head of his table
at his banquets; and especially then, when he began to dance at the feast naked,
while the young son of the praetor was sitting by.
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