I come now to what Verres himself calls his passion what his friends call his
disease, his madness; what the Sicilians call his rapine; what I am to call it, I
know not. I will state the whole affair to you, and do you consider it according to
its own importance and not by the importance of its name. First of all, O judges,
suffer me to make you acquainted with the description of this conduct of his; and
then, perhaps, you will not be very much puzzled to know by what name to call it. I
say that in all Sicily, in all that wealthy
and ancient province, that in that number of towns and families of such exceeding
riches, there was no silver vessel, no Corinthian or Delian plate, no jewel or
pearl, nothing made of gold or ivory, no statue of marble or brass or ivory, no
picture whether painted or embroidered, that he did not seek out, that he did not
inspect, that, if he liked it, he did not take away.
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