by punishing one of the ruling caste with death. Gavius, a Roman trader, he had confined in the quarries of Syracuse. The man escaped, was retaken, and fastened to a cross on the beach within sight of Italy, that he might address to his native shores the ineffectual cry, 'I am a

Roman citizen.'”1

It was by an accident that we know so much of Verres. It so happened that Cicero prosecuted him for extortion, and delivered one of his most famous orations against him. Verres murdered witnesses, bribed a consul, and attempted to exclude Cicero from the position of advocate of the Sicilians; but when the orator had once obtained a hearing, and had given an account of the crimes committed, the criminal saw that further pretenses of innocence were useless, and he went into exile. The preservation of the oration of Cicero has given a prominence of infamous immortality to the criminal.

why

In his first oration against Verres, Cicero declared that the administration of justice under the senatorial judges had been nefarious; and he added, “The Roman people shall know from me Quintus Calidius, when condemned, said that a man of prætorian rank could not honestly be condemned at a price of less than 300,000 sesterces [$15,000]; why it is that when Publius Septimius, a senator, was condemned for extortion, while Quintus Hortensius was prætor, damages were assessed against him, including money which he had received as judge to decide causes which came before him; why it is that in the case of Caius Herennius and in that of Caius Popilius, senators, both of whom were convicted of peculation,-why it is that in the case of Marcus Atilius, who was convicted of treason this was made plain, that all had received money for the purpose

of influencing their judicial decisions; why it is that senators have been found who, when Caius Verres, as prætor of the city, gave out the lots, voted against the criminal whom they were condemning without having inquired into his case; why it is that a senator was found who, when he was judge, took money in one and the same trial both from the defendant to distribute among the judges, and from the accuser to condemn the defendant."2

The six orations of Cicero against Verres, still in existence, contain a catalogue of his numerous, heinous, and notorious crimes, including the theft of valuable state and private property, the profanation of temples, the violation of domestic purity, the sale of judicial decisions, the corrupt release of malefactors, the encouragement of piracy, the murder of provincials, allies, and citizens-crimes committed through a series of years without punishment, and without official complaint by the senate or any consul.

This list of the crimes of Verres is undoubtedly true, as is a most significant confession by a senator and a zealous supporter of the senatorial party, that the majority of the senators were the most corrupt body of men that ever controlled the administration of a civilized state; and that their pretended government was practically an anarchy. It is the most frightful and disgusting record of crime by one man to be found in all history.

SEC. 472. Roscius.-The story of Sextus Roscius deserves attention as an example of crimes not rare in the civil wars of Rome. He lived in the town of Ameria, now Amelia, about fifty miles north of Rome, where he owned several large estates of land. He was a decided supporter of Sulla, and of the senatorial party. While

Sulla was dictator, and soon after he had published his proscription lists, two men of Ameria, named Roscius Magnus and Roscius Capito, plotted to murder Sextus Roscius, and get hold of most of his property. When their victim was in Rome, he was assassinated in the evening by Roscius Magnus, who immediately sent word by his freedman to Roscius Capito. The messenger made the journey of fifty-six miles in ten hours, and delivered his news about daybreak. Soon afterwards, by the aid of Chrysogonus, who had probably been a participant in the plot from the first, and who was a freedman of Sulla, the name of Sextus Roscius was published in a proscription list, his estates as confiscated were offered for sale, and, though worth more than $100,000, were sold for $100. The purchaser was Chrysogonus, against whom others did not wish to bid. Chrysogonus sold out to his

accomplices.

The citizens of Ameria, knowing that Sextus Roscius had been a partisan of Sulla; that he had been assassinated, and that the property had been sold after the time when such sales were permitted; that it had been sold corruptly for a trifle; and that it had been transferred to the men suspected, with good reason, of the assassination, sent a deputation of their lower council to Sulla to call his attention to the facts. Chrysogonus, hearing of their mission, persuaded them not to insist on seeing Sulla, and promised that the name of Sextus Roscius should be erased from the proscription list.

Whether through fear or folly, they yielded to him, and went away without seeing Sulla, or making sure that he knew anything of the affair. The murderers, perhaps thinking that the complaint against them had been made by Sextus Roscius, son of the murdered man, accused

the latter of employing a murderer to kill his father The son was a man who had spent his life in the country. had given all his attention to agricultural affairs, and had no personal friends among the senators. By the confiscation he had lost all his property. The accusers probably expected to convict the accused mainly by corruption, and by the fear of Sulla and of Chrysogonus, his freedman. But the son found an advocate in Cicero, who convinced the court that Chrysogonus acted in this matter without the previous knowledge or subsequent approval of Sulla, that Roscius Magnus and Roscius Capito were the true criminals. The son was acquitted; whether he recovered his property, or whether the murderers were punished, we do not know.

Marcus Aurius, a citizen of Larino, in southern Italy, while in arms against Sulla, was captured. He was then sold as a slave, and taken to northern Italy, where he was kept in chains. His aged mother, unable to learn what had become of her son, when about to die, bequeathed a large legacy to him, and gave the residue of her estate to her grandson. This heir, Oppianicus, having discovered his uncle, murdered him, and appropriated the whole estate. This crime became known to a kinsman, and to the magistrates of Larino, who prepared to prosecute the murderer, whereupon Oppianicus, at the head of a troop of ruffians, murdered the kinsman and the magistrates; and he then installed himself and some of his associates as magistrates of Larino, declaring that he was acting by the orders of Sulla. His rule was frightful, but not of long duration.1

SEC. 473 Slave Wars.-Three great slave wars occurred in Roman history, the first two in Sicily and the last in Italy. The first broke out in 134 B. C., and con

tinued four years; the second began in 102 B. C., and lasted three years. In both the slaves were numerous, and desperate enough to defeat several Roman armies; and according to Athenæus, the only ancient author who gives an estimate of the loss of life in the two, a million of men fell in them. This is presumably a gross exaggeration, but the victims must have been numbered by hundreds of thousands. The outbreak in each case was provoked by the gross cruelty of the masters.

The second slave war was preceded by circumstances peculiarly illustrative of the Roman system of provincial government in the last century of the republic. When Marius was collecting his army to meet the Teutons, he sent a request as consul, to the allied and dependent king of Bithynia, to send him some troops. The king replied that so many of his free subjects had been carried as slaves to Sicily by the Roman tax gatherers that he could not furnish soldiers. In his hostility to the senate, Marius gave publicity to the excuse, accepted it as correct, and doubtless expressed the opinion that the senate was responsible for the evil and ought to provide for its correction. The senate ordered the governor of Sicily to make an investigation, and to liberate all the freemen held illegally as slaves. Notice having been published that claims to freedom would be heard, accompanied, doubtless, with warning that all false pretenses would be severely punished, for the Romans were merciless in such matters, a great number of applications were made, and they increased so rapidly that they created general alarm among the slaveholders; and after eight hundred men had been liberated, suddenly the governor refused to hear any more cases. Shortly afterwards, and partly because of this refusal, the revolt began,