M. Tullius Cicero, In C. Verrem, 2.1.152

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[152] He, through the wicked letting out of contracts by that man, and through his nefarious robbery, being deprived of all his paternal property and fortune, came before your tribunal, if for nothing else, at least to see him through whose conduct he himself has passed many years in mourning, a little less gaily ¹ dressed than he was used to be. Therefore, O Hortensius, it was not his age but his cause, not his dress but his fortune, that seemed to you calculated to rouse the popular feeling. Nor did it move you so much that he had come with the praetexta, as that he had come without the bulla. ² For no one was influenced by that dress which custom and the right of his free birth allowed him to wear. Men were indignant, and very indignant, that the ornament of childhood which his father had given him, the proof and sign of his good fortune, had been taken from him by that robber.

In C. Verrem. M. Tullius Cicero. London. 1903.

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Funding provided by National Endowment For The Humanities (NEH).

Current edition Perseus

Against Verres (English) (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 1. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1903.)

Editions (1)

In C. Verrem Perseus (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Volume 3. Peterson, William, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917.) — 2.1.152 focus

[152] hic istius scelerato nefarioque latrocinio bonis patriis fortunisque omnibus spoliatus venit in iudicium, si nihil aliud, saltem ut eum¹ cuius opera ipse multos annos esset² in sordibus paulo tamen obsoletius vestitum videret. itaque tibi, Hortensi, non illius aetas, sed causa, non vestitus, sed fortuna popularis videbatur, neque te tam commovebat³ quod ille cum toga praetexta, quam quod sine bulla venerat. vestitus enim neminem commovebat⁴ is quem illi mos et ius ingenuitatis dabat; quod ornamentum pueritiae pater dederat, indicium atque insigne fortunae, hoc ab isto praedone ereptum esse graviter tum⁵ et acerbe homines ferebant.

Notes on the current edition

Against Verres

1. Dressed, that is, in the mourning robe in which defendants in criminal prosecutions usually appeared in court.

2. “The bulla was an ornament of gold worn by children, suspended from their necks, especially by the children of the noble and wealthy; it was worn by children of both sexes, as a token of paternal affection and of high birth. Instead of the bulla of gold, boys of inferior rank, including the children of freedmen, wore only a piece of leather.”—Smith, Dict. Ant. v. Bulla.

Commentary

Commentary on Impeachment of Verres (Select Orations of Cicero (Allen and Greenough's Edition). Greenough, James Bradstreet; Kittredge, George Lyman, editors. Boston, London: Ginn & Company, 1897.) focus

cum (causal)

sint , when men are ready.—

contionibus et legibus, harangues and bills (proposed laws). The proposition of a law which took the exclusive control of the courts from the Senators was even now pending, and the law ( Lex Aurelia) was passed before the case of Verres was decided.

conentur , purpose clause.

magnitudine , abl. of means.

spe , abl. of specification.

actor , complainant, i.e. agent or attorney for conducting the suit in personal processes ( in personam ).

adduxi enim hominem, etc.: cf. Burke, Impeachment of Warren Hastings: We have brought before your Lordships the first man in property and power; we have brought before you the head, the chief, the captain-general in iniquity,—one in whom all the frauds, all the peculations, all the tyranny in India are embodied, disciplined, and arrayed. Then, if we have brought before you such a person, if you strike at him, you will not have need of a great many more examples,— you strike at the whole corps if you strike at the head:

in quo , in whose case

reconciliare, etc., win back the lost repute.

possetis , purpose.

depeculatorem, etc.: for a more complete statement of these charges, see chs. iv , v .

juris urbani, i.e. as praetor urbanus (see sect. 12 ).

M. Tullius Cicero In C. Verrem 2.1.152

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