Animus Classics Journal: Vol. 1, Issue 1

74
ANIMUS VOL. 1
actually started” (Lintott, 6).
20
“Those men were witnesses from Sicily who became acquainted with me as a
Quaestor in the province” (Verr. 2.1.17).
21
“For I do not covet the plunder of Gaius Verres, but the good opinion of the Roman
people” (Verr. 2.1.21). For an exploration of Cicero’s possible motives outside the
promotion of Roman prosperity, see Alexander, “Praemia in the Quaestiones of the
Late Republic.” Alexander proposes, quite reasonably, that Cicero did not take on
the Sicilian case for wholly selfless reasons but may have seen in it opportunities for
personal advancement.
22
According to Verr. 2.5.129, the Sicilians do not only prefer Cicero over other prosecutors
but are utterly desperate for his help. He tells Verres the way a group of Sicilians
came to him, “ita me suam salutem appellans, te suam carnificem nominans.”
Here, Cicero makes it clear that Sicily sees the difference between Cicero, the exemplary
Roman advocate, and Verres, the self-serving abuser.
23
This equivocation of Roman and Sicilian standards of justice is relevant to Cicero’s
analogy between public repetundae and private furtum. See Frazel, “Furtum and the
Description of Stolen Objects in Cicero In Verrem.”
24
“Did you consider those men who live in the province more worthy than we who
use just law, or is one thing just in Rome, another in Sicily?” (Verr. 2.1.118).
25
“For you will find no (province) either more faithful in duties, or more abundant in
resources, or more important in (its) influence” (Verr. 2.3.170). Emphasis added.
26
See Georgy Kantor, “Siculus cum Siculo non Eiusdem Civitatis.” Kantor notes that
“limitation of jurisdictional rules and privileges to a single province was not consistently
applied throughout the Roman dominion,” and thus it would have been quite
possible for Rome to have given special administrative privileges to Sicily based on
her merits.
27
See Verr. 2.3.12-14. Because of the amicitia and fides shared by Rome and Sicily,
the province was trusted enough to keep her preexisting laws.
28
See Cicero’s final peroratio in Verr. 2.5. He concludes his final oration with individual
prayers to the gods worshipped by both the Sicilians and the Romans.
29
“The whole province has been bound by such religious piety, such religious awe
from (Verres’) deed has overtaken the minds of all Sicilians, that whatever happens
disadvantageously, in public and in private, seems to happen on account of this reason:
that of his (Verres’) wickedness” (Verr. 2.4.113). Emphasis added.
30
See Michael von Albrecht, Cicero’s Style. Albrecht claims that “by insulting the
Sicilian gods, Verres commits a crime against humanity” (Albrecht, 210). Cicero’s
rhetoric certainly presents Verres as having committed such a crime. While this may
be hyperbole, Cicero can at least make the reasonable claim that Verres offended not
only Sicilian gods but also Roman gods, and thus the Romans have a duty to avenge
their gods in order to maintain their own sense of pietas.
31
Cicero articulates his exasperation at Rome’s prior mistreatment of Sicily in Verr.
2.3.211.