chapel and its contents was the great sight of the town. No one passed
through without inspecting it. It was naturally, therefore, one of the
first things that Verres saw, Messana being on his route to the capital
of his province. He did not actually take the statues, he bought them;
but the price that he paid was so ridiculously low that purchase was
only another name for robbery. Something near sixty pounds was given for
the four. If we recall the prices that would be paid now-a-days for a
couple of statues by Michael Angelo and two of the masterpieces of
Raphael and Correggio, we may imagine what a monstrous fiction this sale
must have been, all the more monstrous because the owner was a wealthy
man, who had no temptation to sell, and who was known to value his
possessions not only as works of art but as adding dignity to his
hereditary worship.

A wealthy inhabitant of Tyndaris invited the governor to dinner. He was
a Roman citizen and imagined that he might venture on a display which a
provincial might have considered to be dangerous. Among the plate on the
table was a silver dish adorned with some very fine medallions. It
struck the fancy of the guest, who promptly had it removed, and who
considered himself to be a marvel of moderation when he sent it back
with the medallions abstracted.

His secretary happened one day to receive a letter which bore a
noteworthy impression on the composition of chalk which the Greeks used
for sealing. It attracted the attention of Verres, who inquired from
what place it had come. Hearing that it had been sent from Agrigentum,
he communicated to his agents in that town his desire that the seal-ring
should be at once secured for him. And this was done. The unlucky
possessor, another Roman citizen, by the way, had his ring actually
drawn from his finger.