in outline. He made a strong appeal to the jury. They were themselves on
their trial. The eyes of all the world were on them. If they did not do
justice on so notorious a criminal they would never be trusted any more.
It would be seen that the senators were not fit to administer the law.
The law itself was on its trial. The provincials openly declared that if
Verres was acquitted, the law under which their governors were liable to
be accused had better be repealed. If no fear of a prosecution were
hanging over them, they would be content with as much plunder as would
satisfy their own wants. They would not need to extort as much more
wherewith to bribe their judges. Then he called his witnesses. A
marvelous array they were. "From the foot of Mount Taurus, from the
shores of the Black Sea, from many cities of the Grecian mainland, from
many islands of the Aegean, from every city and market-town of Sicily,
deputations thronged to Rome. In the porticoes, and on the steps of the
temples, in the area of the Forum, in the colonnade that surrounded it,
on the housetops and on the overlooking declivities, were stationed
dense and eager crowds of impoverished heirs and their guardians,
bankrupt tax-farmers and corn merchants, fathers bewailing their
children carried off to the praetor's harem, children mourning for their
parents dead in the praetor's dungeons, Greek nobles whose descent was
traced to Cecrops or Eurysthenes, or to the great Ionian and Minyan
houses, and Phoenicians, whose ancestors had been priests of the Tyrian
Melcarth, or claimed kindred with the Zidonian Jah."[3] Nine days were
spent in hearing this mass of evidence. Hortensius was utterly
overpowered by it. He had no opportunity for displaying his eloquence,
or making a pathetic appeal for a noble oppressed by the hatred of the
democracy. After a few feeble attempts at cross-examination, he
practically abandoned the case. The defendant himself perceived that his
position was hopeless. Before the nine days, with their terrible
impeachment, had come to an end he fled from Rome.