nothing could be more convenient. The provinces were so large, and
the Greek spirit of commercial enterprise which prevailed in them so
lively, that there was room for plunder ample, at any rate, for a
generation or two. The Republic boasted that, in its love of pure
justice, it had provided by certain laws for the protection of its
allied subjects against any possible faults of administration on the
part of its own officers. If any injury were done to a province, or a
city, or even to an individual, the province, or city, or individual
could bring its grievance to the ivory chair of the Praetor in Rome
and demand redress; and there had been cases not a few in which a
delinquent officer had been condemned to banishment. Much, indeed, was
necessary before the scheme as it was found to exist by Verres could
work itself into perfection. Verres felt that in his time everything
had been done for security as well as splendor. He would have all the
great officers of State on his side. The Sicilians, if he could manage
the case as he thought it might be managed, would not have a leg to
stand upon. There was many a trick within his power before they could
succeed in making good even their standing before the Praetor. It was
in this condition of things that Cicero bethought himself that he
might at one blow break through the corruption of the judgment-seat,
and this he determined to do by subjecting the judges to the light of
public opinion. If Verres could be tried under a bushel, as it were,
in the dark, as many others had been tried, so that little or nothing
should be said about the trial in the city at large, then there would
be no danger for the judges. It could only be by shaming them, by
making them understand that Rome would become too hot to hold them,
that they could be brought to give a verdict against the accused. This
it was that Cicero determined to effect, and did effect. And we see
throughout the whole pleadings that he was concerned in the matter not
only for the Sicilians, or against Verres. Could something be done for