touch which, not unreasonably, surprises us as having endured for so
many hundred years. That poetry should remain to us, even lines so
vapid as some of those in which Ovid sung of love, seems to be more
natural, because verses, though they be light, must have been labored.
But these words spoken by Cicero seem almost to ring in our ears as
having come to us direct from a man's lips. We see the anger gathering
on the brow of Hortensius, followed by a look of acknowledged defeat.
We see the startled attention of the judges as they began to feel that
in this case they must depart from their intended purpose. We can
understand how Caecilius cowered, and found consolation in being
relieved from his task. We can fancy how Verres suffered--Verres
whom no shame could have touched--when all his bribes were becoming
inefficient under the hands of the orator.

Cicero was chosen for the task, and then the real work began. The
work as he did it was certainly beyond the strength of any ordinary
advocate. It was necessary that he should proceed to Sicily to obtain
the evidence which was to be collected over the whole island. He must
rate up, too, all the previous details of the life of this robber. He
must be thoroughly prepared to meet the schemers on every point. He
asked for a hundred and ten days for the purpose of getting up his
case, but he took only fifty. We must imagine that, as he became more
thoroughly versed in the intrigues of his adversaries, new lights came
upon him. Were he to use the whole time allotted to him, or even half
the time, and then make such an exposition of the criminal as he would
delight to do were he to indulge himself with that "perpetua oratio"
of which we hear, then the trial would be protracted till the coming
of certain public games, during which the courts would not sit. There
seem to have been three sets of games in his way--a special set for
this year, to be given by Pompey, which were to last fifteen days;