some were thinking that they too might be Sullas; while the idea was
still strong that a few nobles ought to rule the Roman Empire for
their own advantage and their own luxury! What words to address to a
Metellus, a Catulus, and a Marcellus! I have brought before you such
a wretch, he goes on to say, that by a just judgment upon him you can
recover your favor with the people of Rome, and your credit with other
nations. "This is a trial in which you, indeed, will have to judge
this man who is accused, but in which also the Roman people will have
to judge you. By what is done to him will be determined whether a man
who is guilty, and at the same time rich, can possibly be condemned
in Rome.[111]If the matter goes amiss here, all men will declare, not
that better men should be selected out of your order, which would be
impossible, but that another order of citizens must be named from
which to select the judges."[112] This short speech was made. The
witnesses were examined during nine days; then Hortensius, with hardly
a struggle at a reply, gave way, and Verres stood condemned by his own
verdict.

When the trial was over, and Verres had consented to go into exile,
and to pay whatever fine was demanded, the "perpetua oratio" which
Cicero thought good to make on the matter was published to the world.
It is written as though it was to have been spoken, with counterfeit
tricks of oratory--with some tricks so well done in the first part
of it as to have made one think that, when these special words were
prepared, he must have intended to speak them. It has been agreed,
however, that such was not the case. It consists of a narration of the
villainies of Verres, and is divided into what have been called five
different speeches, to which the following appellations are given: De
Praetura Urbana, in which we are told what Verres did when he was city
Praetor, and very many things also which he did before he came to that