other age must be considered before the character of a man can be
discovered. The boastings of Cicero have been preserved for us. We
have to bethink ourselves that his words are 2000 years old. There
is such a touch of humanity in them, such a feeling of latter-day
civilization and almost of Christianity, that we are apt to condemn
what remains in them of paganism, as though they were uttered
yesterday. When we come to the coarseness of his attacks, his
descriptions of Piso by-and-by, his abuse of Gabinius, and his
invectives against Antony; when we read his altered opinions, as shown
in the period of Caesar's dominion, his flattery of Caesar when in
power, and his exultations when Caesar has been killed; when we find
that he could be coarse in his language and a bully, and servile--for
it has all to be admitted--we have to reflect under what
circumstances, under what surroundings, and for what object were used
the words which displease us. Speaking before the full court at this
trial, he dared to say he knew how to live as a man and to carry
himself as a gentleman. As men and gentlemen were then, he was
justified.

The description of Verres's rapacity in regard to the corn tax is long
and complex, and need hardly be followed at length, unless by those
who desire to know how the iniquity of such a one could make the most
of an imposition which was in itself very bad, and pile up the burden
till the poor province was unable to bear it. There were three kinds
of imposition as to corn. The first, called the "decumanum," was
simply a tithe.

The producers through the island had to furnish Rome with a tenth of
their produce, and it was the Praetor's duty, or rather that of the
Quaestor under the Praetor, to see that the tithe was collected. How