[11]
In this cause, O judges, although I think both these points plain, yet I will dilate
upon each, and first on that which ought to have the greatest influence with you, that
is to say, on the inclination of those to whom the injuries have been done; of those for
whose sake this trial for extortion has been instituted. Caius Verres is said for three
years to have depopulated the province of Sicily, to have desolated the cities of the Sicilians, to have made the
houses empty, to have plundered the temples. The whole nation of the Sicilians is
present, and complains of this. They fly for protection to my good faith, which they
have proved and long known; they entreat assistance for themselves from you and from the
laws of the Roman people through my instrumentality; they desire me to be their defender
in these their calamities; they desire me to be the avenger of their injuries, the
advocate of their rights, and the pleader of their whole cause.
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