[8]
You
are fond of Verres: I suppose so. If you are not gratified with his virtue, and his
innocence, and his industry, and his modesty, and his chastity, at least you are
transported at his conversation, his accomplishments, and his high breeding. He has
no such gifts; but, on the contrary, all his qualities are stained with the most
extreme disgrace and infamy, with most extraordinary stupidity and boorishness. If
any man's house is open to this man, do you think it is open, or rather that it is
yawning and begging something? He is a favourite of your factors, of your valets.
Your freedmen, your slaves, your housemaids, are in love with him. He, when he
calls, is introduced out of his turn; he alone is admitted, while others, often most
virtuous men, are excluded. From which it is very easily understood that those
people are the most dear to you who have lived in such a manner that without your
protection they cannot be safe.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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