We reached the house, and Quintus and Lucius tried to amuse him by picturing the responses of Verres and Hortensius when they learned that a charge had been laid: the slave running back from the forum with the news, Verres turning white, a crisis meeting summoned. But Cicero would have none of it. I guessed he was thinking of the warning Servilia had given him, and the way Hortensius and Verres had laughed at him on inauguration day. ‘They knew this was coming,’ he said. ‘They have a plan. The question is: what? Do they know our evidence is too weak? Is Glabrio in their pocket? What?’
The answer was in his hands before the morning was out. It came in the form of a writ from the extortion court, served upon him by one of Glabrio’s lictors. He took it with a frown, broke open the seal, read it quickly, and then said a soft ‘Ah …’
‘What is it?’ asked Lucius.
‘The court has received a second application to prosecute Verres.’
‘That is impossible,’ said Quintus. ‘Who else would want to do that?’
‘A senator,’ replied Cicero, studying the writ. ‘Caecilius Niger.’
‘I know him,’ piped up Sthenius. ‘He was Verres’s quaestor, in the year before I had to flee the island. It was rumoured that he and the governor quarrelled over money.’
‘Hortensius has informed the court that Verres has no objection to being prosecuted by Caecilius, on the grounds that he seeks “personal redress”, whereas I, apparently, merely seek “public notoriety”.’
We all looked at one another in dismay. Months of work seemed to be turning to dust.
‘It is clever,’ said Cicero ruefully. ‘You have to say that for Hortensius. What a clever devil he is! I assumed he would try to have the whole case dismissed without a hearing. I never imagined that instead he would seek to control the prosecution as well as the defence.’
‘But he cannot do that!’ spluttered Quintus. ‘Roman justice is the fairest system in the world!’
‘My dear Quintus,’ replied Cicero, with such patronising sarcasm it made me wince, ‘where do you find these slogans? In nursery books? Do you suppose that Hortensius has dominated the Roman bar for the best part of twenty years by playing fair? This is a writ. I am summoned before the extortion court tomorrow morning to argue why I should be allowed to bring the prosecution rather than Caecilius. I have to plead my worth before Glabrio and a full jury. A jury, let me remind you, that will be composed of thirty-two senators, many of whom, you may be sure, will recently have received a new year’s gift of bronze or marble.’
‘But we Sicilians are the victims!’ exclaimed Sthenius. ‘Surely it must be for us to decide whom we wish to have as our advocate?’
‘Not at all. The prosecutor is the official appointee of the court, and as such a representative of the Roman people. Your opinions are of interest, but they are not decisive.’
‘So we are finished?’ asked Quintus plaintively.
‘No,’ said Cicero, ‘we are not finished,’ and already I could see that some of the old fight was coming back into him, for nothing roused him to greater energy than the thought of being outwitted by Hortensius. ‘And if we are finished, well then, at least let us go down with a fight. I shall start preparing my speech, and you, Quintus, will see if you can prepare me a crowd. Call in every favour. Why not give them your line about Roman justice being the fairest in the world, and see if you can persuade a couple of respectable senators to escort me to the forum? Some might even believe it. When I step up to that tribunal tomorrow, I want Glabrio to feel that the whole of Rome is watching him.’
NO ONE CAN really claim to know politics properly until he has stayed up all night, writing a speech for delivery the following day. While the world sleeps, the orator paces around by lamplight, wondering what madness ever brought him to this occupation in the first place. Arguments are prepared and discarded. Versions of openings and middle sections and perorations lie in drifts across the floor. The exhausted mind ceases to have any coherent grip upon the purpose of the enterprise, so that often – usually an hour or two after midnight – there comes a point where failing to turn up, feigning illness and hiding at home seem the only realistic options. And then, somehow, under pressure of panic, just as humiliation beckons, the parts cohere, and there it is: a speech. A second-rate orator now retires gratefully to bed. A Cicero stays up and commits it to memory.
Taking only a little fruit and cheese and some diluted wine to sustain him, this was the process Cicero went through that evening. Once he had the sections in order, he released me to get some sleep, but I do not believe that he saw his own bed for even an hour. At dawn he washed in freezing-cold water to revive himself and dressed with care. When I went in to see him, just before we left for court, he was as restless as any prizefighter limbering up in the ring, flexing his shoulders and rocking from side to side on the balls of his feet.
Quintus had done his job well, and immediately the door was opened we were greeted by a noisy crowd of well-wishers, jammed right the way up the street. In addition to the ordinary people of Rome, three or four senators with a particular interest in Sicily had turned out to demonstrate their support. I remember the taciturn Gnaeus Marcellinus, the righteous Calpurnius Piso Frugi – who had been praetor in the same year as Verres, and despised him as a scoundrel – and at least one member of the Marcelli clan, the traditional patrons of the island. Cicero waved from the doorstep, hoisted up Tullia and gave her one of his resounding kisses, and showed her to his supporters. Then he returned her to her mother, with whom he exchanged a rare public embrace, before Quintus, Lucius and I cleared a passage for him and he thrust his way into the centre of the throng.
I tried to wish him luck, but by then, as so often before a big speech, he was unreachable. He looked at people but he did not see them. He was primed for action, playing out some inner drama, rehearsed since childhood, of the lone patriot, armed only with his voice, confronting everything that was corrupt and despicable in the state. As if sensing their part in this fantastic pageant the crowd gradually swelled in number, so that by the time we reached the Temple of Castor there must have been two or three hundred to clap him vigorously into court. Glabrio was already in his place between the great pillars of the temple, as were the panel of jurors, among whom sat the menacing spectre of Catulus himself. I could see Hortensius on the bench reserved for distinguished spectators, examining his beautifully manicured hands and looking as calm as a summer morning. Next to him, also very easy with himself, was a man in his mid-forties with reddish, bristling hair and a freckled face, whom I realised must be Gaius Verres. It was curious for me actually to set eyes on this monster, who had occupied our thoughts for so long, and to find him so ordinary-looking – more fox, in fact, than boar.
Two chairs had been put out for the contesting prosecutors. Caecilius was already seated, with a bundle of notes in his lap, and did not look up when Cicero arrived, but nervously preoccupied himself with study. The court was called to order and Glabrio told Cicero that he, as the original applicant, must go first – a significant disadvantage. Cicero shrugged and rose, waited for absolute quiet, and started slowly as usual, saying that he assumed people might be surprised to see him in this role, as he had never before sought to enter any arena as a prosecutor. He had not wanted to do it now, he said. Indeed, privately he had urged the Sicilians to give the job to Caecilius. (I almost gasped at that.) But in truth, he said, he was not doing it simply for the Sicilians. ‘What I am doing I do for the sake of my country.’ And very deliberately he walked across the court to where Verres was sitting and slowly raised his arm to point at him. ‘Here is a human monster of unparalleled greed, impudence and wickedness. If I bring this man to judgement, who can find fault with me for doing this? Tell me, in the name of all that is just and holy, what better service I can do my country at the present time!’ Verres was not in the least put out, but grinned defiantly at Cicero, and shook his head. Cicero stared at him with contempt for a while longer, then turned to face the
jury. ‘The charge against Gaius Verres is that during a period of three years he has laid waste the province of Sicily – that he has plundered Sicilian communities, stripped bare Sicilian homes, and pillaged Sicilian temples. Could all Sicily speak with a single voice, this is what she would say: “All the gold, all the silver, all the beautiful things that once were in my cities, houses and temples: all these things you, Verres, have plundered and stolen from me; and on this account I sue you in accordance with the law for the sum of one million sesterces!” These are the words all Sicily would utter, if she could speak with a single voice, and as she cannot, she has chosen me to conduct her case for her. So what incredible impudence it is that you’ – and now he finally turned to Caecilius – ‘should dare to try to undertake their case when they have already said they will not have you!’
He strolled across to Caecilius, and stood behind him. He gave an exaggerated sigh of sadness. ‘I am now going to speak to you as one friend to another,’ he said, and patted Caecilius’s shoulder, so that his rival had to twist round in his seat to see him – a fidgety movement which drew a good deal of laughter. ‘I earnestly advise you to examine your own mind. Recollect yourself. Think of what you are, and what you are fit for. This prosecution is a very formidable and a very painful undertaking. Have you the powers of voice and memory? Have you the intelligence and the ability to sustain such a burden? Even if you had the advantage of great natural gifts, even if you had received a thorough education, could you hope to stand the strain? We shall find out this morning. If you can reply to what I am now saying, if you can use one single expression that is not contained in some book of extracts compiled from other people’s speeches and given to you by your schoolteacher, then perhaps you will not be a failure at the actual trial.’
He moved towards the centre of the court, and now he addressed the crowd in the forum as well as the jury. ‘“Well,” you may say, “what if that is so? Do you then possess all these qualities yourself?” Would that I did, indeed! Still, I have done my best, and worked hard from boyhood, in order to acquire them if I could. Everyone knows that my life has centred around the forum and the law courts; that few men, if any, of my age have defended more cases; that all the time I can spare from the business of my friends I spend in the study and hard work which this profession demands, to make myself fitter and readier for forensic practice. Yet even I, when I think of the great day when the accused man is summoned to appear and I have to make my speech, am not only anxious, but tremble physically from head to foot. You, Caecilius, have no such fears, no such thoughts, no such anxieties. You imagine that, if you can learn by heart a phrase or two out of some old speech, like “I beseech almighty and most merciful God” or “I could wish, gentlemen, had it only been possible”, you will be excellently prepared for your entrance into court.
‘Caecilius, you are nothing, and you count for nothing. Hortensius will destroy you! But he will never crush me with his cleverness. He will never lead me astray by any display of ingenuity. He will never employ his great powers to weaken and dislodge me from my position.’ He looked towards Hortensius, and bowed to him in mock humility, to which Hortensius responded by standing and bowing back, eliciting more laughter. ‘I am well acquainted with all this gentleman’s methods of attack,’ continued Cicero, ‘and all his oratorical devices. However capable he may be, he will feel, when he comes to speak against me, that the trial is among other things a trial of his own capacities. And I give the gentleman fair warning well beforehand, that if you decide that I am to conduct this case, he will have to make a radical change in his methods of defence. If I conduct the case, he will have no reason to think that the court can be bribed without serious danger to a large number of people.’
The mention of bribery produced a brief uproar, and brought the normally equable Hortensius to his feet, but Cicero waved him back into his place. On and on he went, his rhetoric hammering down upon his opponents like the ringing blows of a blacksmith in a forge. I shall not quote it all: the speech, which lasted at least an hour, is readily available for those who wish to read it. He smashed away at Verres for his corruption, and at Caecilius for his previous links with Verres, and at Hortensius for desiring a second-rate opponent. And he concluded by challenging the senators themselves, walking over to the jury and looking each of them in the eye. ‘It rests with you, then, gentlemen, to choose the man whom you think best qualified by good faith, industry, sagacity and weight of character to maintain this great case before this great court. If you give Quintus Caecilius the preference over me, I shall not think I have been beaten by the better man. But Rome may think that an honourable, strict and energetic prosecutor like myself was not what you desired, and not what senators would ever desire.’ He paused, his gaze coming to rest at last on Catulus, who stared straight back at him, and then he said very quietly: ‘Gentlemen, see that this does not happen.’
There was loud applause, and now it was Caecilius’s turn. He had risen from very humble origins, much more humble than Cicero’s, and he was not entirely without merit. One could even say he had some prior claim to prosecute, especially when he began by pointing out that his father had been a freed Sicilian slave, that he had been born in the province, and that the island was the place he loved most in the world. But his speech was full of statistics about falling agricultural production and Verres’s system of accounting. He sounded peevish rather than impassioned. Worse, he read it all out from notes, and in a monotone, so that when, after an hour, he approached his peroration, Cicero slumped to one side and pretended to fall asleep. Caecilius, who was facing the jury and therefore could not see what everyone was laughing at, was seriously knocked off his stride. He struggled through to the end and then sat down, crimson with embarrassment and rage.
In terms of rhetoric, Cicero had scored a victory of annihilating proportions. But as the voting tablets were passed among the jury, and the clerk of the court stood ready with his urn to collect them, Cicero knew, he told me afterwards, that he had lost. Of the thirty-two senators, he recognised at least a dozen firm enemies, and only half as many friends. The decision, as usual, would rest with the floaters in the middle, and he could see that many of these were craning their necks for a signal from Catulus, intent on following his lead. Catulus marked his tablet, showed it to the men on either side of him, then dropped it in the urn. When everyone had voted, the clerk took the urn over to the bench, and in full view of the court tipped it out and began counting the tablets. Hortensius, abandoning his pretence of coolness, was on his feet, and so was Verres, trying to see how the tally was going. Cicero sat as still as a statue. Caecilius was hunched in his chair. All around me people who made a habit of attending the courts and knew the procedure as well as the judges were whispering that it was close, that they were re-counting. Eventually the clerk passed the tally up to Glabrio, who stood and called for silence. The voting, he said, was fourteen for Cicero – my heart stopped: he had lost! – thirteen for Caecilius, with five abstentions, and that Marcus Tullius Cicero was therefore appointed special prosecutor (nominis delator) in the case of Gaius Verres. As the spectators applauded and Hortensius and Verres sat down stunned, Glabrio told Cicero to stand and raise his right hand, and then had him swear the traditional oath to conduct the prosecution in good faith.
The moment that was finished, Cicero made an application for an adjournment. Hortensius swiftly rose to object: why was this necessary? Cicero said he wished to travel to Sicily to subpoena evidence and witnesses. Hortensius interrupted to say it was outrageous for Cicero to demand the right to prosecute, only to reveal in his next breath that he lacked an adequate case to bring to court! This was a valid point, and for the first time I realised how unconfident Cicero must be of the strength of his position. Glabrio seemed inclined to agree with Hortensius, but Cicero pleaded that it was only now, since Verres had left his province, that his victims felt it safe to speak out. Glabrio pondered the issue, checked the calendar, then announced, reluctant
ly, that the case would stand adjourned for one hundred and ten days. ‘But be sure you are ready to open immediately after the spring recess,’ he warned Cicero. And with that, the court was dismissed.
TO HIS SURPRISE, Cicero later discovered that he owed his victory to Catulus. This hard and snobbish old senator was, nevertheless, a patriot to his marrow, which was why his opinions commanded such respect. He took the view that the people had the right, under the ancient laws, to see Verres subjected to the most rigorous prosecution available, even though Verres was a friend of his. Family obligations to his brother-in-law, Hortensius, naturally prevented him from voting for Cicero outright, so instead he abstained, taking four waverers with him.
Grateful to be still in ‘the Boar Hunt’, as he called it, and delighted to have outwitted Hortensius, Cicero now flung himself into the business of preparing his expedition to Sicily. Verres’s official papers were sealed by the court under an order obsignandi gratia. Cicero laid a motion before the senate demanding that the former governor submit his official accounts for the past three years (he never did). Letters were dispatched to every large town on the island, inviting them to submit evidence. I reviewed our files and extracted the names of all the leading citizens who had offered Cicero hospitality when he was a junior magistrate, for we would need accommodation throughout the province. Cicero also wrote a courtesy letter to the governor, Lucius Metellus, informing him of his visit and requesting official cooperation – not that he expected anything other than official harassment, but he reasoned it might be useful to have the notification in writing, to show that he had at least tried. He decided to take his cousin with him – Lucius having worked on the case for six months already – and to leave his brother behind to manage his election campaign. I was to go, too, along with both of my juniors, Sositheus and Laurea, for there would be much copying and note-taking. The former praetor, Calpurnius Piso Frugi, offered Cicero the services of his eighteen-year-old son, Gaius – a young man of great intelligence and charm, to whom everyone soon took a liking. At Quintus’s insistence, we also acquired four strong and reliable slaves, ostensibly to act as porters and drivers, but also to serve as bodyguards. It was lawless country down in the south at that time – many of Spartacus’s followers still survived in the hills; there were pirates; and no one could be sure what measures Verres might adopt.