Verres pleaded guilty, as we should say, which, in accordance with the usages of the court, he was enabled to do by retiring and going into voluntary banishment.

This he did, sooner than stand his ground and listen to the narration of his iniquities as it would be given by Cicero in the full speech--the "perpetua oratio"-- which would follow the examination of the witnesses.

What the orator said before the examination of the witnesses was very short.

He had to husband his time, as it was a part of the grand scheme of Hortensius to get adjournment after adjournment because of certain sacred rites and games, during the celebration of which the courts could not sit.

All this was arranged for in the scheme; but Cicero, in order that he might baffle the schemers, got through his preliminary work as quickly as possible, saying all that he had to say about the manner of the trial, about the judges, about the scheme, but dilating very little on the iniquities of the criminal.