But the defence broke down altogether, in the fashion thus described by Cicero himself.

"In that one hour in which I spoke"-- this was the speech which we designate as the Actio Prima contra Verrem, the first pleading made against Verres, to which we shall come just now--"I took away all hope of bribing the judges from the accused--from this brazen-faced, rich, dissolute, and abandoned man.

On the first day of the trial, on the mere calling of the names of the witnesses, the people of Rome were able to perceive that if this criminal were absolved, then there could be no chance for the Republic.

On the second day his friends and advocates had not only lost all hope of gaining their cause, but all relish for going on with it.
The third day so paralyzed the man himself that he had to bethink himself not what sort of reply he could make, but how he could escape the necessity of replying by pretending to be ill."[98] It was in this way that the trial was brought to an end.
But we must go back to the beginning.

When an accusation was to be made against some great Roman of the day on account of illegal public misdoings, as was to be made now against Verres, the conduct of the case, which would require probably great labor and expense, and would give scope for the display of oratorical excellence, was regarded as a task in which a young aspirant to public favor might obtain honor and by which he might make himself known to the people.