He had been Quaestor there with Verres, and had been able to watch the governor's doings.

No doubt there was--or had been in more pious days--a feeling that a Quaestor should never turn against the Proconsul under whom he had served, and to whom he had held the position almost of a son.[100] But there was less of that feeling now than heretofore.

Verres had quarrelled with his Quaestor.

Oppius was called on to defend himself against the Proconsul with whom he had served.

No one could know the doings of the governor of a province as well as his own Quaestor; and, therefore, so said Caecilius, he would be the preferable accuser.