He himself, when Quaestor, had robbed the people in the collection of the corn dues, and was unable therefore to include that matter in his accusation.

"You can bring no charge against him on this head, lest it be seen that you were a partner with him in the business."[106] He ridicules him as to his personal insufficiency.
"What, Caecilius! as to those practices of the profession without which an action such as this cannot be carried on, do you think that there is nothing in them?
Need there be no skill in the business, no habit of speaking, no familiarity with the Forum, with the judgment-seats, and the laws ?"[107] "I know well how difficult the ground is.

Let me advise you to look into yourself, and to see whether you are able to do that kind of thing.

Have you got voice for it, prudence, memory, wit?
Are you able to expose the life of Verres, as it must be done, to divide it into parts and make everything clear?
In doing all this, though nature should have assisted you"-- as it has not at all, is of course implied--"if from your earliest childhood you had been imbued with letters; if you had learned Greek at Athens instead of at Lilybaeum--Latin in Rome instead of in Sicily--still would it not be a task beyond your strength to undertake such a case, so widely thought of, to complete it by your industry, and then to grasp it in your memory; to make it plain by your eloquence, and to support it with voice and strength sufficient?
'Have I these gifts,' you will ask.

Would that I had! But from my childhood I have done all that I could to attain them."[108] Cicero makes his points so well that I would fain go through the whole speech, were it not that a similar reason might induce me to give abridgments of all his speeches.