It is thus that he begins: "Not by human wisdom, O ye judges, but by chance, and by the aid, as it were, of the gods themselves, an event has come to pass by which the hatred now felt for your order, and the infamy attached to the judgment seat, may be appeased; for an opinion has gone abroad, disgraceful to the Republic, full of danger to yourselves--which is in the mouths of all men not only here in Rome but through all nations--that by these courts as they are now constituted, a man, if he be only rich enough, will never be condemned, though he be ever so guilty." What an exordium with which to begin a forensic pleading before a bench of judges composed of Praetors, AEdiles, and coming Consuls! And this at a time, too, when men's minds were still full of Sulla's power; when some were thinking that they too might be Sullas; while the idea was still strong that a few nobles ought to rule the Roman Empire for their own advantage and their own luxury! What words to address to a Metellus, a Catulus, and a Marcellus! I have brought before you such a wretch, he goes on to say, that by a just judgment upon him you can recover your favor with the people of Rome, and your credit with other nations.

"This is a trial in which you, indeed, will have to judge this man who is accused, but in which also the Roman people will have to judge you.

By what is done to him will be determined whether a man who is guilty, and at the same time rich, can possibly be condemned in Rome.[111]If the matter goes amiss here, all men will declare, not that better men should be selected out of your order, which would be impossible, but that another order of citizens must be named from which to select the judges."[112] This short speech was made.

The witnesses were examined during nine days; then Hortensius, with hardly a struggle at a reply, gave way, and Verres stood condemned by his own verdict.
When the trial was over, and Verres had consented to go into exile, and to pay whatever fine was demanded, the "perpetua oratio" which Cicero thought good to make on the matter was published to the world.

It is written as though it was to have been spoken, with counterfeit tricks of oratory--with some tricks so well done in the first part of it as to have made one think that, when these special words were prepared, he must have intended to speak them.