Let him advise us to attack the Cretans; to pronounce the Greeks of Byzantium free; to declare Ptolemy King.[120] Let him speak and vote as Hortensius may direct.

This will have but little effect upon our lives or our property.

But beyond this there is something we must look to; something that would be distrusted; something that every good man has to fear! If by chance this man should escape out of our hands, he would have to sit there upon that bench and be a judge.
He would be called upon to pronounce on the lives of a Roman citizen.

He would be the right-hand officer in the army of this man here,[121] of this man who is striving to be the lord and ruler of our judgment-seats.
The people of Rome at least refuse this! This at least cannot be endured!" The third of these narratives tells us how Verres managed in his province that provision of corn for the use of Rome, the collection of which made the possession of Sicily so important to the Romans.

He begins with telling his readers--as he does too frequently--how great and peculiar is the task he has undertaken; and he uses an argument of which we cannot but admit the truth, though we doubt whether any modern advocate would dare to put it forward.