That Verres, hog as he is described to have been, had a passion for these things, is manifest to us.

He came to his death at last in defence of some favorite images.
He had returned to Rome by means of Caesar's amnesty, and Marc Antony had him murdered because he would not surrender some treasures of art.

When we read the De Signis--About Statues--we are led to imagine that the search after these things was the chief object of the man throughout his three years of office--as we have before been made to suppose that all his mind and time had been devoted to the cheating of the Sicilians in the matter of corn.

But though Verres loved these trinkets, it was not altogether for himself that he sought them.

Only one third of his plunder was for himself.