[55]
A farm belonging to the wife of Xeno
Menenius, a most noble man, had been let to a settler. The settler, because he could
not bear the oppressive conduct of the collectors, had fled from his land. Verres
gave his favourite sentence of condemnation against Xeno for not having made a return of his acres. Xenosaid that it was no business of his; that the
farm was let. Verres ordered a trial to take place according to this
formula,—“If it should appear” that there were more
acres in the farm than the settler had returned, then Xeno was to be condemned. He said not only that he had not been the
cultivator of the land, which was quite sufficient, but also that he was neither the
owner of that farm, nor the lessor of it; that it belonged to his wife; that she
herself transacted her own affairs; that she had let the land. A man of the very
highest reputation, and of the greatest authority, defended Xeno, Marcus Cossetius. Nevertheless Verres ordered
a trial, in which the penalty was fixed at eighty thousand sesterces. Xeno, although he
saw that judges were provided for him out of that band of robbers, still said that
he would stand the trial. Then that fellow, with a loud voice, so that Xeno might
hear it, orders his slaves of Venus to take care the man does not escape while the
trial is proceeding, and as soon as it is over to bring him before him. And at the
same time he said also, that he did not think that, if from his riches he
disregarded the penalty of a conviction, he would also disregard the scourge. He,
under the compulsion of this violence and this fear, paid the collectors all that
Verres commanded.
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