Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1257

Rh partly by curiosity to behold a criminal who had scourged and crucified Roman citiaens, who had respected neither local nor national shrines, and who boasted that wealth would even yet rescue the murderer, the violator, and the temple-robber from the laws of man and from the nemesis of the Gods, The provincials scrupled not to avow that if Verres were acquitted, they would petition the senate to rescind at once the laws against malversation, that so for the time to come provincial governors might plunder, merely to enrich themselves, and not also to provide the means of averting penalties which were never enforced.

The fact that of the seven Verrine orations — for the Divinatio in Caedlium belongs to them — two only, the Divinatio and the Actio Prima, were spoken, while the remaining five were compiled from the depositions after the verdict, may seem at first sight to detract from their oratorical if not from their literary value. But so perfectly has Cicero imparted to the entire series the semblance of delivery, and so rarely did the orators of anti- quity pronounce extempore speeches, that we pro- bably lose little by the course which necessity im- posed on the orator. For while following the various moods and evolutions of this great impeach- ment, it seems almost impossible to believe that Verres was not actually writhing beneath the scourge, that Hortensms was not listening in im- potent dismay, that the judices were not hurried along by the burning words and the glowing pic- tures of vice, ignominy, and crime, that the senate was not panic-struck, that the equites and the plebs were not hailing the dawn of retribution, and that the provincials were not gazing in fear and wrath upon the panorama of malversation exhibited by Cicero. In the Catilinarian orations the in- vective is perhaps more condensed, and the tone of the speech more strictly forensic : in the Phi- lippics the assault is deadlier since the struggle was internecine. But in neither does the imagin- ation of the orator embrace so wide a range of topics, expatiate so genially on whatever was col- lateral to the cause, or wield with such absolute Bway the powers of language and rhetoric as in the Verrine orations. It is almost needless to point out instances of satire, invective, argument, and description which have ever since furnished works of rhetoric with examples and the practical orator with studies in his art. A few of the most striking in each kind may be ranged under the following heads.

1. Sacrilege. The details of this crime are summed up in the peroration of the 5th book of the 2d. Pleading. The peroration itself may be com- pared with Burke's conclusion to his general charge against Warren Hastings. Special nar- ratives of sacrilege are found (ii. 1. 18, 19, 20), and throughout the oration De Signis.

2. Tampering with law and ignorance of precedents.

See the whole account De Praetura Urbana (ii. 1. 40 — 60) ; the introduction to Jurisdictio Siciliensis (ii. 2. 7 — ff.) and (ii. 3) Leges Decumanae Hieronicae.

3. Extortion of money., works of art, dec. (ii. 1 . 17, 34, 2. 6. 22—28) ; and the oration de Signis generally.

4. Corruption of morals (ii. 1 24), and the oration de Suppliciis generally.

5. Negligence in admitiistration (ii. 5. 23 — 46), and " Praetura Urbana.'"' Cicero's own division of the impeachment is the following:

rl. In Q. Caecilium or Divinatio 1. Preliminary-^ 2. Proemium — Actio Prima — • i. Statement of the Case.

These alone were spoken.

. Verres's official life to b. c. 73. . Jurisdictio Siciliensis. . Oratio Frumentaria. . De Signis. . De Suppliciis. Orations founded on the Deposi- tions.

These were circulated as documents or manifestoes of the cause after the flight of Verres. A good abstract of the Verrine Impeachment is given by Drumann {Geschichte Roms, vol. v. p. 263 — 328, Tullii.) [ W. B. D.]

VE'RRIUS FLACCUS. [Flaccus.]

VERRUCOSUS, an agnomen of Q. Fabius Maximus [Maximus, No. 4], and of Asinius Pollio, consul A. D. 81. [Pollio, No. 4.]

VERTICO'RDIA. [Venus.]

VERTUMNUS or VORTUMNUS, is said to have been an Etruscan divinity whose worship was introduced at Rome by an ancient Vulsinian colony occupying at first the Caelian hill, and afterwards the vicus Tuscus. (Propert iv. 2. 6, &c. ; Ov. Met. xiv. 642.) The name is evidently connected with veHo, and formed on the analogy of alumnus from alo, whence it must signify " the god who changes or metamorphoses himself." For this reason the Romans connected Vertumnus with all occurrences to which the verb verto applies, such as the change of seasons, purchase and sale, the return of rivers to their proper beds, &c. (Comp. Horat. Sat. ii. 7. 14.) But in reality the god was connected only with the transformation of plants, and their progress from being in blossom to that of bearing fruit. (Schol. ad Horat. Epist. i. 20. 1 ; Ascon. in Cic. Verr. i. 59 ; Propert. iv. 2. 10, &c.) Hence the story, that when Vertumnus was in love with Pomona, he assumed all possible forms, until at last he gained his end by metamorphosing himself into a blooming youth. (Propert iv. 2. 21, &c. ; Ov. I. c.) Gardeners accordingly offered to him the first produce of their gardens and garlands of budding flowers. (Propert. iv. 2. 18 and 45.) But the whole people celebrated a festival to Ver- tumnus on the 23d of August, under the name of the Vorturanalia, denoting the transition from the beautiful season of autumn to the less agreeable one. He had a temple in the vicus Tuscus, and a statue of him stood in the vicus Jugarius near the altar of Ops. (Propert. I. c. ; Cic. in Verr. i. ^d.) The story of the Etruscan origin seems to be suffi- ciently refuted by his genuine Roman name, and it is much more probable that the worship of Ver- tumnus was of Sabine origin, which in fact is im- plied in his connection with T. Tatius. (Varro, De L. L. V. 75.) The importance of the worship of Vertumnus at Rome is evident from the fact, that it was attended to by a special flamen (Jlamen Vortumnalis; see Varro, De L. L. vii. 45, with MuUer's note ; Festus, p. 379 ; Plin. H. N. xxiii. 1 ; Muller, Anc. AH and its Rem. § 404). [L. S.]

VERULA'NA GRACI'LIA. [Gracilia.]

VERULA'NUS SEVE'RUS. [Severus.]

VERUS, ATTI'LIUS, a primipili centurio, A. D. Q9. (Tac. mst. iii. 22.)

VERUS, whose other name is sometimes writ- ten Vmidius (Capitol. Anton. Pius, c. 12), and sometimes Vinidius, which different modes of