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Elementary Latin II
(LATIN 132)

Professor Ortwin Knorr
Classical Studies Program

 Email: oknorrATwillamette.edu
Phone: x6029
Mailbox: 107 Eaton

Answer Key to the Reading Exercise/Test Exercise GVE pp. 295-96

And so, Gavius is brought [or historical present: was brought] to the magistrate of Messana at once, and on the very same day, by chance, Verres himself came to Messana. The matter is reported to him, (namely) that there is a Roman citizen who complains that he was in Syracuse in the stone-quarries. As he was already boarding a ship and threatening Verres too fiercely, (they said) he had been dragged back and kept under guard by them. ... He thanks the men and praises their good will towards him; (then) he went himself, inflamed by (anger over) the crime and by rage, to the marketplace; his eyes were burning, cruelty projected from his entire face. ... Suddenly, he orders that the man be dragged forward, that he be undressed in the middle of the marketplace and tied down, and that the rods be readied. That poor man repeatedly shouted that he was a Roman citizen, a citizen of the municipium Consa; that he had served with Lucius Raecius, a most distinguished Roman knight, who was doing business in Panhormus [= Palermo] (and) from whom Verres could find out about these things. Then this rascal (said) that he had learned that he (Gavius) had been sent to Sicily by the leaders of the deserters. ... Then he commands that the man be beaten most violently from all sides. In the middle of the marketplace of Messana, a Roman citizen was beaten with rods, gentlemen of the jury; all the while, no groan, no other sound was heard from that poor man amidst the pain and the noise of the blows except this one, "I am a Roman citizen!" With this mentioning of his citizenship, he believed he would prevent all blows and drive away the torture from his body. Not only could he not bring this about, namely ward off the force of the rods, but when he implored more frequently and used the name of his citizenship (more frequently), the cross – the cross, I say! – was made ready for the unlucky and miserable man who had never (even) seen this (kind of) bane. (Cicero, Against Verres II 5, 62. 160-62)