The young advocate realised that the decisive moment of his life had come. He agreed to prosecute Verres. But what crime or crimes should he lay to his charge? At this point emerges the first strange feature in the history of this strange case. The budget of charges, recriminations, and denunciations against Verres, which the Sicilians lodged with Cicero, comprised enough and to spare of crimes of every sort, some of which were actually of a capital nature. For instance, Verres was accused of having ordered Roman citizens to execution—which was a capital offence. But what did Cicero do? He carefully singled out the least serious charge and persuaded the Sicilians to lay an indictment _de pecuniis repetundis_—to demand, that is to say, that Verres should be condemned to pay one hundred million _prezzi_ (twenty-five million francs) as a penalty for having levied unauthorised taxes. How are we to explain this forbearance? Cicero in his speeches against Verres denounces him as a monster and a wild beast. He launches the most terrible invectives against his villainies. There is no need, however, to interpret too literally his glowing periods. Not even Cicero could forget, while he was accusing Verres, that he himself and the man he was accusing belonged to the same class, and were members of the same aristocracy, which controlled the vast Roman Empire. However keen might be the indignation aroused by the misdeeds of Verres, not even the strictest section of the aristocracy would have approved too relentless a line of attack, or one which involved the accused in too serious danger. Personal hatred was a less powerful factor than the sentiment of caste and the interest each man felt in securing a mitigation of the severity of the laws in favour of his fellows, in anticipation of a similar privilege for himself when occasion might arise. Therefore Cicero acted wisely in his clients’ interests when he chose that charge which promised the least danger to the defendant; for he knew that otherwise the latter would have an easier task in escaping conviction. The weakness of the attack, however, as always happens, emboldened the accused. Verres did not hesitate one moment to make a political matter of his case. He had recourse to all the most influential members of his party. He begged Q. Hortensius, who was the greatest orator and the cleverest advocate of the day, to defend him. In every possible way, he tried to enlist in his support party interests and caste consciousness. He represented the indictment as a machination of the Democratic party, of the opposition, to bring obloquy on the party which had been restored to power by Sulla. He, Verres, was the victim, in whose person it was hoped to strike a blow at the whole of the Conservative aristocracy, and at Sulla’s life work! This view of the matter was at this juncture not unconvincing, so that Verres, when he began the struggle, found himself supported by powerful friends.