Although we to-day can pass a dispassionate judgment on the events of twenty centuries ago, their contemporaries, embroiled in the turmoil of unbridled passions, were not capable of so great detachment. At this point, a phenomenon occurred which neither Cicero, Hortensius, nor Verres had foreseen. Public opinion, which had been grumbling for a long time at the excesses of the oligarchical government, and which was ready to extend blind credence to such charges as the subtle propaganda of the democratic opposition devised, gave birth to one of those formidable and unexpected movements which no human force can resist. Day by day, as the evidence of the witnesses spread from the Forum through the city, was digested, embroidered, exaggerated from mouth to mouth,—in those days, conversation performed the function of newspapers, with the same defects, imprecision, and exaggeration, as the latter,—an ungovernable wave of indignation against Verres swept over Rome. No one set himself to sift the evidence dispassionately, or by subtle analysis to separate the true from the legendary. The weightier and the more terrible the charges against Verres, the more readily they found credence. Each succeeding day saw an increase in the public indignation and fury, as well as in the crowd that filled the Forum. On the day on which a witness deposed that Verres had condemned to death a Roman citizen who had in vain cried, “_Civis Romanus sum_,” such a hubbub and commotion arose among the public that the Prætor was obliged to close the sitting in hot haste, for fear of some great calamity if the case proceeded. For five, six, seven, even for ten days, Verres and his defenders faced the storm, hoping that the wind would shift, that, after the first burst of passion was spent, public opinion would veer round, regain self-control, and re-enter a state of calm, conducive to reasoning and discussion. Each morning saw the inexorable figure of Cicero at the head of a new handful of witnesses, who came to re-kindle the public indignation by revelations of new crimes and villainies, real or imaginary.