4. The year 70 B.C. is memorable for the group of speeches ('accusationis vii. libri,' _Orat._ 103), against Verres, accused of _repetundae_ by the Sicilians, at whose urgent entreaty Cicero undertook the prosecution. The preliminary question, who should conduct the prosecution, is argued in the _Divinatio in Caecilium_. Q. Caecilius Niger, Verres' quaestor, claimed the right to prosecute, but this manoeuvre failed. Of the six speeches _in Verrem_ only one, the _Actio Prima_, was delivered: Cicero, seeing that the other side were anxious to carry the trial over into the next year, confined himself to this short introductory speech (on 5th August, cf. § 31), after which he called his witnesses. Their evidence was so damaging that Hortensius[25] threw up the defence, and Verres was sentenced to banishment and his property confiscated. The five Books of the _Actio Secunda_ were published afterwards in order that the facts might be thoroughly known. 5. _Pro M. Fonteio_ (incomplete), for Fonteius, propraetor of Gallia Narbonensis B.C. 75-3, on a charge of _repetundae_. This trial perhaps took place B.C. 69, certainly after the equites had been placed on the _iudicia_ by the Lex Aurelia of 70 (cf. § 26). 6. To the same year probably belongs the speech _Pro Caecina_ in a civil case. 7. In B.C. 66 Cicero made his first political speech, _Pro Lege Manilia_, or _De Imperio Cn. Pompei_, in support of the bill of the tribune Manilius for conferring on Pompey the command against Mithradates. 8. In the same year he defended Cluentius, charged with murder, in the speech _Pro A. Cluentio Habito_. The date is fixed as the year of Cicero's praetorship by § 147, 'mea quaestio de pecuniis repetundis.' 9. The three speeches _De Lege Agraria_ are concerned with the bill of P. Servilius Rullus for the appointment of _decemviri_ with full power to buy and sell land and to establish colonies. The first speech (incomplete) was made in the Senate on 1st January, the second and third before _contiones_. 10. The speech _Pro C. Rabirio perduellionis reo_ was delivered on behalf of Rabirius, charged before the _comitia_ with the murder of the tribune Saturninus in B.C. 100. The prosecution had been instituted by the democratic party to vindicate the old right of _provocatio ad populum_, and to establish the inviolability of the tribunes. 11. Of the four speeches _In Catilinam_, i. was delivered in the Senate on 8th November, and followed by Catiline's flight from Rome; ii. to the people on 9th November; iii. to the people on 3rd December, when the Allobroges gave their evidence about the conspiracy; iv. in the Senate, on 5th December, calling for the capital punishment of the conspirators.[26] 12. In this crisis Cicero made one of his most graceful and witty speeches, the _Pro Murena_. The defendant was charged with bribery in his candidature for the consulship, and among the prosecutors was Cato.