The jury returned an unanimous verdict of guilty, and the prisoner was condemned to banishment and to pay a fine.  The place of banishment (which he was apparently allowed to select outside certain limits) was Marseilles.  The amount of the fine we do not know.  It certainly was not enough to impoverish him.

Much of the money, and many of the works of art which he had stolen were left to him.  These latter, by a singularly just retribution, proved his ruin in the end.  After the death of Cicero, Antony permitted the exiles to return.  Verres came with them, bringing back his treasures of art, and was put to death because they excited the cupidity of the masters of Rome.

CHAPTER V.

A GREAT ROMAN CAUSE.

There were various courts at Rome for persons accused of various crimes.  One judge, for instance, used to try charges of poisoning; another, charges of murder; and, just as is the case among us, each judge had a jury, who gave their verdict on the evidence which they had heard.  But this verdict was not, as with us, the verdict of the whole jury, given only if all can be induced to agree, but of the majority.  Each juryman wrote his opinion on a little tablet of wood, putting A. (absolvo, “I acquit”) if he thought the accused innocent, K. (condemno, “I condemn”) if he thought him guilty, and N.L. (non liquet, “It is not clear”) if the case seemed suspicious, though there was not enough evidence to convict.

In the year 66 B.C. a very strange trial took place in the Court of Poison Cases.  A certain Cluentius was accused of having poisoned his step-father, Oppianicus, and various other persons.  Cicero, who was praetor that year (the praetor was the magistrate next in rank to the consul), defended Cluentius, and told his client’s whole story.

Cluentius and his step-father were both natives of Larinum, a town in Apulia, where there was a famous temple of Mars.  A dispute about the property of this temple caused an open quarrel between the two men, who had indeed been enemies for some years.  Oppianicus took up the case of some slaves, who were called Servants of Mars, declaring that they were not slaves at all, but Roman citizens.  This he did, it would seem, because he desired to annoy his fellow-townsmen, with whom he was very unpopular.  The people of Larinum, who were very much interested in all that concerned the splendor of their temple services, resisted the claim, and asked Cluentius to plead their case.  Cluentius consented.  While the cause was going on, it occurred to Oppianicus to get rid of his opponent by poison.  He employed an agent, and the agent put the matter into the hands of his freedman, a certain Scamander.  Scamander tried to accomplish his object by bribing the slave of the physician who was attending Cluentius.  The physician was a needy Greek, and his slave had probably hard and scanty fare; but he was an honest