Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53-86. Latin Text with Introduction, Study Questions, Commentary and English Translation

Everything about this book makes it immediately and brilliantly valuable and exciting for the student of Latin and Cicero, and teachers of A Level Latin have much reason to thank Professor Gildenhard.

— Stephen Jenkin, The Classics Library

Looting, despoiling temples, attempted rape and judicial murder: these are just some of the themes of this classic piece of writing by one of the world’s greatest orators. This particular passage is from the second book of Cicero’s Speeches against Verres, who was a former Roman magistrate on trial for serious misconduct. Cicero presents the lurid details of Verres’ alleged crimes in exquisite and sophisticated prose.
This volume provides a portion of the original text of Cicero’s speech in Latin, a detailed commentary, study aids, and a translation. As a literary artefact, the speech gives us insight into how the supreme master of Latin eloquence developed what we would now call rhetorical "spin". As an historical document, it provides a window into the dark underbelly of Rome’s imperial expansion and exploitation of the Near East.
Ingo Gildenhard’s illuminating commentary on this A-Level set text will be of particular interest to students of Latin at both high school and undergraduate level. It will also be a valuable resource to Latin teachers and to anyone interested in Cicero, language and rhetoric, and the legal culture of Ancient Rome.

I welcome feedback on this edition, critical and otherwise, as well as suggestions of what further supplementary material or digital resources could be made available on this website. Please leave your comments in the comment tab on this site, or email me directly at ig297@cam.ac.uk.

This book has been featured on a number of websites and blogs including The Stoa Consortium, the Association for Latin Teaching (ARLT) and The Classics Library.

Cicero, Against Verres is also available in web version at Dickinson College Commentaries.

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Ingo Gildenhard is Reader in Classics and the Classical Tradition at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of King’s College Cambridge. Ingo specializes in Latin literature (with a special emphasis on Cicero, Virgil, and Ovid); Roman culture (especially the political culture of the Roman republic and early principate); the classical tradition and literary and social theory. His previous publications include the monographs Paideia Romana: Cicero's Tusculan Disputations (2007), Creative Eloquence: The Construction of Reality in Cicero's Speeches (2011) and The Classical Tradition: Art, Literature, Thought (with Michael Silk and Rosemary Barrow) (2014). He has also published several textbooks with OBP: Virgil, Aeneid, 4.1-299: Latin Text, Study Questions, Commentary and Interpretative Essays, (with Mathew Owen) Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, Cicero, On Pompey’s Command (De Imperio), 27-49 (with Louise Hodgson), and Cicero, Philippic 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119.

This book is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. This license allows for copying any part of the work for personal and non-commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated. Attribution should include the following information:

Gildenhard, Ingo. Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53–86. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2011.

Google Map of significant places
The author has created this map of the significant places mentioned in the book. The original Google Earth file used to generate the map can be found here or here.

Additional Open Access editions of the Latin Text
The Latin Text of Cicero, in Verrem 2.1, can also be found online at:

Note from the author:
I welcome feedback on this edition, critical and otherwise, as well as suggestions of what further supplementary material or digital resources could be made available on this website. Please leave your comments in the comment tab on this site, or email me directly at ig297@cam.ac.uk.

— Stephen Jenkin, The Classics Library

You can read the full review here.