Book 4
111
They did not complain of the absolute way in which the tenths were levied, nor of the plunder of property, nor of the iniquity of tribunals, nor of that man's unhallowed lusts, nor of his violence, nor of the insults by which they had been oppressed and overwhelmed. It was the divinity of Ceres, the antiquity of their sacred observances, the holy veneration due to their temple, which they wished should have atonement made to them by the punishment of that most atrocious and audacious man. They said that they could endure everything else, that to everything else they were indifferent. This indignation of theirs was so great, that you might suppose that Verres, like another king of hell, had come to Ennaand had carried off, not Proserpina, but Ceresherself. And, in truth, that city does not appear to be a city, but a shrine of Ceres. The people of Ennathink that Ceresdwells among them; so that they appear to me not to be citizens of that city, but to be all priests, to be all ministers and officers of Ceres.
