But this tribunal was composed of nobles and Roman knights
who would not condemn their compatriot, and the principal result of
this system was, according to the remark of Cicero, to compel the
governor to take yet more plunder from the province in order to
purchase the judges of the tribunal.
It cannot surprise one that the term "proconsul" came to be a synonym
for despot. Of these brigands by appointment the most notorious was
Verres, propraetor of Sicily, since Cicero from political motives
pronounced against him seven orations which have made him famous. But
it is probable that many others were as bad as he.
=The Publicans.=--In every province the Roman people had considerable
revenues--the customs, the mines, the imposts, the grain-lands, and
the pastures. These were farmed out to companies of contractors who
were called publicans. These men bought from the state the right of
collecting the impost in a certain place, and the provincials had to
obey them as the representatives of the Roman people. And so in every
province there were many companies of publicans, each with a crowd of
clerks and collectors.
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