leader, he tried to rule with compassion, pardoning many of
his enemies. Some of these pardoned enemies murdered him
in 44 b.c.e. Among the murderers was Cassius Longinus, who
became a symbol of cruel selfi shness. During his war against
Marcus Antonius and Octavian, he sold four Judaean townsand many Judaean offi cials into slavery to fi nance his army,
and he looted Rome’s ally Rhodes of almost all its wealth.
Octavian, renamed the emperor Augustus, ruled Rome
from 27 b.c.e. to 14 c.e. Augustus’s successor, Tiberius (r.
14–37 c.e.), was an outstanding general with a sober tempera-
ment. Yet his sober temperament became very dark. He ne-
glected his civic duties and eventually retreated to the island
of Capri in 26 c.e., where he indulged in a taste for sex with
children. His absence from Rome allowed the leader of the
Praetorian Guard, Lucius Aelius Sejanus, to take over much
of the Roman government. Sejanus was greedy and ruthless,
using the charge of treason as an excuse for murdering anyone
who seemed to be between him and something he wanted.
Tiberius was told by his sister-in-law Antonia about Sejanus’s
corruption, and Sejanus and his supporters were executed.
For sheer depravity historians tend to single out two Ro-
man emperors, Caligula (r. 37–41 c.e.) and Nero (r. 54–68
c.e.). Both started out with a great deal of public goodwill.
Nero, in particular, had experienced and talented advisers to
help him. But Caligula seems to have been criminally insane.
His behavior was bizarre, violent, and cruel. He had sex with
all three of his sisters, raped a bride on her wedding day, and
tortured people. His public acts were weird; he even nomi-
nated a horse, Incitatus, for a consulship. He was murdered
and quickly replaced by Claudius (r. 41–54 c.e.). Th e greatest
scandal of Claudius’s reign was the marriage of his wife, Mes-
salina, to consul-designate Silius while Claudius was away.
She and Silius were executed. Claudius himself may have
been poisoned by his last wife, Agrippina the Younger, appar-
ently in the hope that she would rule through her son Nero,
who instead had her murdered.
Nero castrated a boy and then married him. He fancied
himself a singer and stage actor and forced people to watch
him for hours as he performed. Pregnant women gave birth
in the audience because they were not permitted to leave.
Aft er most of Rome went up in fl ames, Nero began the con-
struction of a large and very expensive palace in Rome, and
rumors circulated that he had started the fi re and sang and
danced while it burned. Th is story seems to have been un-
true; Nero actually seems to have tried to put out the fi re. To
direct blame away from himself, he blamed the Christians.
He took delight in torturing them and had many tied to
stakes and ignited to serve as torches during celebrations at
his palace or in the amphitheater. Eventually, when Nero was
away from Rome, the Senate sentenced him to death, and he
committed suicide.
During the 200s and 300s c.e. corruption was most oft en
found in the collection of taxes. Wealthy men would buy a
high public offi ce in a province and then divert government
funds into their own pockets. Courts were subject to brib-
ery, and serving on juries and taking bribes proved to be very
profi table. Emperors tried to put a stop to the corruption of
the courts, and Diocletian (r. 284–305 c.e.), in particular,
seems to have struck fear into the hearts of many a corrupt
court offi cial as well as provincial leaders who were enrich-Gaius Verres (ca. 120–43 B.C.E.) belonged to Rome’s
social elite. He was a political opportunist who sup-
ported whatever person had power, fi rst the reformer
Gaius Marius and then Marius’s enemy Lucius Cor-
nelius Sulla when Sulla invaded the city of Rome.
Already Verres was accused of embezzlement, but
Sulla protected him. Verres became an assistant to
the corrupt governor of Cilicia, Gnaeus Cornelius Do-
labella, in 80 B.C.E. In 78 B.C.E. Dolabella was tried
and convicted of numerous crimes, but Verres won a
pardon for himself, despite having been Dolabella’s
partner in the crimes, by testifying against Dolabella.
He became a government offi cial in the city of Rome,
where he used his offi ce to promote the interests of
Sulla, who appointed him governor of Sicily in about
73 B.C.E.
During Verres’s time in Sicily he made himself not
only one of the most corrupt but also one of the most
loathed people in Roman history. He organized his
administration like a gang of criminals, and there was
no limit to his greed and cruelty. He and his henchmen
stripped Sicily’s temples of their art, especially their
statues. Using government authority his gangs broke
into private homes and looted them of everything
that was valuable. The loss to Sicily was greater than
the loss it had experienced in war. Its once-thriving
tourist industry collapsed. When people protested,
Verres accused them of being traitors and prevented
their cases from being sent on to the city of Rome,
which was their right under Roman law. He had them
tortured and then crucifi ed.
When Verres returned to the city of Rome in 70
B.C.E., Sicilians asked Cicero to prosecute him for his
crimes. Cicero chose to use Verres as an example of
corruption throughout government, detailing how
Verres used his status as a high government of fi cial to
brutalize and murder hundreds, perhaps thousands,
of people. The lawyers for Verres tried to delay the
trial, but Cicero pressed forward. In court he deliv-
ered a devastating case, and Verres fl ed into exile
even before he was found guilty. In the south of Gaul
he led a comfortable life, having kept much of the
wealth he had stolen, until Marcus Antonius had him
killed in 43 B.C.E.THE VILE VERRES
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