The Mad Tycoon of Rome

Chapter 37: The Trial of Verres 

──────────────── 

While Marcus was securing his alliance with Caesar, Verres was busy preparing for his trial.

He did not rely on his background too much and took all the possible measures he could.

He was warned by Hortensius, his defense lawyer, not to underestimate Cicero.

Cicero was known for being a lawyer who defended rather than prosecuted.

The fact that he took the role of a prosecutor meant that he had some tricks up his sleeve.

Verres was especially convinced that Pompey was behind Cicero.

Pompey was already at odds with the Senate, more so than Crassus.

Naturally, the eyes of the senators were focused on him, and Verres’s alertness was heightened even more.

The butterfly effect that Marcus had feared happened in an unexpected direction.

Verres had a meeting with Hortensius and his brother-in-law Quintus at his mansion.

Verres, whose eyes were sunken from the recent stress, urged Hortensius.

“Listen, didn’t you say you would disqualify Cicero from being a prosecutor? Then why did the judges accept him as one?”

“The judges were swayed by Cicero’s eloquence. And with Pompey’s influence added to that, things didn’t go as planned.”

Hortensius, a middle-aged man with a stern face, licked his lips lightly.

He didn’t think he would lose the trial.

But there was always a slim chance.

He tried to pressure the judges to change the prosecutor from Cicero to someone else, but he failed.

Quintus, who was sitting across from Verres, opened his mouth with a sneer.

“But you had your own purpose, didn’t you? Surely Pompey is behind this trial. He wants to weaken our family’s power by bribing Cicero.”

Verres nodded his head with an angry expression.

“That’s the only way I can see it. Damn Pompey bastard… A upstart who rose to fame quickly. He thinks he can crush me and go to Sicily as a governor to gain popularity. No way. Hortensius, I trust you. I’ll pay you generously.”

“Don’t worry about the trial. If there is no lie in what you told me, there is no way we can lose. But just in case, I’ll ask you again. Are you sure that none of the charges that Cicero brought against you are true?”

“Of course. I admit that I took bribes, but I didn’t embezzle that much. This is all a slander by those who want to impeach me. Look at the cities of Sicily. Syracuse and Messana didn’t join the prosecution. If I really embezzled that much, they would have condemned me too.”

In fact, those two places were complicit in Verres’s crimes and shared the profits with him.

But Hortensius had no way of knowing that and believed Verres’s words as they were.

“Good. Then let’s review our strategy once again. First of all, we can’t use the plan to disqualify Cicero from being a prosecutor anymore. Then the first thing we have to do is to postpone the trial until next year. It’s almost certain that Quintus here and I will be elected as praetors in this election.”

“And my brother-in-law will be a quaestor, so if we delay the time until next year, we won’t lose. But they won’t be ignorant of this obvious fact. They will surely try to start the trial before the year changes.”

“I think so too. But it usually takes at least six months to investigate a region that is far away from Rome like this case. And I have reliable information that Cicero is running for aedile in this election. That means he has to be in Rome in July. He won’t be able to find any solid evidence if he tries to force the trial this year.”

“I’ve already sent a letter to Lucius, the current governor. I asked him to thoroughly interfere with Cicero’s evidence collection in Sicily. But if he still insists on suing me, then I’ll have to rely on your skills as the best lawyer in Rome.”

Hortensius showed a confident smile that seemed to say leave it to me.

“Leave it to me. I don’t intend to lose in a debate to a novice lawyer who hasn’t even been an aedile yet.”

“Hahaha, you are indeed the best lawyer and the next praetor of Rome. I trust you.”

“Then I’ll go back and review my defense strategy a bit more.”

Hortensius opened his mouth as he got up from his seat. 

He didn’t even touch the wine glass in front of him.

“I won’t forget your efforts. I promise to cooperate as much as possible in running the state next year.”

“You don’t have to tell me, but avoid anything that could get you caught until the trial.”

Hortensius crossed the large garden and disappeared.

Even after he was completely out of sight, Verres and Quintus sat silently for a while. Then Verres lifted his wine glass. A slave who was waiting behind him quickly brought wine and filled the glass.

“We don’t have to worry about the defense if we leave it to Hortensius.”

“But do you think Pompey will sit still like this?”

“Of course not. If he put Cicero forward to check me, he must have some other plans.”

“If he, the next governor, exerts his influence, there is a risk that the landowners of Sicily will not listen to Lucius. Pompey’s name has that much weight.”

Quintus, who knew how much Verres had embezzled, couldn’t hide his anxious expression.

The Metellus family had shared some of Verres’s profits in exchange for backing him up.

If they lost the trial, not only Verres but also the Metellus family would suffer a great loss.

“Don’t worry, Quintus. I’ll leave the defense to Hortensius, but I’ll take care of the rest myself.”

“The rest means… hiding or obstructing evidence?”

“If it were normal times, I would have stopped at that, but since Pompey is behind this, I might have to do something more drastic. This is a fight that he started first. It’s self-defense even if I fight back.”

Verres’s eyes sparkled with a dangerous light.

There were many landowners in Sicily who would be in trouble if he was arrested. 

And he had also colluded with pirates and facilitated plundering when he was governor.

It would be the end of his political career if he was caught, but he had plenty of means to mobilize.

In the original history, he didn’t want to take any risks and was easily defeated by Cicero, but now it was different.

He perceived his opponent as Pompey rather than Cicero.

He couldn’t let go of his wealth and power that he had accumulated desperately.

Verres drank the wine that filled his glass in one gulp.

As the alcohol warmed his body, the anger boiling inside him became stronger. 

The eyes of the greedy politician emitted a cold light that was chilling.

※※※※

Marcus kept his promise with Cicero. 

He found the fastest ship to Sicily and boarded the galley with Cicero.

The galley sailed out of the harbor slowly at the signal of the captain.

Marcus watched the receding land from the ship with a nostalgic expression.

It was his first voyage in this era.

In fact, he didn’t have much memory of riding a ship in his previous life either.

He didn’t have money or time for that.

Maybe that’s why he tolerated the slightly rocking feeling.

He felt a refreshing feeling as he saw the open sea beyond his sight.

Spartacus, who accompanied him to protect Marcus, smiled softly and spoke to him.

“You look relieved.”

“Yes. I didn’t know the view from the ship would be so beautiful. I feel almost liberated.”

“Maybe it’s because you have been freed from the intense work you had recently?”

“Oh, that could be it.”

As Spartacus said, Marcus was almost in a vacation mood.

He had a lot of business to deal with, even though he brought it upon himself, and he didn’t have enough time to sleep lately.

It was natural that he felt liberated from such a hellish routine.

Of course, the people who stayed behind would have a harder time without Marcus.

When he said he would only take Spartacus with him to Sicily, he received a resentful look from Danae for the first time.

Septimus also reacted as if he couldn’t believe it.

He felt sincerely sorry for them.

‘I’ll have to give them some time off when I get back to Rome.’

By then, most of the backlog would be cleared, so he could handle it by himself.

And Marcus was not going to Sicily just to enjoy his vacation.

He had a clear goal of establishing a solid friendship with Cicero by helping him.

And he also heard some intelligence that Verres’s movements were suspicious.

If Cicero lost the trial unlike in history, he wouldn’t know what kind of butterfly effect would happen afterwards.

He needed to stay by Cicero’s side to deal with any possible situations.

And he also needed some time to organize his plans while experiencing Rome’s ship for himself.

‘I did some research, but the shipbuilding technology is not that great.’

The ancient Western world used a type of ship called a galley universally.

A galley was a ship that used oars as auxiliary power, and had a long and narrow hull as its characteristic.

The reason for using oars was because the weather of the Mediterranean, which was the range of activity of the people at that time, was very fickle.

Therefore, the people at that time preferred to sail along the coast rather than go out to the far sea.

The structure of the ship also developed to optimize this kind of sailing, so sailing across the ocean was impossible.

Marcus encountered a big limit here.

‘I guess it’s impossible to bring potatoes.’

The food that fed and saved the poor population of Europe in the late Middle Ages, which suffered from population problems, was potatoes.

It was the most famous tuber crop in the world and its usefulness was already proven by history.

Marcus thought of potatoes first as a way to solve Rome’s chronic food problem.

It wouldn’t be a staple food, but it would be enough to fill the stomachs of the poor.

But the problem was that the origin of potatoes was the Andes Mountains in the New World.

He knew where it was, so he thought he could go get it if he improved the ship.

But after riding Rome’s ship himself, his vain hope disappeared in an instant.

The ship rocked severely even when sailing along the coast of the Mediterranean, where the waves were not that strong.

It was a problem caused by the linear structure of the galley, which was long and thin.

And because it had to carry oars, it required more people and naturally reduced the cargo capacity.

With such a ship, no matter how much he improved it, it would be impossible to cross the Atlantic Ocean and go to the New World. 

Even if he arrived there by some incredible luck, it would be impossible to come back.

‘And going to Russia and crossing over to Alaska is also nonsense… If I can’t depend on tuber crops, I have no choice but to improve the agricultural technology fundamentally.’

He had been developing the ironmaking technology gradually, but he had no knowledge of agriculture.

Even if he started to learn from now on, the results might not match his knowledge depending on the soil or the crops he grew.

Agriculture was the core of Rome, so it was a difficult and delicate problem to touch.

‘I guess I have to collect data by trial and error…’

What broke Marcus’s meditation was Cicero’s voice from behind.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“Nothing much. I was just thinking about my future plans.”

“Well, it won’t be easy even if we go to Sicily. The current governor is Verres’s brother-in-law, so he might openly interfere with us.”

Marcus’s future plans were not related to Sicily, but he didn’t bother to correct Cicero’s misunderstanding.

“It won’t be easy, but you don’t have to worry too much. I’ve already arranged for people who will help us collect evidence locally, as well as a carriage. And I’ve also taken out insurance in case of an emergency.”

Marcus pointed to Spartacus next to him.

Cicero looked at him, who was famous as the strongest gladiator in Rome, and smiled with a confident expression.

“I’m really glad you’re with me. But still, we can’t be complacent. Verres and the Metellus family have wealth beyond imagination. If they start bribing witnesses and hiding evidence with their money, we might be cornered.”

“It would be easier for us if they did that.”

Marcus chuckled and revealed the reason for his confidence.

“Even if we add up all the wealth of Verres and the Metellus family, we have several times more than them.”

“Oh…”

Cicero, who had momentarily forgotten who was in front of him, exclaimed and nodded repeatedly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more reassuring word in my life.”

It was a sincere remark.