Classical Association of Vancouver Island

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Thursday, November 21st, 2013
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

The Fourth Meeting of the 2013/2014 Academic Year will take place on Thursday, November 21st at 7:30 p.m., in Clearihue A212.

Professor Dylan Sailor (University of California, Berkeley), will present a lecture entitled "The Empire of C. Verres."

In this paper, I make two related arguments about Cicero�s In Verrem. First is that we can view Cicero as symbolically transferring onto the person of Verres responsibility for historical abuses in the conquest and administration of Sicily; to the extent that Cicero himself casts Verres as a violator of the historical norms not just of Roman treatment of Sicily but of Roman conduct of their empire, I suggest, we can also see Verres as assuming the burden of Roman outrages and abuses committed elsewhere and in other eras. The second idea, which depends on this first one, is that the prospect of Verres' conviction offers to the jury an opportunity for symbolic purification of Rome's empire: laden with the "sins" of empire, Verres becomes a scapegoat whose expulsion will leave Romans not with an exploitative and criminal sort of empire�one characterized, that is, by the conduct of Verres�but with an empire that they expand and administer without selfish desire and as an immense benefit to humankind.