Ancient & Modern

30 May 2009

The saga of MPs’ allowances brings to mind the depredations of Gaius Verres, Roman governor of Sicily 73-71 bc.

The saga of MPs’ allowances brings to mind the depredations of Gaius Verres, Roman governor of Sicily 73-71 bc. Not that there is any real comparison between MPs’ money-grubbing and Verres’s ruthless looting of the island on a scale that would draw envious gasps from Robert Mugabe, but the issue they both raise — the trust that can be placed in government — is remarkably similar.

The Sicilian people were represented in court by the young Cicero, aged 36. The foundation of his success was laid by his intensive and detailed research, which took him to Sicily for two months. There he interviewed those whose inheritances had been seized, property removed or daughters violated, and went scrupulously through all Verres’s files. In one scam, Verres had demanded his victims pay bribes to him by borrowing money at extortionate interest from a business ally, Carpinatius. Verres then redeposited the bribe with Carpinatius, protecting his money and doubtless taking a decent share of the profits. In order to hide his identity, however, he had his name on Carpinatius’s records changed from ‘Verres’ to ‘Verrucius’. Cicero found the records, saw the changes and drew the obvious conclusion.

All this has strong parallels with the Daily Telegraph investigation of MPs’ records — records that MPs, Verres-like, would have unquestionably ‘dealt with’, had they been given the chance. But there is more to it than that.

Alongside Verres, Cicero put in the dock the legal system that made such corruption possible. For reference to the Senate and legal system, write ‘Parliament’ in these extracts from Cicero’s speeches on the matter: ‘Because of the failings of our legal system, there is a view that another class of citizens should serve on it... capable and honest men must take up the cause of our republic and its laws, for the well-being of everyone... At this time, we have found a golden opportunity to make the Senate less unpopular and put right the damaged reputation of these courts... I have been deeply influenced by the apparent existence of men who feel not the slightest shame at their outrageous behaviour but, on the contrary, seem delighted to court the hatred of every Roman...’. And so on.

Verres fled into exile, and no change was made to the Roman legal system. For all the current chatter, none will be made to ours, once this crisis passes — as it will.

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