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8When Verres had thus been convicted, Cicero assessed his fine at seven hundred and fifty thousand denarii,[16] and was therefore accused of having been bribed to make the fine a low one. The Sicilians, however, were grateful to him, and when he was aedile brought him from their island all sorts of live stock and produce; from these he derived no personal profit, but used the generosity of the islanders only to lower the price of provisions.
2He owned a pleasant country-seat at Arpinum, and had a farm near Naples and another near Pompeii, both small. His wife Terentia brought him besides a dowry of a hundred thousand denarii, and he received a bequest which amounted to ninety thousand. From these he lived, in a generous and at the same time modest manner, with the Greek and Roman men of letters who were his associates. He rarely, if ever, came to table before sunset, not so much on account of business, as because his stomach kept him in poor health. 3In other ways, too, he was exact and over-scrupulous in the care of his body, so that he actually took a set number of rubbings and walks. By carefully managing his health in this way he kept it free from sickness and able to meet the demands of many great struggles and toils. The house which had been his father’s he made over to his brother, and dwelt himself near the Palatine hill,[17] in order that those who came to pay their court to him might not have the trouble of a long walk.[18] 4And men came to his house every day to pay him court, no fewer than came to Crassus for his wealth or to Pompey because of his influence with the soldiery, and these were the two greatest men among the Romans and the most admired. Nay, Pompey actually paid court to Cicero, and Cicero’s political efforts contributed much towards Pompey’s power and fame.
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