Rule of law by Gaius Verres?

It is probably known to everyone a phenomenon in the form of Gaius Verres and his abuses as governor of Sicily. He was so bold and greedy in his actions that we can expect that there was no sanctity for him or any border that he could not cross in his abuses against the state and private persons, as evidenced by the refusal to give Corinthian vases to Mark Antony in 43 BCE, for which he paid with his life.

Verres’ self-will in Sicily even came to the fact that a Roman citizen who wanted to file a complaint against him ordered to be subjected to chastisement and then crucified. The unfortunate dying in agony kept repeating: “I am a Roman citizen”, to which Verres replied: “Let him stare at his country… let him die in the sight of laws and liberty”¹.