Shiny Silver, Tarnished Verres

Thomas D. Frazel (Tulane University)

One of the most important social phenomena in Roman culture was the display of silver plate. Well-known excavated examples of silver from, say, the treasure of Boscoreale (Baratte, Le trésor) or the Insula of the Menander at Pompeii (Painter, Silver Treasure) are given context and significance, I propose, by Cicero’s nuanced treatment of silver display in the In Verrem (2.4.33-34; 35; 62-63). Cicero could not condemn display in and of itself because it was too essential a means of creating social distinction (cf. Arr., Epict. 4.6.4; Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society). So he shifts the focus, I argue, to subjective reactions, thereby articulating a spectrum of “wrong” and “correct” responses, in order to separate silver display from Verres’ other more-easily denigrated luxury activities.

Cicero presents the socially acceptable response through the silver display of Antiochus, the Syrian prince and one of the most important witnesses against Verres (2.4.62-63). When Verres set out his own silver plate, Antiochus interpreted it as an assertion that Verres was his social equal. He thus invites Verres to see his own extraordinary kit. Cicero depicts Antiochus as trusting and eager to curry favor with the Romans. That fatal display, however, only inflamed Verres’ passion for theft. Cicero thus distinguishes Verres’ from Antiochus’ similar interest in silver by arguing that display actually drives Verres to steal, not simply to admire.

Cicero, however, cannot plausibly suggest that Verres would steal from L. Cornelius Sisenna, one of his own advocates, (2.4.33-34). Verres publicly handles those pieces not to take them, but to assert that he was “discerning.” Cicero will have none of it: even it he does not actually steal them, Verres is still too much of a boor to be included in the circle of the civilized.

With these examples, we see, once again, the crucial role that Cicero’s orations play in interpreting other important material remains from antiquity.