Themes

• [Rawson] The speeches against Verres, a few years later, show how many prominent Sicilians Cicero claimed as his friends,
• [Scullard] real power does not always reside where it officially appears to belong
• [Marin] it would fall to individual generals to provide for their troops, and ultimately, reward them with booty and the possibility of land upon retirement
• [Syme] describes amicitia as ‘a weapon of politics’
• [Syme] defines the optimates as ‘linked by ties of kinship and reciprocal interest’