[colorado tanker]

Gaius Verres was the man who looted the statue of Athena. He was a notoriously corrupt governor of Sicily. He looted whatever he could get his hands on. He was known to use the unrest of the Servile Wars (Spartacus) to extort money from wealthy landowners by claiming their prized slaves were traitors and then demanding bribes for their lives.

Verres was brought to trial in Rome where Cicero gave an opening oration that was so powerful Verres fled Rome without opening a defense.

[SunkenCiv]

Heh, the last thing ya wanna do in the so-called Roman Republic is extort money from the mafia families who owned and ran everything, not least because in court one was guilty until proven innocent (or until the bribe money got where it was going).