this is an email i got from sarah which talks a little about
the song, and has a really great link at the bottom for those
of us too lazy to translate latin.

nall.

From: Sarah Margaret 
To: Jon Nall 
Date: Friday, February 23, 2001 6:52 AM
Subject: Re: cleomenes fixes

Here ya go:

SONG FOR CLEOMENES 
73 years before the advent of the Christian era, 
as Rome was taking over any land within reach, 
setting up proxy governments in the conquered lands, 
there lived one such man given just such a job. 
Gaius* Verres--go! 

a praetor held a position which operated on trust. 
he was to govern instead of the emperor himself. 
it was an easy, easy privilege to abuse. 
and Verres did so. 

he was the governor of Agrigentum which we now know as
Sicily.** 
and he stole everything that wasn't nailed down, 
took improper advantage of other men's wives. 
the list goes on. trust me. 
Cicero wrote it all down.*** 

at Syracuse Verres welcomed a band of pirates. 
they all drank and danced and sang on the shore, 
and when the husband of one of verres' paramours 
came bringing a fleet of boats with him, 
Verres, clever, if diabolical, gave him a job. 
and enlisted the pirates to burn the whole fleet down.


the boats burned in the Sicilian harbor 
the flames rose hundreds of feet into the air 
we stood on the shore watching them burn we stood 
on the shore, we heard the old songs. hey! 

*alternate spelling: Caius
**incorrect? Agrigentum (modern Agrigento) was a town
in Sicily, but as far as I know, was never the name of
the whole province of Sicily
***Ciciero wrote "In C. Verrem"--"Against C. Verres"
in 70 BCE

A full translation of Cicero's "In C. Verrum" is
available online for anyone interested at 
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=cic.+ver.+init.


If you read Cicero's text, you find that Cleomenes was
none other than the "husband of one of Verres'
paramours", and indeed Verres "gave him a job." So
there you have it.

salve,
Sarah