During one of Cicero’s earliest trials, he was pitted against a highly corrupted Senate that was attempting to cover-up a man named Verres’ extortion of, about, thirty million sesterces.
Many times, his wit and ability to be out-right brutal shined through the trial; one of the most memorable coming out after Verres made a statement about Cicero’s lack of constitution, as he would get sick often:
“At another point in the proceedings, when Verres attacked Cicero for not having the most virile or healthy of constitutions, he replied, “Virility is something you would do better to discuss with your boys as home.” (One of Verres’s sons was supposed to be promiscuously homosexual)”
-from ‘Cicero’ by Anthony Everitt
At another time during the trial, a Jewish slave was pushing Cicero to allow him to testify ahead of the main Sicilian character witnesses. Cicero scirnfully replied, “What can a Jew have to do with a pig?!” (‘Verres’ meaning ‘castrated boar’ in Latin)