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At the conclusion of Verres's term, most of the cities of the province, acting collectively as plaintiff, sued him for the restitution of 100 million denarii. Fortunately for the Sicilians, they found a politically ambitious and very able advocate named Marcus Tullius Cicero, who, in spite of numerous legal obstacles put in his path by the many friends of Verres, prosecuted him in criminal court for extortion. So overwhelming was the evidence that Verres went into voluntary exile in Marseilles.

The matter of interest arose in the cases of such loans. Usury was condemned by the Church, and lenders trod carefully when it came to such things. Also, the concept of investments in order to obtain profits and wealth was muted. Piratical activity in the Mediterranean increased and commerce declined, and by the seventh century Moslem incursions made travel there perilous. This was the essence of the thesis promulgated by Belgian historian Henri Pirenne in the early twentieth century. Pirenne thought Roman economic institutions were maintained by the Germans until the Moslems effectively closed down the Mediterranean, which cut off Europe from the gold of Africa and compelled the continent to evolve an economy less reliant upon commerce and coinage.

In effect, there came into being a vast trading area that stretched from the Indus River to the British Isles, with strong governments in many places capable of maintaining order and preventing piracy from disrupting commerce. While there were wars and revolts, trade was promoted assiduously. Alexander did not live long enough to see this era of greater commercial and cultural interaction between the West and the East, but it was not long in coming. C. Trade increased substantially among lands bordering on the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and India, and in time it would extend as far as China.