M. Tullius Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, 125

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[125] Let us see this first, on what pretence the property of that man was sold, or how they could be sold. And I will not put this question, O judges, so as to imply that it is a scandalous thing for the property of an innocent man to be sold at all. For if these things are to be freely listened to and freely spoken, Sextus Roscius was not a man of such importance in the state as to make us complain of his fortune more than of that of others. But I ask this, how could they be sold even by that very law which is enacted about prescriptions, whether it be the Valerian ¹ or Cornelian law,—for neither know nor understand which it is—but by that very law itself how could the property of Sextus Roscius be sold?

Pro S. Roscio Amerino. M. Tullius Cicero. London. 1903.

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Current edition Perseus

For Sextus Roscius of Ameria (English) (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 1. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1903.)

Editions (1)

Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino Perseus (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Volume 1. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.) — 125 focus

[125] primum¹ hoc videamus: eius hominis bona qua ratione venierunt aut quo modo venire potuerunt? atque hoc non ita quaeram, iudices, ut id dicam esse indignum, hominis innocentis bona venisse — si enim haec audientur² ac libere dicentur, non fuit tantus homo Sex. Roscius in civitate ut de eo potissimum conqueramur — verum ego hoc³ quaero: qui potuerunt⁴ ista ipsa lege quae de proscriptione est, sive Valeria est sive Cornelia — non enim novi nec scio — verum ista ipsa lege bona Sex. Rosci venire qui potuerunt?

Notes on the current edition

For Sextus Roscius of Ameria

1. Valerius Flaccus had been created Interrex on the death of the two consuls, Marius and Carbo. He appointed Sulla dictator, and passed a law that whatever Sulla had done should be ratified; so that Cicero's meaning here is, that he does not know which was the nominal author of the law he is quoting, Valerius or Sulla.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro S. Roscio Amerino 125

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