M. Tullius Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, 22

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[22] and it is not strange that while he is surveying at the same time both the things which are past, and those which seem to be impending; when he alone has, the authority to establish peace, and the power of carrying on war; when all are looking to him alone, and he alone is directing all things; when he is occupied incessantly by such numerous and such important affairs that he cannot breathe freely, it is not strange, I say, if he fails to notice some things; especially when so many men are watching his, busy condition, and catch their opportunity of doing something of this sort the moment he looks away. To this is added, that although he is fortunate, as indeed he is, yet no man can have such good fortune, as in a vast household to have no one, whether slave or freedman, of worthless character.

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.) — 22 focus

[22] neque enim mirum, cum eodem tempore et ea quae praeterita sunt reparet¹ et ea quae videntur instare praeparet, cum et pacis constituendae rationem et belli gerendi potestatem solus habeat, cum omnes in unum spectent, unus omnia gubernet, cum tot tantisque negotiis distentus sit ut respirare libere non possit, si aliquid non animadvertat, cum praesertim tam multi occupationem eius observent tempusque aucupentur ut, simul atque ille despexerit, aliquid huiusce modi moliantur. huc accedit quod, quamvis ille felix sit, sicut est, tamen in² tanta felicitate nemo potest esse in magna familia qui neminem neque servum neque libertum improbum habeat.

Commentary

Notes on Pro S. Roscio Amerino (Select Orations of Cicero (Allen and Greenough's Edition). Greenough, James Bradstreet; Kittredge, George Lyman, editors. Boston, London: Ginn & Company, 1897.) focus

patrem , etc.: to preserve the emphasis we may render a parricide has been committed by Sex. Roscius .

qui homo ? what sort of man (is it who has committed such a crime) ?

adulescentulus : the diminutive suggests a weak stripling led astray (

inductus ) ; the defendant was, in fact, a man of forty.

nequam , with hominibus.

major : anomalous for the more usual plus or amplius; § 407 , c (247, c); B. 217, 3; G. 311, R.4; H.471, 4 (417, I, N.2) ; H.-B 416, d.

vetus (emphatic), old (in the sense of the English derivative inveterate).

videlicet , no doubt, of course.

de luxuria : for constr. see note on

de parricidio ( p. 8, l. 7 ).

cuiquam : words in italics are not in the manuscripts, but are supplied by modern scholars (from conjecture) as being necessary to the construction or the sense.

objecit : the accuser had made it a point in his argument that the defendant was of a morose temper, shunning all society and burying himself in the country. Cicero deftly turns these assertions to the advantage of his client.

officio , sense of duty, and consequent discharge of it; especially used with reference to filial duty ( pietas ).

M. Tullius Cicero Pro S. Roscio Amerino 22

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