M. Tullius Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, 30

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[30] The father infamously murdered; the house besieged; the property taken away, seized and plundered by enemies; the life of the son, hostile to their purposes, attacked over and over again by sword and treachery. What wickedness does there seem to be wanting in these numberless atrocities? And yet they crown and add to them by other nefarious deeds, they invent an incredible accusation; they procure witnesses against him and accusers of him by bribery; they offer the wretched man this alternative, whether he would prefer to expose his neck to Roscius to be assassinated by him, or, being sewn in a sack, to lose his life with the greatest infamy. They thought advocates would be wanting to him; they are wanting. There is not wanting in truth, O judges, one who will speak with freedom, and who will defend him with integrity, which is quite sufficient in this cause, (since I have undertaken it).

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.) — 30 focus

[30] pater occisus nefarie, domus obsessa ab inimicis, bona adempta, possessa¹, direpta, fili vita infesta, saepe ferro atque insidiis appetita. quid ab his tot maleficiis sceleris abesse videtur? tamen haec aliis nefariis cumulant atque adaugent, crimen incredibile confingunt, testis in hunc et accusatores huiusce pecunia comparant; hanc condicionem misero ferunt ut optet² utrum malit cervices T. T ito Roscio dare an insutus in culleum³ per summum dedecus vitam amittere. patronos huic defuturos putaverunt; desunt; qui libere dicat, qui cum fide defendat, id quod in hac causa satis est⁴⁵ non deest profecto, iudices.

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

talibus viris , "to this intelligent jury."

ne causam quidem , not even a motive (to say nothing of evidence of guilt).

emptores , the purchasers (of the confiscated property), i.e. men having the strongest interest in his conviction, with Chrysogonus himself as their presiding officer.

venisses , you should have come: § 439 , b (266, e); G. 272, 3; H.558, I (483, 2, N.); H.-B. 512, b.

utrum . . . an , i.e. which is it—the nature of the question or the character of the court [another compliment to the jury] — that you do not see?

ne . . . quidem : § 327 , I (209, a, 1); B, 347. 2; G. 445; H.656, 2 (553, 2); H.-B. 298, 2, a.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro S. Roscio Amerino 30

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