M. Tullius Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, 38

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[38] In the case of so enormous, so atrocious, so singular a crime, as this one which has been committed so rarely, that, if it is ever heard of, it is accounted like a portent and prodigy—what arguments do you think, O Caius Erucius, you as the accuser ought to use? Ought you not to prove the singular audacity of him who is accused of it? and his savage manners, and brutal nature, and his life devoted to every sort of vice and crime, his whole character, in short, given up to profligacy and abandoned? None of which things have you alleged against Sextus Roscius, not even for the sake of making the imputation.

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.) — 38 focus

[38] in hoc tanto, tam atroci, tam singulari maleficio, quod ita raro exstitit ut, si quando auditum sit¹, portenti ac prodigi simile numeretur, quibus tandem tu, C. G aii Eruci², argumentis accusatorem censes uti oportere? nonne et audaciam eius qui in crimen vocetur singularem ostendere et mores feros immanemque naturam et vitam vitiis flagitiisque omnibus deditam, denique³ omnia ad perniciem profligata atque perdita? quorum tu nihil in Sex. Roscium ne obiciendi quidem causa contulisti.

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

in eum , i.e. Sulla Here it is necessary for the orator to proceed with great caution: even if not himself present, Sulla would watch sharply the first case before his own criminal court.

ab initio , from the beginning of this trial (see sect. 12 );

omni tempore , throughout his whole career.

ut ementiretur , . . .

passus non sit , clauses in appos. with

haec omnia : for the change of tense, see § 475 , a (279, d).

apud adversarios , in the enemy's ranks (=

in praesidiis , above).

postea : the passage referred to appears to have been lost out of the oration, probably in the gap in ch. xlv. The scholiast represents Chrysogonus as saying that he had used the property in building a villa at Veii.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro S. Roscio Amerino 38

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