M. Tullius Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, 57

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[57] Some of you are geese, who only cry out, and have no power to hurt, some are dogs who can both bark and bite. We see that food is provided for you; but you ought chiefly to attack those who deserve it. This is most pleasing to the people; then if you will, then you may bark on suspicion when it seems probable that some one has committed a crime. That may be allowed. But if you act in such a way as to accuse a man of having murdered his father, without being able to say why or how; and if you are only barking without any ground for suspicion, no one, indeed, will break your legs; but if I know these judges well, they will so firmly affix to your heads that letter ¹ to which you are so hostile that you hate all the Calends too, that you shall hereafter be able to accuse no one but your own fortunes.

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

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Funding provided by National Endowment For The Humanities (NEH).

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.) — 57 focus

[57] simillima est accusatorum ratio. Alii vestrum anseres sunt qui tantum modo clamant, nocere non possunt, alii canes qui et latrare et mordere possunt. cibaria vobis praeberi videmus; vos autem maxime debetis in eos impetum facere qui merentur. hoc populo gratissimum est. deinde, si voletis, etiam tum cum veri simile erit aliquem¹ commisisse, in suspicione latratote; id quoque concedi potest. sin autem sic agetis ut arguatis aliquem patrem occidisse neque dicere possitis aut qua re aut quo modo, ac tantum modo sine suspicione latrabitis, crura quidem vobis nemo suffringet, sed, si ego hos bene novi, litteram illam cui vos usque eo inimici estis ut etiam Kal. omnis² oderitis ita vehementer ad caput adfigent³ ut postea neminem alium nisi fortunas vestras accusare possitis.

Notes on the current edition

For Sextus Roscius of Ameria

1. The letter was K, which was branded on the forehead of those who were convicted of bringing false accusations, being the first letter of the word kalumnia as it was originally spelt. It was also the first letter of the word kalendae and on the calends of each month debts were accustomed to be got in and bonds were liable to be paid.

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

quibus : the antecedent is

eis (l. 27).

quin intellegat : § 559 (319,d); B. 284, 3; G. 556; H. 595 (504, I); H.-B. 521, l.

pati nolite , do not suffer: § 450 , I (269, a) ; B. 276, c ; G. 271, 2 ; H. 561, I (489, I); H.-B. 501, 3, a, 2.

hominibus , etc., has taken from the gentlest of men the sense of mercy, through familiarity with distress (lit. in plur.). For the dative, see § 381 (229); B. 180, 2, d; G. 345 and R.1 ; H. 429 (386); H.-B. 371.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro S. Roscio Amerino 57

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