M. Tullius Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, 9

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[9] Of such important and such atrocious actions, I am aware that I can neither speak with sufficient propriety, nor complain with sufficient dignity, nor cry out against with sufficient freedom. For my want of capacity is a hindrance to my speaking with propriety; my age, to my speaking with dignity; the times themselves are an obstacle to my speaking with freedom. To this is added great fear, which both nature and my modesty cause me, and your dignity, and the violence of our adversaries, and the danger of Sextus Roscius. On which account, I beg and entreat of you, O judges, to hear what I have to say with attention, and with your favourable construction.

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.) — 9 focus

[9] 4 his de rebus tantis tamque atrocibus neque satis me commode dicere neque satis graviter conqueri neque satis libere vociferari posse intellego. nam commoditati ingenium, gravitati aetas, libertati tempora sunt impedimento. huc accedit summus timor quem mihi natura pudorque meus attribuit et vestra dignitas et vis adversariorum et Sex. Rosci pericula¹. quapropter vos oro atque obsecro, iudices, ut attente bonaque cum venia verba mea audiatis.

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

Ameriam nuntiat , brings the news to Ameria ;

domum , two lines below, shows the same construction.

Capitonis : Cicero thus insinuates that Magnus and Capito had planned the murder together. The speed with which the one sent the news to the other was, of course, suspicious, as well as the further proceedings described in sects. 10 and 11 , including the proscription and the sale of the property.

inimici : cf. the same word in lines 7 and 8. The reason for thus harping on the inimicitiae mentioned in sect. 7 , above, must be evident.

horam primam : the night from sunset to sunrise was divided into twelve hours.

nocturnis : the travelling would be more difficult and slow in the night, though the night hours would be longer than the day hours in the late autumn or winter, when the murder is thought to have been committed.

cisiis : the plural form shows that there were relays of carriages.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro S. Roscio Amerino 9

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