M. Tullius Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 130

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[130] 45 ego haec a Chrysogono mea sponte remoto Sex. Roscio quaero, primum qua re civis optimi bona venierint, deinde qua re hominis eius qui neque proscriptus¹ neque apud adversarios occisus est bona venierint², cum³ in eos solos lex scripta sit, deinde qua re aliquanto post eam diem venierint quae dies in lege praefinita est, deinde⁴ cur tantulo venierint. quae omnia si, quem ad modum solent liberti nequam et improbi facere, in patronum suum voluerit conferre, nihil egerit; nemo est enim qui nesciat propter magnitudinem rerum multa multos partim improbante partim imprudente⁵ L. Sulla commisisse.

Pro S. Roscio Amerino. M. Tullius Cicero. ed. Albert Curtis Clark. Oxford. 1908.

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

Current edition Perseus

Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino (Latin) (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Volume 1. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.)

Translations (1)

For Sextus Roscius of Ameria Perseus (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 1. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1903.) — 130 focus

[130] First of all, why the property of a virtuous citizen was sold? Next, why the property of a man who was neither proscribed, nor slain in the garrisons of the opposite party, were sold; when the law was made against them alone? Next, why were they sold long after the day which is appointed by the law? Next, why were they sold for go little! And if he shall choose, as worthless and wicked freedmen are accustomed to do, to refer all this to his patrons, he will do himself no good by that For there is no one who does not know that on account of the immensity of his business, many men did many things of which Lucius Sulla knew very little.

Notes on the current edition

Pro S. Roscio Amerino

1. neque proscriptus Hotoman: om. codd.

2. venierunt ς αω

3. cum quin πχ1ψ

4. deinde denique Halm

5. partim improbante scripsi: om. codd.: partim invito Madvig: partim conivente Ascens. (1)

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

male : to speak ill is to utter abuse or calumny .

causam . . . communicare , identify their cause with that of etc.

equestrem , referring to the struggle for the judicia and the extensive sympathy of the equites with the party of Marius. Cf. note to Verr., p. 28, l. 2 .

servi : Chrysogonus had been Sulla's slave.

versabatur , displayed itself .

quam viam munitet (indir. quest.): for road-building, both literal and figurative, the Romans used the engineering term munire .

fidem , etc., your honor (good faith), your oath, and your courts ; i.e. after getting possession of political power, these low-born fellows were now aiming at the courts, the one security of public faith and good government.

jusjurandum : the jurors were under oath to give a righteous judgment.

hicine (emphat.), here, i.e. in the courts (as opposed to politics).

neque . . . possit : Cicero does not wish to encourage him by admitting for a moment that he can really do anything in this case: it is the fact that he has dared to hope to accomplish something that is an outrage.

verear : subj. because it expresses not a real reason, but one introduced for the sole purpose of being contradicted: § 540 , N.3 (321, R.); B. 286, I, b; G. 541, N.2; H. 588, ii (516, 2); H.-B. 535,2, b.

talis viros : cf. p. 13, l. 8 .

M. Tullius Cicero Pro S. Roscio Amerino 130

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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