M. Tullius Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 56

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[56] 20 accusatores multos esse in civitate utile est ut metu contineatur audacia; verum tamen hoc ita est utile ut ne plane inludamur ab accusatoribus. innocens est quispiam, verum tamen, quamquam abest a culpa, suspicione tamen non caret¹; tametsi miserum est, tamen ei qui hunc accuset possim² aliquo modo ignoscere. cum enim aliquid habeat quod possit³ criminose ac suspiciose dicere, aperte ludificari et calumniari sciens non videatur. qua re facile omnes patimur esse quam plurimos accusatores, quod innocens, si accusatus sit⁴, absolvi potest, nocens, nisi accusatus fuerit, condemnari non potest; utilius est autem absolvi innocentem quam nocentem causam non dicere. Anseribus cibaria publice locantur et canes aluntur in Capitolio ut significent si fures venerint. at fures internoscere non possunt, significant tamen si qui noctu in Capitolium venerint⁵ et, quia id est suspiciosum, tametsi bestiae sunt, tamen in eam partem potius peccant quae est cautior. quod si luce quoque canes latrent cum deos⁶ salutatum aliqui venerint, opinor, eis crura suffringantur, quod acres sint etiam tum cum suspicio nulla sit.

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.) — 56 focus

[56] It is a useful thing for there to be many accusers in the city, in order that audacity may be kept in check by fear; but it is only useful with this limitation, that we are not to be manifestly mocked by accusers. A man is innocent. But although he is free from guilt he is not free from suspicion. Although it is a lamentable thing, still I can, to some extent, pardon a man who accuses him. For when be has anything which he can say, imputing a crime, or fixing a suspicion, he does not appear knowingly to be openly mocking and calumniating. On which account we all easily allow that there should be as many accusers as possible; because an innocent man, if he be accused, can be acquitted; a guilty man, unless or he be accused cannot be convicted. But it is more desirable that an innocent man should be acquitted, than that a guilty man should not be brought to trial. Food for the geese is contracted for at the public expense, and dogs are maintained in the Capitol, to give notice if thieves come. But they cannot distinguish thieves. Accordingly they give notice if any one comes by night to the Capitol; and because that is a suspicious thing, although they are but beasts, yet they oftenest err on that side which is the more prudent one. But if the dogs barked by day also, when any one came to pay honour to the gods, I imagine their legs would be broken for being active then also, when there was no suspicion. The notion of accusers is very much the same.

Notes on the current edition

Pro S. Roscio Amerino

1. alterum tamen del. Novák

2. possum w

3. possit Angelius: possim codd.

4. sit est Halm (2)

5. venerut Madvig

6. does σχψ1: deo (eo ψ2) cett.

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

quantum , so far as (adverbial acc.).

quid igitur est ? how then ?

primo quoque tempore , the very first opportunity (i.e that which the present case affords) since the violence and disorder of the Civil War.

exstinguere debetis : the courts had just been restored by Sulla after a long interval of lawlessness, and the case of Roscius was the first to come before the reorganized Quaestio inter Sicarios. There was a general feeling that the courts ought to do something at once, a feeling that might well be prejudicial to the defendant even though he was innocent. To remove this prejudice Cicero (1) suggests that the conspirators relied on it in bringing their iniquitous charge (sect. 18 :

ita loqui homines . . . esset ), and (2) shows that an acquittal, by rebuking the effrontery and violence of men like Chrysogonus and his confederates, would do much to restore law and order.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro S. Roscio Amerino 56

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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