INTRODUCTION

[sect. A.-THE HISTORY OF THE CASE.]

1.

The trial of Sextus Roscius for parricide was the first causa publica ¹ or criminal case in which Cicero was engaged. It took place in his twenty-seventh year, B.C. 80. The circumstances were as follows.

Sextus Roscius, the father of the accused, was a wealthy ² and respected ³ citizen of the municipium of Ameria (the modern Amelia) in Umbria, situated about 50 miles north of Rome. He was intimate with several noble families,⁴ and usually lived ⁵ in Rome, leaving his thirteen estates under the management of his son Sextus.⁶ In the summer or autumn of B.C. 81 the elder Roscius, while returning at night from a supper-party in Rome, was attacked near the Pallacinian baths ⁷ and murdered. The son was not in Rome; but a relative and fellow-townsman of the deceased, T. Roscius Magnus, who was in Rome,⁸ sent news of the murder to Ameria, immediately ⁹ after it was committed, by a courier, one Mallius Glaucia; not however to the house of the son, but to that of another relative, T. Roscius Capito.¹⁰ Both these relatives, Magnus and Capito, had been on bad terms with their late kinsman, owing to a dispute about property.¹¹ Within the next four days, news of the murder was brought--probably by Magnus and Capito ¹² --to L. Cornelius ¹³ Chrysogonus, a freedman and favourite of the dictator Sulla, who was with Sulla in his camp at Volaterrae.¹⁴

2.

It was now but a few months after the Sullan reign of terror and the Proscription. Sulla had doomed to death all who had publicly taken part against him in Italy, and all such persons were proscribed; i.e. a formal list of their names was made out and published. Now, since the property of the proscribed was confiscated by Sulla to reward his agents, those who coveted the possessions of others had but to contrive to have their names placed on the proscription list: thus many innocent persons fell victims merely to avarice or to private enmity. 'The slaughter did not cease,' says Sallust, 'until Sulla had enriched all his followers.' ¹⁵ In this way Chrysogonus had already acquired immense wealth ¹⁶ and power.¹⁷ On hearing of the murder of Sex. Roscius and of the large property which he had left, and learning further that the only heir, his son, a rustic person of unsuspicious nature and not known in Rome, could easily be set aside,¹⁸ Chrysogonus united with his two informants, Magnus and Capito, in a plot for getting that property into his possession.

3.

The scheme was carried out as follows. Chrysogonus contrived, though the deceased had been a partisan of Sulla and the aristocracy,¹⁹ and though the proscription list had been closed some months,²⁰ to get his name placed on the list; ²¹ so that his entire property fell in to the State.²² It was then sold by public auction ²³ and as no one dared to bid against the dreaded favourite, Chrysogonus bought it at the nominal price of 2,000 sesterces ²⁴ , though the real value is said to have been six million sesterces ²⁵ . Three of the best estates were given ²⁶ to Capito as his share of the spoil; ²⁷ the ten remaining estates and the personal effects were taken possession of by Chrysogonus through Magnus, whom he had appointed steward.²⁸ The latter came to Ameria, hunted the rightful heir Sextus out of house and home, and began to give away, sell,²⁹ and appropriate the movable property.

4.

This caused the greatest indignation in Ameria.³⁰ The decuriones ³¹ of the town resolved to send the decem primi, of whom Capito was one,³² to the camp of Sulla, to give evidence of the aristocratic tendencies of the deceased,³³ and to get his name taken off the list and the sale of his property annulled.

But Capito baffled their efforts.³⁴ He let Chrysogonus know the object of the mission, and showed him how great a loss he would suffer if the sale were annulled; he prevented the embassy coming before Sulla, and contrived to put them off with the promises of Chrysogonus that their wishes should be carried out. Finally they departed without addressing their request to Sulla at all.³⁵

5.

Thus the conspirators remained in possession of their spoil. But they could not feel secure of it. The Amerini might make new efforts for their unfortunate fellow-townsman; or, as time went on, he might be reinstated through some political movement.³⁶ Unless he were entirely got rid of, they could not feel at ease.³⁷ Accordingly they began to make plots against his life. Sextus, by the advice of his friends, fled to Rome,³⁸ where he found shelter and protection with Caecilia,³⁹ a noble lady and a friend of his father: ⁴⁰ thus he was safe from assassination. Magnus and Capito now formed the atrocious design of taking advantage of the crime through which the father had been got rid of, for the removal of the son. They resolved to accuse the son himself of the murder.⁴¹

6.

This plan for several reasons offered hopes of success. The father and son seem not to have been on the best of terms with one another; ⁴² the trouble taken by Cicero to contradict any such idea goes to show that it had some foundation, and we may infer from the assertions of the accuser that the somewhat boorish manners of the son may have offended the father's aristocratic tastes.⁴³ Again, the witnesses who could throw most light on the murder were two slaves, who had been with the elder Roscius in Rome; they had now passed with the rest of the property into the hands of Chrysogonus, and could not be examined without his consent.⁴⁴ The time, too, was favourable:⁴⁵ as the trial would be the first held for murder after a long interruption of all judicial business, so that the strictest procedure could be expected from the jury, the voice of justice having been silent so long. ⁴⁶ But the accusers built still greater hopes on the powerful influence of Chrysogonus. Through fear of the dictator, as they calculated, the accused would find no one to defend him; at any rate, no advocate would dare to say a word about the shameful sale of the property, nor to reveal the criminal plot of which the accused was to be the victim.⁴⁷

7.

To open the prosecution one Erucius, a professed accuser,⁴⁸ was suborned; ⁴⁹ a man of some education, but of low descent and bad character.⁵⁰ Bribed witnesses ⁵¹ were to support the charge, among others perhaps Roscius Magnus himself,⁵² who had been present in Rome at the time of the murder.

Sex. Roscius was not left in the lurch by his father's friends.⁵³ The party of the nobles though closely attached to Sulla's interests, could not but feel in the highest degree aggrieved at the overpowering influence and the revolting pride of an upstart favourite, and were glad to support the Cause of Sextus.⁵⁴ From fear of offending Sulla, no prominent man dared conduct the defence himself; but young Cicero consented to undertake it,⁵⁵ at the request of the noble friends of Sex. Roscius, especially the youthful M. Messalla.⁵⁶

[sect. B.-THE SPEECH.]

8.

Cicero's defence divides into three parts.⁵⁷ In the first ( 37-42) he examines the accusation, and shows its entire groundlessness and the want of any corroborative evidence. An English counsel for the defence who had done this, would have done all that was necessary.⁵⁸ But Cicero goes further: in the second part of the speech ( 83-123) he turns from defence to attack, and shows, from the life and character of Magnus, and the incidents preceding the murder, how clearly facts pointed to Magnus and Capito themselves as the authors of the crime. In the third part ( 124-150) he even attacks Chrysogonus directly, and depicts with deep indignation the flagrant misuse which he had made of his power, both on other occasions and especially in the purchase of the property and in his heartless behaviour towards the accused.

Cicero's boldness and courage were rewarded by the acquittal⁵⁹ of his client; a result which we may conjecture that Sulla himself saw without displeasure,⁶⁰ since if such horrors had been palliated, the stability of his own institutions might have been threatened.⁶¹ We do not know whether a restitutio bonorum ensued, nor whether after the acquittal of Sextus an accusation was brought against Magnus and Capito. But neither is probable. With the fear of the dictator's wrath before him, Cicero must have been well contented to have effected his client's acquittal on a dangerous charge, without wishing to attempt more.

9.

Though the speech is one of Cicero's youthful performances it has been justly held in the highest estimation both among the ancients and in later times, and has won the young orator well-earned fame⁶² for the courage and tact with which he conducted a just cause under the greatest difficulties. It is true that in several places the style is youthfully overladen and strained : ⁶³ the periods are not so rounded and full, nor the transitions so natural and unaffected, as in his later works; there are many peculiarities in the diction which are not to be found in the later speeches, though some of them are certainly due to incorrect transmission. But these individual defects are amply compensated for by the good impression which the speech makes as a whole. The deep conviction of the justice of his cause animates and exalts the young orator. None of his statements represent him as serving the interests of one party, or merely playing the advocate. He faces his abandoned opponents with manly boldness; and though he has indeed the prudence to avoid anything that might offend the all-powerful dictator, his consciousness of right makes him utterly regardless of the power of the faction to which his opponents belong, and contemptuous of their scoffs and threats. The moral indignation which speaks from every line of the speech must have made all the deeper impression on his hearers in the forum because of the length of time during which the voice of justice and truth had been silenced under the pressure of brute force.

[sect. C.-THE PUNISHMENT OF PARRICIDE.]

10.

From two passages ⁶⁴ in Cicero's rhetorical treatises, we learn what was apparently the original form of the punishment of parricide. Immediately after sentence was passed, the criminal's face was covered with a wolf's skin, and wooden sandals⁶⁵ bound on his feet, as though the air might no longer be defiled by his breath nor the ground with his tread. He was then taken back to prison, but only to remain there until a sack was prepared in which he was cast into the nearest river or sea. We hear of further provisions in the Pandects⁶⁶ poena parricidii more maiorum haec instituta est, ut parricida virgis sanguineis (with scarlet rods) verberatus, deinde culleo (made of leather) insuatur cum cane (an animal despised by Greeks and Romans), gallo gallinaceo (which, like the parricide, was devoid of all filial affection), et vipera (a creature universally hated, and whose birth was supposed to necessitate its mother's death ⁶⁷ ), et simia (probably as a degraded imitation of man), deinde in mare profundum (or into a river) culleus iactetur⁶⁸ The sack with its contents was thrown into the sea, in order that the criminal might be withdrawn from all the elements: "ut omni elementorum usu vivus carere incipiat et ei coelum superstiti, terra mortuo auferatur"(Justinian, Inst. iv. 18.6). From the fact that Cicero does not mention the animals, while two writers under the Empire refer to them (Seneca, de Clem. 1. 15, to the serpents; and Juvenal, 8.212, 13.154, to the apes), it has been inferred that they were not added till after the establishment of the Empire; but Cicero's not mentioning them can hardly be taken as a proof of this, since according to his later opinion⁶⁹ even what he does say here about the poena cullei is too full and copious.

11.

Though Cicero and the Digest (l.c.) speak as if the poena cullei regularly occurred in practice, it is a question whether this was the case under the later republic. Zumpt ⁷⁰ believes that it was inflicted only in cases where there was no need of a trial, viz. when the criminal was caught in the very act, or when he confessed his guilt. Zumpt's arguments are:

(1) No quaestio could or ever did inflict the punishment of death.

(2) Suetonius, in order to show the leniency of Augustus, describes him as dealing in the following way with a man caught in the act of parricide. The Emperor wished to get him off the punishment of the sack, and therefore put to him the leading question, 'You surely did not kill your father?' because only those who confessed their guilt received this punishment.⁷¹ In such a case the criminal might answer 'No,' and then be tried and punished in the ordinary way, viz. by exile and confiscation.

We may also notice that Cicero's passage about the culleus in this speech ⁷² is evidently meant to enhance the greatness of the crimen ⁷³ of which his adversaries had dared to accuse Sex. Roscius, not to rouse the pity of the jury as if he were really in danger of so horrible a punishment.

[sect. D.-THE COURT OF JUSTICE.]

12.

The court of justice before which an accusation for parricide was brought, was the quaestio inter sicarios. This phrase needs a short explanation.

In early times criminal cases in Rome used to come before the whole people, assembled in the Comitia centuriata and tributa. But, owing to the inconvenience of this mode of trial, the Comitia frequently used to delegate their power to special commissions, quaestiones, of one or more persons, appointed to try individual cases. The next step was to establish, instead of these temporary commissions, permanent commissions or courts (quaestiones perpetuae), which sat to try the commoner crimes: the first instance of this was the standing commission to try cases of extortion (de pecuniis repetundis), established in 149 B.C., on the proposal of L. Calpurnius Piso. The system grew, and was finally brought into general operation by Sulla, who much increased the number of the permanent courts. Each quaestio dealt with one class of offences only: thus there was a quaestio de repetundis, another de peculatu, another de ambitu, another inter sicarios, ⁷⁴ and so forth; the last-named being the one which dealt with murder, before which Sex. Roscius came to be tried. The law by which this quaestio was established (for every quaestio was established by a separate law) was the lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis; but this law comprehended more than the name implies, as it was directed not only against stabbing and poisoning, but against every form of murder, including even judicial murder; and it seems to have contained special regulations as to parricide, for the poena cullei was expressly mentioned.⁷⁵ Apparently it was also provided that the trial of such a rare and unnatural crime should be taken extra ordinem, i.e. out of regular succession, before other crimes of the same class ; ⁷⁶ which perhaps explains the fact that the present trial was the first after a long cessation of judicial business.

13.

The judge presiding in the quaestio inter sicarios in the present year (B.C. 80) was M. Fannius,⁷⁷ who had already acted as iudex quaestionis in a similar case.⁷⁸ The jury was composed, according to the reform introduced by Sulla, of senators.⁷⁹ As to their number or how they were selected, nothing precise is known: nor can any certain explanation be given of the words qui ex senatu in hoc consilium delecti estis propter severitatem, 8. We may conjecture that the presidents of the different quaestiones selected their consilia or juries in turn, and that the president of the quaestio inter sicarios had first choice, or chose among the first, so that he could secure those jurors who were most distinguished for strict rectitude ; or at any rate that his jurors counted as such.

Pro.Rosc.donk

[p. 1] [sect. 1]

Ch. 1

Credo ego vos mirari = θαυμάζοιτε. iudices, Introd. 13.

quid sit quod, what is (the reason) why . . . : cf. 99, quid erat quod, and 138.

nobilissimi, 15, 77, 149.

aetate, Introd. 1, ingenio (ability) =facultate dicendi, 5, 9, 62; auctoritate, 3, quod nondum ad rem publicam accessi.

omnes hi, the friends of Sex. Roscius : see Introd. 7. Up to defendere ipsi the sentence is concessive : It is true that all . . . think, etc.; but they do not dare, etc. For the omission of the adversative particle Richter compares 2, si qui istorum dixisset . . . ego si omnia dixero. 42, 57, 58.

adesse, cf. 2. Others join adesse in hac causa, but the addition has no force in an allusion to the advocati, i.e. the friends who supported the accused merely by their presence in court.

novo, unheard of, strange; cf. 30, crimen incredibile.

scelere, abstract, wickedness, villainy, as in 7, 12, 17, 25, 28, etc.

defendi: notice two special meanings of this verb in the present speech; here, to ward off, repel ; in 136 to support or strive for (an undertaking).

officium, as hospites, 15.

[sect. 2]

Quid ergo? introduces a question which the speaker only suggests in order to negative it at once : cf. 122, quid igitur? and see 36, first note.

praeter ceteros: see 145, note.

quia: quod would better answer the question quae rea impulit? Before quia supply causam recepi. [p. 2]

amplitudo, the especial attribute of the ordo senatorius; cf. de Dome sua, 55, ordo amplissimus.

si verbum de re publica fecisset, if he had in a single word touched on politics.

fieri necesse est. In narrating the sale of the property of Sex. Roscius, allusion must be made to the proscriptions and Sulla's regime.

multo plura, etc.; i.e. a mere hint, from a prominent man, of his political opinions, would be caught up and exaggerated by the audience.

[sect. 3]

exire atque . . . emanare, i.e. will not be reported so far by word of mouth, and so be liable to be exaggerated and misrepresented. Note the slightness of antithesis between this and multo plura . . . dixisse putaretur, which words would rather lead on to the thought, but my words will not be taken for more than they are worth.

concedi . . . ignosci, synonymous terms used for variety; cf. 10 sub fin., praebeas . . . impertias.

vel occultum esse differs only verbally from exire atque emanare above; but here there is a distinct antithesis with neque obscurum potest esse.

ad rem publicam accessi. Cicero did not enter on the quaestorship until five years later.

ignoscendi ratio, pardoning; a periphrasis for the nonexistent verbal subst. of ignoscere. Ngelsbach, Lat. Stil. 27, quotes ad Q. Fr. 1 .1.18, praecipiendi rationem = teaching, theorising, with other instances.

cognoscendi. Cognoscere is the technical term for inquiry into a crime; a process which had been abandoned for the summary procedure of the proscriptions. For the paronomasia, cf. Ter. Heaut. 2.1.5, Mihi si umquam filius erit, ne ille facili me utetur patre : Nam et cognoscendi et ignoscendi dabitur peccati locus: and in this speech, 18, suspiciosum . . . perspicuum; 42, confirmaret . . . infirmem; 89, derogo . . . adrogo; 135, videtis . . . invidetis; 117, praediis . . . praemiis; 112, offers . . . officio . . . officis . . . obstas. Landgraf quotes these among many instances of the Asianum genus dicendi, i.e. the artificial florid style, followed at first by Cicero before he studied under Melon in Rhodes.

[sect. 4]

dicerent, sc. causam: see 5, note.

ita petitum sit . . .; the request was made to others ita, only in such a manner, i.e. backed by only such moderate claims, that they felt they could equally comply or not, without violating friendship. For ita in this limiting sense see 55, note.

utrumvis, to undertake the defence or decline it; cf. 83.

ii contenderunt, Introd. 7.

[sect. 5]

Ch. II

causis . . . causae, reasons . . . case. This figure of speech, cum continenter unum verbum non eadem sententia ponitur (Cic. Orat. 135), was named πλοκή or ἀντιμετάθεσις by the rhetoricians. Cf. 28, ut ad eam rem aliquem accusatorem veterem compararent, qui de ea re posset dicere aliquid, in qua re, etc. ; 149, causam mihi tradidit, quem sua causa cupere intellegebat ; 7, peto . . . vitam ne petat. Auct. ad Herenn. IV. 21, "Cur eam rem tam studiose curas, quae multas tibi dabit curas?" "Nam amari iucundum est, si curetur, ne quid insit amari." "Veniam ad vos, si mihi senatus det veniam."

unus, rather than anyone else = unus praeter ceteros.

qui . . . possem, in a generic sense as the one man left, such as could . . . (Sonnenschein, New Grammar 335).

[p. 3] et fortunis : frequently joined with capite, as here ; since capital trials involved, as a rule, partial or entire loss of property. The phrase here seems used only formally, to avoid mentioning the poena cullei (Introd. 10); and 128, 143, show that Cicero did not mean to enter on a dimicatio de fortunis

causam dicere: said alike of the reus ( 13, 56, 82, 85) and of the patronus causae (here and 12).

eius rei; sc. the fact that they held in their possession the property of the murdered man. On ab accusatoribus, see Introd. note 49.

[sect. 6]

quae sunt, which are worth. Supply the abl. centenis milibus sestertium.

de viro, as representative of the State. In historical language Cicero would not have said de L. Sulla bona emit; but the words, which he puts with bitter irony into the mouth of Chrysogonus, point to Sulla as the authorizer of the purchase, and to the sale sub hasta, as of State property, Introd. note 23. Cf. Verr. 2.3.81 : Unus adhuc fuit post Romam conditam, cui respublica se totam traderet, L. Sulla Hic tantum potuit, ut nemo illo invito nec bona nec patriam nec vitam retinere posset; tantum animi habuit ad audaciam, ut dicere in contione non dubitaret, bona civium Romanorum cum venderet, se praedam suam vendere. The phrase emere de aliquo is as frequent as ab aliquo.

honoris causa nomino (the opposite to contumeliae causa nominare, Verr. 1.18) was a formula used in mentioning a living person of distinction, indirectly connected with the matter in hand, in order to preclude any idea that the speaker would allow himself to make a derogatory allusion to him. Cf. 15, 27, de Imp. Pomp. 58, and esp. 47 below, homines notos sumere odiosum est, cum et illud incertum sit, velintne ii sese nominari

nummum, Introd. 3.

vel, perhaps.

L. Cornelius, Introd. note 13.

pecuniam, the entire property = patrimonium. "Pecuniam dicit universitatem rei familiaris," Schol. Cf. 7, 15, 23, 26, 86, 110, 128.

invaserit, ironically for invasit, implying that Chrysogonus himself gave that reason for the request. Since, as he says, he has seized upon, etc. Cf. quod adeptus est, below, indicative.

obstare atque officere, i.e. bars his way to it, hinders his enjoyment of it. The same words are in 112, 145. Cf., on the other hand, 6 sub fin., adiutores ad hanc praedam.

damnato et eiecto, condemned, and hence thrust out (of his property). Cf. 23, eicit domo atque focis, and 27. Loss of property would be, not the regular penalty of a condemnation for parricide, but a sure consequence of it. Others supply de civitate with eiecto, since Sex. Roscius, if he foresaw his condemnation, could go into exile before sentence was passed.

per scelus, i.e. by having the late owner's name placed on the proscription list : Introd. 3.

id per luxuriam effundere, sarcastically for id tuto habere.

qui se pungit, instead of the regular forms eum pungit or se pungat. The relative clause qui se . . . pungit seems to form a part of and coalesce with the main sentence, = se pungentem. Examples, which are rare in Cicero, occur chiefly in his later writings : cf. de Inv. 1.55, Epaminondas ei qui sibi ex lege praetor successerat (= successori suo) exercitum non tradidit. Verr. 2. 5, 128, Dexo hic non quae privatim sibi eripuisti . . . flagitat. Hor. Sat. 1.1. 1, Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem seu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illa contenti vivat? Madvig, 490, Obs. 3.

ut evellatis postulat, ut, ut . . . ut are in different senses; asks you to pluck out . . . in order that you may profess yourselves . . .

praedam, 8, 86, 107, 145.

[p. 4] [sect. 7] si . . . videtur, ironical: the sense is, 'If you consider that to be a fair and honourable demand, I will in my turn bring a demand before you, and a much fairer one.

nostris. Cicero frequently identifies himself with his clicnt : cf. 32, patrem meum, etc. ; see note.

petat: see 5, note; and cf. 21, impetum facit.

sceleri : see 1.

et in causa. Et is very rare with the third member in a series : here the first two, being in antithesis with each other, may be regarded as forming one. Or the third is the resultant of the first two (Richter).

Ch. III [sect. 8]

causa criminis, grounds for an accusation.

illi : ille and iste in judicial speeches mean my opponent ; hic, my client, the man near me. Ille implies that the orator is speaking to the audience of his adversary ; iste, that he is speaking at his adversary. Ille is said here (and illorum below), not isti, because Cicero is addressing the jurors direct. Cf. pro Sulla, 34.

non nihil tamen ... secuti, to have been guided by some sort of evidence. In 34, quid vos sequi conveniat = what you ought to keep in view, keep your attention on. non nihil tamen ; here, as also in 33, 55, 104, the although idea wanted before tamen is left entirely to the reader's sense ; little though it be, yet not nothing. Caesar has a somewhat similar use of the word, in B.G. 1. 32, quod reliquis tamen fugae facultas daretur, Sequanis vera, etc. = at least. Cf. Thuc. III. 49, where ὅμως, refers back to c. 36.

in deferendo nomine = in accusando. The delatio nominis, or giving notice of an accusation to the presiding magistrate in the appropriate quaestio (Introd. 12), was followed by the nominis receptio, or entry of the accused's name by the Praetor on the list of rei.

recusamus, protest against.

libidini, ' will and pleasure.

si hoc pugnatur, if this be the object of the contest ; differing little from si aliud agitur nihil Cf. Phil. 10. 22, qui id pugnant id agunt; VIII. 8, M. Antonius id molitur, id pugnat.

vos idoneos habitos. The infin. is the regular construction after dignum est (= decet, aequum est, Cic. Tusc. II. 14) and indignum est. Madvig, 398a.

per sententias iusque iurandum, through your verdict, which you give on oath ( 101, 140, 152): cf. 9, natura pudorque, natural modesty ; 123, vestris ingeniis coniecturaeque committo ; 149, aetas et pudor. These passages show that in hendiadys (the socalled ἕν διὰ δυοῖν) the first member has a complete sense in itself, but is followed by a second, equally able to stand alone, which specifies the sense more clearly. But whether the first or second gives the leading idea is not always clear. De Or. I. 33, clamores et admirationes may mean admiring shouts, or boisterous admiration. Drger, Lat. Synt. II. p.17.

qui ex civitate : the antecedent to qui is his two lines below. in senatum. Sulla had filled up the number of the Senate by the addition of 300 equites, whom he allowed the assembly of the Tribes to nominate. Mommsen, Rom. Hist. III. p. 359.) The remaining senators, too, had been chosen indirectly by the people, for they had entered the Senate as curule magistrates.

propter severitatem, Introd. 13.

postulare is not an infin. of indignant exclamation, but depends on indignissimum est.

homines sicarios. The addition of homines expresses contempt : a set of cut-throat fellows. Cf. Ter. Adelph. I. 2. 31, Tu homo adigis me ad insaniam. [p. 5]

[sect. 9]

Ch. IV

commode, in a manner appropriate to, worthy of, my subject, so that the speech may correspond to the atrocitas rerum. Cf. 33, laudare satis commode ; 61, causam si non commode, at libere dici.

graviter, impressively.

natura pudorque : see 8, note.

[sect. 10]

fide, fidelity to their oath as jurors.

non spero, I will not hope, I do not expect. Spero, of unwelcome expectation, is only found with a negative in Cicero; without a negative only in poets and later writers.

perferam, carry through. For et (where we should say but) after non deficiam, see Madvig, 433, Obs. 2.

cum fide, trustfully. 30, cum fide defendat, is different = in an honest, conscientious way.'

iudex : see Introd. 13.

rei publicae : cf. esp. c. LII. and c. LIII.

impertias, a variety for praebeas : see 3. [p. 6]

[sect. 11]

Ch. v

mortales in Cicero = homines only in connection with omnes and multi : cf. 95, omnibus mortalibus.

inter sicarios, Introd. 12.

committitur, is held, set on foot : cf. committere ludos, spectaculum, pugnam, agona musicum, etc.

cum interea . . . factae sunt, while in the meantime . . This phrase is regularly followed by the indicative ; cf. Verr. 2. 5. 162, caedebatur virgis . . . cum interea nullus gemitus audiebatur. It may be classified with the inverted cum and indicative, as in Caes. B.G. 7.26, jamque hoc facere apparabant, cum matres procurrerunt.

sanguine, bloodshed ; dignissimum, fully worthy, corresponding to the greatness of the crimes : cf. just below, ut quam acerrime maleficia vindicetis, and 9, satis commode dicere, note. The reading of the MSS. is corrupt and meaningless. Halm calls the reading in the text only a makeshift.

[sect. 12]

vociferatione, i.e. an appeal for due severity.

causam dicimus, who are answering to a charge. The phrase here suits Cicero both as patronus and as identified with his client : cf. 5.

qui vester animus sit, your real disposition, the free manifestation of which would put a check on deeds of violence.

prorumpere (for which proruptura esse or prorumpere posse would be expected) = is on the way to break forth. The construction is irregular, and so rare as to render the reading doubtful. The pres. may be rhetorical : is even now breaking all bounds ' Richter ; who compares Cic. Ep. XII. 6.2, si Brutus conservatus erit, vicimus, where the perf. instead of the fut. is forcible.

hic in foro. "The Praetor had his seat (sella curulis) on a raised platform (tribunal), under the open air, in the forum ; the jurors and clerks sat around him on low benches (subsellia) ; lower down (ante pedes vestros), perhaps on the ground itself, stood subsellia for the two contending parties, separated from one another ; in a circle around stood the public (corona) who were interested in the case." (Richter.)

[sect. 13]

accusant ei, etc. Note the fine succession of antitheses.

quibus bono fuit : cf. 84, 86, cui bono.

cum praesidio. So Cicero calls the friends (advocati) who had appeared with him in court. [p. 7]

poscit (sc. in judicium), demands for trial and punishment ; cf. pro Sest. 46, cum ob hasce causas me unum deposcerent. Liv. 9. 26. 17, poscere reum = to demand a man for accusation.

[sect. 14]

Atque, etc., marks the transition to the narratio (account of the facts of the case).

res quem ad modum gesta sit, the particulars of the affair.

[sect. 15]

Ch. VI

municeps, a citizen of a municipium, which term at this date meant a town governed by its own magistrates, and possessing the full rights of Roman citizenship ; the latter having been granted to all Italian towns during the Social War by the lex Iulia, B.C. 90, and the lex Plautia Papiria, B.C. 89.

hospitiis florens . . . nobilissimorum. Note the emphasis falling on the last word ; it enhances the shamefulness of inscribing a friend of Sulla's own party on the proscription list. Cf. 21, nobilitatis. On hospitium, see Ramsay, Rom. Ant. pp.115-6.

Metellis : 77 ; Introd. 1.

gratia, in acknowledgment of: cf. 6, honoris causa.

itaque . . . reliquit : the force of itaque can be shown by a paraphrase ; thus it was that he could leave to his son what is now the only advantage the son retains, Viz. friendship with people of good position.

domestici praedones, i.e. who were members of his own family (domus) : cf. 17.

[sect. 16]

is, the elder Roscius.

cum fuisset, since he had been, or having been .

tumultu, in the civil war between Marius and Sulla ; properly, alarm of war. The word was used of any sudden outbreak of hostilities that caused confusion and alarm in Rome : cf. Phil. VIII. 3.

[p. 8] pro eorum honestate, in defence of their distinguished position.

propter quos, to whom he owed it that : cf. 63.

numerabatur : indicative, being Cicero's own statement rather than part of Roscius' thought.

proscriberentur, Introd. 2. Join homines . . . ei qui, as subject to proscriberentur and caperentur. Caperentur implies the capture of enemies while in flight after a battle. Yet not hostes, nor even inimici, but adversarii (men of the opposite party) follows. This brings out the severity of Sulla's measures ; otherwise raperentur or conquirerentur would be expected rather than caperentur.

frequens. For the adj. in apposition, instead of the adverb, see Madvig, 300 c, and cf. 18, assiduus in praediis esset ; 92, Romae assiduus fuerit.

ut, so that.

[sect. 17]

veteres inimicitiae, Introd. 1. For the plural, see Madvig, 51 d.

quorum alterum, T. Roscius Magnus.

sedere in accusatorum subselliis. Cicero repeatedly calls attention to this ( 84, 87, 95, 104), perhaps in order to attach to Magnus, in case he should wish to give evidence afterwards, the imputation of being prejudiced against the accused. The examination of witnesses followed next after the speeches for the prosecution and defence.

possidere audio, Introd. note 26.

nobilis, the standing epithet for famous artists or performers : cf. Curtius, IX. 29. 16, pugil nobilis. Gladiator, figurat. for sicarius. This explains what kind of victories are denoted by palmae (the general term for tokens of victory in every kind of contest), viz. successful deeds of violence : cf. 84, 100 ; Auct. ad Her. IV. 51, sanguinolenta palma, crudelissima victoria potiti.

hic, not iste, although said of Cicero's adversary (cf. 8 sub init.), because Magnus, who was present, is meant, as opposed to the absent Capito. So 113, hic discipulus : cf. in Verr. II. 4, 7.

ad eum lanistam, to the other (Capito) as trainer.

hanc pugnam = caedem Roscii.

quique . . . esset, and though he was . . .

quod sciam, added ironically, so far as I know , : i.e. I know of no other murder committed by him, and must therefore conclude that previously he was only a tiro gladiatorius ; hinting that Magnus may have committed many other crimes which Cicero had not heard of. For the subj. sciam, cf. 95,

quod possim ; and Madvig, 364, Obs. 2.

[sect. 18]

Ch. VII

cum hic Sex. Roscius . . . cum hic filius: both phrases refer to the son. The second cum is not co-ordinate with but subordinate to the first : while Sextus the son was at Ameria . . . through being constantly present on the estates ; ipse autem, whereas the father (ipse) was often in Rome. Ipse is a good emendation for MSS. iste, which would mean Magnus ; we have just been told that he was in Rome.

rei familiari, management of the property : cf. 43. [p. 9]

ad balneas Pallacinas, Introd. note 7.

ad quem suspicio pertineat, on whom the suspicion of the deed falls.

culpae may be genit. or dat. : cf. pro Sulla, 70, huic adfines sceleri ; and 17 of the same speech, huius adfines suspicionis.

iudicatote : imperativus permissivus, Declare him, for all I care : cf. 57, si voletis . . . latratote ; 109, iudicatote The permissive sense seems due to the more formal commanding tone of the imperat. forms in -to : cf. pro Balb. 36, verbi genus hoc conservanto . . . imperantis est, non precantis.

[sect. 19] nuntiat, brings the news, intrans., sc. occisum esse Roscium.

tenuis, poor, and so accessible to bribes.

Titi Roscii, sc. Magni.

et nuntiat, a rhetorical repetition, = and that, too : cf. de Imp. Pomp. 7, regnat et ita regnat ; de Imp. Pomp. 10, dicam et ita dicam.

inimici, i.e. the enemy of the murdered man.

post horam primam noctis. The Romans, both in summer and winter, divided both day and night into twelve horae : thus in summer the twelve horae nocturnae must be shorter than the twelve horae diurnae, and in winter vice versa. The season when the murder was committed is shown by the word nocturnis, which is added to enhance the speed of the journey, and must therefore mean short hours, i.e. hours of a summer night.

sex et quinquaginta milia passuum, 56 Roman miles =51 1/4 English.

[p. 82] cisiis: cisium genus vehiculi Gallici, Schol. The plural (cf. Phil. 2. 77, cisio ad urbem advectus) shows that the messenger took fresh carriages at the different stations.

[sect. 20]

quadriduo quo, within four days after that, etc., abbrev. for quadriduo a die quo; so Halm; but Madvig, 276, Obs. 4, says, in the course of the same four days during which these things took place : cf. Ter. And. 1.1.77, In paucis diebus, quibus haec acta sunt, Chrysis moritur. Cf. below, 105. Suet. Iul. 35, quem . . . quatuor quibus in conspecturn venit horis . . . profligavit.

Volaterras, Introd. note 14: cf. 105, ad Volaterras, which is more accurate, as denoting the vicinity of the town. Madvig 232.

fundos. Digest. lib. L. 16.211, ager cum aedificio fundus dicitur; i.e. fundus = an estate on which there is a building, as opposed to ager, on which there is none.

Tiberim tangunt: an advantage. Pliny (Ep. 5.6.12) says of his villa, medios ille (Tiberis) agros secat, navium patiens, omnesque fruges devehit in urbem.

inopia, helplessness.

splendidus, the honorary epithet of the equestrian order, to which the murdered Roscius from the amount of his property belonged. Cf. Fin. 2. 18.58, C. Plotius, eques Romanus splendidus.

incautum, unsuspicious.

ne diutius teneam. Without vos, as in Verr. 1.1.34: cf. ib. Iv. 104, ne multis morer.

societas coitur, between Chrysog., Magnus, and Capito; cf. 28, 58, 60, 87, 95. The last two passages imply that there were other associates as well.

[sect. 21]

Ch. VIII

mentio: 128; Introd. note 20.

nomen refertur: as Catiline had the name of his brother, whom he had murdered, subsequently placed on the proscription list (tabulas, cf. 26), in order to avoid a prosecution for murder. The whole property of a proscribed person necessarily fell in to the State.

[p. 10] manceps: in its original sense. Festus, p. 151, manceps dicitur qui quid a populo (i.e. from the State) emit conducitve.

hodie, even now, = hodie quoque, or the later phrase hodieque.

nomine Chrysogoni, as his procurator, 23.

impetum facit, falls upon, seizes on, as in 137 ; a stronger term for occupet, marking the act of violence which it was in the orator's view : cf. invadere, 13, 23. The following words Haec bona, etc., which would be expected above after manceps fit Chrysog., seem interpolated from 6.

imprudente L. Sulla. With this and the following passage, cf. 127, 131. Cicero takes care to say nothing against the dictator.

[sect. 22]

quae praeterita sunt sc. the wounds inflicted on the State in the civil war.

sanet: a better reading is Prof. Clark's reparet, in much the same sense. Reparet, rhyming with praeparet, would have pleased Cicero at this period (see 3, note), and is thus confirmed.

praeparet: according to usage this verb should here mean prepare what is coming rather than prepare for what is coming. But Cic. probably meant no more than the latter.

pacis constituendae. There is a reference here to Sulla's great constitutional changes, which had accompanied the conclusion of peace after the civil war.

rationem, properly making calculations for, translate, has the control over the arrangements for peace, and the power for waging war.'

si non animadvertat follows from neque enim mirum.

aliquid. After si, nisi, ne, num, quis is more usual than aliquis; but the latter is found after si, especially if an emphasis rests on the pronoun, i.e. something, as opposed to much, little, all, and the like. (Madvig 493, Obs. 1.) The emphasized aliquid, and the subj. animadvertat, put the case in the mildest way; what wonder if there were something which he failed to notice?

occupationem, his being engrossed, i.e. the time when he was engrossed. Many verbals in -io take a passive sense: Verr. 1.1. 83, circumsessionis tuae = the fact of your being surrounded ; pro Sest. 47, spolatio = the fact or condition of having been spoiled ; infractio, the state of being broken. Ngelsbach, Lat. Stil. 59 a 2.

observent, look out for. Virg. Georg. 4. 513, Quos durus arator observans . . . detraxit.

despexerit, glance aside = oculos dejecerit: cf. 131. Similarly deversor = to turn aside off the road into an inn.

felix. It was known that Sulla had taken the surname of Felix, though it had not yet come into general use. Vell. Pat. 2.27.5, occiso enim eo (sc. C. Mario adulescente) Felicis nomen (Sulla) adsumpsit.

neminem . . . neque . . . neque. For the double negative, the first, a general one, not destroying the subordinate ones, see Roby 2246, and cf. 73, 96, 139, 146.

[sect. 23]

interea brings the events graphically before the hearers' eyes: Meantime (while I am digressing), T. Roscius comes to Ameria, etc. vir optimus: ironical, as in 104. procurator. "Procurator est qui aliena negotia mandatu domini administrat," Ulpianus. nondum etiam: cf. Cat. 1.10, vixdum etiam; Verr. Iv. 9, nihildum etiam. omnia iusta solvisset. Funeral ceremonies lasted nine days after the interment , and ended with a repast (novemdialia) placed beside the tomb, as an offering to the Manes. disque: without a preposition, as the persons stood for the place. On the other hand, pro Quinct. 83, iam de fundo expulsus, iam a suis dis penatibus praeceps eiectus. [p. 11]

qui fuisset egentissimus, not he who would have been very miserly. . . but since he had been. . . or, having been . . . He accorded with the usual rule ; first miserly with what was his own; then lavish with what was another's.

insolens, arrogant i.e. lavish, as opposed to egentissimus. Phil. 9. 13, mirifice Servius maiorum continentiam diligebat, huius saeculi insolentiam vituperabat. De Orat. 2.84. 342, insolentem in pecunia.

auctione, Introd. note 29.

[sect. 24]

Ch. IX

iter ad sepulcrum. 'The Romans frequently built tombs for themselves and their families on their estates, and, if they sold such estates, used to stipulate for the right of free access to the sepulcra. Unless such a stipulation were made in the deed of sale, the seller lost all right of access. So material an encroachment as this on the right of property was named servitus (fundus servit) ; by servitus itineris or simply iter, as here, was meant that the owner conceded to the former owner or to any interested person the right of walking, riding, or being carried over the land to the sepulcrum; viae servitus or via was the right of driving thither, and included the iter. The younger Roscius could not retain even the relic of his patrimonium usually preserved, the iter ad sepulcrum patrium in fundo

[p. 85] alieno.' Osenbrggel). It was also customary among the Greeks, when land changed owners, to keep the grave as a family possession, and allow free access to relatives.

reliquisset: subjunctive, being what they were thinking; virtually orat. obl.

flagitiosa. It was so, because it depended on the murdered man's name being added to the list of proscribed after the right time.

possessio, seizure, implying violence, in the sense of possidere, to take possession of: cf. 23.

iactantem, pluming himself; dominantem, playing the proprietor.

[sect. 25]

decurionum . . . decem primi, Introd. note 31. fit ut proficiscantur, etc. Note the pres. tense, carried graphically into the subordinate clauses : cf. 110, monet ut provideat, ne . . . agatur; but below, allegat, qui peterent.

scelere: 7, note.

decretum decurionum. Omitted by Cicero in the published edition of the speech.

intellegitur, it can be understood, in English ; sc. from what happened to the embassy.

allegat qui peterent: here the historic present is strictly treated and has a historic tense after it.

[sect. 26]

autem, but (though he professed such readiness to serve them). antiqui, men of the old stamp. Pl. Ep. 11.9, vir sanctus, anitiquus. [p. 12]

fingerent, formed their ideas of.

vacua, unoccupied; as they would be, if the forcible appropriation were made null and void.

adpromitteret, added his promise to that of Chrysogonus: a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. re inorata, without getting their case heard; from the old meaning of orare = agere, to plead, whence orator in early Latin = legatus, one who pleaded or transacted an affair for the State.

aliquanto lentius nihil agere: some critics formerly omitted nihil, not appreciating the vigour of the phrase did nothing, trifled, still more indolently. It should be retained. Without nihil, agere= behaved.

[p. 86] [sect. 27]

de amicorum cogn. sententia. Important family affairs were laid before a consilium cognatorum et amicorum, for their consideration and decision.

Caeciliam: see below, 147, note.

honoris causa: 6, note.

usus erat plurimum, sc. familiariter: cf. ad Att. xvi. 5.3, Cn. Lucceius, qui multum utitur Bruto.

etiam nunc, i.e. in these degenerate days, as opposed to antiqui: cf. 26.

exempli causa, to serve as a pattern; not for instance, which is in Latin ut or velut, or "exempli causa with some such verb as nominare, ponere, afferre." (Richter.)

officii, sense of duty, i.e. conscientiousness, obedience to duty; (sc. duty towards Sex. Roscius, in consideration of her friendship with his father). For the meaning of officii, cf. Tusc. IV. 28.61, Si quis aegre ferat, nihil in se esse officii.

hospiti, because pater ea usus erat plurimum. The hospitium of the father had been transmitted to the son: cf. 106.

diligentia = cura, vigilantia.

in reos = in reorum album (list); in proscriptos = in proscriptorum tabulas.

[sect. 28]

ut . . . deferrent: ut epexegetic, namely that they should, etc.; as in 77, 128, 136. Cf. Madvig, 417, Obs. 2 ad fin.

ad eam rem, for that purpose de ea re, as Mr. Stock shows =about a matter, in qua re in which . . .; omit the second re in English. See 5, first note.

veterem, trained (cf. 17, vetus gladiator; 39, vetus sicarius); i.e. who had often acted as accuser, had had enough practice, and would not scruple as to the evidence he employed. [p. 13]

crimine. by an accusation, i.e. since they had no (real) charge to bring against him.

tempore ipso pugnarent, to use the very circumstances as their weapons: cf. Introd. 6.

ita loqui homines, the fellows talked thus; the next seven lines tell us how they talked. homines are Magnus, Capito, and Chrysogonus: loqui is historic infin. I follow Prof. Clark in thus interpreting.

patronos: see 30 sub fin. societate: see 20 sub fin.

[sect. 29]

atque adeo =ac potius, as in 100, 113.

jugulandum. Cicero chooses a word implying judicial murder : cf. Verr. 2.2.26, decretis iugulare; pro Mil. 31, iugulari a vobis (iudicibus). Compare the metaphor for an accused man, laqueis legum constrictus.

Ch. XI

deorumne . . . populine . . . vestramne; strictly should be deorumne . . . an . . . an. This is the rhetorical figure called anaphora, repetition, which adds much animation. Cf. Cic. Fin. 1.20, si loca,si fana, si campum, si canes, si equos adamare solemus.

[sect. 30]

quid. . . videtur: cf. 118 init.

infesta, endangered. Gellius, N.A. 9. 12.2, Infestus et is appellatur, qui malum infert cuipiam, et contra, cui aliunde impendet malum. (Richter.)

ut optet, choose : cf. the subst. aptio.

cervices dare: cf. pro Mil. 31, optabilius Miloni fuit dare iugulum P. Clodio. T. Roscio, sc. Magno, who was present who had already made his reputation as a sicarius (17); unless Roscius should be read, as the praenomen is wanting in the MSS.

insutus in culleum, Introd. 10.

desunt. Cicero had already ( 5) said that he is patronus causae, counsel for the defence ; but he could rhetorically disclaim the title, as not being able to protect the accused by personal weight and influence; or, as Halm says, though Cicero was patronus causae, he will not reckon himself among the patroni rei (of the accused), because he was not in a position to defend him by personal weight. It is implied in the exaggerated statement desunt that many friends of the accused had not ventured to appear with him in court: cf. 148. [p. 14]

[sect. 31]

quoniam quidem. The latter word is adversative, however ; cf. in Caecil. 48, quid in dicendo posset, nunquam satis attendi, in clamando quidem video eum esse bene robustum. Cf. Ngelsbach, Lat. Stil. 195 c.

licet hercules. More commonly hercule or hercle: cf. mehercules, 58, 151, but Verr. 11.3.145, licet hercules omnes omnia dicant.

certum est, it is my resolve.

libenter: in the rare sense of according to my inclination, without constraint. The usual sense is cheerfully, gladly. Cf. Cic. Parad. 5.34, qui nihil dicit, nihil facit, nihil cogitat denique nisi libenter ac libere. Licenter dicere, which has been conjectured, is different, being said only of an extravagant and impudent style of speech.

exsistet, will occur.

vim adhibere, have more power over me; more freq. in the sense of vim adferre.

[sect. 32]

dissoluto, insensate, heedless, implies a higher degree of neglegentia : cf. pro Quinct. 38, quis tam dissolutus in re familiari fuisset, quis tam neglegens?

patrem meum, as in 145, the so-called rhetor. figure προσωποποία: cf. Cat. 1, 18, Halm's note.

Ut aut iuguletis aut condemnetis, to effect either a direct murder or an indirect one (i.e. judicial, through the iudices). Condemnare, as often, to effect a condemnation. The verbs have no object, but describe in general terms the aim of Cicero's opponents. Kayser well compares Auct. ad Her. 4. 19, nam cum istos ut absolvant rogas, ut periurent rogas; ib. 4. 48. Cf. below, 56, ut significent.

[sect. 33]

Ch. XII

C. Flavius Fimbria (ultimae audaciae homo, Liv. Epit. 82), a furious partisan of Marius, who had played a prominent part in the massacres carried on by Marius and Cinna in 87 B.C. In 86 B.C. he was legatus to the consul L. Valerius Flaccus, whom the Marian party had sent to Asia to carry on the war against Mithridates and wrest the command from Sulla. Fimbria murdered Valerius and succeeded him in the command. Cf. Liv. Epit. 82.83; Mommsen, Rom. Hist. III. pp.306-311.

nisi = but, except, is rare except in negative sentences: here quod inter omnes constat = quod nemo negat nisi, etc.

Q. Mucius Scaevola, distinguished from the Augur by the title Pontifex Maximus: famous for his legal learning, and noted as a teacher of law, as an advocate, and as a man of the strictest integrity. He was murdered in 82 B.C. as a partisan of the aristocracy: cf. Liv. Ep. 86; Mommsen, Rom. Hist. III. p.336. The orator Crassus says of him (ap. Cic. de Orat. I. 180), Q. Scaevola, homo omnium et disciplina iuris civilis eruditissimus et ingenio prudentiaque acutissimus et oratione maxime limatus atque subtilis, etc. He was one of Cicero's teachers.

locus est ut, as in Tusc. 4. 1. So ut freq. after tempus est.

tamen, etiam locus esset; cf. 8, note on tamen.

possunt, could be said. The subjunctive would suit our idiom, the indic. the Latin. Cf. 53, 91, 94, etc.

diem dixit; i.e. gave him formal notice that on a certain day he would impeach him before the comitia: cf. Halm's note on pro Mu. 36. It is unlikely that the accusation was actually brought. Accusaturus esset, why he intended to accuse him. [p. 15]

vivere, escape with his life.

quid . . . accusaturus, what accusation he was about to bring . . .; quid is accusative showing the extent of action of the verb, Roby 1094. Cf. 145, quid tibi obsto? Livy 1.54, omnia poterat.

commode: see 9, note.

ut erat furiosus, like a madman as he was.

recepisset, a term belonging to gladiatorial fights. If the people cried recipe ferrum, a conquered gladiator was obliged patiently to receive the death-blow. Fimbria meant that Scaevola ought to have presented his breast like a gladiator to meet the stroke.

quo, sc. dicto.

quae tantum potuit, literally, which had such power, that he, being assassinated, ruined and crushed all men, i.e. his assasination had that effect. Cicero means that Scaevola's death virtually brought upon the citizens the coming horrors of the civil war, because he, if anyone, was the man to reconcile the hostile parties, and he wished to do so.

quos . . . iis do not denote the same individuals; quos = the citizen body generally; ab iis = certain persons in that body. "Because he wished to save the citizen-body, he fell a victim to citizens' fury."

per compositionem: cf. 136, componeretur. It is not otherwise known that Scaevola wished to mediate between the Marians and Sulla.

[sect. 34]

estne=is not? Ne=nonne; as in 66, videtisne, and 113, itane est? = Is it not so? These are abbreviated forms, the other clause of the question being understood: estne (an non est?) videtisne (an non videtis?).

in Scaevola, in the case of Scaevola; cf. de Orat. 3.36, se calcaribus in Ephoro, . . . in Theopompo frenis uti solere.

Nam, per deos immortales, quid: cf. ad Q. Fr. 1.1.10, Nam quid ego de Gratidio dicam? Verr. 2. 2. 160, Nam quid ego de Syracusis loquar, etc. In such places nam introduces an additional remark which the speaker wishes to represent as almost too obvious to be mentioned; and it indicates, not the reason of what precedes (as usually), but the reason why what precedes did not iuclude what is now added. Is this to be endured? (I do not say, to be treated as a justifiable charge, requiring a defence); for (nam) what is there in the case that needs a defence? Cf. Long's note on Cic. Lael. 104.

quae . . . contineat, on what the whole case rests. This is described in 8, sin aliud agitur nihil, etc.

quid sequi: cf. 8, secuti, note. De Invent. 1.22, certum quiddam destinatur auditori, in quo animum debeat habere occupatum.

[sect. 35]

Ch. XIII

This sec. contains the partitio (enumeration of topics to be discussed; see de Invent. 1.22).

crimen adversariorum, etc. It is a striking illustration of Cicero's times, that he speaks of the boldness and power of his opponents in the same breath with the charge itself. [p. 16]

[sect. 36]

quid igitur est; as in 55, quid ergo est? a phrase limiting what has just been said; in sense =sed. (Richter.) non eodem modo, i.e. (dicam equidem de his rebus sed) non eodem modo, not at the same length, de omnibus.

primo quoque tempore, at the very first opportunity, the sooner the better.

[sect. 37]

occidisse. - - arguitur; the propositio, allegation, of the accusers.

complexa, in a passive sense. We may retain this reading because Priscian (8.16, and 11.29) quotes the passage thus, as an example of the passive use of deponent verbs.

vultu saepe laeditur pietas. Mr. Stock translates, Filial respect is often violated by a look.

cogebant. The indicative is used, as if the phrase were debebat mori; cf. 53, 91, 94, etc.

[sect. 38]

exstitit, has appeared. Halm suggests the pres. exsistit.

immanemque, as opp. to humana natura, brutish. Cf. 63, qui tantum immanitate bestias vicerit; 71, 146, 150. [p. 17]

ad perniciem profligata, sunk down into ruin. Gellius, N.A. 15. 5, notices a change in the use of profligare, from destroy, to finish off, get done: aedificia, templa esse profligata. So Liv. 21. 40, profligare bellum. But here we have the earlier sense.

obiciendi ... causa, by way of a slanderous reproach, as it was the custom for accusers to do. Cf. pro Murena, 11, trium partium (accusationis) prima ita fuit infirma et levis, ut illos lex magis quaedam accusatoria quam vera maledicendi facultas . . . dicere coegerit. Pro Cluent. 23, doce quid non modo in criminis, sed in maledicti loco sit obiectum.

Ch. xiv

[sect. 39]

qui (=qualis) homo? Cicero proceeds to show that the former life of Sex. Roscius afforded no ground for believing him guilty; a line of argument termed probabile ex vita by the rhetoricians. It continues through 39.

annos natus maior quadraginta. As natus itself has no comparative, natus maior (minor) was said, and the number of years subjoined either in the abl. (Verr. 2.2.122, ne qui minor triginta annis natus) or in the accus., quam being omitted as after plus (amplius) and minus. For a third form without natus, cf. 100, minorem annis sexaginta. Madvig, 306, Obs. 1.

luxuries. . . luxuria, here and in 75 the word fluctuates from one declension to the other.

ne in convivio . . . interfuisse. Erucius' own statement was less sweeping: cf. 52.

cupiditate, avarice ; officio, observance of duty, i.e. of moral duty : cf. 27, officii, note.

[sect. 40]

obiecit; used of feelings which mislead or confound: obicere errorem, rabiem, metum, etc. This section begins the probabile ex causa, i.e. the inquiry whcther the accused had any motive for committing the crime laid to his charge.

lustam, adequate. Eam quoque, that secondary cause, no less than the primary one.

necessariis, cogent.

[sect. 41]

eodem, to the same point (the so-called probabile ex vita), to look for proofs for the statement patri non placebat. [p. 18]

unico filio: cf. Verr. 2.1.104, is cum haberet unicam filiam.

is with an emphasis : he especially.

constantissimus as opposed to amens. Constantia, steadiness of character, was the effect of sanitas animi, the opposite of which is insania: Tusc. 3.9, sanitatem animorum positam in tranquillitate quadam constantiaque censebant (philosophi).

Ch. xv

[sect. 42]

praedia rustica, estates in the country, as opposed to praedia urbana, which lay in the precincts of the city.

relegarat. Roman history gives various instances of this kind of penalty: the best known is that of L. Manlius Imperiosus, dictator B.C. 363: Cic. de Off. 3.112, criminabatur etiam (M. Pomponius trib. pl.) quod Titum filium, qui postea est Torquatus appellatus, ab hominibus relegasset et ruri habitare jussisset.

quod... idem; i.e. the same difficulty which met Erucius, etc., occurs to me, etc. The next sentence describes it.

[sect. 43]

fructuosa; cf. Tuac. 11.13, ager quamvis fertilis sine cultura fructuosus esse non potest.

tuenda; usually the duty of the villicus.

illius ordinis, that to which Sex. Roscius belonged, viz. that of the rustici Romani, who managed their estates themselves: rusticanis, devoted to agriculture. Cf. Verr. 2.1. 127, an vero dubitamus, quo ore iste ceteros homines inferiores loco, auctoritate, ordine, quo ore homines rusticanos ex municipiis... solitus sit appellare? [p. 19]

[sect. 44]

in agro, out in the fields.

aleretur, should get his food, like a dog kept to guard the house.

ad villam, a colloquial term for in villa: cf. pro Tullio 20, dominum esse ad villam. Verr. 2.4.47, apud villam. Ter. Andr. iv. 4.6, quid turbae apud forum est?

certis fundis frui, have the full enjoyment of certain estates. This would be an honourable privilege, since it was one of the rights of patria potestas that the son could acquire or hold no property on his own account, unless the father handed over to him a peculium or private possession; though the father could withdraw even this whenever he pleased.

rusticana, to be joined with relegatio: cf. 46, rus relegasse with vita understand rustica, as in 48, 75.

amandatio, a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον.

[sect. 45]

usque eo ... non, so little = adeo non; for either of which tantum abest ut could be said.

quod arguas, what you can allege in proof: cf. criminaris above, allege in accusation; Verr. 2.3.37, defendere, allege in defence.

[p. 93] contra consuetudinem, because you represent as novum what is done consuetudine, 44: contra opiniones om., because no one thinks it exile when a son is sent by his father to take charge of the property.

Ch. xvi At enim, But you will say. Having shown so far that the ruri esse pati implies no ill feeling in itself, Cicero now shows that none need be inferred from a contrast with the treatment of the other son.

hoc, what I am going to say. So 47, illud, as often, refers to what follows.

[sect. 46]

certo, known as such.

qui animus patrius. Erucius might have known a father's feelings in his own person, and to appeal to him as a father would have been Cicero's most obvious course. But the hit at his parentage serves Cicero as an excuse for the allusion to the comedy. Qui animus . . . esset, after posses: note the sequence of tenses; we should say, what is the disposition of parents, etc.

humanitatis; often nearly = doctrina, in the sense of high culture; but here in contrast to doctrina = human feeling.

non parum = satis: cf. 49, parum miseriae.

studium doctrinae, taste for learning. Cicero allows this to his opponent, because he is about to allude to a fabula. [p. 20]

tandem, really: cf. Ter. And. 5.3.4, Ain tandem? You don't say so!

Caecilianus. Caecilius Statius was a famous comic poet (floruit B.C. 168?), placed by some critics above Plautus himself: cf. Volcatius Sedigitus, ap. Gellius, N.A. 15. 24, Caecilio palmam Statio do mimico; Plautus secundus facile exsuperat ceteros. The play here alluded to was an adaptation of Menander's Ὕποβολιμαῖος (Subditivus) ἢ ἀγροῖκος. Probably a father was introduced with two sons, of whom one was supposititious, the other true-born, which latter son the father caused to be brought up in the country.

Eutychus from Ἔυτυχος, a rare form of Ἐυτυχής. Plautus uses the form Eutychus in the Mercator.

ut opinor: Cicero disclaims accurate knowledge of such trifles.

alterum in urbe, etc. We may suppose that those who had seen the play would at once feel the absurdity of such an idea.

[sect. 47]

quasi vero, etc., like the English As if it would be difficult! abbreviated for You speak as if it would be, etc.

tribules. "The Romans did not say contribules, concives (συμπολῖται), for men of the same tribe or city, but tribules, cives. Cf. municeps, 87, 105. Cicero as a citizen of Arpinum belonged to the tribus Cornelia; see Liv. 38. 36." Osenbrggen.

assiduos; here nearly in its original sense, as iu the XII Tables, of settled on the soil, permanently domiciled. See Mommsen, Rom. Hist. vol. I. p.96, note.

homines notos, men personally known (to myself or others); a vague expression, contrasted with the "homines ficti" of the play, but taken up in a different sense in cum nemo . . . magis notus futurus sit.

cum . . incertum sit . . . futurus sit . . intersit. Of the three clauses governed by cum, only the first gives a reason for odiosum est, so that the other two logically should have been independent. Perhaps they were joined to cum as explaining some such idea as inutile est, suggested in odiosum est.

agro, district. The ager Veiens is frequently mentioned: the fame of the city itself did not survive its capture by Rome. Cf. Florus, 1.6.11, Hoc tunc Vei fuere : nunc fuisse quis meminit? quae reliquiae? quod vestigium? laborat annalium fides, ut Veios fuisse credamus, it is as much as the authority of records can do, to make us believe, etc.

in alienis personis, in the characters, parts, of others.

expressam, the technical term for figures moulded or sculptured to represent the full bodily form, as opposed to imagines adumbratae, sketches on a flat surface: hence expressus figurat. = true to nature, lifelike.

[sect. 48]

age nunc marks a transition, as in 93, 105, 108; refer forms the protasis to intelleges : cf. 83, desinamus.

sis, a colloquialism for si vis, as in pro Mu. 60, cave sis mentiare.

ad veritatem as opposed to fabulae.

in Umbria, where Ameria was situated: his veteribus municipus, i.e. in Latium, as opposed to those more distant in Umbria.

[p. 21]

Ch. XVII

ipsi = sua sponte, as opposed to patrum voluntate: et answers to que after vitam, for which see Cat. II. 28, Halm's note.

[sect. 49]

quid censes. . . quo studio. . . Strictly we should have quo studio censes hunc esse? With what zeal do you think he is endued? But the naturalness of the phrase quid censes? what do you think? led writers to begin sentences of the present kind with that phrase, and to think of it as accus. and infin. regardless of strict grammar. Cf. de Off. 2.25, quid censemus . . . Dionysium quo cruciatu angi solitum? An extreme case is Horace Ep. 1.6.5, where the construction is repeatedly broken by quid. Translate, As to this Sex. Roscius himself, what do you suppose is the zeal, etc.

callidior: Richter compares de Nat. Deor. 3.25, callidos appello, quorum, tamquam manus opere, sic animus usu concalluit

his propinquis; i.e. those who were present as advocati, 1.

artificio, handicraft ; accusatorio, of accuser : cf. de Imp. Pomp. 61, senatorius gradus, rank of a senator. In such cases the English substantive in the genitive is most frequently represented by a Latin adjective; cf. Ngelsbach, Lat. Stil. 20.2.

licebit, ironically for debebit; as if it were a burden to be laid down. (Richter.)

hanc calamitatem, the loss of vita et fama.

fraudi, harm, prejudice, since his living in the country was to serve as a proof of his father's aversion to him. In his sense fraus is only found in the constructions res est fraudi and sine fraude, as in the phrase quod sine fraude mea fiat.

aliis, his enemies.

[sect. 50]

Ch. XVIII

Ne tu: ne is rarely found in the best writers vithout a personal or demonstrative pronoun. The spelling ,nae is contrary to the MSS.

Atilium, supposed to be C. Atilius Regulus, surnamed Serranus, consul B.C. 257 and 250 : to be distinguished from is more famous relative M. Atilius Regulus, who died a captive in the hands of the Carthaginians. The surname is found a coins as Sarranus, whence some derive it from the town Sarranum in Umbria. But see Plin. N.H. 28. 20, serenem invenerunt dati honores Serranum, unde ei et cognomen: cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 845, te sulco, Serrane, serentem. [p. 22]

aliter existimabant: cf. Plin. N.H. 18. 11, agrum male colere censorium probrum iudicabatur, atque ut refert Cato (de Re Rust. praef. 2), cum virum bonum agricolam

[p. 96]

bonumque colonum dixissent, amplissime laudasse existimabantur.

de ceteris, as C. Quinctius Cincinnatus, M'. Curius Dentatus.

itaque, and through such principles.

quibus rebus, by which qualities, i.e. industry and contentment.

[sect. 51]

eo quo sint, on the ground that, of a reason which is not the true one: cf. pro Quinct. 5, non eo dico, C. Aquili, quo mihi veniat in dubium tua fides.

summi viri refers to their position in the State; clarissimi homines, to their moral excellence (in that non alienos agros cupide adpetebant): this is shown by the collocation of the substantives. With clarissimus, vir is usually found, not homo. Similarly pro Rosc. Com. 42, quem tu si ex censu spectas, eques Romanus est, si ex vita, homo clarissimus est.

debebant, were called upon.

ei homini, a man.

Se fateatur esse rusticum, in contrast with those who ad gubernacula rei p. sedere debebant.

assiduus: see 16, note on frequens.

[sect. 52]

immo vero gives an affirmative answer where a negative would be expected. With this sentence the second point iu the probabile ex causa (see 40) is entered on.

audio, that I will listen to: cf. Verr. 2.3.79, non audio, I will not hear it.

illa refers to what follows, and is contrasted with aliquid just before. [p. 23]

quippe, of course, as in pro Mil. 47.

in oppidum, into a town; not the town (of Ameria), for his father was not usually there.

domum suam. . . vocabat; i.e. he was universally unpopular, which would account for his father's disliking him.

Vocabat, sc. ad cenam; 50 καλεῖν alone.

revocaturus esset, was in a position to invite them in return.

Ch. XIX

quod coepimus, sc. videre.

[sect. 53]

exheredare, etc.; the thesis of the second point in the probabile ex causa.

mitto quaerere = non quaero: cf. pro Quinct. 85, mitto illud licere.

qui scias, how you know the fact, as opposed to the cause of it.

Id erat, would have been, in our idiom. Latin and Greek constantly state an obligation, possibility, and the like, as a kind of absolute standard, in the indic., not conditionally as we do. Cf. 37, 91, 136 perditi civis erat; Plato Rep. 474 D ἄλλῳ ἔπρεπεν λέγειν ἃ λέγεις, it would have been seemly for another to say . . .

certi accusatoris, genuine, sincere: the opposite to calumniator, 55. So Div. in Caec. 29, accusator firmus verusque as opposed to praevaricator; cf. 83, certum crimen, 62, testis incertus.

vinceret . . . eiceret. . . oblivisceretur, etc.; sc. in disinheriting his son.

[sect. 54]

concedo, I permit; concedis, you admit, confess: cf. 8, note on peto ... petat.

ea praetereas; ea = the causes of the father's intention to disinherit the son: nulla esse, not to exist at all; see 128.

voluisse exheredare, the fact that he wished, etc.

qua re, on the strength of which.

vere with an emphasis, as opposed to finge.

inludere, sc. by alleging what he does not profess to be able to prove. With the dative dignitati cf. 55, illudamur: the verb in the active can take either dat. or accus.

cogitabat, sc. exheredare, i.e. Oh, he was only thinking about disinheriting him.

maiestate, vested in the iudices as representatives of the populus Romanus.

ad libidinem, at the bidding of gain and desire; i.e. desire for gain. Ad, as in such phrases as ad voluntatem, ad nutum, ad arbitrium, etc.

[sect. 55]

inimicitias nullas esse: Cicero admits that no personal enmity prompted Erucius to accuse Sex. Roscius. Cf. Lysias, Eratosth. 2: τοὐναντίον δέ μοι δοκοῦμεν πείσεσθαι ἢ ἐν τῷ πρὸ τοῦ χρόνῳ. πρότερον μὲν γὰρ ἔδει τὴν ἔχθραν τοὺς κατηγοροῦντας ἐπιδεῖξαι, ἥτις εἴη πρὸς τοὺς φεύγοντας: νυνὶ δὲ κ.τ.λ. i.e. formerly it was taken for granted that an accuser was prompted by personal enmity against the accused, and he was even required to state the grounds of it; but now the case is different, etc.

huiusce pecunia: cf. 30.

Quid ergo est: cf. 2, note.

ita, in a limiting sense, as in verum tamen hoc ita est utile, below; tamen, i.e. even allowing that to be a proper motive, yet, etc. Your wish for gain ought to be compatible with a feeling that these men's opinion, and the lex Remmia, should have some weight. Cf. 4, note.

horum existimationem, the opinion the jurors will form about you.

legem Remmiam, "qua qui calumniabatur damnabatur, si crimen adprobare non poterat." It is not known by whom or when the law was passed. An accused person could apply for a calumniae iudicium against his accuser before his trial ended; if he was acquitted, the same jury which had tried him decided the case of the accuser, who, if found to have knowingly urged a false charge (calumniari), was probably branded on the forehead with the letter K (kalumniator), and lost the right of acting again as accuser.

Ch. xx

[sect. 56]

Accusatores. There was no official public prosecutor at Rome; it was left to private persons to prefer the accusations in criminal trials, and if they proved their case they were rewarded. Hence during the reigns of terror accusation amounted to a trade for earning a livelihood; accusers were hired, as in the present case ( 55); even clubs or associations of accusers were formed.

ut ne, in sense = ut caveatur ne; provided that we are not, etc. Cf. ad Fam. 16. 9.3, sed tamen ita velim, ut ne quid properes.

abest a culpa; as in 95, longe absum ab cius modi crimine.

tametsi. . . ignoscere forms the apodosis to the protasis innocens . . . non caret, though in form the two are co-ordinate. For the position of tamen, cf. Phil. 2. 39, homines, quamvis in turbidis rebus sint, tamen, etc

possum: see 53, note.

criminose ac suspiciose, so as to imply guilt and arouse suspicions : cf. 76, argui suspiciose; Brut. 131, qui suspiciosius aut criminosius diceret, audivi neminem.

calumniari: see above on leqem Remmiam.

sciens, knowingly; scienter would mean cleverly. There is a similar difference between prudens, imprudens feci and prudenter, imprudenter feci.

absolvi, i.e. (to be accused and) acquitted. causam non dicere here = reum non fieri; see on 5.

anseribus: cf. Pun. N.H. 10. 51, est et anseri vigil cura (i.e. the goose is a wakeful bird), Capitolio testata defenso, per id tempus canum silentio proditis rebus; quam ob causam cibaria anserum censores in primis locant.

locantur, the technical term for letting out contracts for purposes of state.

significent, absolute, make a sign, give warning.

at fures internoscere non possunt. Cicero anticipates the objection : It is true they cannot distinguish thieves; but yet (tamen) they give a sign, etc. [p. 25]

tametsi bestiae sunt, etc., i.e. though they are brute creatures, they err on the side of caution; they are cautious to a fault.

salutatum = veneratum.

[sect. 57]

est ratio, the case is the same with. The comparison, though it must have amused and delighted the audience, fails in several points : e.g. the geese were not kept to guard the Capitol, but by way of reward (cf. sacri Iunonis, Liv. 5.47); and accusers were not officially paid by the State.

cibaria answers to the money given to Erucius by Magnus and Capito, 30, 55, 58.

commisisse, absolute, has been guilty of a crime; unless aliquid has fallen out from confusion with aliquem, as Hotoman conjectures : cf. 67.

litteram iliam, viz. K, perhaps referring to the voting tablets with which the jurors voted for a condemnation, which had K marked on them, standing for the initial of condemno. If so, the expression seems metaphorical; caput = civic status. With such energy will bring to bear upon your position as citizens that letter which . . . etc. K has also been explained as the initial of calumniator, and it has been alleged that false accusers were actually branded with a K. In either case there is a punning allusion to K as = Kalendae, the day on which debtors had to pay interest. Cicero implies, as Mr. Stock remarks, that the accusers were an impecunious set. For the above note I am chiefly indebted to Mr. W. Y. Fausset's article, Classical Review 1893, p.128.

neminem; the calumniator besides being branded incurred infamia, and could not act again as accuser.

fortunas suas accusare was said proverbially of those who suffered through their own fault. In the sense of fortunes, destiny, the singular is more common; cf. pro Sulla, 66, Halm's note.

[sect. 58]

Ch. XXI

Here the digression on the accusatores ends. With the question quid mihi, etc., Cicero recalls the subject of c. XIX., the contents of which are recapitulated in the form of altercatio (opposed to perpetua oratio: see on pro Sulla, 48). Cf. 94.

ad defendeudum, as subject matter for my defence: ad suspicandum, as ground for suspicion.

audio, different from audio in 52; here in the sense I hear you say so, (but I want proofs).

[p. 26] Nihil est, is reiterated in non . . .; You have nothing to say; not a word as to whom he conferred with, whom he informed, whence that suspicion entered your minds. fraudem, i.e. the false accusation.

[sect. 59]

operae pretium erat, si. . . , lit. to consider his negligence, if you observed it, was a reward for your trouble. We say, would have been worth your while. Cf. 53, id erat, note.

credo, not ironically, but in jest; I cannot help thinking that he must have inquired, etc.

quaesisse, without eum as subject see Madvig, 401, and cf. 61 venisse, 74 fecisse, 97 audisse, 84 paratum esse, 100 proditurum esse, 126 occisum esse. Halm notices the last three as instances of the rare omission of the subject where there is a separate predicate (paratum, proditurum, occisum).

in hisce subselliis, as advocati of the accused: cf. 12, note on hic in foro.

causam publicam: see Introd. 1, note 1.

cenam imperaret, as if the trial would soon be over.

consessu, the jury; conventu, see 11 in init. Pro summa solitudine = quasi esset summa solitudo. Cf. Verr. 2.1. 113, nos, si alienam vicem pro nostra iniuria (=perinde quasi nobis iniuria inlata esset) doloremus, vestigium istius in foro non esset relictum.

[sect. 60]

Ch. XXII

aurrexi ego ; the last word is emphasized: it was I, none of the summi oratores nobilissimique viri ( 1), who arose.

usque eo goes with iocari, and by a confusion of constructions is correlative with antequam; either usque eo . . . dum or antea . . . quam would be expected.

alias res agere, i.e. pay no attention. [p. 27]

vexari pessime, was being very roughly handled.

[sect. 61]

commode, 9.

quem dedi. . . vides indicare, explanatory of the previous clause, and forming a kind of parenthesis, as if it were, quem enim dedi, etc.

quos, i.e. the iudices : iudicare, 'are sitting in judgment, s.c. weighing both sides, not betraying one.

restitue nobis, etc. Show us once more that old acuteness and foresight of yours. Cicero says jestingly that Erucius could only re-establish his reputation by confessing that he had rested his case on such slender proofs, because he expected no opposition. On venisse without te, cf. 59, note.

latrocinium, an act of robbery, a crime: or concrete, a band of robbers; so Richter.

[sect. 62]

de parricidio causa dicitur, etc. An instance of a universi generis oratio, or statement in general terms ; Greek θέσις. A charge of parricide is being preferred : yet no reason is given by the accuser why the son should have murdered the father. See Cic. Topica, 79; Orator, 46; and cf. de Imp. Pomp. 28 sqq.

his levioribus; his implies these that we all know so well. [p. 28]

neque levi coniectura res penditur, is not weighed by means of careless conjecture; i.e. mere guesswork does not influence the decision.

incertus, untrustworthy, whether as to his knowledge of the facts, or as to the chance of his telling the truth.

ingenio, according to the accuser's ability, according as he has framed his accusation well or ill.

Haec cum sint omnia, though all these circumstances be present.

expressa sceleris vestigia, the footprints of the crime: cf. 47, note.

per quos, by what agent?: cf. 74, 79.

[sect. 63]

portentum atque monstrum, and immanitate below : cf. 38 ; esse aliquem; esse, not aliquem, has the emphasis ; that there should exist a creature.

propter quos : see 16, note.

educatio : cf. de Fin. 2. 62, etiam in bestiis vis naturae perspici potest ; quarum in fetu et in educatione, laborem cum cernimus, naturae ipsius vocem videmur audire.

[sect. 64]

Ch. XXIII

Tarracinensem, of Tarracina, the ancient Anxur, a town in Latium in the Volscian territory.

servus quisquam : quisquam is used, as here, adjectivally only with substantives denoting persons (as 74 cum homine quoquam; 94 quisquam quemquam sicarium) or classes of persons (as Verr. 2.2.7, cuiquam ordini) ; not with those denoting inanimate objects.

id aetatis = ea aetate, as id temporis = eo tempore, placed first for emphasis ; the sons were not children, but youths. [p. 29]

suspiciosum autem, merely suspicious, did I say? that neither of them noticed it ? (implying that such a statement was not merely suspicious, but a clear sign of guilt). On autem correcting an inadequate phrase, cf. Or. in Pis. fragm. Quod minimum specimen in te ingenii? ingenii autem? immo ingenii hominis ac liberi?

se committere, to venture into.

defendere absolute, give protection.

[sect. 65]

non modo = not only not, the second non being omitted when the common verb possunt is in the second clause ; when it is in the first, as 137, id non modo re prohibere non licet, sed ne verbis quidem vituperare, or when there are two verbs, as 54, quod planum facere non modo non possis, verum ne coneris quidem, the second non is added.

[sect. 66]

Ch. XXIV

videtisne : see 113, note on itane est.

quos Orestes and Alcmaeon, known to the Romans as matricides through the plays of Ennius, Pacuvius, and Attius

eum praesertim not here = especially since, but and that though, as often. In such cases cum is concessive = although, and praesertim, especially, emphasises the greatness of the concession ; although--and note the fact--they are said, etc. Cf. Brut. 267, M. Bibulus, qui et scriptavit accurate, cum praesertim non esset orator. See Mayor, Cic. Phil. 80, note ; Wilkins, Cat. 3. 28, note.

deorum immortalium. sc. Apollo, the προφήτης of Zeus, who commanded them through oracles to avenge their fathers.

pii, towards their fathers.

necessitatem, restraining force ; religionem, sanctity, which should protect them from injury.

[sect. 67]

nolite putare, etc. : cf. Cicero's later expression of the same thought, in Pisonem, 46, nolite enim putare, ut in scaena videtis, homines consceleratos impulsu deorum terreri Furiarum taedis ardentibus : sua quemque fraus, suum facinus, suum scelus, sua audacia de sanitate ac mente deturbat ; hae sunt impiorum furiae, hae flammae, hae faces. The original passage appears to be Aeschines in Tim. 180. [p. 30]

sua quemque: the asyndeton enforces the antithesis between this and the last clause.

fraus, sin, evil deed ; terror, i.e. the fears of a guilty conscience, = angor conscientiae, de Leg. 1.40.

consolentiae, stings of conscience ; for the plural cf. Parad. 18, te conscientiae stimulant maleficiorum tuorum.

domesticae, belonging to their home, i.e. familiar, abiding ; perhaps at the same time implying πατρὸς ἢ μητρὸς Ἐρίνυες.

[sect. 68]

manifestum. Gellius, N.A. 11. 18.11, mansfestum furtum est, ut ait Masurius, quod deprehenditur dum fit.

praerupta, literally, broken off suddenly ; i.e. headlong, impetuous. Cf. Tac. Ann. 16.7, iuvenis animo praeruptus.

accedat etc. : odium parentis would come under the head of probabile ex causa (see 40); amici improbi and what follows would be the signa et argumenta of the crime : see note on esto, 73, and cf. 62, exstent oportet expressa sceleris vestigia, uti, qua ratione, per quos, quo tempore maleficium sit admissum.

credituri sunt, are to believe ; for this use of the future part. with sum cf. de Fin. 11.26, si veri amici futuri sumus, if we are to be true friends. See Madvig, 341, Obs.

[sect. 69]

Ch. XXV

multis ex rebus : we should say, from many other things; Verr. 2.4.174, cum multa, tum etiam hoc me memini dicere. [p. 31]

[sect. 70]

dum ea rerum potita est, i.e. as long as it held the supremacy among the Greek states : cf. ad Fam. 5.17.3, et in nostra civitate et in ceteris, quae rerum potitae sunt (i.e. have had dominion over other civitates.) For the rare sense of potior to be in possession of, cf. Cic. Acad. Pr. II. 126, Cleanthes Solem dominari et rerum potiri putat ; Val. Max. 9.15.5, Sulla rerum potiente, during Sulla's supremacy; Tac. Ann. 11.42, etc.

hodie quoque utuntur. Though Greece was at this time a Roman province, Athens as a libera civitas enjoyed autonomy.

admonere, bring to mind, suggest the idea. Cf. pro Tullio, 9, quod enim usu non veniebat, de eo si quis legem aut iudicium constitueret, non tam prohibere quam admonere videretur.

Quanto nostri maiores, etc. ; from here to conquiescant is in its own way one of the finest passages Cicero ever wrote, though he afterwards depreciated it. See Introd. note 63.

supplicium singulare : see Introd. 10, 11.

[sect. 71]

Ch. XXVI

ex rerum natura, out of the world ; by denying him the four elements (coelum, solem aquam, terram), "ex quibus omnia nata esse dicuntur."

scelus, concrete, horror, abomination.

uteremur, we should find : cf. Dem. Olynth. I. 9.

sic nudos, naked as they are, i.e. in their natural nakedness. Mr. S. Stanley in Class. Rev. 1897, p.346, argues in favour of explaining thus : "They did not wish to throw the offenders under such circumstances (sic), i.e. being so wicked, into the river naked": and similarly Livy 2.10. sic armatus (Cocles) in Tiberim desiluit. But in both passages the sense usually given to sic seems best.

ipsum Cf. Macbeth, II.2 :
No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

violata, i.e. defiled by crime.

expiari putantur : so Iphigenia seeks to purify her brother Orestes with sea-water, since θάλασσα κλύζει πάντα τἀνθρώπων κακά, Eur. Iphig. Taur. 1193.

[sect. 72]

vivis, etc. : the substantival use of adjectives, which is most common in the plural, is especially found in an enumeration of several adjectives, as here ; cf. Zumpt, 363. [p. 32]

nunquam adluantur, may never be washed, touched. Abluantur is also read.

ad saxa, the hardest kind of resting-place. Cf. Introd. 10.

diligentius paratiusque : cf. Brut. 241, is ad dicendum veniebat magis audacter quam parate ; Phil. 2.79, invectus est copiosius multo in istum et paratius Dolabella quam nunc ego. Usually Cicero does not use the adverb, but says paratus aliquis ad dicendum venit ; but here paratius, corresponding with the preceding adverb diligentius (= diligentius meditatus) ; and similarly in the passages quoted.

venisses, not you would have come, but you ought to have come = venire debuisses, the past jussive. Cf. pro Sest. 45, restitisses, repugnasses, mortem pugnans oppetisses ; Ib. 54 ; pro Sulla, 25 ; Aeneid 8. 643, At tu dictis, Albane, maneres. See Roby, 1604.

[sect. 73]

neminem ne . . . quidem: see 22, note in fin.

Ch. XXVII

Esto, Be it so, marks the transition from the probabile ex vita ( 39) and probabile ex causa ( 40 sqq.) to the particular argumenta et signa, i.e. the evidence bearing directly on the crime. Cf. Verr. 2.5. 43, esto : nihil ex fugitivorum bello laudis adeptus es : at vero, etc.

vicisse debeo, ought to have gained the victory ; i.e. though my victory ought to be an accomplished fact at once.

non quaero . . . quaero. For the absence of the adversative particle, cf. 1, note ; 53, mitto quaerere . . . quaero

meo loco, i.e. nunc cum meus est dicendi locus ; Greek, <ἐν τῷ ἐμῷ ὕδατι. [p. 33]

[sect. 74]

ipsum, sc. percussisse. Romae non fuit, abbrev. for respondeo eum Romae non fuisse.

si liberos, wanting in the MSS. ; but the words are indispensable, since here Cicero begins discussing the latter of the two alternatives, servosne an liberos ; the other follows in 77, reliquum est ut per servos id admiserit.

ubi eos convenit. Auct. ad Her. ii. 8 : Argumentum est, per quod reus coarguitur certioribus argumentis et magis firma suspicione. Id dividitur in tempora tria : praeteritum, instans, consequens. In praeterito tempore oportet considerare, ubi fuerit, ubi visus sit, quicum visus sit ; num quid adpararit, num quem convenerit.

qui conlocutus est, how did he confer with them ; not necessarily implying by word of mouth, as we find colloqui per litteras, per internuntios.

unde = a quo, through whom. The Romans frequently paid debts, as in modern times, by orders on bankers, argentarii ; a transaction expressed by the phrase scribere or solvere ab argentario, to write an order for payment through or on a banker. Ramsay, Rom. Ant. p.315. Hence the phrases dare, solvere, numerare ab aliquo

caput origin, source.

nunquam cum homine quoquam, an exaggeration ; see 52 sub fin. : 76 is more exact, qui nunquam inter homines fuerit.

constitisse = moratum esse ; Verr. 1. l. 101, qui Romae vix triduum constitisset.

[sect. 75]

praetereo illud, etc. Richter remarks that the commonplace about the innocence of a rustic life is put into the form praeteritio (see 106), being really of little value as evidence, in spite of Cicero's quod mihi maximo, etc.

inculta, uncivilized.

omnia, of every kind.

agrestem, boorish, wild: cf. 74, hunc hominem ferum eique agrestem fuisse.

diligentiae economy. Cf. Auct. ad Her. 4. 35, diligentia est accurata conservatio suorum

magistra, teacher. [p. 34]

[sect. 76]

Ch. XXVIII

tam occultum, since even the accuser had nothing to say as to the particular circumstances under which it was committed.

suspiciose, so as to arouse suspicion : cf. 55 sub fin.

suspicio : cf. 8 in init.

causa dicitur : see 5, note.

[sect. 77]

reliquum est, the other alternative of the dilemma: see 74, note on si per liberos. ut: see 28, first note.

in quaestionem, here = for examination under torture. The evidence of slaves was only taken under torture in Rome.

polliceantur: It was forbidden, except in special cases (cf. pro Mu. 59), to examine slaves in order to elicit evidence against their masters ; but the master could offer his slaves voluntarily for examination.

unus puer unus puer . . relictus non est, instead of ne unus quidem puer relictus est, as would be expected, in order to bring unus as the first word into sharper contrast with omnes servos. Cf. de Prov. Cons. 7, nisi C. Vergilius intervenisset (spoliationi Byzantii), unum signum Byzantii ex maximo numero nullum haberent; below 102, ut in minimis rebus . . . non dicerent.

P. Scipio, supposed (though with very little certainty) to be P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, a grandson of Scipio Nasica Serapio (who killed Ti. Gracchus), and son-in-law of the orator L. Crassus, praetor 94 B.C.

Metelle. If M. (as supplied in Halm's text) is the true initial wanting in the MSS., M. Metellus, the brother of Q. Metellus Creticus, may be meant, who was praetor B. C. 69.

advocatis . . . agentibus, i.e. they were present to support his claim and act for him (see 1) when he made the application. Similarly the examination itself had to be performed privatim, in the presence of friends and witnesses ; cf. pro Cluent. 176.

T. Roscium, sc Magnum (cf. 119), to whom as bailiff of Chrysogonus the demand was addressed. [p. 35]

[sect. 78]

ne quaerendi . . . permittitur, sc. by the refusal of Magnus to surrender the slaves for examination. Quaerere or quaestionem habere de morte alicuius = to hold an investigation into a person's death: cf. pro Cluent. 176.

in caede, as sicarii ; ex caede, as sectores. (Richter.)

erit in sense = licebit esse, is he not to be.

dum . . . quaeratur, long enough to give time for an enquiry . . . ; dum is used with subj. when suspense and design are involved ; Gildersleeve and Lodge 572.

ad hunc locum : see 19.

[sect. 79]

Ch. XXIX

conveniat mihi, etc., recapitulation of the last two chapters.

id quod negas. Cicero could now assume this, as he had disposed of the hypothesis ipsum fecisse by the words Romae non fuit ( 74), and as Erucius had not taken advantage of the permission there given him to make objections.

ut potuerit: ut = how ; cf. ad Att. L 16, credo te audisse ut me circumsteterint.

temere, without reason, as in 62.

servorum nomen, the mention of slaves, in sense = ut nominares servos. The substantive is chosen to suit the following words, quo quasi in portum

reiectus a ceteris suspicionibus. The last word seems to be used loosely ; we should say, ways of rousing suspicion, or the like. Cf. suspiciose dicere, 55, in the same sense. Similarly in Sall. Frag. ap. Non. 2.900, multis suspicionibus volentia plebi facturus videbatur, our word suspicions will hardly express the Latin substantive ; cf. above 28, in qua re nulla subesset suspicio

scopulum : see the first six lines of 120. [p. 36]

[sect. 80]

una mercede duas res adsequi. For other forms of the proverb, cf. ad Fam. 7. 29. 2, duo parietes de eadem fidelia (pot of paint) dealbare ; Plaut. Casin. 2.8.40, iam ego uno in saltu lepide apros copione duos ; and the English equivalent. Una mercede is abl. of price.

perfundere, to wet all over the surface (not to drench ) seems here the meaning. Cic. says, You are trying to give us a merely superficial splashing with your legal process, but genuinely to accuse those in whose pity you are, since the arguments of Erucius tell against his own side. Professor Clark supports this sense of perfundere by comparing Suet. Dom. S perfusoriis assertionibus, superficial, unauthorised claims for freedom. So, perhaps, Seneca 23. 4, tenuis et perfusoria voluptas, a pleasure only skin deep. Perfundere misunderstood has led to weak emendations, e.g. pervertere, overthrow.

per quos et de quibus: cf. 97, quoniam cuius consilio occisus sit invenio, cuius manu sit percussus non laboro.

nonne cogitas. A question with nonne sometimes expresses, not the conviction that a thing is, but surprise that it is not ; as if non stood in the place of nonne. So nonne cogitas is not Do you not think? but Do you not think, do you forget ? Cf. Tusc. i.17, quid, si te rogavero aliquid, nonne respondebis, will you make no reply ? de Fin. 5.86, nonne igitur tibi videntur, inguit, mala? do you think they are not evils ? Cat. 1. l. 27.

sectoribus, and below, sectores collorum et bonorum: see Introd. note 23.

Quid postea? What then ? What follows ?

nescisne per ista, etc. ; i.e. the sectores bonorum, such as Chrysogonus, Magnus, and Capito were usually also the sectores collorum (cut-throats) ; so that if you talk of the multitude of assassins, you accuse the very persons in whose pay you are. In the repeated sectores there is of course a play on the two meanings.

[sect. 81]

denique implies indignation. [p. 37]

[sect. 82]

dissoluta est, the phrase for solving catch-questions (Acad. Pr. 2.46, fallaces et captiosas interrogationes dissolvere), also said, like the more common diluere of the refutation of charges which it required dialectical skill to subvert.

exspectatis ut, wait in the expectation that : see Madvig, 360, Obs. l.

de peculatu, embezzlement of State property. The accuser had insinuated that Sex. Roscius had secretly kept back some of his father's confiscated property : cf. the fine passage 145, rogat oratque te, etc., which alludes to the same thing.

declamare, to repeat, recite, the term for a rhetorical display in a causa ficta at school, or, as here, for rehearsing a speech to be delivered in public : commentaretur, was preparing, studying.

verbo, merely by assertion.

ad testes ; witnesses were examined after the speeches on both sides had been heard.

ipsa causa, i.e. my speech for the defence.

[sect. 83]

Ch. XXX

Venio nunc. The transition to the second main division of the speech ; see 35. Cicero now turns accuser, and shows that the guilt of the murder really attaches to Magnus and Capito themselves.

non cupiditas ducit, explained in the following words, nam si mihi liberet accusare, etc., i.e. if I were an accuser by inclination, these would not be the opponents whom I should choose, but alios potius, more distinguished men : cf. 91 sub fin., studio.

crescere, to rise, become famous. An accusation in a causa publica was regarded as a service to the State ; and it was by undertaking such an accusation, especially against a man in high position, that young Romans tried to make a name. Cf. pro Cael. 73, industriam suam ex aliqua illustri accusatione cognosci. Cicero speaks of the misuse of the practice, de Off. 2.49 foll.

quod, adversative, this however ; as in 118, quod ita promptum est.

sua virtute, through his own merit.

iam intelleges, the apodosis to desinamus and quaeramus : cf. 48, refer . . . intelleges; 93, quaere . . . reperies ; 138, decerne . . . adprobabunt.

certum crimen : certum = genuine; cf. 53.

suspicionibus, suspicious circumstances : cf. 79.

id facerem, sc. accusarem.

id erit signi, quod, etc. The common phrases id negotii habeo ; hoc praemii ; quid consilii datis? quid hominis es? and the like, seem to show that id and signi should be joined : there will be this much proof : lit. this of proof. Cf. pro Cael. 38, quid signi? Auct. ad Her. 4. 1, satis erit signi. [p. 38]

[sect. 84]

causam, motive : cf. 40. Erucius had professed to discover one, but Cicero refuted him, and hence can say nullam reperiebas : cf. 79, negas.

istic, sc. in subselliis accusatorum, 17, 87, etc.

post viderimus : the fut. perf. sometimes expresses what will soon be done ; cf. Madvig, 340, Obs. 4.

palmas : see 17, 100, notes. alias, as opposed to the present palma, viz. the murder of the elder Sex. Roscius, in which Capito was an accomplice.

cognoscet, he shall hear of : cf. 100, audiet.

L. Cassius, sc. Longinus, who as tribune of the people in 137 B.C. introduced the lex tabellaria, which established voting with tabellae, tickets, in public trials : homo non liberalitate, ut alii, sed ipsa tristitia et severitate popularis, Brut. 97. So Halm. There are others of the same family who may be meant : l. The Cassius of Liv. Epit. 63, who in 114 or 113 B.C. accused the orator Antonius of incest ; cuius tribunal propter nimiam severitatem scopulus reorum dicebatur, Val. Max. 3.7.9. 2. The Cassius of Sal. Jug. 32, Praetor in B.C., who invited Jugurtha to Rome. Asconius (ad Mu. 32) takes the first of these two as the hero of cui bono ; but they may be one and the same. (Richter.)

verissimum, truthful, conscientious ; often joined with religiosus, as in Verr. Act. l .3, vere ac religiose iudicare.

quaerere. Asconius ad Mil. 32 : L. Cassius fuit summae vir severitatis. Is quotiens quaesitor iudicii alicuius esset, in quo quaereretur de homine occiso, suadebat atque etiam praeibat iudicibus, ut quaereretur cui bono fuisset perire eum, de cuius morte quaeritun

cui bono : often misquoted in the sense to what good end, for what purpose, as if cui agreed with bono ; cf. 13, quibus

. . bone. The literal meaning is, to whom it had been for-an-advantage.

[sect. 85]

periculum; used in reference to the accused in a causa publica (Introd. 1), not in private suits : cf. de Imp. Pomp. 2, Halm's note. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, act iv. so. 1,
You stand within his danger, do you not?.

applicatus. The MSS. give implicitus, which needs emendation. Graevius suggested implacatus = implacabilis, unrelenting ; ad severitatem would then have to mean, to a degree amounting to sternness (cf. pro Cluent. 183 callidus ad fraudem). Applicatus is preferable, as ad follows more naturally ; given to, with a leaning to, severity.

praeest quaestioni : see 11.

ab innocentia ; ab = on the side of, in favour of, as opp. to contra : cf. 104, a nobis contra vosmet ; Auct. ad Her. 2.12, a rumoribus . . . contra rumores

facile me paterer dicere, I would willingly have acquiesced in speaking. illo ipse, Sc. Cassio iudice . . . iudices, judge . . . jurors.

Cassianos, proverbial term for strict jurors ; as in Verr. 2.3.137, 146. [p. 39]

[sect. 86]

Ch. XXXI

cum viderent : here si viderent would be purely conditional, if they had seen; cum viderint assumes the condition, when they saw, on seeing, as they would do if present.

eo perspicuo, that point being clear, sc. cui bone fuisset. For the abl. abs. with adjective and no participle see Draeger, Syntax 11.585.

eodem, to the praeda, i.e. to the fact that you have got it.

[sect. 87]

praefers, you display ; a rare form for prae te fers. Ov. Her. 17.36, si modo quem praefers non simulatur amer.

societatem coieris : cf. 20 sub fin. We do not know whether Cicero knew this as a fact, or assumes it here, to serve as a proof of avaritia. "The proof of avaritia is illogical, since what is given as evidence of it could only be shown through the trial itself." Halm.

solus tu inventus es, you alone have let yourself be found, fixed on: this brings out the sense of the following imperfects ; as the man to sit, etc. The same idea is expressed differently, 95 : tene tibi partes istas depoposcisse, ut in iudicio versarere et sederes cum accusatore? os, your shameless face : Verr. 2. 2, 48, Nostis os hominis, nostis audaciam.

offerres, thrust into view.

inimicitias . . . rei familiaris controversias. The latter give the grounds of the former.

[sect. 88]

hoc dubitemus, that we weigh this point. Cf. Virg. Aen. 9. 191, quid dubitem, what I am debating, see Page's note.

quaestum here in a narrow sense, dishonourable gain. For the contrast with fructum, cf. Tusc. v.86, quaestuosa mercatura, fructuosa aratio dicitur : commerce is lucrative, makes money ; agriculture earns a livelihood. Cf. the kindred verbs : quaestus = gain got by seeking it (quaero), implying avarice ; fructus = gain enjoyed, made use of (fruor) ; and cf. Liv. 21. 63, quaestus omnis patribus indecorus visus [p. 40]

fori iudiclorumque, objective genitives ; insolentiam, unfamiliarity with.

[sect. 89]

Ch. XXXII

tempus citius quam oratio; cf. Sall. lug. 42, de studiis partium si singillatim aut pro magnitudine parem disserere, tempus quam res maturius me deseret.

neque ego non possum ; repeated 91 sub fin., et ego possum. Note the words following this statement in the two passages. In 91 Cicero merely says (as in 83), I, too, could dilate,--but I shall not do so, for I am not an accuser by choice. Here he takes a different turn, in order to lead up to a digression ( 90, 91) on Sulla's proscriptions : I, too, could dilate--for I do not think you an abler speaker than myself, though (you might perhaps pass for such, since) I suffer by comparison with other patroni, while you stand alone, owing to the recent proscriptions in which so many accusatores fell. So Halm, who compares Momms. Rom. Hist. 3 p.353.

mihi derogo, depreciate myself.

in grege adnumerer, may be reckoned one in a crowd : cf. gregarius miles.

pugna Cannensis, i.e. massacre. The figure is carried out in 90. fecit, has made you seem.

sat bonum, sc. accusatorem. Sat or satis has a limiting sense, like the French assez : de Orat. 3. 84, oratorem sat bonum, bonum denique, fairly good, nay, good ; de Off. 2. 59, bene pascere, satis bene pascere, male pascere.

[sect. 90]

ad Servilium lacum, an artificial reservoir, situated near the entrance of the vicus iugarius into the forum, and abutting on the basilica Iulia ; see Festus, p.290. We learn from several authorities (Seneca, de Provid. c. 3 ; Iulii Firmici Astron. 1.3 Schol. ad Lucanum 2.161) that the heads of the proscribed were displayed at the Lacus Servilius as well as on the rostrum.

Quis ibi, etc., an imperfect trochaic verse, taken, according to the Scholiast, from the tragedy Achilles of Ennius, and spoken by Ulysses when the Greeks were driven back to their ships by Hector and their bravest heroes killed.

Curtios, Marios; of these nothing further is known. Richter suggests for the latter name M. Marius Gratidianus, a connection of Cicero through his grandmother Gratidia, styled aptissimus turbulentis concionibus, Brut. 233, who at Sulla's command was murdered by Catiline.

Mammeos, a corrupt reading : Ursinus suggests Memmios from Brut. 136, where the brothers C. and L. Memmii are described as oratores mediocres, accusatores acres atque acerbi ; but only one of these lived till Sulla's supremacy, for the elder Gaius had been murdered by the gangs of Saturninus and Glaucia, B.C. 100.

a proeliis, sc. forensibus. avocabat: so that they were no longer to be feared as combatants in the legal ἀγῶνες and need not have been put to death. There is an allusion in aetas avocabat to the exemption of seniores or men between 45 and 60 years of age from military service in the field.

Priamum ipsum, a mock-heroic title for the eldest or chief of the accusers. Cicero should have chosen a Greek name rather than a Trojan, after ferro Phrygio above ; but Priam's name was a perpetuum ἐπίθετον apud tragicos Latinos (Orelli). Some take Priamum ipsum senem as a second quotation from Ennius.

Antistium cannot be identified. Some understand P. Antistius, rabula sane probabilis, a likely fellow enough as a stump orator, whom we hear of in Brut. 226. But Cicero there names him as one of the patroni of the time, not as an accusator ; and he fell, net in the Sullan prescriptions here alluded to, but previously under the younger Marius, as a partisan of Sulla, 82 B.C. : cf. Mommsen, 3.336. Also the words etiam leges pugnare prohibebant do not suit this Antistius, as they point to an accuser who had suffered the penalties of infamia (see 55), and hence could not again act as accuser ; while P. Antistius appears to have acted as an orator shortly before his death. We hear in pro Balb. 48, of a L. Antistius, disertus home, who m B.C. 95 accused T. Matrinius of Speletum for false assumption of civic rights.

sescenti, of indefinite numbers ; as in Att. 14. 12.1, sescenta similia

inter sicarios, Introd. note 74. Accusers who were wont to attack such crimes, were those most likely to be feared and slain by Sulla s assassins. [p. 41]

qui omnes . . . viverent shows Cicero's confidence in the strength of his case. canes, cf. 56.

[sect. 91]

verum, i.e. verum (etsi nihil mali est, etc., occisi sunt nam), etc. turba, commotion, confusion.

dum . . . erat occupatus: this is here an imperfect tense, not pluperfect. Dum = during the time that more usually has a present (Roby 1661). Halm thinks the imperfect due to the fact that a long-continued or repeated state of things is spoken of.

summam rerum the sum total of affairs, the whole business of the State : de Rep. 1.42, cum penes unum est omnium summa rerum.

vulneribus, i.e. private losses, the stings of avarice or desire for revenge, etc. Cicero means that one way of healing such wounds often consisted in destroying the accusatores.

ita, correlative to tamquam : Verr. 2. 4. 75, quasi face percussus est, ita flagrare coepit.

iudices. These, before Sulla's supremacy, consisted of the equites, of whom about 1,600 were proscribed by Sulla : Appian<, B. Civ. 1.95 ; cf. Mommsen, 3.353.

hoc commodi est, there is this much advantage.

ut . . . si cuperent . . . non possent, that, if they had wished, they could not have killed. In possent the subj. might seem to do double duty ; governed by ut, and in the apodosis of an unreal condition (ap. 102, misit . . . ut poneret, note). But without ut the condition might regularly be put thus : si cuperent . . . non poterant ; cf. 53, note. Thus it is only ut that necessitates the subjunctive.

ut coepi dicere = as I began by saying : see 89.

quamvis diu : see 47.

possum, lit. I can. I have the power (but shall not use it). In English we say, I could (if I chose ; but I do not choose.) Cf. 53, 107, 135.

transire leviter tangere, 83, 123. So de Inv. 1.98, transire breviter.

studio . . . officio. The ablatives are adverbial : intentionally accusing, defending as in duty bound. Cf. Hor. Sat. 1. 4. 79 ; and fraude (=fraudulenter) agere, furto fallere, consilio petere= (on purpose), etc.

[sect. 92]

Ch. XXXIII

video causas esse . . . impellerent, I see that there are (perceptible now) many motives which might then have been urging him. A passage often noticed because of the non-sequence of tenses. But the rule of sequence need not here apply. The direct statement would have been causae multae istum impellerent, many motives might have been urging him, impellerent being potential subj., implying an if dause, if they had chanced to be operative, or the like. When the statement is oblique after video, esse is a natural tense to use, as shown above ; impellerent, the original subjunctive, is not changed. So in Vatin. 5, quaero a te cur Cornelium non defenderem : I ask you why I was not to defend . . .' The above explanation is on the lines suggested by Gildersleeve and Lodge 519, and seems the best. Some explain esse as imperf. infin.

facultas : de Inv. 1.41, facultates sunt, aut quibus facilius fit aut sine quibus aliquid confici non potest. Cf. 68, amici . . . servi . . . tempus . . . locus. [p. 42]

quid ad rem? sc. id pertinet ; as in Phil. 2. 72, ius postulabas ; sed quid ad rem? et alii multi, sc. Romae erant.

quasi nunc, etc. (cf. 47, note), i.e. Cicero did not name the place of the murder in order to search all Rome (tanta multitudine) for the murderer, but as a crucial test applied to two given persons.

[sect. 93]

ceteras facultates. Cicero now shows that Magnus had a further facultas in being a professed sicarius, or in league with sicarii

commemoravit : see 80.

opinor . . . occiderent. Cicero includes under sicarii besides the actual assassins, the men who employed them for avaricious purposes : cf. 80, eosdem fuisse sectores collorum et bonorum aut . . . aut implies that there was no third sub-division.

eorum, consisting of those ; genitivus definitivus, Madvig, 286, Ohs. 3. Cf. Verr. 2.5.156, quid de illa multitudine dicamus eorum qui . . . producebantur? in bonis erant occupati, sc. emendis, = sectores, who did business in property.

si eos putas . . . sin eos; i.e. from either point of view, Magnus was a sicarius or in league with sicarii For alienuot as a subst., cf. Sall. Cat. 5.4, alieni appetens, sui profusus.

in eo numero = in eorum numero, as 126, quo in numero ; 124, sub quo nomine.

leviore nomine, in gentler phrase, as in Tusc. 1.95.

in cuius fide sint et clientela, under whose protection and patronage.

aliquem, some one or other ; hinting at Chrysogonus.

[sect. 94]

quid postea : cf. 80. The ensuing sentences are in the so-called figure altercatio : see 58, note.

ego : cf. 32, note.

non continuo, it does not follow that . . ; cf. Ngelsbach Lat. Stil. 185. l.

absum a crimine : see 55, note.

quare, through which, referring to permulta. For the adverb instead of a pronoun, cf. ad Fam. 10. 21.1, omnia feci quare . . . resisterem, and the similar uses of dont, wo, etc., in French and German. [p. 43]

plures, a number of persons, viz. all who had taken part in the proscriptions.

[sect. 95]

Ch. XXXIV

sicut cetera. Supply vidimus. After examining the causas quae T. Roscium impellerent, and the facultates suscipiendi maleficii, Cicero now proceeds to the so-called consecutio, i.e. inferring the guilt or innocence of a suspected person from his behaviour after the event. See pro Mi]. 61, Halm's note.

dius Fidius Mommsen, 1. p. 174, identifies the god of good faith with Hercules.

cuicuimodi es, euphem. for quamvis sis homo nequam : cf. Verr. 2.5.106, non quo illum ipsum, cuicuimodi est, quisquam supplicio dignum putaret. cuicuimodi is genit., substituted for the regular form for euphony.

ita . . . ut tibi omnino non pepercerim, in a way which involved my not sparing you = at your expense.

quod possim. For the subjunctive, cf. 17, quod sciam.

oris tui : see 87. The genit. is put as after simple verbs of remembering or forgetting ; Roby 1332.

socii tui, your confederates in the murder : cf. 87, ex tot sicariis.

de morum praeda. The rule would require de nta praeda, but exceptions are found : cf. Verr. 2.1.86, Milesios navem poposcit, quae eum praesidii causa Myndum prosequeretur ; and illorum makes a stronger antithesis with huius Similarly ut . . . non (instead of ne) before sed.

[sect. 96]

antea, 19.

quid attinuit, what object was there in, etc. differing little from a simple cur : cf. Verr. 2.5. 169. eum, not the obj. after attinuit, but the subj . to nuntiare. [p. 44]

si . . . inieras: Cicero chooses to put the condition not as unfulfilled but as open : assuming that you had formed no design.. . , hence the pluperf. indicative. quod . . . ad te minime omnium pertinebat. Cicero pretends that the murder did not concern Magnus, because the deceased was his enemy: but the very fact of the magnae rei familiaris controversiae ( 87) gave Magnus an interest in the death of the elder Roscius.

qua ratione, on what principle.

liberi does not imply that Sex. Roscius had left other children (see 41), as liberi is frequently used rhetorically for a single child : cf. de Imp. Pomp. 33.

optime convenientes, on the best of terms with him.

[sect. 97]

nihil est quod metuas, there is no reason for you to fear : so 138, nihil est quod quisquam dicat.

excutio, of searching a person's dress : cf. Val. Max. 5.4, 7, aditum filiae, sed diligenter excussae, ne quid cibi inferret, dedit. The present tense is figurative, as though he still had the weapons upon him .

si quid . . . habuisti, in case you had . . : theoretically an apodosis must be understood ; I do not search you (so that I may find a weapon) if you had one. But in such expressions the apodosis was not distinctly conceived. Roby 1754.

non laboro = non curo. Unum hoc, i.e. leave to ask the question ubi aut unde audivit?

tantum itineris : see on 19. contendere, to traverse ; rare in this sense with an accus. : cf. Virg. Aen. 5. 834, contendere cursum. For an analogous use, see Hor. Ep. 1.1.28, non possis oculo quantum contendere Lynceus, you cannot reach as far with your eyesight.

[sect. 98]

Ch. XXXV

etiamne asks an indignant question. [p. 45]

nonne, etc. The passage is cited by the rhetorician Aquila Romanus, de Fig. Sent. 13, as an example of διατύπωσις (descriptio or deformatio), i.e. graphic or dramatic style of narrative : cf. de Orat. 3. 202, rerum quasi gerantur sub aspectum paene subiectio. The effect is heightened by the rapid succession of questions.

ignarum, without a suspicion of : pro Planc. 40, me ignaro, necopinante, inscio.

Automedontem, the charioteer of Achilles, figurative term for a swift driver ; cf. Suvenal, 1. 61. Iliad 16. 684 ; 17. 459, etc.

honoris causa, from personal regard for him (the French en egard) ; ironically for the simple sua causa, as in 132.

[sect. 99]

Quid erat . . . What reason was there for his wishing . . . ? nisi hoc = hoc tamen. Nisi here is nearly equivalent to sed ; instances are frequent in the comic poets : cf. Pl. Rud. 751, nescio nisi scio ; Ter. Eun. 827, nescio nisi credo.

[sect. 100]

palmas : see 17, note. lemniscatam : Fest. p.115, lemnisci, id est fasciolae coloriae (coloured ribbons), dependentes ex coronis. The lemnisci were an additional mark of distinction, as a reward for a special victory : Auson. Epist. 5.20, Et quae iamdudum tibi palma poetica pollet, Lemnisco ornata est, quo mea palma caret.

quae Roma ei deferatur, which is transmitted to him from Rome : a figurative way of saying that the murder had been committed, unlike Capito's former crimes, in Rome ; and that it was the greatest of them all, since a gladiator would prize most highly a victory won in the capital. Cf. Phil. 2.11, Sexta palma urbana etiam in gladiatore difficilis

hominis occidendi, in English of murder : cf. 80, 93. Hor. Epist. 1. 2. 32, ut iugulent hominem, surgunt de nocte latrones. Cf. below, 145, where hominem occidere is in a different sense.

habeo dicere, I am able to mention ; as in de Nat. Deor. 3. 93, haec fere dicere habiti de natura deorum.

de ponte. Cicero alludes to a proverb well-known in his time, sexagentarios de ponte, throw the sixty-year-old men from the bridge He means, jestingly, that Capito's crime was all the worse because the man he threw was under sixty, in defiance of the proverb. Whence did this strange saying originate? Dr. Warde Fowler ("Roman Festivals," pp. 111-121, and "Religious Experience of the Roman People," pp.321-2) deals with the question, and his conclusions, which we may safely follow, may be summarised thus. Two explanations were current among the Romans (for even they were in doubt). One of these may be at once set aside, though it deserves a mention. According to this view the pons of the proverb had nothing to do with the Tiber, but meant one of the pontes or gangways by which voters in the Comitia passed into the ovile, or enclosure for polling ; and it was said that men over sixty years of age were thrust from the pontes as no longer entitled to vote. Some learned Romans held this theory ; see Festtis, p.334. But it is baseless ; the gangways were a late invention, whereas the proverb goes back to remote antiquity. The other explanation connected the proverb with a ceremony which it is well known took place in Rome. (Cf. Nonius, p.533.) On the ides of May the Vestal Virgins cast into the Tiber from the pons sublicius puppets made of rushes, resembling men bound hand and foot ; and a common notion as to this ceremony, in Rome, was that old men had in earlier days been offered in sacrifice, and that the puppets had been substituted for men in more merciful times : and so, it was thought, the proverb arose. It did unquestionably arise from the ceremony of the puppets. But that the "old ones" thrown had ever been human is very improbable : human sacrifice is far too contrary, on the whole, to the Roman character for this idea to be accepted as true. Modern investigations show that this primeval ceremony, like many analogous rites elsewhere, represented, among other ideas, a casting out of old things, a dismissal of winter when spring had come, or the like. In some rites of this kind the puppet used was called "the old one" ; in others, "the white man" : and in Rome the rush figures were named Argei, a word perhaps = white (ἀργής), which might suit at once the colour of the rushes, and the conventional notion that old ones, human or otherwise, ought to be white-haired. From this there could easily be a gradual transition to the idea that the puppet "old ones" represented human "old ones." With this proverb cf. the similar phrase senes depontaiti (Festus). For other details see Warde Fowler.

atque adeo, 29.

audiet. The cross-examination of witnesses at Rome often grew into a formal trial of or an entire speech against a witness : cf. the extant speech against Vatinius, a witness in the trial of P. Sestius. So Cicero threatens to disclose all the crimes of Capito in the testium interrogatio, so as to shake his credit as a witness. [p. 46]

[sect. 101]

volumen, roll.

pro testimonio, as evidence.

gravitatem, personal weight ; vitam, character, personage, an exalted term for virum.

ius iurandum accommodetis, fit the claims of your oath to suit his evidence.

[sect. 102]

Ch. XXXVI

alter, Magnus ; ex ipsa caede, immediately after : cf. Tac. Germ. 22, statim e somno lavantur.

ut si cuperent . . . poneret, lit. so that, if all had been wishing, he would have been placing . . Cuperent and poneret are precisely the tenses and moods we should have had if the sentence had not been governed by ut As it is, the subjunctive in poneret does double duty ; consecutive subj. after ut, and hypothetical subj. after a si-clause. This is allowed frequently when the tense is imperfect subj., as in 119 below, and Cic. Prov. Cons. 4, civitas sic spoliata est ut, nisi Vergilius intervenisset, unum signum Byzantii . . . nullum haberent. See Roby 1521; Gildersleeve and Lodge 597. An original pluperf. subj. posuisset would have been turned into positurus fuerit. Contrast with the present passage the clause in 91 above, ending non possent

alter, Capito si diis placet expresses astonishment and indignation, as though the matter could not even be mentioned without an apology to the gods.

utrum . . . credendum: Supply the alternative necne ac non, and not rather : cf. 92.

comparatum est = institutum, it was laid down as a principle : so 153 ; de Domo sua 77, ius comparatum est.

ut vel in minimis rebus . . . non dicerent, more commonly

ut ne minimis quidem in rebus dicerent : cf. 77, unus puer . . . relictus non est, note.

[sect. 103]

tertiam partem orbis terrarum, a rhetorical exaggeration.

si ageretur . . . diceret, if an affair of his own had been in hand he would not have given evidence. The imperf. subj. need not imply that Africanus never really found himself so situated. His contemporaries would have said, si . . . agatur, non . . . dicat, the contingency being a possible one. Cicero, from a later standpoint, puts their pres. subj. into the imperf., with the same idea of possibility. The subjunctive in either tense is prospective, as Prof. Sonnensehein well calls it. He cites Livy 21.5.11, invicta acies si aequo dimicaretur campo (Class. Rev. 1897). [p. 47]

crederetur, impersonal ; its object would be a dative, ei, or testimonio

[sect. 104]

quid tu? Cicero addresses Magnus direct, who had tried to interrupt him or made a gesture of indignation at the plain statement of Capito's guilt, occidendum, curarit.

ne tibi desis (tibi and tua are emphasized) = you must think of yourself, not only of Capito Cf. Hor. Sat. 1.9.56, haud mihi deero.

audaciter : so spelt here by Cicero (see Priscian, 15.21) for the commoner syncon. form audacter ; on which Quintilian (1. 6. 17) says, inhaerent quidam molestissima diligentiae (pedantry) perversitate, ut audaciter potius dicant quam audacter.

neque accusatore mute quisquam utitur : i.e. if you are an accuser (see Introd. 7), you ought to have spoken against Sextus in due course, and not to have sat silent by the real accuser's side.

paulo tamen, at least a little more hidden ; bad though it be, yet still a little more hidden. Cf. 8.

esset, Sc. si istic non sederes.

a nobis : see 85, note.

[sect. 105]

Ch. XXXVII

quadriduo quo : see 20, notes. [p. 48]

municipem: see 47, note.

[sect. 106]

suspiciosum, merely a matter of conjecture, as opposed to perspicuum : cf. Auct. ad Her. 2. 11, cum multa concurrant argumenta et signa quae inter se consentiant, rem perspicuam, non suspiciosam videri oportere.

non enim ita disputabo, in antithesis with certo scio below. Cicero says, I will not argue for the probability that Chrysogonus got his information from the two Roscii, for it is a known fact ; they admit it themselves. erat enim, etc., and nam cum, etc., hint two reasons which might be given for the probability, but are let pass ; an instance of the figure praeteritio or occupatio ; cf. Auct. ad Her. 4. 37. Note that nam cum, etc., is not a reason for erat antea amicitia, but a second reason for verisimile est Roscios detulisse, etc.

cum multos veteres . . . though the Roscii had many patrons and guest-friends through ties long since inherited from their ancestors ... The ties of patrocinium and hospitium were hereditary.

[sect. 107]

possum, 91.

indicii partem = partem praedae below ; indicii, not the information itself, but the thing about which information was given. On the other hand, cf. Ulp. Dig. 12. 5. 4, si tibi indicium dedero ut futitivum meum indices, where indicium = regard for your information. So lis in Liv. 3.72= id de quo lis erat. Clark gives indici causa partem.

Qui sunt igitur in istis, Who are the persons, then, in the case of these goods, to whom Chrysogonos has given a share? (Stock's translation. ) The subj. dederit characterises : Who are such persons as fit the description "recipients from Chrysogonus ?" , So acceperit above.

[sect. 108]

age nunc, 48 814) init.

iudicio: sarcastic. Chrysogonus has convicted the Roscii of the murder, by rewarding them so richly.

pugna, 17 [p. 49]

satis fuit, it would have been enough.

denique, at most, as in Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 267, vitavi denique culpam, non laudem merui.

honoris, acknowledgment, douceur, in which sense honorarium was used later. Cf. 135, Verr. 2. 1.38, ei postea praemia tamen liberaliter tribuit ; habuit honorem ut proditori ; ad Fam. xvi. 9.3, Curio misi, ut medico honos haberetur

praedia tantae pecuniae : cf. Verr. 11.4.88, signum (a statue) magnae pecuntae.

manubias, spoils taken in war, instead of praedam, to carry out the figure of ista pugna.

re cognita, emphatic, when he knew what they had done.

[sect. 109]

Ch. XXXVIII

decem primis, Introd. note 31.

integrum, inviolable. So sometimes infectus = impossible, invictus = invincible, involatus = inviolable, intactus = not to be touched, inaccessus = inaccessible. Ngelsbach, Lat. Stil. 72 b. 2.

indicatote : see 18, note.

[sect. 110]

palam, i.e. before Sulla.

auctore, at his advice, suggestion ; intercessore, he undertaking the matter, on his security ; not = impediente, but in the sense of one who represents or acts for another. Capito undertook that the object of the legati should be attained. So Halm ; otherwise explained as = owing to his interference. [p. 50]

non adlerunt, did not demand admittance.

fide, promise ; perfidia, neglect of it : cf. 116, note.

testimonium eis denuntiare ; lit. signify to them evidence, i.e. that they will be required to give evidence. Witnesses at Rome were either necessarii (obliged to bear witness) or voluntarii. The former were recognized only in criminal cases, and could be compelled to appear only by the accuser, not by the accused. Hence the words si occusator voluerit, in which there is a covert sed nolet. Cf. Quintil. 5.7.9 : duo genera sunt testium, aut voluntariorum aut eorum quibus iudex in iudiciis publicis lege denuntiare solet, quorum altero pars utraque utitur, alterum accusatoribus tantum concessum est.

re certa, an accomplished fact.

[sect. 111]

rem mandatam : a matter entrusted to a person's charge ; a commission. A mandatum was a contract by which one person undertook to transact an affair for another without remuneration : of the two parties, the former was termed by the jurists mandatarius, by Cicero is cui mandatur or qui mandatum recipit ; the latter mandans or mandator, by Cicero qui mandat. The Romans classed mandatum among the so-called consensual contracts, i.e. those which were entered on merely consensu, by mutual agreement. The mandatarius was bound to execute the affair with the diligentia diligentis patris familias ; if he overlooked it, the mandans could bring an actio mandati, if he had been injured either intentionally (dolo malo, in Cicero malitiose), or through neglect (culpa, or neglegentia, the opposite of diligentia).

non modo malitiosius verum etiam negiegentius. Note the position of the adversative particles, next to the specially contrasted words. So placed in English, they would combine malitiosius and neglegentius into one idea, and make no sense. To give the required sense we put them at the head of the two clauses : not only if a man had culpably mismanaged, but even if he had merely neglected . . . our ancestors thought, etc. Cf. pro Deiot. 15, tanto scelere non modo perfecto, sed

etiam cogitato. Madvig, 461 b, Obs. 2. malitiosius : in the comparative, only to answer to neglegentius ; for malitiose gerere was punishable in all cases, irrespective of degree.

iudicium non minus turpe quam furti. A turpe iudicium was one which brought infamia upon the offender if found guilty : cf. pro Cluent. 119, turpi iudicio damnati omni honore ac dignitate privantur ; and a iudicium mandati, or trial for neglect of a commission, was of this class, as much as a trial for theft. Under the republic a man convicted of theft, besides restoring twice or four times the value of the stolen goods according as the theft was nec mansfestum or manifestum, suffered infamia.

operae nostrae . . . the good faith of friends is substituted in place of our own exertions.

gubernetur, may be promoted.

[sect. 112]

officio . . . officis; there is a play on the two meanings; by a pretended service you do a disservice to . . .

de medio, Sc. stadio ; a term perhaps borrowed from the language of games : cf. Herod. 8.22, ἐκ τοῦ μέσου ἡμῖν ἕζεσθε

suscipis onus . . . The clue to this difficult passage is found by taking the verbs in the 2nd person throughout the section as addressed, not to Capito specially, but to the typical rash man who rushes in where the vir gravis would fear to tread. You undertake the burden of a service which you think you can support : but the burden seems most heavy, i.e. serious, to those who are least light, i.e. frivolous, worthless, themselves. Professor Clark accepts the emendation maxime (given in the text) for MSS. minime ; and supports the 2nd person in a general sense by comparing Cat. 2. 18, tu agris tu aedificus . . . ornatus, etc. Halm-Sternkopf (1910) also takes it as general. To take the 2nd person as definitely referring to Capito and his misdeed involves the difficulty that, so far from thinking he could support the burden, Capito always meant not to support it. Other emendations, less satisfactory, are non posse ; minime leve [p. 51]

Ch. XXXIX

credidisset, without object, = fidem habuisset, as in Tusc. 5.58. Richter compares 59 defensurus esset, 61 iudicare, 70 prohibere, admonere, etc., used absolutely.

[sect. 113]

Itane est : see 34, note.

commendatae, stronger form for mandatae (so concreditae for creditae).

inter vivos numerabitur : i.e. he deserves to count for dead as a citizen. The same expression is used of a dishonoured citizen, pro Quinct. 49, cuius bona venierunt, cuius . . . etiam victus vestitusque necessarius sub praeconem cum dedecore subiectus est, is non modo ex numero vivorum exturbatur, sed si fieri potest, infra etiam mortuoa amandatur. Cf. post Red. ad Quir. 10.

etiam neglegentia . . . vocatur, even mere neglect is compelled to meet an accusation for breach of trust and a trial with the penalty of dishonour. Crimen mandati = an accusation for (breach of) trust, like iudicium mandati, l 11, where see notes.

si recte fiat, if all were done as it should be. Cicero says, it is the giver of a commission, not the receiver, who may take no concern about it (neglegere) ; since the former has transferred the whole care to the latter.

publice : see 25, decurionum decretum statim fit, and 115.

legationis ipsius. Cicero regards an embassy as the most sacred form of a mandatum

maculaque adfecerit, instead of the more common adsperserit (pro Planc. 30), for a play on poena adficietur.

[sect. 114]

ei, i.e. Capitoni ; fidem suam, i.e. Capitos own credit ; interponeret, stake ; decideret, strike a bargain ; ille, Capito.

inque eam rem. Cicero more often writes in eamque rem.

recepisset, had undertaken, promised.

per arbitrum. There were many lawsuits which depended on considerations of equity and the weighing of circumstances, and in which the judge could give his own opinions free play. Such of these cases as dealt with matters of good faith (bonae fidei negotia) were called arbitria (or bonae fidei iudicia), and the judge arbiter. One of this class was the iudicium mandati ; hence per arbitrum.

rem restitueret, make restitution, pay damages. Cf. Paullus in Dig. L. 16.75, restituere is videtur, qui id restituit quod habiturus esset actor (the plaintiff) si controversia ei facta non esset.

honestatem (good name ) amitteret = infamis fieret.

[sect. 115]

nunc, as it is =νῦν δὲ : as in 148.

publice, in the name of the municipium : cf. voluntatem decurionum ac muiticipum below.

ex eo, out of all this, sc. fama, vita, bonis.

paulum nescio quid, a small trifle : cf. de Or. n 95, paullum aliquid (literally, not some small thing, but a small something). In both cases paullum is adjectival, and the pronoun substantival ; otherwise it would be paulli aliquid (cf. pulcri aliquid, quiddam novi, etc.), or else paullum aliquod [p. 52]

[sect. 116]

Ch. XL

videto, etc. Infidelity to Sex. Roscius, represented as neglect of a mandatum, was the first aspect (c. XXXIX.) of Capito's guilt as emissary ; the next aspect (c. XL.) is infidelity to his co-emissaries, socii. A societas or association of several persons for a common object, especially for mercantile purposes, belonged, like mandatum, to the consensual contracts ( 111); and virtually the same regulations were current for both.

rem communicavit, has entered into partnership : cf. Verr. 2.3.50, socii putandi sunt quos inter res communicata est.

per eius fidem, sc. datam nec servatam ; to whose good faith shall he have recourse, when he is injured through the bad faith of the man to whom he has entrusted himself? Fides takes its colour from the context, as often ; cf. 110, istius fide ac potius peifidia decepti. Cic. de Inv. 1.71, qui saepenumero nos per fidem deceperunt, eorum orationi fidem habere non debemus.; Seneca, de Prov. 3.7, multa milia civium Rom. uno loco post fidem, immo per ipsam fidem trucidata. Note the expressive subj. commiserit, implying though he entrusted, etc.

ad alienos, ad = in the direction of, towards.

multa apertiora videant. One would expect intimis multa apertiora sint, or intimi multa apertius videant.

etiam, with metuimus, in contrast to cavere : if we do but fear him, etc.

[sect. 117]

rei pecuniariae : pecuniary matters were the most usual object of a societas, which in such cases was called societas quaestus et lucri qui de eius scelere . . . qui goes with the first three verbs that follow ; its antecedent with the fourth.

parum, with cauti and providi [p. 53]

terret etiam, still keeps us in fear.

ornatus, 8 fin. Note the concessive sense of the participle: though adorned.

flagitiis, disgraceful actions ; maleficium, crime, viz. the murder.

[sect. 118]

hoc quidem, sc. the scelus : quod, relative pronoun, but adversative, but it ; cf. 83, quod certum est.

inteUegatur, is to be inferred : see 25.

si quo de, as in de Inv. 1.41, quod simile erit ei negotio, quo de agitur. Here the object of the transposition is to bring quo (=aliquo) next to si

dubitabitur . . . convincatur, impersonal.

quid tandem. Supply (not sequitur, but) videtur nobis, from what follows.

lanista, 17. a gladio recessisse ; cf. 126, ab armis recessesse.

hic is put instead of iste (though not meaning the defendant) as an antithesis to ille : see 17, note. The comparison serves to lead to the transition to Roscius Magnus, 119.

[sect. 119]

Ch. XLI

iam antea : see 77. ab (from) istis ab adversarus, 77 ; in both places Magnus is specified as answering the request, as being the bailiff of Chrysogonus. [p. 54]

qui postulabant : see 77.

res ipsa, the request in itself.

tales putantur : present, in spite of postulabant, vixerunt ; the imperfect might have implied that their reputation was now lost.

nemo esset . . . ; as in 102 the subjunctives do double duty ; that there would have been no one who would not have thought . . .

[sect. 120]

cum, at the moment when ; joined with the present tense, as dum, though the construction is very rare.

oppugnari, with ne following, like verbs of hindering, repugnari, obsisti, etc. Cf. pro Lig. 13, id ne impetremus oppugnabis?

quod vero, but inasmuch as . . .

in dominos quaeri : see 77, note.

at si quaeritur . . . in dominum quaeritur. The reading is uncertain, but the general meaning is clear : the opponent defends the non-surrender of the slaves, by the argument in dominos quaeri de servis iniqunni est, as if Sex. Roscius was the dominus ; Cicero replies that he is no longer the dominus, for his property has passed into the hands of Chrysogonus, Magnus, and Capito.

cum Chrysogono sunt ; a new argiiment : cf. 77. They are the attendatits on the powerful favourite of the dictator, and cannot be exposed to the risk of torture.

puerulos, delicate, effeminate boys.

elegantissimis, highly trained. Perhaps of Greek origin. homines paene, men who are scarcely above labourers, of Amerian (= country) training under a rustic householder. [p. 55]

[sect. 121]

ut follows veri simile est only in a negative sentence or in a question expecting a negative answer : see Madvig 374, Obs. 2.

ut . . . cognorit; i.e. probably there had been neither time nor opportunity for this.

[sect. 122]

Ch. XLII

meministis me distribuisse ; memini is followed by the pres. infin. even of a past event. when the person witnessed it ; by the perf. infin. when he did not witness it but can vouch for its having happened. Here, then, we expect distribuere. But by the perf. infin. Cicero lays a momentary stress on the fact that the thing happened, not on the fact that the jurors wititessed it. The sense is, you bear in mind the fact that I subdivided ; not, you heard me and can remember how I subdivided : cf. 77.

in crimen et in audaciam ; a remarkable abbreviation for in criminis refutationem et in audaciae impugnationem. [p. 56]

[sect. 123]

dixit initio, 83.

possunt : see 9 l, note.

diligenter, accurately, i.e. proving everything in detail.

si coepero . . . sit disserendum; the difference of mood in protasis and apodosis may be thus explained : suspicionibus de quibus . . . disserendum sit = suspicions such as must be treated of at greater length. This apodosis need not affect the mood of the protasis which is a mere parenthesis.

ingeniis coniecturaeque : see 8, note on per sententias.

[sect. 124]

Ch. XLIII

nomen aureum Clirysogoni, periphrasis for ad Chrysogonum. In aureum there is an allusion not only to the name (gold-born), but also to the wealth amassed by Chrysogonus through the proscriptions.

sub quo nomine =sub cuius nomine, as in Verr. 2.5.177, quam (legem) non is promulgavit, quo nomine proscriptam videtis ; so eo nomine freq. = eius rei nomine : see 93, in eo numero, note.

latuit : see 21, manceps fit Chrysogonus.

nihil attinet ; i.e. which I care nothing for.

In communem causam sectorum ; i.e. I have no wish to attack the sectores as a body. [p. 57]

[sect. 125]

qua ratione on what principle : cf. 96.

si . . . audientur, etc. The meaning seems to be this: Cicero is discussing the purchase merely as illegal because the late owner had not been proscribed, not as unjust because he was an inoffensive man ; and he says, If complaints of this latter kind (viz. hominis innocentis bona veniisse) shall ever (in happier times) be freely discussed and listened to, there will be more distinguished men than Sex. Roscius to complain about.

sIve Valeria est sive Cornelia : see Introd. note 21.

non enim novi nec scio. For I am not acquainted with it, and so do not know which it is is Stock's translation.

[sect. 126]

In adversariorum praesidiis = within the enemy's lines, outposts: see pro Lig. 27, Halm's note, and cf. pro Caec. 83, in meis castris praesidusque versaris.

si lege, sc. occisus est.

veteres leges, by which it was forbidden to kill a homo liber wilfully and with hostile intent, dolo malo (see pro Mu. 10 sqq.), but permitted to kill a homo sacer, a perduellis, and one who lay under aquae et ignis interdictio. There is no allusion to the leges Porcias and Sempronias, which forbade the slaying of a citizen iniussu populi.

quo modo, in what way, i.e. as the property of a proscribed person, or as that of an enemy, or on what other principle : qua lege, by what law, since those just mentioned do not authorize it.

[sect. 127]

Ch. XLIV

quem vis, sc. in quem vis Cicero often omits a monosyllabic preposition with the relative, when the same preposition is used just before in the demonstrative clause : cf. Tusc. 1.111, esse cum aliquo sensu in iis malis, quibus vulgo opinantur

oratio mea, my express statement : see 21 sqq. [p. 58]

. . . ut ementiretur . . . fingeret . . . diceret, namely, making false statements . . . pretending . . . saying, etc. The clauses with ut do not express an intention, but explain omnia ; for this explanatory use of ut cf. the phrases in eo esse ut, est ut (it is the fact that), tantum abest ut, etc. Ementiretur is without object, as in Cic. Part. Or. 50, dolorem fugientes multi in tormentis ementiti persaepe sunt.

ut . . . passus non sit, not having allowed ; the change of tense distinguishes the general result from the repeated efforts which led to it. Sternkopf also remarks that Cicero would avoid non pateretur as ending like an hexameter.

postea : see 132, note on Erucius.

[sect. 128]

Kalendas Iunias ; i.e. the 1st of June is named in the law as the dies (date), ad quam diem . . . fiant.

haec bona, i.e. the proceeds of the sale (sectio) of this property; nulla redierunt, were not entered at all : a combination of two constructions, nulla bona ex hic redierunt, and haec bona non redierunt. Cf. 54.

tabulas publicas, the State accounts.

facetius, more smartly (not more wittily, drolly).

corruptae aliqua ratione ; e.g. by a false entry of the proceeds of the sale amongst the receipts got in before the 1st of June.

reduviam curem, attend to a hangnail on the finger, a proverbial phrase. Cicero calls the property of Sex. Roscius a trivial matter, when the immediate question is to save his life (caput).

non ullius instead of nuflius, for the sake of the anaphora of non : see 29, last note, and cf. pro Cluent. 39. Join non ullius . . . sui commodi takes account of no advantage of his own. [p. 59]

[sect. 129]

sensu ac dolore, painful feeling : cf. 8,

sententias iusque iurandum, note.

quae . . . pertinent. The indicative implies the facts which do actually concern ; on the other hand, quid . . . velit et qua . . . contentus sit is said from the jurors' point of view: you will hear all that has reference to the case, and (at the same time learn) what Roscius wishes to have said in his defence.

qua condicione, sc. mere acquittal from the charge of parricide.

In extrema, 143 sqq.

[sect. 130]

Ch. XLV

mea sponte : cf. 129, animi mei sensu ac dolore ; 143 sqq. remoto, i.e. without regarding him.

civis optimi, most loyal ; not in a moral sense : cf. 16.

conferri, all these responsibilities to be heaped on his patron . . .

nihil egerit. The future perf. expresses the result of future actions : he will find that he has gained nothing.

partim invito, Madvig's conjecture ; the MSS. give only one partim, which demands another before or after. With it we want a word in the sense of invito ; notice Prof. Clark's far superior suggestion improbante, disapproving ; the scribe would more easily confuse this with imprudente and omit it. And the assonance confirms it, as above in 22.

[sect. 131]

placet, is it pleasing, is it as it should be?

pernicii ; so spelt here by Cicero, according to Gellius and Nonius ; the grammarian Charisius read pernicies ; MSS. pernicie All three forms of the genitive are found.

magnitudine rerum : magnitudine seems said rather than necessitate, to answer to propter magnitudinem rerum above, which as referring to Sulla = on account of the immensity of his affairs. Here rerum = nature. The comparison of Sulla to Iuppiter is lame, since it was not the wide scope of Iuppiter's rule which prevented his checking harmful effects of nature, but, as the ancients thought, the immutability of the natural laws themselves. [p. 60]

nisi hoc . . . unless, forsooth, it is marvellous that the human mind has not attained to what divine power cannot compass.

[sect. 132]

nomen deferendum : see 8, note.

cuius honoris : see 98, note.

Erucius. Here there is a great lacuna in the MSS., in which only a few unconnected words are preserved. From the following words of the Scholiast, a fairly safe conjecture may be made as to the contents : hoc enim dicebat Chrysogonus: "non quia timui ne mihi tollerentur bona Roscii, ideo eius praedia dissipavi, sed quia aedificabam, in Veientanam ideo de his transtuli"; viz., that here Cicero discussed the question opened in 127, omnino haec bona non venusse, i.e. whether the sale of the property had ever really taken place. If Cicero could show that it had not, he would deprive his opponents of even that vestige of a legal footing. The words of the Scholiast go to show that Cicero had inferred that there had been no sale, from the dissipatio of the property, since property legally come by would not be squandered in such nervous haste. Cicero seems then to have passed to a description of Chrysogonus' wealth and arrogance, the opening words of which are given by the Scholiast, hic ego audire istos cupio : on which he remarks, in hoc capite de potentia Chrysogoni invidiam facit, ut enumeret singula deliciarum genera, quod habeat plures possessiones, mancipia, quae omnia dicit de rapinis ipsum habere.

Ch. XLVI

aptam : Lambinus supplies hi domum aptam, etc. ; apparently the end of a comparison between the requirements of Chrysogonus and those of Sulla's more modest freedmen.

Sallentinis . . . Bruttiis; the former were a people dwelling at the extremity of the heel of Italy ; the latter at the toe.

[sect. 133]

alter, Chrysogonus ; tibi, ethic, dative, expressing here Cicero's indignation ; cf. pro Sest. 89, ecce tibi consul, rraetor, tribunus pl. nova novi generis edicta proponunt.

de Palatio, from the Palatine hill, on which many Roman nobles had mansions. From the time of Augustus the Palatine was the site of the imperial residence, whence the derivation of palace (palatium).

animi causa = for his own enjoyment: cf. 134, animi et aurium causa.

domus referta ; the nom. is put graphically (cf. Virg. Georg. 2.133, 4), as though ei est (sunt) and not habet had preceded :

praedia links the two constructions, suiting either. Cf. pro Milo.

Corinthiis et Deliacis, of Corinthian and Delian ore : see Verr. 4. 1, Halm's note ; authepsa, i.e. a self-acting cooking apparatus. The name implies a Greek invention.

enuntiaret, called out as the last and highest bid.

quid . . . putatis esse : this and similar phrases frequently answer to our what must be . . .? cf. below, 134, quos sumptus cotidianos fieri putatis? what must have been his daily expenditure ? de Imp. Pomp. 32, quam multas existimatis insulas esse desertas? how many islands must have been deserted? ib. 42.

stragulae vestis ; referring especially to coverings for the couches used at meals, triclinia. [p. 61]

marmoris ; i.e. not statues (signorum), but as used for the wainscotting of walls, and for inlaid floors.

[sect. 134]

familiam, establishment of slaves.

artificiis, qualifications.

hasce : cf. 62, his levioribus, note.

officina nequitiae, a factory for the production of wickedness.

[sect. 135]

togatorum, said bitterly for civium, citizens, who disgraced the toga, their robe of honour, by attending and enjoying the patronage of a freedman.

ut . . . ut . . . ut, how.

beatum, alluding to his wealth.

causam nobilitatis : see 16. laedere, because Chrysogonus was Sulla's favourite.

meo iure, because I am of that party myself. [p. 62]

[sect. 136]

Ch. XLVII

ut componeretur, impersonal : in substantival, namely that an agreement should be made.

id defendisse, to have striven for the object that . .

humilitatem, both of rank and disposition, that the mean and low were contending for the highest place against personal worth.

perditi civis erat, it would have been . . . : cf. 53, note.

[sect. 137]

contra, adverbial ; against Sulla.

viris fortibus, Sulla's soldiers and supporters.

honos habitus est, have been rewarded : 108, note.

In eo studio partium fuisse, that I was a partisan in that cause.

id actum est, as in 142, if this was the aim . . .

ut, namely that . . .

postremi, the lowest of mankind (Stock's translation). recreatus, endowed with new life. [p. 63]

[sect. 138]

Ch. XLVIII

haec, the present regime.

queruntur, etc. : in one sense Cicero himself is making this complaint ; but he means that those who merely complain of Chrysogonus' power as an existent fact, only arouse discontent at the system under which that power has grown up ; while those who dispute his right to such power commend the present regime, for they imply that his power is not the legal outcome of it. The point of the sentence is that the jurors are to give such a verdict as implies concessum ei non esse.

nihil est quod, there is no reason why . . .

improbus, shameless as in 130, 142; Verr. 2. 4. 3, improbissima ratione, in the most shameless manner.

decrevissem refers here less to magistrates than to senators, since decernere was said not only of decrees passed by the Senate as a body, but also of the proposals or motions of individual senators.

Indicassem, in the capacity of a juror.

[sect. 139]

magistratus creavit. In 82 B.c. Sulla was appointed dictator on the motion of the interrex L. Valerius Flaccus ; but he caused consuls to be chosen for the next year, in order to carry out his changes under constitutional forms.

leges ; referring partly to the constitution and the administration, partly to judicial matters, leges iudiciariae : see Mommsen, Rom. Hist. 3. p.349.

procuratio, official activity, action.

ne ominis quidem causa ; ne reiterates nolo, as it does nihil in 38. Cf. 22, neminem note. I am unwilling--on the mere ground of its being a bad omen I am unwilling--to say anything too severe against them. The mere mention of a thing was looked on as a possible omen of its happening ; cf. Phil. 4. 10, quibus Antonius (o di immortales avertite . . . hoc omen) urbem se divisurum promisit. "Ne ut ominari quidem male in eos videar, nedum quod iis grave aliquid imprecer." Manutius.

nostri illi nobiles (with a hint of sarcasm), our illustrious aristocracy.

vigilantes, on the alert, as opposed to iners, ignavus ; cf. de Imp. Pomp. 2 ; fortes, courageous, steadfast, to resist all unlawful claims.

haec, Sc. vigilantia, etc.

ornamenta ; i.e. distinctions, positions of honour, hitherto the prerogative of their rank.

necesse est : a true prophecy. Ten years later, B.C. 70, the senators lost their exclusive judicial privileges.

[sect. 140]

male, disloyally. [p. 64]

cum Chrysogono, shortly for cum Chrysogoni causa : cf. in Vatin. 41, etiam illud dixeris, causam Milonis coniunctam cum hoc existimari.

equestrem splendorem. Since the time of C. Gracchus the great cause of ill-will between the nobles and the equites was the iudicia, which had been restored by Sulla to the ordo senatorius. In the civil war the equites had been for the most part opposed to Sulla, who afterwards took terrible revenge.

servi, ironically for liberti ; viz. Chrysogonus.

quam nam . . . adfectet; possibly a quotation from a poet. Munitare (intensive from munire) only occurs here : the phrase iter ad aliquid adfectare is common in Plautus ;

it is used again by Cicero, de Lege Agr. 1.5.

ad fidem = its aim is to deal a blow at your good faith . . .

ad ius jurandum: see 8, note.

[sect. 141]

hoc=hoc re, propterea

quod verear, subjunctive as being the unreal reason.

ausus est, was so daring.

speravit sese . . . valiturum, hoped he would have influence. Another reading is speravit se . . . posse (mark the difference of tense), hoped he possessed influence.

expectata nobilitas, our long looked-for nobles i.e. while Sulla was away and his party were not in power.

Ch. XLIX

rem publicam ; i.e. here the government.

[sect. 142]

hoc, se victoriam nobilium.

inermis ; i.e., without myself joining in the combat. [p. 65]

se ipsum probe novit ; i.e. he understands that he is another such villain as Chrysogonus, since he feels hurt when Chrysogonus is attacked.

rationem communicatam, that he has a common interest with.

laeditur . . . separatur, is injured in that he is shut out from this glorious cause: i.e. invectives which, as Cicero's, deny any connection between Chrysogonus and the party of the nobles, deny it equally of any man who is the fautor of Chrysogonus.

[sect. 143]

haec omnis oratio, all this part of my speech, from 129 onwards : cf. extrema oratio, 129.

mea est ; i.e. the accused at least shall not suffer any evil consequences from Cicero's boldness.

imperitus morum, with no knowledge of the world, ignorant of life : in this sense rerum imperitus (ignarus, nescius, indoctus) is more common. If the phrase is not a mere variety for rerum (which has been suggested as an emendation), perhaps Cicero means by mores the spirit of the age, with which one who lived far from Rome would be unacquainted.

more, lege, iure gentium in accordance with custom, law, and the principles of justice that all nations recognise.

[sect. 144]

si nihil, etc. ; see 82, de peculatu, note.

optima fide sua, to the best of his belief.

anulum, signet ring, which was worn by every free Roman. Its surrender stands here for the renunciation of all rights or claims. se ipsum nudum, his naked body : excepit, has reserved. Halm quotes from the Pandects, qui domum vendebat, excepit sibi habitationem, reserved for himself the right of living in it. [p. 66]

[sect. 145]

Ch. L

hominem, not a man, but = Sex. Roscius, who has just been represented as speaking : here Cicero speaks again in his own person.

si metus ; MSS. si metuis, which old form of the genitive may perhaps be the true reading, chosen by Cicero, in order to resemble the following metuis.

praeter ceteros, with a negative = less than others : see 2, 16. In this sense praeter reliquos is not found.

tu metuere non debeas, because, even if Sulla should become more conciliatory to his former enemies, he would surely not wrest from you the possessions you have won : ne, namely that, as 136, ut componeretur.

[sect. 146]

facis iniuriam ; in the same sense as facis iniuste, si putas, pro Flacco, 41.

spem emptionis, shortly for hope that your purchase will hold good.

In iis rebus, etc. ; i.e. the complete victory which Sulla had won over his enemies made it unlikely that a reaction would follow and his measures be overthrown.

monumenti causa, as a reminiscence. [p. 67]

cruenta spolia : i.e. αἱματόεντα τὰ σκεύη, not τὰ αἱματόεντα σκεύη : carry off the spoils when blood-stained.

[sect. 147]

nihil audere, sc. with a view to recover his property.

contra rem tuam : against your interests ; cf. Phil. 2.3, contra rem suam me venisse questus est.

reliqui : see 83, id erit signi, note.

nisi, see on l3l sub fin.

Balearici filia, Nepotis sorore : cf. 27, Nepotis filiam, which disagrees with this. Each seems to be a gloss. If the present is correct (as seems likely from the agreement of the relationships), Caecilia was a daughter of Q. Metellus, who as consul B.C. 123 and 124 subdued the Balearic Isles and received the agnomen Balearicus. Her uncles were L. Metellus Diadematus, consul B.C. 117 ; M. Metellus, consul B.C. 115, who repressed a revolt of the Sardinians, and triumphed on the same day with the next brother ; and C. Metellus Caprarius, who as consul B.C. 113 defeated the Thracians. Caecilia's brother was Q. Metellus Nepos, consul B.C. 98.

mulier, virtute: note the play on the original meaning of virtus

quanto honore should have been followed by tanta ornamenta or tantum (honorem). Cicero chose non minora in order to speak in a more moderate tone of the woman than of her male relations.

[sect. 148]

Ch. LI

hospitiis : see 15.

hospites, viz. those of his father.

copiose alluding to the number of such patroni [p. 68]

pro magnitudine . . . proque eo quod . . . , in consideration of the greatness . . . and of the fact that . . .

summa res publica tentatur, the State is attackcd in its highest point, i.e. in its most vital interests.

nunc: see 115,note.

[sect. 149]

rationem, the department, the matter of : cf. de Off. 1.76, haec quidem res non solum ex domestica est ratione attingit etiam bellicam.

M. Messalla : Introd. 7.

sua causa cupere ac debere, that I wished and was bound to oblige him, lit. that I desired and owed for his sake. Cf. ad Fam. 13.75, cuius (hominis) causa omnia cum cupio, tum etiam debeo, whom it is alike my wish and my duty to oblige in all things.

assiduitate praesentia in iudicio ; cf. pro Sest. 7, assiduis officiis Probably Messalla had often appeared with Sex. Roscius at the preliminary investigation (cf. 77) before the praetor

auctoritate, the weight of his name.

haec acta res est, this movement (i.e. Sulla's revolution) took place.

restituerentur ; referring to the nobles banished by Marius and Cinna.

et res publica . . . laborarent, they would be a cause of less trouble to the State, and would themselves be less troubled by unpopularity. [p. 69]

[sect. 151]

Ch. LII

sectores ac sicarii : a play on the original sense of sectores ; cf. 80, sectores bonorum et collorum.

solent hoc racere . . . ut milites conlocent, are wont to adopt the practice of placing forces ; ut explains hoc: cf. 127, note.

prohibeant ut, shortly for prohibeant ne fiat ut This very rare construction occurs in Iulius Capitolinus Max. Iun. 2, dii prohibeant, ut quisquam ingenuorum pedibus meis osculum figat.

consilium publicum : the consilium iudicum could be called publicum, as one which a public official, viz. the presiding praetor, had assembled. Usually consilium publicum meant the Senate, as in 153, but this did not prevent the term being used of other consilia, to which it applied for the same reasons and no less correctly, though not in its technical sense. [p. 70]

[sect. 152]

tollantur, from fear that they might in consequence of a political reaction be restored to their rights and property : see Introd. note 36.

in, in the case of, in the opportunity offered by ; vestro iure iurando =vestris sententiis, see 8.

dubiumne est, etc. : this recapitulation of a former argument seems suggested here by the words in vestro iure iurando ; and if you are true to that oath, how you will decide the case cannot be doubtful, cum videatis, etc.

hic, at the present juncture.

[sect. 153]

Quodsi : here Cicero returns to the subject of the proscriptorum liberi, 152 sub init.

potuerunt : voluerunt has been suggested ; but by potuerunt Cicero means to imply with rhetorical exaggeration that the sons of the proscribed were not able to bear arms, i.e. were all impuberes et inermes, deserving pity. So infantium puerorum below.

suscipere noluit, in that the Senate and the magistrates had had no share in carrying out the proscriptions : cf. Plut Sulla, 31, Sulla immediately proscribed eighty persons, without referring to any of the magistrates.

more maiorum : cf. pro Sest. 65, cur, cum de capite civis et de bonis proscriptio ferretur, cum et sacratis legibus et XII tabulis sanctum esset, ut ne cui privilegium inrogari liceret neve de capite nisi comitiis centuriatis rogari, nulla vox est audita consulum, etc. See the speech of Caesar in Sall. Cat. 51, 22 and 40.

videte . . . putetis, a common form : cf. de Imp. Pomp. 26, 27, 38, 46 ; and ib. 11, Halm's note. Videte quem in locum respublica ventura sit would mean, consider to what condition the State will come ; but putetis gives the last verb the force of the Greek optative with ἄν, to what condition the State may (in your opinion) come.

[sect. 154]

domestica = in cives

Some editors have conjectured that the conclusion of the speech is lost. It would be difficult to say what Cicero could have added ; he concludes very suitably with the wish that the acquittal of Sex. Roscius might show the time of bloodshed to have passed away without extinguishing all the feelings of humanity in the hearts of men.