Pro S. Roscio Amerino

120 CICERO : PEO KOSCIO. [CH. XLV.
XLV., §§ 130-132. Argcment.—Chrysogonua will do no good by
referring my questions to his patron ; for it is inevitable that Sulla,
owing to the vast range of his undertakings, should be ignorant of
many of the things that were done, for even Jupiter himself, owing to
the vastness of the universe, cannot prevent disasters sometimes overtakin^
mankind, and the mind of man falls far ahort of the divine
mind.
Ch. XLV.— 1. remoto Sex. Roscio: " leaving Sex. Rosciiis out of
the question."
2. civis optimi : i.e. from the political rather than the moral
standpoint.
9. egerit : " he will find that he has gained nothing by it " ; the
future-perfect expresses the certain result of an action in the future.
11. placet : " do \ve consider it right ?
17. nocuit . . . delevit . . . perdidit : i.e. as experience shows ;
instances of the "gnomic" perfect.
18. pernicii : an old form of the genitive for pemiciei : others
read pernicies, another form used by early writers.
19. rerum : "theforces of nature." Cicero here uses magnitudo
instead of necessitas, because of the words (in line 10 above) propter
magnitudinem rerum, "uwing to the vast range of his undertakings."
The comparison is a halting one ; according to the ideas of the
ancients it would not be the wide-reaching character of his government
of the universe which prevented Jupiter from averting tho
calaraitous events of nature, but the fact that even the gods could
not hinder the course of her eternal laws.
23. maiestatem . . . receperat : which had been lost during the
anarchy which prevailed during the rule of Cinna (87-84 B.C.).
24. legibus confirmaret : see Introd. , § 2.
28. nunc : emphasises cum maxime ; " just now," " at this very
moment." 31. cuius honoris causa : ironical, as in 35, 10.
32. Erucius . . . : there is here a lacuna in the MSS. ; Cicero in
this lost portion probably tried to prove that the property of Roscius
had not been sold at all (cf. 44, 8, omnino haec bona non venisse), and
then proceeded to attack the luxurious and extravagant habits of
Chrysogonus, which led him to acquire wealth by the spoliation of
others.
XLVL, §§ 132-135. Argument.—Chrysogonvs has apalace on the
Palatine, a suburban villa, many farms, and a house crammed with
the plunder ofthe proscribed. He has a vast household ofskilled slaves,
in lohich luxury and extravagance are rife. He himself struts to and
fro in the Fonim and thinks that no one can be compared loith him.
[See the Index for Corinthus, Delos, Palatium.]
Ch. XLVL— 1. aptam : sc. rem or fortiinam, or perhaps villam.
Cicero here seems to be contrasting the luxury of Chrysogonus with
the unassuming mode of life of the other freedmen of SuUa. ration^
"