Pro S. Roscio Amerino

128 CICERO : PRO ROSCIO. [CH. LII., LIIl.
(Introd., § 7). Iii 53, 8 tlie words refer to another council summoned
to assist a magistrate, viz. the Senate, and this is the usual
meaning of consilium publicwn. The words are specially applicable
to the jurymen in the standing courts, since they now consisted
entirely of senators. voluerunt : indicative in a relative clause
dependent on a subjunctive clause Tlie clause is here introduced
by the speaker as an independent declaration of fact.
26. toUaiitur ; lest, in accordance with the swing of the political
pendulum, they may again recover the estates of which they had
been deprived. in: "in the case of." vestro iure iurando : =
vestris senientiis, which will forra a precedent for future verdicts.
30. accusatorem : not Erucius, but T. Roscius Magnus, who was
an accusator mutus (36, 25).
32. consistere : " to be fixed," " to attach itself."
LIIL, §§ 153, 154. Argument.—Beware of setting on foot a
second proscription which will have far more disastrous effects than
the first. Do your duty as wise men, and put an end to the cruelty
of citizen towards citizen, which, hy malcing even the most merciful
familiar with atrociou£ deeds, causes them to lose all humanfeeling.
LIII.—1. id : here the speaker returns to the point at the beginning
of the previous paragraph.
6. arma capere potuerunt : and so were not, as in the present
case, defenceless children.
7. suscipere noluit : Sulla's Lex Gomelia de proscriptione was a
lex data (see note on 43, 17), and was therefore not sanctioned by
the Senate and carried by the comitia ; but Sulla seenis to have
endeavoured to induce tlie Senate to give its auctoritas or sanction
to his regulations about the proscription. more maiorum : according
to which questions concerning the capid or status of a citizen could
only be decided by the people in the comitia centuriata ; thus it
was only by the verdict of the people that a man could be outlawed
and his property confiscated. oomparatum est : indicative, though
tlie clause is dependent on a subjunctive dependent clause. The
indicative seems here to be preferred, so that the actual fact may
be brought prominently before the audienee.
12. rem publicam perventuram putetis : this is not merely equivalent
to res puhlica perventura sit. Pxitetis is not redundant.
Cicero wishes to appeal to the jurymen's own opinion of the
disastrous efFeets which must ensue if they countenance this second
proscription. 14. estis : sc. praediti.
17. domestica ; = in cives, " cruelty exercised towards fellowcitizens."
20. mali : partitive genitive with id, "this much evil."
22. incommodorum : a euphemism for "disasters."
24. adsiduitate malorum : "through constant misery." sensum
omnem humanitatis : "every feeling of humanity," "all human
feeling."