Pro S. Roscio Amerino

10 CICERO
gave full credence when Chrysogonus promised that he
would take the name o£ Sextus Roscius off the proscriptionlists
and hand over the unoccupied estates to his son, and
when Titus Eoscius Capito, who was among the ten envoys,
added his promise that the matter should be settled in this
way. They retumed to Ameria without pleading their
cause. And first of all they began to put off and defer
the settlement from day to day ; then to proceed in a somewhat
more leisurely way and make sport of him ; at last
a fact that has easily been learned—to get up plots against
the Hfe of this Sextus Roscius, and to persuade themselves
that they would no longer keep possession of another man's
property while he, the real owner, was alive.
27. As soon as my client perceived this, he took the
advice of his friends and relations and fled for refuge to
Eome, and betook himself to Caecilia, sister of Nepos, and
daughter of Balearicus, whom I mention with all due
respect, a lady with whom my clienfs father was on terms
of close acquaintance ; a lady, gentlemen, in whom, as
eveiy one has always beheved, there remain to this day
traces of the old-fashioned seuse of duty, as if to show us
what that nieant. When Sextus Eoscius was in destitution,
cast out of his home and driven away from his possessions,
fieeing from the swords and threats of brigands, she welcomed
him to her house, and gave assistance to her guest,
now utterly crushed and despaired of by all. It is due to
her courage, loyalty, and energy that my chent is alive and
his name upon the charge-sheet, instead of being murdered
and having his name upon the proscription-hsts.
28. For as soon as they learned that Sextus Eoscius' life
was being guarded with the utmost care, and that no opportunity
of committing a murder was allowed them, they
formed a plan full of reckless guilt ; they resolved to accuse
my client of parricide, to get for that purpose some accuser
who was an old hand at the trade, who was capable of
making any statement about an aifair in which there was
not a shadow of a suspicion ; finally, to use as their weapon
the critical state of the times wheu they found their charge
no use. Tlieir idea was that people were saying that as no
trials had been held for so long a time, the first culprit who