Pro S. Roscio Amerino

20
CICEEO
man : for, wlien lie has sometliing to say wliicli involves a
cbarge and a suspicion, lie would not appear to be of
purpose mockiug and slandering him openly.
set
56. Tliis is the reason that we readily allow the existence
of as mauy accusers as possible, because an innocent
man can be acquitted after being accused, a gmlty man
cannot be condemned without being accused ; and it is,
of course, more expedient that an innocent man should be
acquitted than that a guilty one should not be tried. The
Geese are fed by public contract and the Dogs are kept on
the Capitol, to give warning of the approach of thieves.
Tou vnll say that they cannot distinguish thieves ; well,
but they give warning if auy one comes into the Capitol
by night, because such an occurrence excites suspicion, and,
although they are brute beasts, they err rather on the side
of caution. But if the dogs were to bark by day as well,
when any persons come to worship the gods, I beheve their
legs would be broken, because they show their keenness
even at a time when there is no ground for suspicion.
57. The case is very much the same with accusers : some
of you are geese, who only make a noise but can do no
harm, some are dogs who can both bark and bite. We see
your food is being given to you ; and you ought above all
things to attack those who deserve it ; this is what the
people like best : after that if you wish, just at the very
moment when some one has committed a crime, you must
bark from suspicion. That also may be granted. But if
you are going so far as to charge a man with having murdered
his father without being able to state why or how he
did it, and if you mean to bark with hardly any ground for
suspicion, no one will break your legs ; but if I know these
gentlemen well, that letter, to which you have been so
bitter a foe as actually to hate all the Calends, will be so
firmly fixed upon your forehead as to make it impossible
for you hereafter to find fault with any one else save only
your own destiny.
58. What have you given me as subject-matter for my
defence, my kind accuser ? What have you given these
gentlemen as grounds for suspicion ? " He was afraid of
being disinherited." So you say, but no one states auy