Pro S. Roscio Amerino

24 CICBRO
deeply into the heart tliat utter madness and frenzy
ensue.
67. Por I would not have you believe, as you often see
in plays, that those who have done any deed that involves
impiety and gmlt are chased and aflrighted by the Furies'
blaziug torches : each of them is most grievously tormented
by his own sin and his own terrors ; each of them
is distracted and maddened by his own guilt ; he is terrified
by his own evil thoughts and by tlie stings of conscience.
These are the abiding Furies that dog the steps of impious
men, which day and night are exacting expiation for their
parents from blood-guilty sons.
68. Such is the enormity of the crime, that were not
the charge of parricide tliat is brought forward almost
self-evident it would be incredible ; unless his youth is
stained with disgrace, unless his life is befouled with
iniquities of all kinds, unless he is guilty of shameful and
scandalous extravagance, of headlong daring, and such recklessness
that he seems little short of being mad. To tliis
ought to be added hatred on the part of his father, fear of
punishment from his father, bad friends, slaves for his
confederates, a fitting occasion, and a scene suitably chosen
for that crime : I would almost say that the Jury ought to
see his hauds sprinkled with his father's blood if they are
to believe in so foul, so monstrous, so unnatural a deed.
69. Therefore the less credible this crime is, unless it is
proved, the more need is there to punish it, if it is indisputably
established. Consequently we can infer from many
things that our ancestors were superior to all other nations
not only in arms but also in policy and prudence, and
particularly from this fact, that they devised a unique mode
of punishment for the undutiful. And in this matter
thiuk how far they excelled in wisdom those who are said
to liave been the cleverest among the ancients.
70. History tells us that the vsdsest state was that of
moreover tliey
Athens, so long as her supremacy lasted ;
say that Solon was the cleverest man of that state, the man
who wrote the laws they use even to this day : when he was
asked why he had fixed no punishment for a man who had
slain his father—he answered that he did not believe any