Pro S. Roscio Amerino

26 CICEEO
for sucli a crime? If you were to accuse my client even
before tlie purchasers of the property, and if Chrysogonus
were to preside over that court, you ought nevertheless to
have come with more careful preparation. Is it that you
fail to see the nature of the case, or rather the character of
the judges ? (
73. The case is one of parricide, a crime which cannot
be taken on one's shoulders without many motives ; while
the judges are men of superior wisdom, who know that no
man can commit even the smallest crime without a mo-
tive. Very good : you can't bring forward a motive : well,
although I ought to have won my case at once, yet I will
withdraw from my rightful claim, and, relying on my
clienfs innocence, I will yield to you in this case what I
would not yield in another : I do not ask you why Sextus
Eoscius murdered his father: I ask howhe murdered him.
Therefore I ask you, Gaius Erucius, How ? And I shall
adopt this method of proceeding with you. I shall give
you permission to answer or contradict me during my time
for speiking, or even of asking me questions, if you wish.
74. How did he commit the murder ? Did he strike the
blowhimself, or did he give him over to others to murder ?
If you say that he struck the blow himself, he was not at
Kome. If you say that he used others as tools to do the
deed, I ask : Were they slaves or free men ? If free men,
what men ? Men from the spot at Ameria or murderers
from here at the metropolis? If from Ameria, who are
they ? Why are they not named ? If from Eome, from
what source did Eoscius come to know them, a man who
has not visited Eome for many years, and was never there
more than three days ? Where did he meet them ? How
did he consult with them ? How did he persuade them ?
He bribed them. To whom did he give it? Through
whom did he give it ? On whom did he draw, and how
much did he give ? Is it not by such traces as these that
the source of a crime can geuerally be arrived at ? And at
the same tirae be sure you retlect on the manner in which
you delineated my clieufs life:—th;it he was savage and
boorish ;
tliat he never entered into converc>ation with any
one ; that he never stayed in a town.