Pro S. Roscio Amerino

PEO SEX. Roscio, §§ 78—82. 29
tliat you not only see your charge rebound tlierefrom, but
jou perceive that every suspicion recoils upon yourselves.
80. What follows then ? Pray -where does the accuser
take refuge in his lack of arguments ? " The times were
so disastrous," says he, " that men were murdered with
impunity quite commonly, and therefore you could have
done this deed without any trouble, owing to the vast
number of murderers." Tou sometimes appear to me,
Erucius, to be kilHng two birds with one stone, to be
striking at us through the verdict, while accusing the very
persons from whom you received the bribe. What do you
say ? Murders were committed quite commonly ? Through
whom, and by whom? Don't you remember that you
were brought to this by the brokers ? What then ? Don't
we know that those same brokers were generally the men
who broke necks ?
81. In fine, shall those men who were rushing about day
and night with swords in their hands, who were continually
at Eome, who were always to be found in the midst of
plunder and bloodshed,—shall they cast in Sextus Eoscius'
teeth the cruel injustice of those times ? And shall they
consider that the then vast number of murderers (in which
nimiber they themselves were the leaders and chiefs) is to
be a ground for accusing my client, who so far from being
at Eome was absolutely ignorant of what was going on at
Eome, since he was constantly in the country, as you
yourself admit ?
82. I am afraid that you will think me tedious, gentlemen,
or else that I shall appear to lack confidence in your
abihties, if I argue any longer on such palpable facts. The
whole of Erucius' charge has been refuted, I think ; unless
perchance you are waiting for me to refute the accusations
about embezzlement of state property and imaginary
offences of that sort, of which we heard nothing before and
which are quite new to us. These he seemed to me to be
declaiming from another speech, which he was preparing
against another prisoner; so far were they from having
anything to do with the charge of parricide or with the
man who is on his trial : and since he supports his charges
by assertion, it is enough to deny them by assertion. If