Pro S. Roscio Amerino

pRO SEX. Boscio, §§ 83—88. 31
shows the utmost resolution, and on the side of innocence
tlie utmost lenience, yet I should be glad to run the risk oi
pleading for Sextus Eoseius either with that judge conducting
the trial in person, or before juryTnen of Cassius' stamp,
whose very name is even now shuddered at by men upou
their trial.
86. For in this case, on seeing our opponeuts in possession
of an extremely wealthy property, while my client is in
extreme poverty, they would not ask for whose advantage
it had been, but, regardiug that as self-evident, they would
attach the suspicion of guilt rather to the spoiler than to
the needy. What if there is besides this the fact that you
were poor before ? What, if you were covetous ? What, if
you were reckless ? What, if you were the bitterest foe of
the murdered man ? Need we seek the motive which led
you to so heinous a crime? Well then, which of these
presumptions can be denied ? The poverty of the man is
so evident that it cannot be cloaked, and indeed the more
(87) you
it is hidden the more clearly apparent it becomes ;
openly display your greed in having entered into a conspiracy
with an absolute stranger to secure the property of
a fellow-townsman and a kinsman passing over other
;
matters in silence, the extent of your recklessness could be
inferred by everybody from the fact that you alone, out of
the wliole confederacy, that is, out of this crowd of assassins,
let yourself be fixed upon as the man to sit with the
prosecutors, and not only show us your shameless face but
thrust it upon us you must admit that ;
you had grounds
for enmity towards Sextus Eoscius and serious disputes
about the family possessions.
88. Gentlemen of the Jury, it remains that we weigh
this point, which of the two is more likely to have murdered
Sextus Eoscius : the man to whom his wealth came
on his death, or the man on whom destitution fell; the
man who hitherto was poor, or the man who thereafter
became absohitely penniless ; the man who in the burning
passion of greed rushes to attack his kith and kin, or the
man who always pursued such a mode of life that he did
not know of business profits at all, but only of such
produce as he obtained by toil ; the man who is the most