Pro S. Roscio Amerino
Pro S. Roscio Amerino
Pro S. Roscio Amerino
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PRO sEx. <strong>Roscio</strong>, §§ 94—97. 35<br />
first to bring news to Ameria ? Mallius Glaucia, wliom I<br />
have named before now, your client and a member of your<br />
housebold. What had he of all men to do with bringing<br />
news of a matter which concerned you less than anybody<br />
in the world, if you had before this entered upon no plan<br />
to secure his death and obtain his property, and had not<br />
joined with auy man m a conspiracy for crime and plunder ?<br />
" Mallius brought the tidings without being asked." What<br />
concern was it of his, I ask ? What ? was it a mere matter<br />
of chance that after coming to Ameria without having this<br />
purpose in view he was the first to announce what he had<br />
heard at Eome ? For what purpose had he come to Ameria ?<br />
" I cannot guess," he says. I will now bring the matter<br />
to a point at which there is no need of guessing. On what<br />
principle did he bring news to Capito first ? When there<br />
were at Ameria, Sextus Eoscius' home, his wife, and his<br />
chUdren, when there were his numerous kith and kin who<br />
were on very good terms with him, on what principle did<br />
it happen that that client of yours, the messenger of your<br />
o^vn crime, brought news to Titus Eoscius Capito before<br />
all others ?<br />
.<br />
97. He was murdered while returning from dinner : it<br />
was not yet dawn when the fact was kuown at Ameria.<br />
What means this unprecedented pace, this speed and<br />
hurry ? I do not ask who struck the blow you have<br />
;<br />
nothing to fear, Grlaucia ; I don't shake you out in case you<br />
had any weapon, I don't search you, it's no business of<br />
mine, I think : when I discover who planned the murder<br />
I don't care by whose hand the blow was struck. This is<br />
the only thing I take as certain, which indeed is granted<br />
me by your evident guilt and the convincrug proof brought<br />
forward. Where and from whom did Glaucia hear of it ?<br />
How did he leam of it so quickly ? Suppose he heard it<br />
at once. What motive constrained him to hurry over so<br />
long a journey in a single night? What was the pressing<br />
necessity that compelled him (if he did make the journey<br />
to Ameria unasked) to set out from Eome at so late an<br />
hour, to rest during no part of the night ? Must we ask<br />
for proof or make conjectures even in the case of facts so<br />
plain as these ?
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