Pro S. Roscio Amerino

36 CICEEO
98. Do you not seem to see, what you have heard, with
your own eyes, geutlemen ? Do you not behold that hapless
man, ignorant of his coming doom, returning fi-om
dinner, the ambush laid, the sudden attack ? Does there
not arise before your eyes the figure of G-laucia in the
midst of his bloody work ? Is not Titus Eoscius there ?
Does he not mount that Automedon in the chariot with his
own hands, to carry the tidings of his most atrocious crime
and abominable success ? Is he not begging him to keep
awake that night, to use every effort out of personal regard
for him, to tell the news to Capito at the very first
opportunity ?
99. What was his reason for wishing Capito to know
first ? I don't know : only I observe this, that Capito
shares the property with him : out of the thirteen farms
I notice that he owns the three finest farms.
100. Moreover, I am told that this is not the first time
a suspicion of this sort has been brought upon Capito ; that
his prizes of infamy are numerous enough : but this is the
first ribboned wreath to be brought to him from Eome
that there is no way of miirdering a man whereby he has
not murdered some, many of them by the sword, many by
poison ; I can even tell you of a man whom, contrary to our
ancestral custom, he threw from the bridge before he was
a sexagenarian ; and if he comes forward, or rather when
he comes foi-ward—for I know he wiU come forward—he
shall be told this.
101. Let him only come : let him undo that roll of his
which I can prove that Erucius wrote for him ; that roll
which they say he brandished in the face of Sextus Eoscius
while he threatened to state all its contents as evidence.
A fine witness, indeed, gentlemen ! A dignity of character
worthy of your expectations ! A course of conduct honourable
indeed, and such as to induce you willingly to bring
your oath down to the level of his evidence! Assuredly
we should not see their guilty deeds so plainly did not
greed and covetousness
bUnd.
and reckless daring make them
102. One of them sent a winged messenger straight from
the murder to his comrade and master at Ameria, so that