Pro S. Roscio Amerino

PRO SEX. Roscio, §§ 127—131. 47
suaded that I am speaking partly on my own account and
partly for Sextus Eoscius. For those proceedings which
seem to me to be shameful and intolerable, and which I
believe are reaching out to all of us, if we do not take care,
I declare openly on my own behalf and prompted by my
own feelings of indignation : the details that have to do
with the defenceof myclienfs vital interests, what defence
he wishes to be made for himself, and with what terms he
is satisfied, I will shortly tell you, gentlemen, at the end of
my speech.
130. I put these questions to Chrysogonus of my own
free will, quite apart from Sextus Eoscius : first, why was
the property of a blameless citizen put up for sale ? next,
why was the property of a man, who was neither proscribed
nor kiUed within the enemy's lines, put up for sale, when
the terms of the law affected only such persons ? next, why
was it put up for sale some time after that date which was
fixed as the limit in the law ? next, why was it sold for so
small a sum ? And if he chooses to heap all this on the
shoulders of his patron, as rascally and worthless freedmen
are wont to do, it will be of no avail ; for there is no one
who does not know that, owing to the vast range of his
affairs, many persons have done many a deed in secret without
the knowledge of Lucius Sulla.
131. Do you approve then of the fact that in these
matters something is passed over without notice ? Tou do
not approve of it, gentlemen, but it is a necessity. For if
Jupiter the best and greatest, by whose nod and will heaven
and earth and sea are ruled, has often, by furious winds or
severe seasons or excessive heat or unendurable cold, done
harm to men, destroyed their cities, and ruined their crops,
none of which things we believe to have been done by the
divine will for the purpose of doing us any injuiy, but by
the mere force in the universe and its vast range ;
whereas
to counterbalance this we see that the blessings we possess,
the Ught we enjoy, and the air we breathe are given and
granted to us by him, why should we be surprised that
Lucius Sulla, when he alone was directing the commonwealth
and was guiding the world, and was estabHshing by
iaws the imperial sovereignty which he won by arms.