7.
[18]
For when this Sextus Roscius was at Ameria,
but that Titus Roscius at Rome; while the
former, the son, was diligently attending to the farm, and in obedience to his father's
desire had given himself up entirely to his domestic affairs and to a rustic life, but
the other man was constantly at Rome, Sextus
Roscius, returning home after supper, is slain near the Palatine baths. I hope from this very fact, that it is not obscure on
whom the suspicion of the crime falls; but if the whole affair does not itself make
plain that which as yet is only to be suspected, I give you leave to say my client is
implicated in the guilt.
[19]
When Sextus Roscius was
slain, the first person who brings the news to Ameria, is a certain Mallius Glaucia, a man of no consideration, a
freedman, the client and intimate friend of that Titus Roscius; and he brings the news
to the house, not of the son, but of Titus Capito, his enemy, and though he had been
slain about the first hour of the night, this messenger arrives at Ameria by the first dawn of day. In ten hours of the
night he travelled fifty-six miles in a gig; not only to be the first to bring his enemy
the wished-for news, but to show him the blood of his enemy still quite fresh, and the
weapon only lately extracted from his body.
[20]
Four days
after this happened, news of the deed is brought to Chrysogonus to the camp of Lucius
Sulla at Volaterra. The greatness of his fortune is pointed out to him, the excellence
of his farms,—for he left behind him thirteen farms, which nearly all border
on the Tiber—the poverty and desolate condition of his son is mentioned they
point out that, as the father of this, man, Sextus Roscius a man so magnificent and so
popular, was slain without any trouble this man, imprudent and unpolished as he was and
unknown at Rome, might easily be removed. They
promise their assistance for this business; not to detain you longer, O judges, a
conspiracy is formed.
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