[79]
Now, Erucius, I come to you. You must inevitably agree with me, if he is really
implicated in this crime, that he either committed it with his own hand, which you deny,
or by means of some other men, either freemen or slaves. Were they freemen? You can
neither show that he had any opportunity of meeting them, nor by what means he could
persuade them, nor where he saw them, nor by what agency he trafficked with them, nor by
what hope, or what bribe he persuaded them. I show, on the other hand, not only that
Sextus Roscius did nothing of all this, but that he was not even able to do anything,
because he had neither been at Rome for many
years, nor did he ever leave his farm without some object. The name of slaves appeared
to remain to you, to which, when driven from your other suspicions, you might fly as to
a harbour, when you strike upon such a rock that you not only see the accusation rebound
back from it, but perceive that every suspicion falls upon you yourselves.
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