J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, Select Orations of Cicero, Allen and Greenough's Edition.

-26 cum . . . esset: parenthetical (repeating, in greater detail, the clause that precedes).

Observe that Cicero remarks (as it were, casually) that in thus devoting himself to a rural life, the younger Roscius was obeying his father's wishes. This prepares the way for his subsequent assertion (sect. 23) that there was no ill-will between father and son, — an important matter in the question of motive. It also anticipates the answer given in sect. 22 to the argument that the defendant was a rude, boorish fellow, of gloomy and sullen disposition, and therefore likely to have committed murder. The effectiveness of a forensic discourse depends in great part on the skill with which the mind of the hearer is prepared, by such apparently insignificant remarks, for a definite assertion or argument that is to follow.

iste: T. Roscius Magnus ; the repetition of the words frequens, etc., emphasizes the suggestion that he was likeliest to be the murderer.

Palacinas: the reading is uncertain, and the place unknown.

hunc, i.e. my client.

judicatote: § 449 (269, d) ; B. 281, 1, a ; G. 268, 2 ; H.560, 4 (487, 2); H.-B. 496. The second or longer form of the imperative is regular where the action is not to be performed immediately, especially when a future appears in protasis: § 516, d (307, d); B. 302,4; G. 595; H.580 (508,4); cf. H.-B. 582, 1.