[30]
The father infamously murdered; the
house besieged; the property taken away, seized and plundered by enemies; the life of
the son, hostile to their purposes, attacked over and over again by sword and treachery.
What wickedness does there seem to be wanting in these numberless atrocities? And yet
they crown and add to them by other nefarious deeds, they invent an incredible
accusation; they procure witnesses against him and accusers of him by bribery; they
offer the wretched man this alternative, whether he would prefer to expose his neck to
Roscius to be assassinated by him, or, being sewn in a sack, to lose his life with the
greatest infamy. They thought advocates would be wanting to him; they are wanting. There
is not wanting in truth, O judges, one who will speak with freedom, and who will defend
him with integrity, which is quite sufficient in this cause, (since I have undertaken
it).
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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