1I believe, judges, that you are wondering why it is that, when so many of the greatest orators and men of the noblest birth are sitting here, I above all have risen, I who am not to be compared with those who are sitting either in age or in talent or in authority. 1All these men whom you see supporting this case think that a wrong contrived by an unheard-of crime ought to be resisted, but they do not dare to resist it themselves because of the unfairness of the times. 1So it comes about that they are present because they follow their duty, but are silent because they avoid danger.
2What, then? 2am I the boldest of them all? 2By no means. 2Or so much more dutiful than the rest? 2Not even for that praise am I so greedy that I would wish it snatched away from others. 2What reason, then, has driven me beyond the rest to take on the case of Sextus Roscius? 2Because, if any of those men whom you see present, in whom there is the highest authority and standing, had spoken, if he had said a word about public affairs, as must happen in this case, he would be thought to have said much more than he had said. 3But if I say freely everything that has to be said, my speech will by no means be able to get out in the same way and spread among the people.
3Next, because nothing the others say can be obscure, because of their rank and standing, nor can any allowance be made for rash speech, because of their age and wisdom. 3If I say anything too freely, it will be able either to pass unnoticed, because I have not yet entered public life, or to be pardoned for my youth; 3although not only the principle of pardoning but even the custom of judicial inquiry has by now been removed from the state. 4There is this further reason too, that the others were perhaps asked to speak, but asked in such a way that they thought they could do either without failing in their duty; 4but those men pressed me hard who have the greatest claim on me through friendship, kindnesses and rank, whose goodwill towards me I ought not to ignore, nor their authority to despise, nor their wishes to neglect.