Rosc. Am. 26.1Ō singulārem sapientiam, iūdicēs!What singular wisdom, judges! Rosc. Am. 26.1Nōnne videntur hunc hominem ex rērum nātūrā sustulisse et ēripuisse cui repente caelum, sōlem, aquam terramque adēmerint ut, quī eum necāsset unde ipse nātus esset, carēret eīs rēbus omnibus ex quibus omnia nāta esse dīcuntur?Do they not seem to have removed and snatched this man from the whole of nature, taking from him at a stroke sky, sun, water and earth, so that he who had killed the one from whom he himself was born should lack all those things from which all things are said to be born? Rosc. Am. 26.1Nōluērunt ferīs corpus obicere nē bēstiīs quoque quae tantum scelus attigissent immāniōribus ūterēmur;They did not want to throw his body to wild beasts, lest we should find even the beasts more savage for having touched so great a crime; Rosc. Am. 26.1nōn sīc nūdōs in flūmen dēicere nē, cum dēlātī essent in mare, ipsum polluerent quō cētera quae violāta sunt expiārī putantur;nor to throw them naked into the river like that, lest, when they had been carried down to the sea, they should pollute the very element by which all other things that have been defiled are thought to be purified; Rosc. Am. 26.1dēnique nihil tam vīle neque tam volgāre est cuius partem ūllam relīquerint.in short, there is nothing so cheap or so common that they left them any share of it.
Rosc. Am. 26.72Etenim quid tam est commūne quam spīritus vīvīs, terra mortuīs, mare flūctuantibus, lītus ēiectīs?For what is so common as breath to the living, earth to the dead, the sea to those tossed on the waves, the shore to those cast up? Rosc. Am. 26.72Ita vīvunt, dum possunt, ut dūcere animam dē caelō nōn queant, ita moriuntur ut eōrum ossa terra nōn tangat, ita iactantur flūctibus ut numquam adluantur, ita postrēmō ēiciuntur ut nē ad saxa quidem mortuī conquiēscant.They live, while they can, in such a way that they cannot draw breath from the open sky; they die in such a way that the earth does not touch their bones; they are tossed by the waves in such a way that they are never washed clean; finally they are cast out in such a way that not even on the rocks can they rest in death. Rosc. Am. 26.72Tantī maleficī crīmen, cui maleficiō tam īnsigne supplicium est cōnstitūtum, probāre tē, Erucī, cēnsēs posse tālibus virīs, sī nē causam quidem maleficī prōtuleris?Do you think, Erucius, that you can prove to such men a charge of so great a crime, a crime for which so signal a punishment has been established, when you have not even put forward a motive for the crime?
Rosc. Am. 26.72sī hunc apud bonōrum ēmptōrēs ipsōs accūsārēs eīque iūdiciō Chrȳsogonus praeesset, tamen dīligentius parātiusque vēnissēs.if you were accusing him before the buyers of the property themselves, and Chrysogonus were presiding over that court, you would still have come more carefully and better prepared. Rosc. Am. 26.73Vtrum quid agātur nōn vidēs, an apud quōs agātur?Do you not see what the case is, or before whom it is being tried? Rosc. Am. 26.73Agitur dē parricīdiō quod sine multīs causīs suscipī nōn potest;It is a case of parricide, which cannot be undertaken without many motives; Rosc. Am. 26.73apud hominēs autem prūdentissimōs agitur quī intellegunt nēminem nē minimum quidem maleficium sine causā admittere.and it is being tried before men of the greatest wisdom, who understand that no one commits even the smallest crime without a motive.