1I come now to that golden name of Chrysogonus, under which name the whole partnership has hidden; 1about which, gentlemen, I can find neither how to speak nor how to keep silent. 1For if I keep silent, I leave out perhaps the greatest part; 1but if I speak, I fear that not he alone — which does not concern me at all — but many others too may think themselves injured. 1And yet the matter stands so that I do not think I need say anything much about the common cause of the buyers of confiscated property; 1for this case is surely new and unique. 1The buyer of Sextus Roscius' property is Chrysogonus.
125Let us look at this first: on what grounds was this man's property sold, or how could it be sold? 125And I shall not ask this, gentlemen, so as to say that it is a scandal that an innocent man's property has been sold — for if such things are to be heard and spoken freely, Sextus Roscius was not so great a man in the state that we should complain about him above all — but this is what I ask: how could, under that very law which concerns the proscription, whether it is the Valerian or the Cornelian — for I neither know nor am aware — under that very law, I say, how could the property of Sextus Roscius be sold?
126For they say it is written thus: THAT THE PROPERTY BE SOLD EITHER OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN PROSCRIBED; 126in which number Sextus Roscius is not: OR OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN KILLED WITHIN THE LINES OF THE OPPOSING SIDE. 126While there were any lines, he was within Sulla's lines; 126after all had withdrawn from arms, in the midst of complete peace, he was killed at Rome while returning from dinner. 126if he was killed lawfully, I admit that the property too was sold lawfully. 126But if it is agreed that he was killed contrary to all laws, not only the old but even the new, I ask by what right, in what manner, or under what law the property was sold.