1Was it for this, then, that the long-awaited nobility recovered the commonwealth by arms and the sword, so that freedmen and paltry slaves of the nobles might harass our goods, our fortunes and our altars at their own whim? 142If that was what was intended, I confess that I was wrong to prefer this side, I confess that I was mad to share their views; 142although I shared them unarmed, judges. 142But if the victory of the nobles ought to be an ornament and an advantage to the commonwealth and the Roman people, then indeed my speech ought to be most welcome to all the best and noblest men. 142But if there is anyone who thinks that both he himself and the cause are injured when Chrysogonus is censured, he does not understand the cause, though he knows himself well enough; 142for the cause will become more splendid if every utter scoundrel is resisted, and that most shameless backer of Chrysogonus, who thinks his interests are shared with him, is injured when he is cut off from this splendour of the cause.
143But all this speech, as I said before, is my own, which the commonwealth, my own indignation and the wrongdoing of these men have forced me to use. 143Sextus Roscius thinks none of this an outrage, accuses no one, makes no complaint about his inheritance. 143A man unacquainted with the ways of the world, a farmer and a countryman, he thinks that all those things which you say were done through Sulla were done according to custom, law and the law of nations; 143freed from blame and released from an abominable charge, he desires to leave your presence; 144if he may be free of this unworthy suspicion, he says that he goes without all his possessions with an untroubled mind.
144He asks and begs you, Chrysogonus, if he has turned nothing of his father's very ample fortune to his own use, if he has cheated you in nothing, if he has handed over everything of his to you in perfect good faith, counted it out and weighed it out, if he has given you the clothing he himself was dressed in and the ring from his finger, if out of everything he has kept back nothing but himself, stripped bare, that through you he may be allowed, an innocent man, to pass his life in poverty on the resources of his friends.