1You see how great a crowd of people has gathered for this trial; 1you understand what the expectation of all men is, what their desire that the courts should be keen and severe. 1After a long interval this is the first trial for murder to be held, though in the meantime most outrageous and enormous killings have been committed; 1everyone hopes that this court, with you as praetor, will be most worthy of the open crimes and the bloodshed of every day. 12The outcry which accusers are accustomed to use in other trials, we who are defending use at this time. 12We ask you, Marcus Fannius, and you, judges, to punish crimes as keenly as possible, to resist the most reckless of men as bravely as possible, and to consider this: that unless you show in this case what your mind is, the greed, wickedness and recklessness of men will burst out so far that killings will take place not only in secret but even here in the forum, before your tribunal, Marcus Fannius, before your feet, judges, among the very benches.
13For what else is attempted by this trial except that this may be allowed? 13The accusers are those who have seized upon this man's fortunes, the defendant is the man to whom they have left nothing but misfortune; 13the accusers are those who profited by the killing of the father of Sextus Roscius, the defendant is the man to whom his father's death brought not only grief but poverty as well; 13the accusers are those who have most eagerly desired to cut this very man's throat, the defendant is the man who has come even to this very trial with a guard, so that he may not be butchered here on the spot before your eyes; 13finally, the accusers are those whom the people demand for punishment, the defendant is the man who alone remains, left over from their wicked slaughter.
14And so that you may more easily understand, judges, that what has been done is more outrageous than what we are saying, we shall set out for you from the beginning how the affair was carried out, so that you may more easily come to know both the miseries of this most innocent man and the recklessness of those men, and the calamity of the state.