Pro Roscio Amerino 1-2

Credo ego vos, iudices, mirari,

quid sit,

quod, cum tot summi oratores

hominesque nobilissimi sedeant,

ego potissimum surrexerim,

is, qui neque aetate

neque ingenio

neque auctoritate

sim cum his, qui sedeant, comparandus.

Omnes hi,

quos videtis adesse in hac causa,

iniuriam novo scelere conflatam putant oportere defendi,

defendere ipsi propter iniquitatem temporum non audent.

Ita fit, ut adsint propterea,

quod officium sequuntur,

taceant autem idcirco,

quia periculum vitant.

I trust that you judges are wondering

why it is

that, while so many of the best speakers

and finest men remain seated here,

I could possibly stand up,

one who neither in age

nor  in talent

nor in influence

Could be compared with these who remain seated.

All these,

whom you see attending this case,

think that the injury inflamed by an unprecedented crime must be resisted,

they themselves dare not lead the resistance because of the iniquity of the times.

And so here they are 

following duty;

they are, however, silent,

because they are avoiding danger.

[2] Quid ergo?

Audacissimus ego ex omnibus?

Minime.

An tanto officiosior quam ceteri?

Ne istius quidem laudis ita sum cupidus,

ut aliis eam praereptam velim.

Quae me igitur res praeter ceteros impulit,

ut causam Sex. Rosci reciperem?

Quia, si qui istorum dixisset, quos videtis adesse,

in quibus summa auctoritas est atque amplitudo,

si verbum de re publica fecisset,

id, quod in hac causa fieri necesse est,

multo plura dixisse,

quam dixisset, putaretur.

What then?

Am I more outrageously daring than all of them?

Hardly!

Or do I have a greater sense of obligation than the rest?

I am not so eager for that kind of praise

that I would have it snatched from others!

What is it, then, that impels me before the rest

to take on the case of Sex. Roscius?

It is that, if one of these were to speak,

those who are seated here

in whom reside the sum of influence and standing,

if he were to mention a word about the res publica,

the very thing that has to be done in this case,

he would be thought to have said

much more than he had said!

 [32]Patrem meum, cum proscriptus non esset, iugulastis, 

occisum in proscriptorum numerum rettulistis, 

me domo mea per vim expulistis, 

patrimonium meum possidetis. 

Quid voltis amplius? 

Etiamne ad subsellia cum ferro atque telis venistis, 

ut hic aut iuguletis aut condemnetis?

My father,

even though not proscribed, you have murdered,

once murdered among those proscribed him you have placed,

me from my home you forcibly have expelled,

my inheritance you possess.

What more do you want?

And even to the benches with steel and weapons you have come

in order that here you might murder or convict.