E. H. Donkin, Cicero Pro Roscio Amerino , Edited, after Karl Halm.

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XLI. iam antea : see § 77. ab (from) istis ab adversarus, § 77 ; in both places Magnus is specified as answering the request, as being the bailiff of Chrysogonus.

qui postulabant : see § 77.

res ipsa, the request in itself.

tales putantur : present, in spite of postulabant, vixerunt ; the imperfect might have implied that their reputation was now lost.

nemo esset . . . ; as in § 102 the subjunctives do double duty ; that there would have been no one who would not have thought . . .

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cum, at the moment when ; joined with the present tense, as dum, though the construction is very rare.

oppugnari, with ne following, like verbs of hindering, repugnari, obsisti, etc. Cf. pro Lig. 13, id ne impetremus oppugnabis?

quod vero, but inasmuch as . . .

in dominos quaeri : see § 77, note.

at si quaeritur . . . in dominum quaeritur. The reading is uncertain, but the general meaning is clear : the opponent defends the non-surrender of the slaves, by the argument in dominos quaeri de servis iniqunni est, as if Sex. Roscius was the dominus ; Cicero replies that he is no longer the dominus, for his property has passed into the hands of Chrysogonus, Magnus, and Capito.

cum Chrysogono sunt ; a new argiiment : cf. § 77. They are the attendatits on the powerful favourite of the dictator, and cannot be exposed to the risk of torture.

puerulos, delicate, effeminate boys.

elegantissimis, highly trained. Perhaps of Greek origin. homines paene, men who are scarcely above labourers, of Amerian (= country) training under a rustic householder.

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ut follows veri simile est only in a negative sentence or in a question expecting a negative answer : see Madvig § 374, Obs. 2.

ut . . . cognorit; i.e. probably there had been neither time nor opportunity for this.

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