of cruelty to its own children. Remove this cruelty from the State, gentlemen of the jury; suffer it no longer to work its pleasure in this Commonwealth. It is a vice which is mischievous, not only in that it has swept off so many of our fellow-citizens under every circumstance of horror, but likewise because by the daily spectacle of painful sights it has made the tenderest hearts callous to the sense of pity. For when each hour we see or hear of some fresh atrocity, even though nature has made us mild of mood, familiarity with dreadful deeds plucks all feelings of humanity from our minds."[1]
In later life Cicero criticised[2] the style of this his early effort at oratory, which he found too florid and exaggerated for his more matured taste. For all that, the speech is full of vigour and promise; and the situation was so critical and momentous, that every sentence struck home. Rome was conscious that yet another brave man and great orator had been born among her sons. We can well believe that "the speech met with such approval, that from that time no case was deemed too important to be committed to my charge."[3]
Nevertheless the acquittal of Roscius was soon followed by Cicero's temporary retirement from the bar. The circumstances may best be recorded in his own words:[4] "At that time my body was very thin and weak, my neck long and slender; and a frame
