o Sex. Roscio dicta, tantum commendationis habuit, ut
non ulla esset quae non digna nostro patrocinio videretur.' In later
years he criticized the 'iuvenilis redundantia' of this speech
(_Orat._ 108).

3. The speech _Pro Roscio Comoedo_, usually assigned to B.C. 76, was a
defence of the famous actor in a civil case.

4. The year 70 B.C. is memorable for the group of speeches
('accusationis vii. libri,' _Orat._ 103), against Verres, accused of
_repetundae_ by the Sicilians, at whose urgent entreaty Cicero
undertook the prosecution. The preliminary question, who should
conduct the prosecution, is argued in the _Divinatio in Caecilium_. Q.
Caecilius Niger, Verres' quaestor, claimed the right to prosecute, but
this manoeuvre failed. Of the six speeches _in Verrem_ only one, the
_Actio Prima_, was delivered: Cicero, seeing that the other side were
anxious to carry the trial over into the next year, confined himself
to this short introductory speech (on 5th August, cf. par. 31), after
which he called his witnesses. Their evidence was so damaging that
Hortensius[25] threw up the defence, and Verres was sentenced to
banishment and his property confiscated. The five Books of the _Actio
Secunda_ were published afterwards in order that the facts might be
thoroughly known.

5. _Pro M. Fonteio_ (incomplete), for Fonteius, propraetor of Gallia
Narbonensis B.C. 75-3, on a charge of _repetundae_. This trial perhaps
took place B.C. 69, certainly after the equites had been placed on the
_iudicia_ by the Lex Aurelia of 70 (cf. par. 26).

6. To the same year probably belongs the speech _Pro Caecina_ in a
civil case.

7. In B.C. 66 Cicero made his first political speech, _Pro Lege
Manilia_, or _De Imperio Cn. Pompei_, in support of the bill of the
tribune Manilius for conferring on Pompey the command against
Mithradates.

8. In the same year he defended Cluentius, charged with murder, in the
speech _Pro A. Cluentio Habito_. The date is fixed as the year of
Cicero's praetorship by par. 147, 'mea quaestio de pecuniis repetundis.'

9. The three speeches _De Lege Agraria_ are concerned with the bill of
P. Servilius Rullus for the appointment of _decemviri_ with full power
to buy and sell land and to establish colonies. The first speech
(incomplete) was made in the Senate on 1st January, the second and
third before _contiones_.

10. The speech _Pro C. Rabirio perduellionis reo_ was delivered on
behalf of Rabirius, charged before the _