Sextus Roscius

Sextus Roscius, like Cicero a native of the Roman countryside, was from Ameria, a municipality in Umbria.

When his father was murdered in Rome sometime in late 81 BC, the Roscii family estates were added to the proscription list by Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus, a powerful freedman of the dictator Sulla.

Erucius, the prosecutor, formed his case around the cui bono principle: since Sextus Roscius stood to profit the most from murdering his father, he must be the most likely candidate, and must have hired someone else "to do the deed for him" (without naming other possible suspects).

[2] In his first major litigation, Cicero entirely turned the trial around: he claimed that the two Amerian relatives, Capito and Magnus, murdered Sextus' father and then partnered with Chrysogonus to acquire the estates illegally through the proscription list.

[4] Cicero argued that those who chose to align themselves with Chrysogonus in the belief that they were supporting the nobility were wrong to do so, since his corruption was a stain on the Republic.