passionately loved by the army, he was so sure of the support of his
comrades, whom he had quartered on the proscribed lands, and who, for
their own interest's sake, would resist attempts at counter-revolution,
that he knew that if an emergency arose he had but to lift his finger to
reinstate himself in command. Of assassination he was in no greater danger
than when dictator, while the temptation to assassinate him was less. His
influence was practically undiminished, and as long as he lived he
remained, and could not but remain, the first person in the Republic.

Some license of speech he was, of course, prepared for, but it required no
small courage to make a public attack either on himself or his dependants,
and it was therefore most creditable to Cicero that his first speech of
importance was directed against the Dictator's immediate friends, and was
an exposure of the iniquities of the proscription. Cicero no doubt knew
that there would be no surer road to favor with the Roman multitude than
by denouncing Sylla's followers, and that, young and unknown as he was,
his insignificance might protect him, however far he ventured. But he had
taken the Senate's side. From first to last he had approved of the
reactionary constitution, and had only condemned the ruthless methods by
which it had been established. He never sought the popularity of a
demagogue, or appealed to popular passions, or attempted to create a
prejudice against the aristocracy, into whose ranks he intended to make
his way. He expressed the opinions of the respectable middle classes, who
had no sympathy with revolutionists, but who dreaded soldiers and military
rule and confiscations of property.

The occasion on which Cicero came forward was characteristic of the time.
Sextus Roscius was a country gentleman of good position, residing near
Ameria, in Umbria. He had been assassinated when on a visit to Rome by two
of his relations, who wished to get possession of his estate. The