the abdication of Sulla.

[58] Vol.iii., p.386. I quote from Mr. Dickson's translation, as I do
not read German.

[59] In defending Roscius Amerinus, while Sulla was still in power, he
speaks of the Sullan massacres as "pugna Cannensis," a slaughter as
foul, as disgraceful, as bloody as had been the defeat at Canne.

[60] Mommsen, vol.iii., p.385.




CHAPTER IV.

HIS EARLY PLEADINGS.--SEXTUS ROSCIUS AMERINUS.--HIS INCOME.


[Sidenote: B.C. 80, _aetat._ 27]

We now come to the beginning of the work of Cicero's life. This at
first consisted in his employment as an advocate, from which he
gradually rose into public or political occupation, as so often
happens with a successful barrister in our time. We do not know with
absolute certainty even in what year Cicero began his pleadings, or
in what cause. It may probably have been in 81 B.C., when he was
twenty-five, or in his twenty-sixth year. Of the pleadings of which
we know the particulars, that in the defence of Sextus Roscius Amerinus,
which took place undoubtedly in the year 80 B.C., etat twenty-seven,