dead and his goods seized, the fear of Sulla's favorite, the still
customary dread of the horrors of the time, would cause the son to
shrink from inquiry. Hitherto, when men had been killed and their goods
taken, even if the killing and the taking had not been done strictly in
accordance with Sulla's ordinance, it had been found safer to be silent
and to endure; but this poor wretch, Sextus, had friends in Rome--friends
who were friends of Sulla--of whom Chrysogonus and the Tituses had
probably not bethought themselves. When it came to pass that more stir
was made than they had expected, then the accusation became necessary.

But, in order to obtain the needed official support and aid, Chrysogonus
must be sought. Sulla was then at Volaterra, in Etruria perhaps 150 miles
north-west from Rome, and with him was his favorite Chrysogonus. In four
days from the time of this murder the news was earned thither, and, so
Cicero states, by the same messenger--by Glaucia--who had taken it to
Ameria. Chrysogonus immediately saw to the selling of the goods, and from
this Cicero implies that Chrysogonus and the two Tituses were in partner-
ship.

But it seems that when the fact of the death of old Roscius was known
at Ameria--at which place he was an occasional resident himself, and
the most conspicuous man in the place--the inhabitants, struck with
horror, determined to send a deputation to Sulla. Something of what
was being done with their townsman's property was probably known,
and there seems to have been a desire for justice. Ten townsmen were
chosen to go to Sulla, and to beg that he would personally look into
the matter. Here, again, we are very much in the dark, because this
very Capito, to whom these farms were allotted as his share, was not
only chosen to be one of the ten, but actually became their spokesman
and their manager. The great object was to keep Sulla himself in the