Sextus Roscius was accused of patricide, killing his own father (also called Sextus Roscius), who was murdered in the streets of Rome after a dinner. 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. It seems this was done illegally, since the official end-date for the proscriptions (1 June 81 BC) had passed. At the public auction that followed, Chrysogonus bought the family estates, reportedly worth over 6 million
sesterces, for a meagre 2,000
sesterces. Soon after (at least according to Cicero) Chrysogonus conspired with two relatives of the deceased, Titus Roscius Capito and Titus Roscius Magnus, to accuse the younger Sextus Roscius of his father's murder. 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 suspects). In his first big trial, Cicero turned the tables, he claimed that the two Amerian relatives, Capito and Magnus, murdered Sextus' father and then conspired with Chrysogonus to acquire the estates illegally through the proscription list. The argument for the defense would likely be considered doubtful by today's standards. 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. "For the cause will be rendered more splendid by resisting every worthless man. The worthless favourers of Chrysogonus, who think that his cause and theirs are identical, are injured themselves by separating themselves from such splendor." Eventually, Sextus the younger was acquitted of the murder charges; it is likely that he repossessed his land. ==In popular culture==