Matheson Collection > Pro S. Roscio Amerino

INTRODTJCTION.
victims of this judicial slaughter numbered nearly
5,000.
At the end of 82 b.c. Sulla, having thus overcome all
resistance, began his work of legislatiou with the view of
restoring the rule of the aristocracy. Through the interre.e
L. Valpving "F1a.fm],q, appointed at his suggestion by the
Senate, he procured his own nomination as "dictator for
the making of laws and the regulating of the State," and - ,*•(?*
the appointment was ratified by a law (the Lex Valeria) of *-'^v'»*W»
the comitia. O ne clause o f this la w sanc tioned all ^^^^^'fftj*^
p revious m ea,sures"; thus Iega1~validity was giveiL-tQ^ the ~/~^/- /-
Lex Uorneliadealmg wTEE^tFe proscriptions, which had not ^Cc&t^
come before the people.
The legislation of Sulla as dictator (81-79 b.c.) may be
studied in any text-book of Eoman history. The merely
partisan measiires, which had for their object the restora-
tion of senatorial rule, were foredoomed to failure, since
it was not in oligarchy but in monarchy that the empire
could find its ultimate salvation. The aristocracy had
done its work, and all attempts to bolster up its failing
powers were vain. But some of Sulla's reforms were use-
ful and therefore permanent ; and it is with that portion
of these permanent refomis which dealt with criminal law
and procedure that we are concerned as the setting of this
trial. (See § 7.)
Sulla, on becomi ng Dictator, fixed .Tune. 1,8^^ 81 B uX!.. as
the date o n which the pro sfirkpiiQiis- and r.onfisfff^tinTis
should cease ; but notwitlistandiug the solemn declaration
that " killing wiU cease after the Kalends of June,"
massacres still went 6n f Of the saEe of revenge or more
often of gain. SuUa, who was devoted to pleasure, kept
about his person a number of freedmen, one of the most
powerful of whom was the Chrysogonus who figures in this
case (§ 3). These men had gained enormous wealth
through the proscriptions ; but being voluptuous and ex-
travagant, they were not satisfied with their gains, and
hired assassins to waylay and murder rich men, whose names
they fraudulently inserted in theproscriptionlists, and whose
confiscated property they bought for a mere song. The
present trial provides an example of this lawless cupidity.