That of these two the defence of Sextus Roscius came first, is also to be found in his own words.

More than once, in pleading for Quintius, he speaks of the proscriptions and confiscations of Sulla as evils then some time past.
These were brought nominally to a close in June, 81; but it has been supposed by those who have placed this oration first that it was spoken in that very year.

This seems to have been impossible.

"I am most unwilling," says he, "to call to mind that subject, the very memory of which should be wiped out from our thoughts."[63] When the tone of the two speeches is compared, it will become evident that that for Sextus Roscius was spoken the first.

It was, as I have said, spoken in his twenty-seventh year, B.C.80, the year after the proscription lists had been closed, when Sulla was still Dictator, and when the sales of confiscated goods, though no longer legal, were still carried on under assumed authority.