We come in upon the fag-end of the proscription, and see, not the bloody wreath of Sulla as he triumphed on his Marian foes, not the cruel persecution of the ruler determined to establish his order of things by slaughtering every foe, but the necessary accompaniments of such ruthless deeds--those attendant villanies for which the Jupiter Optimus Maximus of the day had neither ears nor eyes.

If in history we can ever get a glimpse at the real life of the people, it is always more interesting than any account of the great facts, however grand.
The Kalends of June had been fixed by Sulla as the day on which the slaughter legalized by the proscriptions should cease.

In the September following an old gentleman named Sextus Roscius was murdered in the streets of Rome as he was going home from supper one night, attended by two slaves.

By whom he was murdered, probably more than one or two knew then, but nobody knows now.

He was a man of reputation, well acquainted with the Metelluses and Messalas of the day, and passing rich.