You demand, O Fannius, a sum of money from Roscius. What sum? Is it money which is owed
 to you from the partnership? or money which has been promised and assured to you by his
 liberality? One demand is important and odious, the other is more trifling and easy to
 be got rid of. Is it a sum which is owing from the partnership? What are you saying?
 This is neither to be borne lightly nor to be defended carelessly. For if there are any
 private actions of the greatest, I may almost say, of capital importance, they are these
 three—the actions about trust, about guardianship, and about partnership. For
 it is equally perfidious and wicked to break faith, which is the bond of life, and to
 defraud one's ward who has come under one's guardianship, and to deceive a partner who
 has connected himself with on. in business. And as
 this is the case, let us consider who. it is who in this instance has deceived and
 cheated his partner. For his past life shall silently give us a trustworthy and
 important testimony one way or other. Is it Quintus Roscius? What do you say? Does not,
 as fire dropped upon water is immediately extinguished and cooled, so, does not, I say,
 a false accusation, when brought in contact with a most pure and holy life, instantly
 fall and become extinguished? Has Roscius cheated his partner? Can this guilt belong to
 this man? who, in truth, (I say it boldly,) has more honesty than skill, more truth than
 learning; whom the Roman people think even a better man than he is an actor; who is as
 worthy of the stage because of his skill, as he is wholly of the senate on account of
 his moderation. But why am I so foolish as to say
 anything about Roscius to Piso? I suppose I am recommending an unknown man in many
 words. Is there any man in the whole world of whom you have a better opinion? Is there
 any man who appears to you more pure, more modest, more humane, more regardful of his
 duty, more liberal? Have even you, O Saturius, who appear against him, have you a
 different opinion? Is it not true that as often as you have mentioned his name in the
 cause, you have said that he was a good man, and have spoken of him with expressions of
 respect? which no one is in the habit of doing except in the case of either a most
 honorable man, or of a most dear friend. While doing
 so, in truth, you appeared to me ridiculously inconstant in both injuring and praising
 the same man; in calling him at the same time a most excellent man and a most dishonest
 man. You were speaking of the man with respect, and calling him a most exemplary man,
 and at the same time you were accusing him of having cheated his partner. But I imagine
 the truth is, your praise was prompted by truth; the accusation by your duty to your
 client. You were speaking of Roscius as you really thought; you were conducting the
 cause according to the will of Chaerea. Roscius cheated him. 
 
 This, in truth, seems absurd to the ears and minds of men. What? If he had got hold of
 some man, rich, timid, foolish and indolent, who was unable to go to law with him, still
 it would Be incredible. But let us see whom he has
 cheated. Roscius has cheated Caius Fannius Chaerea. I beg and entreat you, who know them
 both, compare the lives of the two men together; you who do not know them, compare the
 countenance of both. Does not his very head, and those eye-brows entirely shaved off,
 seem to smell of wickedness, and to proclaim cunning? Does he not from his toe-nails to
 his head, if the voiceless figure of a man's person can enable men to conjecture his
 character, seem wholly made up of fraud, and cheating, and lies? He who has his head and
 eyebrows always shaved that he may not be said to have one hair of an honest man about
 him. And Roscius has been accustomed to represent his figure admirably on the stage, and
 yet he does no meet with the gratitude due to such kindness. For when he acts Ballio,
 that most worthless and perjured pimp, he represents Chaerea. That foul, and impure, and
 detestable character is represented in this man's manners, and nature, and life. And why
 he should have thought Roscius like himself in dishonesty and wickedness, I do not know;
 unless, perhaps, because he observed that he imitated himself admirably in the character
 of the pimp.