Chrysogonus, L. Cornelius
a favourite freedman of Sulla, purchased, at Sulla's sale of the goods of the proscribed, the property of S. Roscius Amerinus, which was worth 250 talents, for 2000 denarii, and afterwards accused Roscius's son, who was also named S. Roscius Amerinus, of the murder of his father. (B. C. 80.) Cicero pronounced his first public oration in defence of Roscius, and in that oration we have a powerful picture of the profligate character of Chrysogonus. It cannot be said with certainty whether in this proceeding Chrysogonus was, as Plutarch affirms, merely the instrument of Sulla. (Plut. Cic. 3; Cic. pro S. Rose. Amer.; Plin. Nat. 35.18. s. 58.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.