Roscia lex, de theatris, by Lucius Roscius Otho the tribune, A.U.C. 685. It required that none should sit in the first 14 seats of the theatre, if they were not in possession of 400 sestertia, which was the fortune required to be a Roman knight.
Roscianum, the port of Thurii, now Rossano.
Quintus Roscius, a Roman actor, born at Lanuvium, so celebrated on the stage that every comedian of excellence and merit has received his name. His eyes were naturally distorted, and he always appeared on the stage with a mask, but the Romans obliged him to act his characters without, and they overlooked the deformities of his face, that they might the better hear his elegant pronunciation, and be delighted with the sweetness of his voice. He was accused on suspicion of dishonourable practices; but Cicero, who had been one of his pupils, undertook his defence, and cleared him of the malevolent aspersions of his enemies, in an elegant oration still extant. Roscius wrote a treatise, in which he compared with great success and much learning the profession of the orator with that of the comedian. He died about 60 years before Christ. Horace, bk. 2, ltr. 1.—Quintilian.—Cicero, For Quintus Roscius the Actor; On Oratory, bk. 3; de Divinatione, bk. 1, &c.; Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 3, &c.—Plutarch, Cicero.——Sextus, a rich citizen of Ameria, murdered in the dictatorship of Sylla. His son, of the same name, was accused of the murder, and eloquently defended by Cicero, in an oration still extant, A.U.C. 673. Cicero, For Quintus Roscius the Actor.——Lucius, a lieutenant of Cæsar’s army in Gaul.——Otho, a tribune, who made a law to discriminate the knights from the common people at public spectacles.
Rosiæ campus, or Rosia, a beautiful plain in the country of the Sabines, near the lake Velinum. Varro, de Re Rustica, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 712.—Cicero, bk. 4, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 15.
Rosillanus ager, a territory in Etruria.
Rosius, a harbour of Cilicia.——A man made consul only for one day under Vitellius, &c. Tacitus.
Rosulum, a town of Etruria, now Monte Rosi.
Rotomagus, a town of Gaul, now Rouen.
Roxāna, a Persian woman, taken prisoner by Alexander. The conqueror became enamoured of her and married her. She behaved with great cruelty after Alexander’s death, and she was at last put to death by Cassander’s order. She was daughter of Darius, or, according to others, of one of his satraps. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 4; bk. 10, ch. 6.—Plutarch, Alexander.——A wife of Mithridates the Great, who poisoned herself.
Roxolāni, a people of European Sarmatia, who proved very active and rebellious in the reign of the Roman emperors.