 The first extant speech is a private case from 81 BC (the "pro Quinctio"), delivered when Cicero was aged 26, though he refers throughout to previous defenses he had already undertaken.His first major public case, of which a written record is still extant, was his 80 BC defense of Sextus Roscius on the charge of patricide.Taking this case was a courageous move for Cicero; patricide was considered an appalling crime, and the people whom Cicero accused of the murder, the most notorious being Chrysogonus, were favorites of Sulla.