Cicero’s Pro Caelio
THE DEFENSE OF CAELIUS is
outstanding among
wit, its classic
apology of wildoat-sowing, and the historical interest of the personalities
involved. The
summation (of which the present speech is a revision for publication) must
have been delivered
on
Mother. The chief
prosecutor Atratinus, who was only seventeen at the time, had a
double motive for
instituting proceedings: Caelius had not only accused his father, but
had preceded himself
in the affections of Clodia, "the Medea of the
doubtless undertook
the defense to avenge himself on Clodia and her brother Publius
Clodius, who had
caused his exile. Clodia is the famous "Lesbia" of Catullus, who lost
her to Caelius, if
he is indeed the Rufus whom Catullus berates as a successful rival. The
references to
bathing and fourpenny pieces suggest that she entertained her lovers in the
bath. Caelius
himself is said to have called her "the fourpenny Clytemnestra," for she
was rumored to have
poisoned her husband Metellus Celer three years previously and
the fourpenny piece
was the regular admission to the baths. Another lover, Vattius, was
said to have sent
her a fourpenny piece when they severed relations. Caelius was
acquitted, and
Clodia appears to have gone into complete social and moral eclipse, as
Catullus 58
suggests:
O Caelius, our Lesbia,
that Lesbia
That Lesbia, she whom
Catullus only
Loved, more than his
own soul or any other,
Now at the crossroads,
in the narrow alleys,
Preys on the random
sons of Father Remus.
Caelius met no
better fate. He joined Caesar at the out, break of the civil war, but grew
dissatisfied with
his share of the spoils and organized a revolt, in which he was killed in
48 B.C.
1.Gentlemen of the jury: Suppose that by some chance a stranger
to our laws and law-courts and way of life were to come upon this scene and notice that
this is the only court in session while the holidays and public games have caused all the
other business in the forum to be suspended: doubtless be would wonder what atrocious
crime was indicated in this case, and would surely conclude that the defendant was being
accused of some deed of such enormity that the commonwealth would collapse if he were to
go unapprehended. And suppose our stranger were told that the law in this case is one that
takes no account of holidays, but absolutely required judicial investigation whenever
seditious and criminal citizens have taken up arms and laid siege to the senate-house or
offered violence to magistrates or attacked the republic: of such a law be could scarcely
disapprove, but he would ask about the particular charge in this trial. And when he had
heard that there is no ques. tion here of crime, no question of brazen insolence, no
question of illegal violence, that rather a youth of distinguished talents, an industrious
young man who commands many friends, is being prosecuted by the son of one whom he himself
is now arraigning and has arraigned before in the past, that furthermore a certain lady of
great influence but no reputation is the source of the attack, our bypothetical
friend would say: "Atratinus is not to blame; be is doing
what any good son would do. But may I Suggest that you Romans would do well to keep female
wantonness within bounds? And as for these jurymen, why, they are burdened beyond all
sense and reason; everyone else is at leisure, but only they are allowed no leisure.”
For if you are willing, gentlemen, to attend closely to the whole
case and weigh everything objectively, you will conclude, first, that no one would have
proceeded to make an accusation like this if he were acting as a free agent, and secondly,
that he would have done so without hope, unless his hopes were founded on someone's
ungovernable wantonness and over-bitter hatred. But I forgive my friend Atratinus; he is a
cultivated young man and an excellent one; he can offer as excuse filial duty or
compulsion or age. If he was willing to
prosecute, well after all he is a son; if he did so under orders, he is not his own
master; if he hoped for something, well, he is only a boy. But for the others, my motto is
"No forgiveness, but resistance to the end."
2. Seeing that Marcus Caelius is still quite a young man, I think
my best course is to begin this defenso by replying to the prosecution's attempt to
blacken his character and blast his reputation. They have used his father variously as a
basis for detraction. They have said either that he lives too shabbily or that he has been
badly treated by his son. Marcus Caelius the
elder does not need any help from me in defending his dignity. For those who know him well
and for the older people present he easily counters that charge without having to say a
word. But as for some time now because of advancing age be has been less active among us
in the forum, he may not be so well known to some of you. To them let me say that whatever
respect may be consonant with the position of a Roman knight-and surely that can be a very
great deal-sucb respect has always in the highest degree been accorded Marcus Caelius, and
is so still by anyone with whom he has any dealings whatever. Is it a disgrace to be the
son of a Roman knight? So says the prosecution-scarcely a view to commend itself to some
of the jurors here, not to mention myself, the counsel for the defense. And as to what you
prosecutors have said about Caelius' treatment of his father, we may form what judgment we
will, but the final word must certainly come from the father himself. You will bear what
our opinion is from the character-witnesses; but what the parents themselves feel is clear
from this mother here in tears and anguish, from this father here dissolved in grief and
clothed in mourning. The prosecution further
alleges that the young man bad a bad name with his fellow-townsmen. To that I need only
point out that the citizens of Interamnia never conferred any greater honors on a resident
than they gave to Marcus Caelius after he moved away. Though he was a non-resident, they
made him a member of their highest governing body, and without his requesting it gave him
what many bad sought in vain. In addition they have sent a choice deputation of senators
and Roman knights to present to the court their sincere and detailed commendation.
I flatter myself I have now laid the foundations of my defense,
resting as it does on the testimony of those bound to the defendant by the closest of
ties. For you might well have looked with a cold eye on a man so young if he were really
an object of aversion not only to his worthy father but to his distinguished and upright
townsmen as well.
3. In fact, if I may be allowed to inject a personal note, I
myself rose to fame from such origins as these, and, whatever glory I have gained in the
courts and the government, the esteem of those closest to me has seconded it in no small
degree.
We come now to the charge of immorality. Here the prosecution has
been long on rumor and gossip, but lamentably short on specific details. And nothing they
have said has upset my client enough to make him regret that be is naturally handsome.
That sort of talk is the usual lot of any young man who happens to be good-looking. But
gossip is one thing, criminal pro secution quite another. The latter calls for an exact
presentation of the evidence, positive identification of the criminal, reasoned proof, and
confirmation by witnesses; whereas slander has no aim -or task except to spatter with
infamy. If the job is done in ill temper, we call it abuse, but if with grace, we call it
wit. I was shocked and mortified to see that Atratinus had been assigned this part of the
prosecution. This was unseemly. It was incongruous in view of his age, and you no doubt
noticed that the modesty of a well-brought-up young man was a considerable embarrassment
to him in treating of these matters. I would prefer for some of you more toughened
veterans to have handled the role of slanderer, for then I would feel less compunction in
speaking boldly and baldly in rebuttal. But I will treat you more gently, Atratinus, and
will tone down my language out of consideration for your modesty and the friendly feeling
I have for you and your father. But let me give you a bit of advice. First, if you want
people to think of you as you really are, you bad better keep your speech as free from
immodesty as your conduct is. And second, I warn you not to ascribe to another something
you would blush to bear if falsely retorted on yourself. Anyone, you know, can play at
that game. Remember you are vulnerable too if someone in a fit of spleen cared to spread
gossip about you. For even where there is no ground for suspicion, the mere fact of being
a young man of some personal charm lends the charge a show of plausibility. But your
assuming that role was the fault of those who compelled you to speak. All due credit then
to your sense of modesty, since you obviously spoke unwillingly, and to your ingenuity,
since you managed all so carefully and elegantly.
4. Still I can make short work of refuting what you had to say,
The fact is, during the whole time that Caelius was young enough to lend some credibility
to the suspicion, he was protected not merely by his own modest nature but by his father's
watchful eye and careful upbringing. I say nothing here of my own influence on him; that
may be as you like; I simply say that as soon as the boy bad assumed the toga of manhood I
took him under my wing -at the father's request. So that all in all, while Caelius was
passing through this dangerous age, no one ever saw him except occupied with the tasks of
liberal education, and in the company of his father or myself or within the chaste walls
of Marcus Crassus'home.
The prosecution has brought up Caelius' intimacy with Catiline.
But that by no means substantiates the charge of immorality. You know when Caelius was
still quite young Catiline and I were both campaigning for the consulship. And one must
admit that a number of young men fell under the arch-villain's spell. But you are at
liberty to suppose that Caelius really was too intimate with Catiline only if you can
prove that he cultivated his acquaintance, or- for that matter ever left my side at the
time. "But," you say, "we know that subsequently Caelius was one of his
friends. We saw it with our own eyes." Who
denies that? But we are not concerned at the moment with that "subsequently." I
am dealing with that period in my client's life that is weak in itself and particularly
exposed to the lust of others. While I was praetor Caelius went with me everywhere; he did
not even know Catiline, who at the time was propraetor in
5. Finally, after spending all these years in the public eye
without being sullied by a shadow of suspicion or ill-repute, Caelius supported Catiline
in his second campaign for consul.
Now just how long do you think tender youth ought to be
protected? When I was a boy of that age, while we passed our probationary year, we had to
refrain from all extravagant gestures when we wore the toga, and we had to exercise and
play on the Campus Martius in our tunics. Or if we began our military service, straightway
a similar system of discipline prevailed in the camp. And even under that regimen if a boy
did not show himself earnest and upright, if he failed to add a sort of natural innocence
to the instruction he had received at home, he could not escape infamy, and deserving it
too, regardless of how closely he was watched. But if he kept himself pure and proof
against temptation in those early stages, no one had a word to say against his reputation
afterwards when he bad matured and taken his place as a man among men. Be that as it may,
after Caelius had been some years in public life already, he espoused the cause of
Catiline. And so did many others of every rank and age. For Catiline had, you may recall,
a great show of good qualities, not fully realized to be sure, but in outline. He numbered
a pack of rascals among his friends, but also pretended to be devoted heart and soul to
other men of the best sort. A master at luring into vice, he could also inspire men to
effort and exertion. The torch of debauchery burned brightly in him, yet he had everything
needed for a good soldier. I don’t suppose there was ever such another anomalous
creature on earth, compounded of such contrary, diverse, and mutually conflicting
inclinations and desires.
6. When the occasion demanded, was there ever another man more
ingratiating to the decent elements of society, or more intimate with the indecent? Was
there ever another who at times yielded more fervent support to the constitutional party,
only to show himself at other times the state's bitterest enemy? Was ever anyone more
befouled by vice, more persevering in effort? In greed, who could have equaled him, or in
liberality? The man was, in short,
astoundingly accomplished, gentlemen: be had troops of friends, be danced attendance on
them, he shared what he had with every comer, his purse was open to everybody, he was at
your beck and call, would use his influence for you, wear himself out for you, go any
lengths for you, even to committing a crime if you liked, he changed his nature to meet
every emergency, twisted and turned hither and thither, puritan to the serious-minded,
hail-fellow-well-met to the lax, model of decorum to the elderly, good companion to the
young, virtuoso of cutthroats, nonpareil of debauchery.
Thanks to this protean and shifting personality, when all the wretches and
rascals of earth had flocked to his banner, it is not surprising that many worthy men too
were taken in by his specious and pretended virtues. His heinous assault on the
foundations of our state would never have been so successful if his monstrous bestiality
bad not been firmly based on a character of astounding perseverance and adaptability. And
so we might as well throw out that line of thought, gentlemen; the charge of intimacy with
Catiline simply will not stick. If you throw mud from that sty, there are too many good
men who will get spattered. I myself-yes, I freely admit it-I myself at one time was
almost deceived. He seemed to me a good citizen, a partisan of the best men, a firm and
faithful friend. I had to see with my own eyes before I could bring myself to believe in
his criminality. I had to have the proofs thrust into my own hands before I suspected the
truth. So Caelius made one in that mob of friends? Then let him repent of his mistake as I
have repented, but do not make him tremble at the charge, "This man was a friend of
Catiline."
7. Next the prosecution, after trying to make their slanderous
point about immorality, took up the invidious business of the conspiracy. Hesitantly and
obliquely they sidled into the position that since this man was a friend of Catiline's he
must have taken part in the plot against the state. At this juncture, not only did the
charge not hold, but the argument of my inexperienced young friend hardly held together.
Are you saying that Caelius is a lunatic? that his character or career bears any marks of
such a weakness" When was the name of Caelius ever breathed in connection with such a
suspicion? You waste my time making me answer such a thing. I will say only this. Caelius
proved conclusively that he was not associated with the conspiracy, proved on the contrary
that he was one of its most relentless opponents, when he made his debut in public life by
prosecuting one of the conspirators. And since I am on the subject, I rather think the
same reply could be made to those charges about illegal electioneering and campaign
bribery. Would Caelius ever have been such a madman as to arraign another man for dirty
politics if he had himself been spotted with the same filth? Would he have demanded
3orneone else's suspicious conduct be investigated if be hoped to have a free band
forevermore to conduct himself similarly? If be had imagined he would ever even once have
to undergo trial for illegal campaigning, would he have called a man to account on the
same charge not once, but twice? Which be did not wisely, in my opinion, and much against
my will. But still his eagerness was such that be seemed rather to be persecuting an
innocent man than harboring any fears about himself.
Now about his debts. You chided his extravagance and ordered him
to produce his accounts. The demand is easily disposed of, to wit: a man still by law
under his father's jurisdiction keeps no accounts. Caelius has never contracted one debt
to pay off another. You base the charge of
extravagance on one thing, that be pays a high rent. You put it at thirty thousand
sesterces. I was nonplussed at first, but then I saw the light. I am given to understand
that Publius Clodius has put up for sale the block of houses where Caelius lives-paying I
am told a rent of only ten thousand. To gratify Clodius the prosecution has inflated the
truth a little so that be may make a better sale. Next they blame Caelius because he moved
away from his father's. Considering his age, there are no grounds for blame. When be bad
emerged from his first law-case covered with glory-much to my chagrin, I may say, but
greatly to his credit-and when it was time for him to enter politics, not only did his
father allow him to move, he even encouraged him to do so. The family home was far from
the forum, so Caelius rented a place at a reasonable figure on the Palatine Hill, to be
near our houses and more accessible to his own supporters.
8. At this point I might echo the quotation used by my friend
Marcus Crassus when he was lamenting King Ptolemy's arrival in Rome: "Oh, would that
never in the Pelian grove-" Except for my purpose I might proceed even further into
the passage: "For never would my lady then have strayed-" Nor ever would we have
been brought to this pass by that "Medea, soul-sick, struck with savage love."
For even so, gentlemen of the jury, you will find, as I shall show when I come to it, that
this Medea of the Palatine and this setting out into the great world were the occasions of
all our young man's misfortunes, or rather of all the gossip about him.
And so relying on your good sense, gentlemen, I have no reason to
fear the other feints and fictions of the prosecution. They say for instance that they are
going to produce a senator to testify that he was assaulted by Caelius during the
pontifical elections. If the senator does put in an appearance, I will ask him first why
be did not institute legal action at once. And if he says that he preferred complaining
about the offense to taking legal action, I will ask why instead of acting on his own be
waits to be produced by you and why be has chosen so long afterwards to complain. And if
he gives me sharp and clever answers, then I will force him to tell me who is behind him.
If be is appearing on his own initiative I may be moved-I usually am by such accounts. But
if he is a mere rill and rivulet flowing from the very fountainhead of the prosecution,
then I will felicitate myself that only one senator can be found to gratify you, seeing
that all your proceedings are backed by persons of such means and influence.
In any case, neither do I quail before that other class of
eyewitnesses: I mean the night-owls. For the prosecutors have said that they will produce
men who will swear that their wives were criminally attacked by Caelius on their way home
from dining out. Very respectable fellows, I must say, who will have the cheek to say this
under oath, thereby confessing that though sorely injured they did not try even to make a
settlement out of court.
9. But you can see in advance, gentlemen, what their whole line
of attack is likely to be. So you should be in position to repel it when it comes. The
nominal accusers are –not the ones who are really attacking Marcus Caelius. The
weapons thrown at him openly are being brought up from far behind the lines. Don't
misunderstand me; I am not saying that the open opposition is acting from base rather than
creditable motives. They are doing their duty, defending their own, acting as good men
usually act: wronged, they are indignant; angered, they strike out; challenged, they
fight. But just because my honorable opponents have good and sufficient reason for
speaking against Caelius, you ought to have enough discrimination, jurymen, to see that
this does not constitute good and sufficient reason for you to abandon your duty to your
oath out of pity for someone else's wrongs. Take a glance around the forum. What a throng
of men! what a variety of races and interests and types! Out of this multitude how many do
you suppose would not hurry to offer their services to powerful, influential, clever men,
even to the extent of appearing as witnesses if they thought they needed them. So if some
of this kind appear in this trial, be shrewd enough to discount their interested zeal,
gentlemen. Remember that not only are my client's career and your own honor at stake, but
also involved is the question of what is to happen to any citizen beset by the rich and
powerful. I want to put the matter on quite another footing than the testimony of
witnesses. I will not allow the integrity of this court, which may by no means be tampered
with, to be dependent on the wit, nesses' eagerness to please, than which nothing is
easier to direct, deflect, and manipulate. I will base my contentions on proof and refute
the charges with evidence clear as daylight. I shall fight point with point, reason with
reason. inference with inference.
10. Therefore I am happy that Marcus Crassus has already dealt in
detailed and convincing fashion with that part of the case that has to do with the riots
at
11. I noticed, gentlemen, that you were very attentive to my
friend Lucius Herennius. For the most part he
held you by his cleverness and admirable style of declamation, bui at times listening I
began to be nervous for fear the subject matter of his speech, so subtly arranged to lead
to incrimination, might win you over gradually and insensibly. He had much to say about
riotous living, sexual laxity, the waywardness of youth, the morals of our times, and
though in his private life be is mild-mannered, cultured, pleasant, and suave, just the
type that almost everyone nowadays is delighted with, here he showed himself like a
puritanical uncle or censor or schoolmaster. He dragged Caelius over the coals as no
father ever dragged his son. He favored us with a long discourse on incontinence and
intemperance.
What more could you ask, gentlemen? I can understand your
listening so closely; my own flesh crawled when I beard that hard, harsh mode of speech.
But the first part had less effect on me, the part where he said that Caelius had been on
good terms with my friend Bestia, had dined with him, visited his home many times, and
supported his campaign for praetor. These statements did not affect me much, since they
were manifestly untrue. For he named as fellow-diners at Bestia's house several who either
are not in court or have no choice but to stick to the prosecution's story. Nor do I care
much for what be said about Caelius' being a fellow-member of the Luperci. Well, we all
know that this pack of wolf-priests has a history that antedates law and civilization, but
I never thought it was still such a rustic and countrified brotherhood that its members
would not only denounce each other, but would actually mention their common membership in
a prosecuting ad, dress, as though afraid someone might remain ignorant of the fact. But
enough of this; I pass on to things that affected me more.
The sermon against loose living was long but milder, and being
more argumentative than harsh was listened to all the more attentively. For when my dear
friend Publius Clodius was making the heavens to resound with his virtuous and stringent
denunciations, when in the flame of his righteousness he was putting to use his forceful
vocabulary, his stentorian voice, I was moved to admire his power in speaking out so, but
I was not very much frightened, for I remembered that several times before be bad lost his
case. But let me answer Balbus first, though I do it with a prayer on my lips that it not
be considered treason or blasphemy man who never refuses a dinner-invitation, sometimes
goes to garden-parties, has been known to dab on a bit of perfume, and even puts in an
appearance now and then at Baiae.
12. To tell the truth, I have not merely take a sip of this of
men in this republic who did sort of life, dabble in it as we say with their fingertips,
but who actually plunged their whole youth long into pleasure. Yet they finally came out
with their beads above water as we say, regained their equilibrium and lived to work some
good in the world and turn into upstanding men. By general consent we concede a young man
a few wild oats. Nature herself showers adolescence with a veritable spate of desires. if
the dam bursts without endangering anyone's life or breaking up anyone s home, we put up
with it easily and cheerfully. But out of the bad things that are generally said about
young men, you seemed to me to be fashioning some particular weapon aimed at Caelius
alone. During all the time we were listening in respectful silence to your speech, though
the defendant bad been set up as a scapegoat, we were thinking in the silence of the sins
of many. It is easy to denounce profligacy. The sun would set on me if I tried to exhaust
what can be said on the topic. Seduction, adultery, impudence, extravagance-what fuel for
speech is there! As long as you propose to talk not about the defendant but about vice in
general, you have abundant means for playing the censor and the accuser. But, gentlemen of
the jury, do not in your wisdom allow your view to be drawn away from the defendant, and
when the prosecution has aroused you against the vices and degenerate morals of our day,
do not discharge the sting of your censure upon a single man, and that man my client, who
would thereby have to suffer the venom excited not by his own acts but by the fault of his
age. So I don’t dare to answer your strictures as I ought. I had intended to bring
out the license we extend to youth and ask for indulgence on those grounds. But now, as I
said, I don't dare. I have to throw away all those excuses that have to do with age;
everyone else may use them, but my client not. This only I ask. Regardless of what
indignation you may feel these days about the debts, bad manners, and dissipations of the
young people and I see you feel a great deal-still do not let the misdeeds of others, the
vices of his age and times, be a detriment to Caelius here. And I for my part, granted
this, will not refuse to reply as carefully as I can to the charges which properly apply.
13. There are two charges then, one about the gold and one about
the poison. And one and the same person is implicated in both. He got the gold from
Clodia, he wanted the poison to give to Clodia, they say. Nothing else is basis for legal
action; all else is simple slander, fitter for a quarrel than a public inquiry. "You
adulterer! You libertine! You bribery-agent!" This is the language of abuse, not of
legal prosecution. There is no foundation for such accusations. They are the rash insults
of an irritated accuser acting without authority. But of the two aforenamed items I see
the author, I see the fountainhead, the fixed responsibility, the prime mover. He needed
gold; he got it from Clodia, got it without a witness, kept it as long as he liked. A
signal proof this of a somewhat special intimacy! He wished to kill the said Clodia; he
secured poison, suborned her slaves, brewed his broth, laid the scene for the crime, and
brought the potion thither. Could it have been that when they fell out so cruelly there
was some consequent ill-feeling on her side?
Our whole concern in this case, jurors, is with Clodia, a woman
not only noble but even notorious. Of her I will say no more than is necessary to refute
the charges. And you too, Gnaeus Domitius, sensible man that you are, you understand that
our whole business here is with her and her only. If she does not admit that she obliged
Caelius with the loan of the gold, if she does not accuse him of preparing poison for her,
then my behavior is ungentlemanly in dragging in a matron's name otherwise than the
respect due to ladies requires. But if on the contrary aside from that woman their case
against Caelius is deprived of all strength and foundation, what else can I do as an
advocate but repel those who press the assault? Which I would do all the more vehemently
if I did not have cause for ill-feeling toward that woman's lover-I am sorry; I meant to
say "brother." I am always making that slip. But now I will handle her with
moderation, and proceed no further than my honor and the case itself demand. I have never
thought it right to take up arms against a lady, especially against one whose arms are so
open to all.
14. First I would like to ask her: "Shall I deal with you
severely and strictly and as they would have done in the good old days? Or would you
prefer something more indulgent, bland, sophisticated?" If in that austere mode and
manner, I shall have to call up someone from the dead, one of those old gentlemen bearded
not with the modern style of fringe that so titillates her, but with one of those bristly
bushes we see on antique statues and portrait-busts. And be will scold the woman and speak
for me and keep her from getting angry with me as she might otherwise do. So let us call
up some ancestor of hers, preferably old blind Appius Claudius himself. He will be the
least likely to be grieved, since he won't have to look at her. Doubtless if he rose among
us be would say something about like this: "Woman,
what business did you have with Caelius, a man scarce out of his teens, a man not your
husband? Why were you so friendly with him as to lend him gold? Or how did you grow so
unfriendly as to fear his poison? Did you never hear that your father, uncle, grandfather,
great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and great-great-great-grandfather were
consuls? Did you forget that only recently you were the wife of Quintus Metellus, a
gentleman of the highest type, a distinguished patriot who had only to show his face to
eclipse almost all other citizens in character, reputation, dignity? Born of a
high-ranking family, married into a prominent family, how did it happen that you admitted
Caelius to such familiarity? Was he a relative or friend of your husband? Not at all. What
was it then but hot and headstrong passion? If the portraits of us male ancestors meant
nothing to you, how could my granddaughter, Quinta Claudia, have failed to inspire you to
emulate her domestic virtue and womanly glory? Or that vestal virgin of our name who kept
her arms around her father throughout his triumph and foiled the tribune's attempt to drag
him from his chariot? Why choose to imitate your brother's vices in preference to the good
qualities of your father and grandfather and of men and women of our line on back to
myself? Did I break the agreement with King Pyrrhus that you might every day enter into
disgusting agreements with your paramours? Did
I bring in the Appian Aqueduct that you might put its waters to your dirty uses? Did I
build the
15. But perhaps it was a mistake for me to introduce such an
august personage, gentlemen. He might suddenly turn on Caelius and make him feel the
weight of his censorial powers. Though I will see to this later; I am convinced I can
justify Marcus Caelius' behavior to the most captious of critics. But as for you, woman-I
am not speaking to you now through the mouth of another-if you have in mind to make good
what you are doing, saying, pretending, plotting, and alleging, you had better do some
explaining as well, and account for this extraordinarily intimate association. The
prosecutors have been lavish with their tales of affairs, amours, adulteries, Baiae,
beach-picnics, banquets, drinking-bouts, songfests, musical ensembles, and yachting
parties. And they indicate that they are describing all this with your full permission. Since for some rash, mad purpose you have been
willing to have all these stories come out at a trial in the forum, you must either tone
down their effect by showing they are groundless, or else admit that no one need believe
your charges and your testimony.
But if you would rather I dealt with you more suavely, I will
take this tack: I will whisk that old fellow off the scene, unfeeling rustic that he is,
and will bring on someone of your own day, your younger brother, say, the most
sophisticated of all that crew. He loves you dearly. When be was a young sprout he used to
sleep with big sister because, I am told, he was subject to mysterious nervousness and
fanciful fears at night. Suppose we let him talk to you: "Why are you making such a
fuss, sister? Why are you behaving like an insane woman?
Why, with shout and speech inflate A little thing into a great?
You saw a young man living nearby. He bad a fresh complexion. He
was tall. He was handsome. His eyes were attractive. You were much taken with all this.
You wanted to see him more often. You met sometimes on the same suburban estates. A woman
of means, you thought to bind the young man with fetters of gold, still dependent on a
tightfisted father. But you can't. He kicks, be spits, he bucks. He doesn't set much value
on your presents. Well, go somewhere else. You have gardens on the
16. I come now to you, Caelius. It is your turn now, and I must
assume the authority and severity of a father. But I am in doubt as to what type of parent
I ought to be. Shall I enact that choleric, flinty specimen in Caecilius:
Now at length my soul is burning, Now my heart is heaped with
wrath.
Or that other one:
You wretch! You rascal!
Overbearing and past all bearing are fathers of that ilk:
What shall I wish? What shall I say?
You swine! your faults in every way
Cause all I wish to go astray!
Such a father would say:
"Why did you move to that whorish neighborhood? Why didn't
you escape when you saw the snares?"
Why did you flirt with another man's wife?
Scatter your pennies like peas?
Well, in your hour of trouble and strife
Don't come to me if you please.
I mean to hug for the rest of my life
Myself in my own bed of ease.
To such a disagreeable, blunt old curmudgeon Caelius might reply
that it was not monetary considerations that made him stray. "What proof of
that?" His lack of exorbitant expenses, lavish outlay, need to refinance debts.
"But what about the stories?" How many people can escape gossip, especially in a
town that dotes on it so? Do you wonder that the woman's neighbor was talked about when
her own brother couldn’t keep nasty people from spreading rumors? Suppose I play the
part of the kind and forgiving father, the one, you know, who says:
So my son has demolished the door?
We'll rebuild it once more.
Has he ripped all his wardrobe to tatters?
Well, not that that matters.
Then Caelius will have an easy time of it. For he will have no
trouble defending all his conduct. I am not saying anything against that woman now; but if
there were someone-not the same as her, you understand-some woman who made herself cheap
and easy to approach, who always bad some man or other banging about openly acknowledged
as her current interest, in whose gardens and home and place at Baiae anybody and
everybody could arrange assignations with her permission, who even boarded young men and
made up deficiencies in their allowances out of her own purse, if this person, being
widowed, lived loosely, being forward, lived wantonly, being rich, lived extravagantly,
being prurient, lived like a harlot, am I to think a man an adulterer if he does not
address her exactly like a lady?
17. Someone will say, "Are these the lessons you taught him?
Is this the way you educate young men? Was ft for this that the father entrusted his boy
to you? To waste his youth in love and sensual pleasure, and then bring you in to defend
his conduct and his inclinations?" In answer I might say this, gentlemen: if there
ever lived a man so upright and naturally virtuous and continent that he disdained all
temptations of the flesh, sacrificed body and intellect to attain his ambitions, shut his
ears to the call of rest and recreation and play and the distracting voices of his
fellows, and thought nothing in life worth aiming at but what is consonant with honor and
dignity, such a man to my way of thinking was singularly blessed by heaven. I imagine that
our Camilli, Fabricii, and Curii fell into that category, and all the heroes who did so
much with so little.
But we look in vain for such paragons as things are today, and
are hard put to find them even in books. The blueprints of that ancient austerity are
crumbling with age. And not only in our own country, where this stem regimen was honored
more in action than in words; the learned Greeks too, who used at least to be able to talk
and write nobly even if they failed to live up to their teachings, have changed their code
with the change in their fortunes. So some of them have taught that the wise make pleasure
then universal criterion, a disgusting line of reasoning that even men of culture have
dallied with. Others have opined that, the
life of honor ought to be combined with the life of pleasure, glibly yoking together a
pair that are sure to kick each other out of the traces. While those who say, "No,
the way to glory leads straight through the land of toil and self-sacrifice," hear
their words resound in almost empty lecture-halls. For nature herself woos us with honeyed
words, till virtue is lulled and can scarce hold up her eyelids, and then takes her by the
band and shows her those lubricious paths where she can hardly go or stay without
disastrous trip or slip, and lastly indicates that wondrously enticing and richly varied
world of pleasure and whispers, "Take it; it is yours." Is it any wonder that
youth falls, when even seasoned climbers have been known to take the plunge? So if someone
here and there is found to avert his eyes from the gorgeous surface of things, refuse to
fall prey to the lures of scent and touch and taste, deaden his ears to all that sweet
siren-song, I and a few others call him a darling of the gods, but the most of mankind
will say he is a man of singularly morose disposition.
18. In consequence the path of rectitude lies deserted now. No
one bothers to keep it open, and weed and thicket grow wild. Give youth some leeway then;
allow our young men to stray a little; do not rein in every pleasure; let the ideal and
forthright life suffer an occasional check; let reason give way now and then to appetite
and desire. Provided that in all this some bounds are not overstepped. Let youth retain
some measure of innocence; let it not corrupt another man's wife, throw away its
patrimony, or whelm itself in debt; let it spare the homes and families of others, nor
ruin the chaste nor wreck the righteous nor shame the good; let it abstain from violence,
dangerous intrigue, and crime. So that at last when it has paid its respects to the
demands of the flesh and allotted due time to boyish sport and the silly desires of the
young and fervent blood, it may call a halt at last and face the claims of family, career,
and country, and what reason in advance could not dissipate mere satiety may put away and
experience despise.
We know many outstanding citizens, and our fathers and
forefathers knew many more, gentlemen, whose youth blazed up in a holocaust of desire,
only to leave in maturity a substantial residue of excellent qualities. I would rather not
name names, but you can think of examples yourselves. I see no point in reviewing here the
record of any illustrious life merely to smirch it by mention of some minor peccadillo. I
could instance, if I liked, any number of famous men: this one as a youth chafed at the
bit, that one squandered his substance on riotous living, a third was laid low by debt and
extravagance, a fourth reveled in lust. But all these faults were palliated by the virtues
that developed later, and anyone who cared might excuse them with the simple words,
"Yes, but the man was young. "
19. But the fact is, Marcus Caelius' case is different. I can
speak a little more confidently now about his more creditable activities, since I rely on
your good common sense and boldly paint both sides of the picture. You will find no
riotous living, no extravagance or debt in him, no ungovernable urge to go to carouses and
dens of ill-repute. Not to mention the vice of gluttony, which in fact is not so
characteristic of youth as of age. And the so-called delights of love, which are not
generally bothersome to the more intelligent type of men when they mature-the desire
flowers and withers early-never had so much power as to hold him completely enthralled.
You heard him when he defended himself, you have beard him before in the role of
prosecutor. (I say this not to boast of my pupil, but because his defense demands it.) And
you have perception enough to understand what oratorical ability, what ease, what a wealth
of words and sentiments he commands. And you
saw that it was not merely a matter of natural talent, which often shines bright of itself
when the light has not been nurtured by training, but rather that he had in him, unless my
fondness deceivers me, a systematic knowledge that could only be the product of education
and practice, of toil and midnight oil.
Well, consider, gentlemen. Those vices that Caelius is charged
with and these accomplishments I am discussing can hardly coexist in the same man. It is
impossible for a mind enslaved to lust, love, longing, and desire, a mind distracted by
either too much or too little of that sort of thing, to meet the standards of oratory,
however low they may be set. A man of that kind could not deliver a good speech; he could
not even prepare one. Or do you perhaps suppose there is some other reason why there are
and always have been so few men who take the pains to speak well, although there are so
many rewards in fame, satisfaction, influence, and honor to be gained by it? To reach the
goal you have to keep recreation at a minimum, give up your hobbies, your sport, your
moments of levity, your social life, and practically cut out seeing your friends. It is
the labor involved that frightens men away, and not so much that their talents or early
training are deficient. If my client had lived the life of pleasure, would he, while still
a very young man, have haled an ex-consul into court? If he were a mere voluptuary afraid
of work, would he engage every day in legal battles, making enemies, starting suits,
exposing his own neck to the axe, and in general, for months on end, with the whole Roman
people as audience, fighting the fight whose end is either glory or extinction?
20. "But," you say, "I get a whiff of something
rotten when think about his moving to that neighborhood and when I remember the gossip
about him. And don't those trips to Baiae hint at something?" Not merely hint, they
shout to heaven that a certain woman is so far gone in vice that, far from hunting for
shadows and solitude to conceal her wantonness, she flaunts her outrageous conduct in
broad day in the most frequented places. Anyone who thought young men ought to be
forbidden to visit prostitutes would certainly be the virtuous of the virtuous, that I
cannot deny. But he would be out of step not only with this easy-going age but also our
ancestors, who customarily made youth that concession. Was there ever a time when this was
not habitual practice, when it was censured and not permitted, in short when what is
allowable was not allowed?
Here I will get to the root of the matter, without mentioning any
woman's name: so much I leave to be inferred. Imagine a woman with no husband who turns
her house into a house of assignation, openly behaves like a harlot, entertains at her
table men who are perfect strangers, and does all this in town, in her suburban places,
and in the crowded vacation land around Baiae; in fine, imagine that her walk, her way of
dressing, the company she keeps, her burning glances, her free speech, to say nothing of
her embraces and kisses or her capers at beach-parties and banquets and yachting-parties,
are all so suggestive that she seems not merely a whore but a particularly shameless and
forward specimen of the profession. Well, if a young man bad some desultory relations with
her, would you call him an adulterer, Lucius Herennius, or simply a lover? Would you say
he was laying siege to her innocence, or simply gratifying her lust?
Clodia, I am not thinking now of the wrongs you have done me. I
am putting to one side the memory of my humiliation. I pass over your cruel treatment of
my family while I was away. Consider that nothing I have said has been said against you.
But I would like to ask you a few questions since the prosecutors say they have their
evidence from you and are using you as their chief witness. If there were any such woman
as I have just described, a woman unlike you, who lived and acted like a common
prostitute, would you think it very disgraceful or dishonorable for a young man to have
something to do with her? If you are not such a woman-and I hope indeed you are not-then
what do you complain of in Caelius? Put if they mean to say you are, then why are we to
fear such an indictment, when you yourself snap your fingers at it? Answer, and establish
the defense. Either be modest and admit that
Marcus Caelius did nothing out of order, or flaunt your impudence and thereby give him and
all the others an excellent wherewithal to defend themselves.
21. I think my speech has now escaped the reefs and crags, and
the rest of the course is clear sailing. The two principal charges have to do with serious
crimes, both involving the same woman. Caelius is alleged to have got from Clodia a sum in
gold, and to have prepared poison for the purpose of killing the Clodia aforesaid. He got
the gold, they say, to give to Lucius Lucceius' slaves, to get them to murder Dion the
Alexandrian, who was staying with Lucceius at the time. A serious charge, whether we think
of it as plotting against a foreign ambassador or as suborning slaves to kill one of their
master's guests. A design truly criminal in its audacity.
But first I would like to know, did Caelius tell Clodia what he
wanted the money for, or not? If not, why did she give it? If he told her, then she was an
accessory before the fact. Tell me, Clodia,
did you dare to hand over the gold from your safe, to despoil that Venus of yours of her
ornaments, as she had despoiled so many others, knowing all the while what a crime he
wanted it for, knowing that it would be used to murder a legate and stain forever the name
of that god-fearing, upright man, Lucius Lucceius? Your spirit ought not to have been
privy to such a design, your popular home should not have been accessory to it, not your
hospitable Venus made a confederate. Balbus foresaw this danger. He declared that Clodia
knew nothing, that Caelius had got her to listen by saying that he wanted the gold for
some shows he intended to give. If Caelius was as intimate with Clodia as you wotild
picture him when you rave about his viciousness, then surely he must have told her what he
wanted with it. But if he was not that intimate, I say she gave him nothing. And so, my
dear lady, though I know you hate restraint, I must present you with a rather narrow
choice. Either Caelius told you all, in which case you knowingly gave the gold for a
criminal purpose, or he did not dare tell, in which case you did not give it at all.
22. Now need I bring forward any of the manifold reasons for
disbelieving the charge? Need I point out that
Marcus Caelius' character is utterly inconsistent with such a heinous crime? Is it
conceivable that a man of his intelligence would not have realized he ought not to trust
another man’s unknown slaves in an enterprise of such danger? And as I and all other
lawyers do at times, I can ask the prosecution to furnish additional information. Where did Caelius meet with Lucceius' slaves? How
did he have access to them? If he approached them on his own, be was incredibly rash. But
if he used an intermediary, who was it? I can discuss the thing step by step, I can flush
every suspicion from cover, but not a motive will I find, nor flaw in the alibi, nor
opportunity, nor accomplice nor hope of carrying the deed through and keeping it bidden,
nor rational basis for action, nor clue such as a crime of that magnitude would leave. But
these are the stock in trade of the advocate. And though they might have some result, I
could set them before you thanks not to any ingenuity of mine but rather to my long
practice and experience. Yet since they would seem mere elaborations of my own, I will
leave them aside for brevity’s sake.
Instead, gentlemen, I give you Lucius Lucceius himself, the best
of witnesses in this regard. He is a man of highest integrity, and you will allow he is
bound to be scrupulously loyal to his oatb. If be bad beard that Caelius had tendered such
an affront to his fame and fortunes, he would never have overlooked it or borne it in
silence. A man of such culture, interested in philosophy and its techniques and tenets,
how could be have been indifferent to the danger of one whom be esteemed for attainment in
that very field? How could he have failed to
guard against a crime aimed at a friend in his own house, when he would be deeply shocked
to hear of such a plot against another's guest? He would be indignant if told that such a
thing had been done by persons unknown. Would he be indulgent on learning it bad been
attempted by his own slaves? He would censure the deed if done in a field or a public
square. Would he shrug it off when tried in the city under his own roof? He would not
ignore such a danger if offered to some country fellow or other. But with all his
education would he think a plot against a great scholar's life ought to be cloaked in
silence? But why keep you longer, gentlemen? Hear his own words given under oath. Attend
carefully to the details of his testimony, and remember that you are listening to a man of
scrupulous integrity.
Let the deposition of Lucius Lucceius be read. [Deposition is
read by clerk.] What more would you have? Are you waiting for Truth herself to stand
up and tell you the facts? This is the defense that innocence offers; these are the facts
themselves speaking; this is the very voice of Truth. The charge is bolstered by no
suspicious circumstance. No evidence has been presented. They say that a certain act was
committed, but give not a scrap of proof as to expressed intention or place or time. They
name no witness, no accomplice. Their whole case was concocted in a house that specializes
in hatred, defamation, cruelty, lust, and crime whereas the home where they say the vile
deed was attempted is a place of honor, dignity, respect for duty and morality. You heard
the words of the master of that household delivered under oath. Now you must squarely face
the choice of which to believe. Did a headstrong, dissolute, angry woman manufacture this
accusation? Or did a serious, wise, and temperate man give false testimony against all his
scruples?
23. We have the business of the poison left to dispose of. And of
that I cannot, in a very real sense, make head or tail. What motive bad Caelius for
poisoning the woman? To get out of paying back the gold? But she had not dunned him for
it, bad she? To get rid of an accomplice? No one had charged him with anything, bad they?
And most important, would this trial ever have taken place if Caelius himself had not
brought on someone else's trial? Why it was even admitted that Lucius Herennius would
never have had one word to say against Caelius if Caelius had not prosecuted his friend
twice on the same account.
Are we to believe then that the attempt was unmotivated? Don't
you see, gentlemen, they have invented that whole story about Dion just to provide Caelius
with a motive for poisoning Clodia? Well, who was trusted with the task? Who was his
helper, confederate, accomplice? Who was to do the deed? Whose bands did be put his life
into? The woman's slaves? so they say. You credit him with a little intelligence,
gentlemen, even if you were to agree with the prosecution in not allowing him anything
else. Well, was this intelligent man so insane as to trust all his fortunes to somebody
else's slaves? And what sort of slaves? Certainly not the ordinary sort, but ones that be
knew lived on pretty free and easy terms with their mistress. Who can fail to see,
gentlemen, that slaves are not really slaves in a house where a Roman lady lives like a
prostitute, where nothing is done that she can afford to have aired in public, and where
the order of the day is not just your run-of-the mill type of orgy and debauchery, but
enormities and vices undreamt of? In such a household the slaves would have to be trusted
to carry out the orders, take part in the brawls, and keep things under cover. And no
doubt they would get their share of their mistress's overflowing bounty. Do you suppose
Caelius had not understood that? If he was as intimate with the woman as you would have
him, he must have known that the slaves were equally intimate. But if he did not frequent
the house as much as you insinuate, how could he have become so friendly with the help?
24. Again, what is the story about the poison itself? Where did
it come from? How was it procured? Who was the go-between? How? Where? They allege that
Caelius bad it in his house and tested its efficiency on a slave that he had brought in
for the purpose. And that when the slave speedily turned up his heels, my client gave the
potion his stamp of approval.-O gods above, why do you wink at the most monstrous crimes
now and then, and take your time about punishing the sinner?
I was present, and saw with my own eyes, and drained the
bitterest cup of my life, when Quintus Metellus was snatched away from the bosom of his
fatherland. A fine man, never doubting that he had been born to serve his country well. I
remember him a short time before he died. He was active in his public duties, came to the
senate house, spoke from the rostra. He was in the prime of life, bad a rugged
constitution, looked to be in the best of health. But three days later he was gone, an
irreparable loss to the conservative party and the nation as a whole. I remember how be
died. His mental faculties had begun to desert him, but his country was in his thoughts to
the last. As I was weeping beside him, be looked at me, and, his words faltering, his
voice failing, be warned me what a storm was threatening me, what a tempest was
overhanging the state. And time and again he struck the wall that partitioned his room
from the house next door where Quintus Catulus had lived, and called out, "Catulus!
Catulus!" And then be would call my name. But
more than anything he spoke of the republic. His chief mortification was not so much that
he was dying, as that be would no longer be here to protect his country or me. This was
the kind of man he was. When he was consul and his brother-in-law, being then in the first
stages of his insanity, was bellowing out something or other, Metellus declared in the
hearing of the senate that be would kill Clodius with his own band. What wouldn't he have
done when the lunacy was full-blown, if he had not suddenly, violently, and nefariously
been whisked off the scene? And is it from his home that this woman dares to saunter forth
and spread tales about swift working poisons? One would suppose that she would be afraid
the very house might speak, that she would shudder to behold those guilty walls or recall
that night of gloom and travail. But let me get back to the charge. For even to mention that good man's name weighs my
heart with grief and renders me scarce able to speak for tears.
25. Still there is nothing said about where the poison came from
or bow it was procured. They say it was given to Publius Licinius, a modest young man of
good character, one of Caelius' friends. The slaves, they say, had instructions to go to
the Senian baths. Licinius was to meet them there and band over the poison in a little
wooden box. I would like to know first why they agreed to meet at that particular place?
Why didn't the slaves come to Caelius' house? If he was still on such excellent terms with
Clodia, what would have been suspicious about one of her slaves being seen at his place? But on the other band if they had had a quarrel and
broken off, and no longer had anything to do with each other, in that case doubtless one
might say: "Hence those tears!" Here one would have the explanation for all
those crimes be is accused of.
"No, no! That isn't it at all," says my opponent. 'When
the slaves had revealed to their mistress the full extent of Caelius' wickedness, the
clever lady told them to promise him anything, but, so as to catch Licinius in the very
act of handing over the poison, she directed them to make a rendezvous at the Senian
baths. And she was going to post friends there to lurk around in the shadows till Licinius
had appeared and was handing the poison over, and then they were to jump out and lay hold
of their man."
26. Well, gentlemen, the whole story takes very little refuting.
Why did she settle on a public bathhouse? That hardly appears to me to afford a
hiding-place for men in their togas. If they had stayed in the vestibule of the building,
they would have been in plain sight. But if they wanted to go farther inside, they could
not very comfortably have done so with their boots and clothes on, and would probably not
have been admitted. (Though they might have been, of course, assuming that that lady of
influence, a member of the bathkeeper's guild herself, in a manner of speaking, might have
got them in by making a bargain with the bathman to exchange services in kind.) Really I
was breathlessly waiting to learn who those worthy men were who could testify to catching
the malefactors in the act. And waiting I am still, for not a name has been named. But I
don't doubt they are frightfully respectable, seeing that they are bosom friends of this
lady, and went forth on this mission for her, and squeezed all together into some cranny
at the baths, which for all her power she would never have gotten any but the most
reputable and dignified of men to do. But why do I bother about their dignity? just
consider their diligence and valor. "They were shrouded in darkness at the
bathhouse." Fine eyewitnesses! "Then they jumped out without a thought-."
Wonderful examples of selfrestraint! For that is the story you tell. Licinius arrives. He
has the drug container in his hand. He is about to band it over. He has not yet handed it
over, when all of a sudden out fly those witnesses of yours, who have such good
reputations but no names. Too late, bowever! Licinius, who already had his hand stretched
out to give up the poison-box, draws it back, and the sudden assault makes him take to his
heels. Great, oh great is the power of truth, that can easily defend itself against the
sly, ingenious, cleverly-contrived plots of men!
27. For instance, how miserably the plot fails to work out in the
whole imaginary drama we have been viewing! How impossible for the lady-dramatist to
provide a denouement, though an old hand at the trade with quite an extensive list of
productions. I refer of course to the alleged fact that Licinius slipped right through the
bands of so many men. For there would have bad
to be a good many to make sure of holding the culprit and to corroborate one another's
testimony. Why did they let him escape? Was it any less feasible to catch him when he drew
back and failed to band over the container than if be bad banded it over? They were
stationed there to catch Licinius redhanded, and this could have been done regardless of
whether be kept back the piece of evidence or had already surrendered it. This was the
woman's whole plan of campaign, and this was what the men obliging her were assigned to
do. And I fail to see why you say they jumped out thoughtlessly and prematurely. That was
what they bad been asked to do and put there to do; they were supposed to flush into the
open the poison and the plot and the whole nasty business. What better time to pounce than
when Licinius bad arrived and was holding the box of poison in his hand? If the lady's
friends had waited to make their sudden sally from the baths and seize their prey after
the slaves had already received the poison, Licinius would protest his innocence and deny
ever having laid a finger on the box. And bow would they prove be was lying? By saying
they saw him? In the first place they would invite prosecution on a very serious charge,
and secondly they would claim to have seen something impossible to see from where they
were posted. Consequently they came out on cue when Licinius had appeared and was taking
out the box, stretching forth his hand, and delivering up the poison. Well, this is a
closing scene worthy of broad farce, not serious drama. When the author is at a loss how
to work out his plot, he throws in a chase and gives somebody the slip. Then clogdance by
the whole company, and curtain!
28. Licinius stumbles, turns this way and that, backs away, tries
to flee. And yet that womanish handful of men come away empty-handed. Why? I would like to
know. Why didn't they take him? Why didn't they nail down the charge by catching him with
the goods before a crowd of witnesses and making him confess? Were they afraid so many
strong, nimble fellows could not overpower one poor, weak, frightened youth? There is no
proof in fact, no basis for suspicion as to motive, and the accusation leads nowhere. Consequently their whole case rests on the
reliability of their witnesses, since there is no question here of proof, inference, or
evidence, all of which are the usual prerequisites for finding out the truth.
I am waiting for these witnesses, gentlemen. Far from being
nervous about them, I rather hope to be entertained. I am simply agog to see them. First
the young friends, fresh from the bath, of a lady rich and highly-born. And then the brave
men the she-general stationed in ambuscade as guardians of the bath. I am anxious to know
how they hid and where. Did they all crawl under a bathtub? Or was there a Trojan horse
there to take in and conceal the host of invincible heroes waging their woman’s war?
I will make them answer me: Why did so many men, and such men too, fail to capture this
lone weak boy you see here while he was still standing there? Or why didn't they overtake
him when he ran? They will never worm their way out if I once get them into the
witness-box. Granted they may be glib and witty at the dinner table and even eloquent now
and then over wine. But the forum and a dining room are two very different places. The
same appeal can't be made to a court bench as to a banquet-couch. Jurors and tipplers see
things through different eyes. And the sun sheds quite another sort of light than a
ceiling-lamp. So I am prepared to parry all their foolish fun, if they appear. But I would
like to say to them: "Listen to me. Do a
favor if you like. Curry favor where you like. Show off otherwise as you please. Be as
lovesome to that woman as your strength allows, outrival the others in spending, get as
close to her as possible, stretch out prostrate, let her use you as she will. But do not, I beg of you, try to ruin an innocent
man."
29. Moreover, acting on the advice of her prominent and
aristocratic relatives, she freed those slaves we were talking about. At last we find her
doing something out of regard for distinguished family. I would be curious to know what
the act of freeing them means. Was it done to trump up a charge against Caelius? Or to
keep them from being put to the question? Or was it necessary to reward the slaves, who
had been privy to her multitudinous activities? "No, I did it because my relatives
advised me to," she says. "Why
wouldn't they advise you, since you told them you had discovered the affair yourself and
no one else knew of it? I wonder if that dirty story going the rounds was a consequence of
that imaginary box? Anything can happen to a woman like that. Everyone knows of it and talks of it. (You see,
gentlemen, I have been talking for some time as I please, or rather as I don’t
please.) Well, if the tale is based on fact, certainly Caelius had nothing to do with the
fact. Why should he have bothered? 'Probably some young sport who has more wit than
modesty is to blame. But if fiction, it is indelicate, I grant, but a pretty telling
anecdote. Would we all be whispering and believing it so delightedly if anything so filthy
didn't, if I may say so, hit the fourpenny nail on the head?
My plea is spoken and done, gentlemen of the jury. Now you
understand what matters of weighty import depend on your decision. You have been impaneled
to judge a case of aggravated assault. The law involved is the one Quintus Catulus passed
when the stage was almost on its last legs during armed civil conflict. It is a law vital
to the sovereignty, majesty, and well-being of our country, a law that safeguards the
lives and persons of all, a law under which the last smoking embers of conspiracy were
extinguished after the main conflagration had been stamped out in my consulship. And this
is the law now being invoked to put Caelius' young head on the block, to satisfy, not the
exigencies of the nation, but the lust and caprice of one woman.
30. And yet at this point they even cite as precedents the
condemnation of Marcus Camurtius and Gaius Caesernius. Foolishness! Or should I say
astounding impudence? Do you dare, coming from
that woman, to mention those names? Do you dare remind us of that nasty business, which
time has glossed over but not blotted out quite? What was the crime they were convicted
of? Nothing else but that they took vengeance for Vettius' outrageous conduct to placate
this same woman's injured resentment. Did you drag Camurtius and Caesernius into the case
just to bring in the Vettian affair and repeat the veteran story of the copper-piece? Of
course they were not really liable to the law of aggravated assault, but they were so
deeply implicated in the piece of mischief they did not deserve to escape the noose of
justice.
But why is Marcus Caelius being baled into this court? Nothing he
is charged with falls within the province of this judicial body, or even, the law aside,
under the bane of your censure. His early youth was entirely devoted to training those
skills that I myself use in forum and administration as a means to honor, prestige, and
glory. His circle of friends includes such older men as he particularly wished to imitate
in industry and self-control, and such of the finest and noblest of his contemporaries as
were aiming like him at careers in the government. When be had grown a little older and
steadier he went to
31. 1 wish his appetite for fame had led him in some other
direction, but then the occasion of our difference is gone and forgotten. He accused Gaius
Antonius, my colleague in the consulship. Antonius unfortunately could not make the memory
of his signal services to his country outweigh the impression produced by his alleged
misdeeds. No one else of his age ever after
that outshone Caelius in the forum, or outdid him in helping friends in business or in the
courts, and no one in those circles was more widely popular. Then, at the turning-point of
his career-you are all sensible, cultivated men of the world, and I have nothing to
hide--as our young man's car was rounding the bend of the racecourse, his reputation
suffered a slight check. He was introduced to a new lady-friend, a new and unlucky
neighborhood, a hitherto unsampled life of pleasure. Now desire, when it has been
repressed too long, dammed up and hemmed in throughout early youth, sometimes suddenly
breaks the barrier and pours out in a flood. From this sort of life-or rather from this
alleged sort of life, since it was never so bad as people made out, but be that as it
may-he emerged, completely and totally rescued himself. And he is so far from being on
friendly terms with her today that it is her enmity and hatred he is busy repelling.
Then to put a stop to all the gossip about his being caught in
the toils of sloth and dalliance, he prosecuted a friend of mine for illegal
electioneering-much against my will, but still he did it, though I exerted all my
influence. And when the man was acquitted, he called for a retrial. He pays no attention
to any of us and is more vehement than I would like. But I am not talking about wisdom
now, something not to be expected in one of his age; I am talking about the keenness of
his mind, his desire to win or die, his consuming passion for glory. Such appetites in men
of our age ought to be pruned down. But when they appear in youth, like green shoots they
show what a harvest of virtue and industry there will be when the crop is ripe. Young men
of parts always have to be reined in rather than spurred on to fame. More has to be
clipped than sown at that age, if there is to be any blossoming at all of talent. So if he
boils over now and then, if he seems excessively violent and fierce and stubborn in making
enemies or carrying on feuds, if anyone is offended by trifles in him, his rich purple
robe, his gangs of friends, his splendid, elegant appearance, reflect that those things
will soon pass into thin air, that age and time and circumstance soon will have mellowed
them all.
32. Do not then, gentlemen, rob the state of an accomplished
citizen whose heart is, politically speaking, in the right place. I promise you and go
surety to the republic that, if ever I myself have given her satisfactory service, this
young man will follow the path where I have led the way. This I say not only on the basis
of the friendship between us, but because be has already obligated himself in the
strictest possible way by his own conduct. No one who has prosecuted an ex-consul for
malfeasance in office can afford to cause trouble to the state. No man who has not even
acquiesced in the acquittal of one be accused of illegal electioneering can ever
afterwards get away with buying votes Marcus Caelius has given the state two prosecutions,
gentlemen, which may serve either as guarantees of his good behavior or as hostages
against his causing any danger.
A few days ago Sextus Clodius was acquitted. For the past two
years be has been either helper or bead man at every riot. A wretch equally innocent of
property, propriety, probity, prospects, or prosperity, foul-faced, foul-tongued,
foul-banded, foul everything, with his own bands he set fire to one of our holy temples
and consumed the census lists and official records of the Roman people. He defaced
Catulus' monument, razed my residence, burned my brotber's, and on the Palatine Hill while
the whole city looked on aghast called on the slaves to rise and burn
And when you consider Caelius' youth, consider too this poor old
man, who is wrapped up in his only son, who rests all his hopes on him and trembles for
his fate. He appeals to your pity, puts himself entirely in your hands. And if he is not
prostrate at your feet it is because be relies on your moral sensibilities. Remember your
own parents, your delight in your own children, and lift him up. Here you may make
another's grief the occasion of indulging your own family feeling and native goodness of
heart. Gentlemen, the elder Caelius is failing fast. Do not deal him such a blow as to
make him long for extinction before the time that nature has ordained. And Caelius the
younger, now in the green of youth, are you to lay him low as by a sudden storm? Do not
rob father of son and son of father. Do not despise an old man now all but in despair. And
this young man, so full of hope, who waits for your nurturing hand, will you smite and
uproot instead? Give him back to us, to his
loved ones, to his country, and you will bind him to serve you and your children all his
natural life, and you yourselves will enjoy the rich and abundant fruit of all his labor
and effort.