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1 Cicero’s Pro Caelio
http://www.hoocher.com/procaeliotranslation.htm
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.
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