Cicero: Selected Political Speeches by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

Surely that is all you can have been waiting for – short of expecting that the case and Truth themselves will somehow take shape and speak and plead in their own persons! And indeed here, in this evidence of Lucceius, in this supreme justification of an innocent man, is precisely the plea which the case itself, were it able to talk, would have uttered from its own mouth – the voice of incarnate Truth.

The indictment is supported by not the slightest ground for suspicion. Proofs of the alleged facts just do not exist. The dealings which are supposed to have taken place have left not a trace of what was said or where or when. No witness has been named; and nor has any accomplice.

The whole accusation emanates from a house that is malevolent, disreputable, merciless, crime-stained and vicious. Whereas the family alleged to have been involved in this shocking deed is notable for its lofty standards, honourable principles, dutifulness and sense of responsibility; and that is the home from which you just heard a sworn affidavit. The question under dispute, therefore, is easy to settle. You are invited to say whether you do not agree that the parties who confront one another are, on the one side, an unstable, eviltempered nymphomaniac, who has completely fabricated the charge, and, on the other, a man of responsibility, wisdom and self-restraint whose evidence has shown the utmost conscientiousness and accuracy.

There remains the accusation of poisoning. I am unable to discover how this originated; nor can I work out what it was supposed to lead to. For what motive could Caelius possibly have possessed for wanting to poison this woman? So that he should not have to give back the gold? But did she ever ask for it back? To avert the charge of Dio's assassination?36 But did anyone really believe he was guilty of this? Indeed, if Caelius had not himself launched a prosecution, would anyone ever have connected his name with it at all? You actually heard Lucius Herennius say that, if Caelius had not brought a second action against his friend Bestia after the latter had been acquitted in the earlier case, he for his part would never have uttered a word against Caelius. But, to go back to the attempt on Clodia's life, no one could be expected to believe that such a ghastly act should have been undertaken without any motive at all! And that, you must inevitably conclude, is why the accusation involving the terrible crime of Dio's murder was fabricated: in order to invent such a motive for doing away with Clodia, since she allegedly knew he was guilty of the murder.37

And finally, whom is Caelius supposed to have employed to carry out the poisoning? Who acted as his assistant and partner and accomplice? Into whose hands did he hazard this shocking deed – and, in the process, his own self and his very life? To this woman's slaves? That is what has been claimed. But

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