• Spring 2020 – Pro Caelio of Cicero

[1] If anyone, oh judges, be now by chance ignorant of our laws, judgements, or customs, he certainly would be amazed how great an atrocity of a case this is, that on festival days and public games, with all forensic business having been set aside, this one judgement be executed; nor would he doubt whereby a man accused of so great a crime not be argued, that with it having been neglected the state might not stand – the same man, when he hear that the law is that which concerns seditious and very wicked citizens, who being armed besiege the Senate, bring violence to the magistrates, or attack the Republic, he would order that it be sought out every day; he would not disapprove the law, and he would require the charge be turned about in court. But when he hear that no crime, no audacity, no violence is called into court, but that a young man with illustrious ingenuity, industry, and grace is accused by that man’s son, whom he himself both calls and has called into court, and more so that he is attacked by whorish resources, he would not condemn the piety of that man Atratinus, he would think that whorish lust must be condemned, and he would consider you hard working, for whom it is not even permitted to be at rest in a time of common leisure.

[2] And indeed if you want to pay attention diligently, and to consider truly concerning all this case, thus you shall find, oh judges, that neither would anyone have descended to this accusation for whom, whether he wanted to or not, it was permitted, nor, when he had so descended, would he have anything of hope, unless he were supported by the intolerable lust and exceedingly acerbic hatred of some woman. But I forgive Atratinus, a most humane and very good young man, my friend, who has the excuse of either piety or necessity or age. If he wanted to accuse him, I attribute it to piety; if he was commanded, to necessity; if he hoped something, to boyhood. Not only must nothing be forgiven by others, but it must be bitterly resisted.

[3] And indeed it seems to me, oh judges, that this introduction of the defense of the adolescence of Marcus Caelius mostly comes together, so that I may first respond to those things that accusers have said for the sake of his being deformed, and for the sake of dragging down and despoiling his dignity. His father has been variously brought forth, because either he himself was said to be equally splendid or treated equally piously by his son. Concerning his dignity, Marcus Caelius himself easily responds to those well-known and elder by birth both without my speaking and him being silent; but to those who on account of their age he is not equally known, because he now each day turns about in the forum less with us, let them hold thus, that whatever sort of dignity there can be in a Roman knight, which certainly can be very great, that it has always been held in Marcus Caelius to be the highest and today is held not only by his (friends), but also by all to whom he might be known for any reason. 

[4] But to be the son of a Roman knight ought not to be put in the place of a charge by his accusers not by those judging, nor by us defending. For what you all have said about his piety, indeed it is our opinion, but certainly is the judgement of his parent; what we may consider, you shall hear from those sworn; what his parents may feel, the tears of his mother and her incredible sadness, the squalor of his father and this present gloom and sorrow, which you discern, so declares. 

[5] For what has been brought forth, to be a young man, has not been proven by his fellow city-dwellers. For to no one ever present has there been given greater honors than to Marcus Caelius being absent; whom both being absent they have elevated to the highest order and gave them to him not seeking them, which they denied to many men so seeking; and the same men now have sent most excellent men both of our order and Roman knights with a delegation to this court, and with the most serious and ornate praise. I seem to myself to have laid the foundations of my defense, which are very firm, if they are supported by the judgement of his (friends). For his age could not be commended enough to you, if not only were he displeasing to such a manly parent, but also to so illustrious and so serious a town. 

[6] Likewise, so that I might return to myself, I have flowed forth from these sources to the fame of me, and this forensic labor of mine and the reason of my life has descended to the consideration of men a little more broadly with the commendation and judgement of my (friends). For what has been brought forth is about pudicitia, and what is celebrated not by the charges of all his accusers, but by voices and maledictions, that thing Marcus Caelius shall never bear so acerbically, that it would hurt him to not have been born deformed. For there are these very common maledictions against everyone, in whose adolescence their form and type was liberal. But it is one thing to speak badly, another to accuse. Accusation desires a charge, to define the matter, to note the man, to prove with argument, to confirm with a witness; but malediction has nothing to put forth except contumely, which if it is thrown forward rather petulantly is called scorn, and if rather facetiously, is called urbane wit. 

[7] Indeed I am amazed at that part of the accusation, and I have borne it as badly as possible that it was given to Atratinus. For he neither deserved it nor does that age propose it, nor was his pudor suffering that which you would turn your mind to, that it be given to a very good young man in such a speech. I would want that someone from you more robust men had taken up this place of malediction; we might refute this license of malediction somewhat more freely and strongly and more according to our custom. With you, Atratinus, I will deal more leniently, because both your pudor is moderated by my speech, and I ought to overwatch both my beneficence and your parent for your sake. 

[8] Nevertheless I want that you be warned about this, so that firstly everyone might consider you to be the sort of person that you are, so that, as much as you are away from the turpitude of things, you separate yourself that much from freedom of words; and then also lest you say those things against another that when they be said about you falsely, you would blush. For who is there, to whom this life is not open, who couldn’t speak badly about this period of life and this dignity as petulantly as he might want, even as if without any suspicion, and not with argument? But the guilt of these parts is theirs, who wanted you to do it; there is praise for your pudor, because we saw that you said them unwillingly, and of your ingenuity, because you have spoken ornately and politely. 

[9] But to this whole oration the defense is brief. For as long as the age of Marcus Caelius could give a place to this suspicion, first it was armed by the same man’s pudor, and then also by the diligence and discipline of his father. He who, when he gave him his manly toga, I will say nothing in this place about myself; you all consider as much as it may be; I will say this, that he was continuously led down to me by his father; no one saw this Marcus Caelius in that flower of his youth unless he was either with his father or with me or in the most chaste house of Marcus Crassus, when he was being educated in the most honorable arts. 

[10] For because familiarit with Catiline has been brought forth about Caelius, he should long abhor from this suspicion. For you know that Catiline sought the consulship with me while he was an adolescent. If he ever approached him or ever left from me (although many good young men followed that ever wicked man), then let Caelius be considered to have been too familiar with Catiline. But for afterwards we know and have seen that he was amongst his friends. Who denies it? But I in this place defend that time of life, which being infirm is infested on its own accord with the desire of others. He was assiduously with me while I was praetor; he never knew Catiline; then that man (Catiline) as praetor obtained Africa. Then a year followed, when Catiline said a case concerning regaining bribery money. This man was with me; not even did he ever come to him as a lawyer. Then there was the second year, in which I sought the consulship; Catiline sought it with me. He never approached him, and he never departed from me. 

[11] (Skipped) 

[12] But Caelius followed Catiline, when he already was then a few years in the forum; and likewise many men from every order and every age group did so. For he had, just as I think you might remember, very many unexpressed signs of very great virtues, but hidden features. He used many wicked men; and indeed he pretended that he was given to the very best men. There were at his house many illicit activities of lust; there were also certain pricks of industry and labor. The vices of lust were burning at his house; but also the pursuits of military matters were vigorous. And I think there has never been such a monster in the whole world, so conflated from contrary and diverse pursuits and desires, and fighting their own nature amongst themselves.