Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Caelius Rufus
Caelius was originally aligned with Cicero as Cicero's apprentice. Caelius was 24 years younger than Cicero. As apprentice, his dad would've gone to cicero and asked him (for free hehehe) to take caelius as an apprentice, bc caelius is interested in oratory and stuff. Then caelius would've followed cicero around. and learnt from him. (omgggggg why can't this happen to me why can't I follow an electrical engineer around everywhere and ask them stupid questions sob sob)
Courts were held in the forum publically. Anyone could come and watch, although they weren't held on the rostra. Kind of public entertainment. Also a way to make a name for yourself.
Caelius began an affair with Clodia Metelli, which ended badly.
After that, Caelius ..?
Caelius was killed by Caesar's soldiers
Caelius was considered a great orator and a brilliant if corrupted character
Velleius Paterculus - "ingeniose nequam" brilliantly inept
Clodia
Clodia Metelli - she wasn't actually called Clodia Metelli or something, Clodia was her name (along with her 2 sisters), and Metelli is a genitive that later scholars added to distinguish her from her sisters.
Clodia was her nomen, not praenomen. Praenomen for women probably existed, but rarely were recorded on tombstones.
Context of Case
quaestio perpetua - ongoing court??
big things to remember
- held in the open
- jury of 50-75 men, to make it really hard to bribe. 1/3 each of senators, equestrians and tribuni aerarii (treasury clarks)
- instead of modern jury of randoms, this was upper-middle class only and male only
- praetor - presiding judge, was appointed as a job. only served to coordinate proceedings, did not rule on law.
- in a modern case, judge would do legal stuff like instruct the jury
- how to interpret the law
- e.g. 3 things: 1) A died, 2)
- how to interpret the law
- praetor: if u find them guilty then go for it. There was no logical instruction or something.
- in a modern case, judge would do legal stuff like instruct the jury
- prosecution would speak first, then defense, then evidence and witnesses, debate over evidence, then jury deliberation and judgement
- no public prosecutor or police
- private individuals responsible for bringing their own cases
- in Australia, after a case is reported, it's the public prosecutor's decision whether to go investigate it
- you had to gather the evidence etc
- like now, you had to have money to access the law
- pro caelio is a trial of two elite
- caelius spoke in his own defense as well
- roman penalties were exile, death, and fines
the case
- motivation of case
- caelius prosecuted Bestia for accused bribery
- cicero successfully defended Bestia
- Caelius began a second prosecution against Bestia, for the same thing
- in response, Bestia's 17yo son Atratinus brought charges of murder and attempted murder (this is the pro caelio case)
- trials of violence were granted precedence in the court calendar
- if Caelius was found guilty, then he would be executed or exiled, and then because there was no public prosecution and Caelius had to prosecute Bestia himself, then if he was executed/exiled then the case against Bestia would fall
- since wealthy romans relied on social and political stuff to gain power, exile was really bad for them
- ALSO, this is in 56 BC. cicero spent 57 BC (the year before) in exile, because Clodius had passed a law saying anyone that executed a Roman citizen would be exiled. And cicero probably executed someone when he was consul or whatever. And Clodius did this because he and Cicero hated each other. So Cicero was probably partially doing this case to get back at Clodius, by ruining the reputation of his sister.
- Alexandrian affair = Ptolemy (pronounced Tolemy) issue (charges 3-5)
- Ptolemy XII had secured Roman recognition of his throne in Egypt through massive bribery.
- Ptolemy raised taxes in Alexandria to pay for bribery, which caused civil unrest and forced Ptolemy to flee to Italy, where he petitioned the Roman Senate to restore his rule - in particular to Pompey.
- An embassy of Alexandrians led by Dio came to Rome to plead the case against Ptolemy.
- This embassy was assaulted at Naples and Puteoli, allegedly by Pompey's agents, including Caelius.
- Dio was ultimately assassinated while in Rome - possibly with Caelius' help.
- pro caelio case
- 5 charges were brought against Caelius
- violent seizure of goods of Pallia (??)
- attempted poisoning of Clodia
- Inciting riots at Naples
- attacking the alexandrians at Puteoli
- Murder of the Alexandrian ambassator Dio
- Involvement of Clodia
- Allegation is that
- According to the prosecution, Caelius had borrowed gold from Clodia, which he used to try to bribe the slaves at the house where Dio was staying (and thus murder him)
- When Clodia found out the true reason, Caelius allegedly tried to poison her to cover up his involvement.
- so the allegations are theft and
- Allegation is that
- three speakers spoke in defense of Caelius
- Caelius himself
- Three speakers spoke in defence of Caelius:
- Caelius himself
- M. Licinius Crassus (dealt with charges 1, 3 and 4)
- Cicero (dealt with charges 2 and 5 - poisoning and murder)
- 5 charges were brought against Caelius
Cicero's defence strategy
- From the way that Cicero defends it, we can tell that Caelius was basically 100% guilty.
he "defends" caelius by
- Giving "good vibes" about Caelius and "bad vibes" about Clodia to the jurors. Because Roman courts didn't have the logic guide, they used the vibes to find Caelius innocent.
- I am fallacious to this too, before Brophy pointed it out, I thought Caelius wasn't guilty as well.
- Ridiculing Clodia
- using tropes from Roman comedy
- presenting Caelius as a "responsible young man"
- - Present the charges as absurd and out-of-character for Caelius.
- Present Caelius as a capable youth being targeted by an angry, vindictive, lustful ex-mistress.
- Discredit Clodia's character, partially by using tropes from Roman comedy.
sections 1-29
Clodia is called "Medea Palatina", a reference to the Medea myth, which portrays her