Aulus Cluentius Habitus, a wealthy citizen of
Larinum
Larino ( nap, label= Campobassan dialect, Larìne; la, Larinum) is a town and ''comune'' of approximately 8,100 inhabitants in Molise, province of Campobasso, southern Italy. It is located in the fertile valley of the Biferno River.
The old t ...
in
Samnium
Samnium ( it, Sannio) is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were ''Safinim'' for the country (attested in one inscription and one coin legend) and ''Safineis'' for the The ...
, and subject of a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
''
cause célèbre
A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
''.
In 74 BC, he accused his stepfather Statius Albius Oppianicus of an attempt to
poison him; had it been successful, the property of Cluentius would have fallen to his mother Sassia. Oppianicus was found guilty.
[ This further references:
* Editions of Cicero's speech by William Yorke Fausset (1887), W. Ramsay (1883)
* ]Henry Nettleship
Henry Nettleship (5 May 1839 – 10 July 1893) was an English classical scholar.
Life
Nettleship was born at Kettering, and was educated at Lancing College, Durham School and Charterhouse schools, and gained a scholarship for entry to Corpus Chri ...
, ''Lectures and Essays'' (1885). It is almost certain that both sides attempted to bribe the jury.
[Cicero, ''In Verrem'' II] The case became notorious as an example of a prosecutor obtaining a guilty verdict through his money.
In 66 BC, Sassia induced her stepson Oppianicus to charge Cluentius with having poisoned the elder Oppianicus. The prosecutor in the trial was
Titus Accius. The defense was undertaken by
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
; his extant speech ''
Pro Cluentio'', written up after the trial, is regarded as a model of oratory and Latin prose. Cluentius was acquitted and Cicero subsequently boasted that he had thrown dust in the eyes of the jury "...se tenebras iudicibus offudisse in causa Cluenti gloriatus est". This was reported by
Quintilian, ''Instit.'' ii. 17. 21, who quotes this speech more than any other.
Pro Cluentio
The trial of 66 BC took place before the court of poisonings but the precise legal position is unclear. Most of Cicero's speech concerns the earlier trial and supposed prejudice surrounding it
he word "''invidia''" is constantly repeated Cicero claims this is strictly irrelevant to his case. He presents Oppianicus as a monster who killed many members of his own family, Sassia as a stock figure of female wickedness. He then declares that either Cluentius or Oppianicus bribed the earlier court; and having proven that Oppianicus did so, claims that Cluentius was innocent of bribery. The judges who voted for Oppianicus's condemnation did so because they thought he was not going to fulfil his promise to pay them. Cicero deals at length with earlier verdicts quoted against Cluentius, offers a fairly brief rebuttal of the charge of poisoning and finishes with a rousing
peroration. Throughout, Cluentius is represented as a paragon of honesty and virtue; there is every reason to doubt this.
References
{{Authority control
1st-century BC Romans
Cluentius
The gens Cluentia was a Roman family of the late Republic. The gens first appears during the Social War, in which Lucius Cluentius was general of the Pompeiian forces. The most famous family of the name lived at Larinum, where they and their co ...
Cluentii