Aulus Cluentius Habitus
Encyclopedia
Aulus Cluentius Habitus, a wealthy citizen of Larinum in Samnium
, and subject of a Roman
cause célèbre
.
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. 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
; 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 " (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 the speech concerns the earlier trial and supposed prejudice surrounding it [the 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.
Editions of the speech by William Yorke Fausset (1887), W. Ramsay (1883); see also Henry Nettleship
, Lectures and Essays (1885).
----
Samnium
Samnium is a Latin exonym for a region of south or south and central Italy in Roman times. The name survives in Italian today, but today's territory comprising it is only a small portion of what it once was. The populations of Samnium were called Samnites by the Romans...
, and subject of a Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
.
In 74 BC he accused his stepfather Statius Albius Oppianicus of an attempt to poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
him; had it been successful, the property of Cluentius would have fallen to his mother Sassia. Oppianicus was found guilty. 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
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
; 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 " (Quintilian
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing...
, 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 the speech concerns the earlier trial and supposed prejudice surrounding it [the 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.
Editions of the speech by William Yorke Fausset (1887), W. Ramsay (1883); see also Henry Nettleship
Henry Nettleship
Henry Nettleship was an English classical scholar.Nettleship was born at Kettering, and was educated at Lancing College, Durham School and Charterhouse schools, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1861, he was elected to a fellowship at Lincoln, which he vacated on his marriage in 1870...
, Lectures and Essays (1885).
----