Background
In 74 British Columbia 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.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Aulo Habitus
Edit ProfileCareer
Oppianicus was found guilty. lieutenant is almost certain that both sides attempted to bribe the jury. The case became notorious as an example of a prosecutor obtaining a guilty verdict through his money.
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 ". Pro Cluentio The trial of 66 British Columbia 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 lieutenant
Cicero claims this is strictly irrelevant to his case. 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), West. Ramsay (1883).
See also Henry Nettleship, Lectures and Essays (1885).
Membership
He presents Oppianicus as a monster who killed many members of his own family, Sassia as a stock figure of female wickedness.
