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And here we reach the end of the Pro Caelio, the most striking classic example ever of the double standard, Boys Will Be Boys, and That Girl Was Asking For It, Your Honor. I think I may need to go read the anti-Catiline speeches, or the ones against Antony, just to get back some of my respect for Cicero.
Chapter 76
And so in order that this interfering gossip of whims and laziness might die--he did it with me being unwilling, by Hercules, and me being appalled, but nevertheless he did it--he accused my friend* of bribery; he prosecutes that man (who was acquitted), and does it again; he complies with none of our men, he’s more ruthless than I would like. But I’m not talking about wisdom, which doesn’t fall on this age; I speak about the force of the spirit, about passion for winning, about the fire of the mind towards glory; and these pursuits ought to be more limited in men of our age, but in adolescence just as in plants they signify what maturity of virtue and how many fruits of industry there will be. For always young men of great genius must be more reined in from glory than spurred toward it; they are more pruned back at that age, if indeed they flower with the praise of their genius, than grafted.
Chapter 77
For this reason, if his force, ferocity, or stubbornness seem to have boiled over too much on anyone either in stirring up suspicions or carrying on hostilities, if any of these tiny things offended anyone, if his shade of purple, if his crowds of friends, if his glitter, if his gleam did--these things soon will have cooled down, soon his whole age, soon his business, soon his days will have mellowed.
Therefore, judges, preserve the citizen of the republic, of liberal arts, of good origins, of good men. I promise this to you and I vow it, that if I myself merely give satisfaction to the republic, this man will never be separated from our way of thinking.** I promise that he will rely on our friendship, because he has now bound himself by the strictest laws.
Chapter 78
For it’s not possible that a man who himself called a consular man into court, when he said the republic was being violated by that man, is a seditious citizen against the republic; it’s not possible that a man who was suffered to even be acquitted of bribery was himself ever acquitted without punishment to be a briber. The republic has from Marcus Caelius, judges, two accusations either of hostages against his bad behavior or voluntary pledges. For which reason I beg and I entreat you, judges, that in which state Sextus Cloelius was acquitted within a few days, whom you saw to be either a servant or leader of sedition for two years, a man without business, without fidelity, without hope, without habitation, without luck, depraved in mouth, tongue, hand, and all life, who burned the sacred temples, the census of the Roman people, and the public records with his own hands, who tore down the monument of Catalus, who demolished my house, who burned my brother’s house, who on the Palantine and in the eyes of the city incited the slaves towards slaughter and towards burning the city; in this state may you not suffer that man acquitted by womanly favor, Marcus Caelius condemned to womanly lust, so that it does not seem that the same woman has both snatched away a most wicked bandit with her companion and brother, and oppressed a most honest young man.
Chapter 79
But since you have laid out this young man’s life for yourself, set before your eyes the old age of this unhappy man who depends on his only son, rests in the boy’s hope, is alarmed at the one young man’s case; and support him, a supplicant to your pity, a slave to your powers, cast down not so much to your feet as to your morals and understanding, either by the recollection of your own parents or the pleasure of your own children, so that you may attend to the pain of another man either by your piety or your indulgence. Do not wish, judges, either to want this man--now fading at the hands of nature herself--to be extinguished sooner by your wound that by his own fate, or to overthrow /this/ man--now first blossoming, with the root of virtue already so firm in him--as if by some whirlwind or sudden storm.
Chapter 80
Save the son of the father, the father of the son, so that you all are not seen to nearly despise an already desperate old age, or not only fail to nourish but even strike and attack a young man full of the greatest hope. And if you save him for us, for his friends, for the republic, you will have him pledged, devoted, bound to you and your children, and you will especially seize the fruits, judges, of all his energy and work, rich and long-lasting.
---
* Bestia. I really do wonder about that case, and what Cicero said about Caelius the prosecutor at that time. Maybe the same sort of condescending contempt he had for Atritinus early in this speech.
** “ratio” can be translated as “reason”, but here it’s more along the lines of “political principles.”
Chapter 76
And so in order that this interfering gossip of whims and laziness might die--he did it with me being unwilling, by Hercules, and me being appalled, but nevertheless he did it--he accused my friend* of bribery; he prosecutes that man (who was acquitted), and does it again; he complies with none of our men, he’s more ruthless than I would like. But I’m not talking about wisdom, which doesn’t fall on this age; I speak about the force of the spirit, about passion for winning, about the fire of the mind towards glory; and these pursuits ought to be more limited in men of our age, but in adolescence just as in plants they signify what maturity of virtue and how many fruits of industry there will be. For always young men of great genius must be more reined in from glory than spurred toward it; they are more pruned back at that age, if indeed they flower with the praise of their genius, than grafted.
Chapter 77
For this reason, if his force, ferocity, or stubbornness seem to have boiled over too much on anyone either in stirring up suspicions or carrying on hostilities, if any of these tiny things offended anyone, if his shade of purple, if his crowds of friends, if his glitter, if his gleam did--these things soon will have cooled down, soon his whole age, soon his business, soon his days will have mellowed.
Therefore, judges, preserve the citizen of the republic, of liberal arts, of good origins, of good men. I promise this to you and I vow it, that if I myself merely give satisfaction to the republic, this man will never be separated from our way of thinking.** I promise that he will rely on our friendship, because he has now bound himself by the strictest laws.
Chapter 78
For it’s not possible that a man who himself called a consular man into court, when he said the republic was being violated by that man, is a seditious citizen against the republic; it’s not possible that a man who was suffered to even be acquitted of bribery was himself ever acquitted without punishment to be a briber. The republic has from Marcus Caelius, judges, two accusations either of hostages against his bad behavior or voluntary pledges. For which reason I beg and I entreat you, judges, that in which state Sextus Cloelius was acquitted within a few days, whom you saw to be either a servant or leader of sedition for two years, a man without business, without fidelity, without hope, without habitation, without luck, depraved in mouth, tongue, hand, and all life, who burned the sacred temples, the census of the Roman people, and the public records with his own hands, who tore down the monument of Catalus, who demolished my house, who burned my brother’s house, who on the Palantine and in the eyes of the city incited the slaves towards slaughter and towards burning the city; in this state may you not suffer that man acquitted by womanly favor, Marcus Caelius condemned to womanly lust, so that it does not seem that the same woman has both snatched away a most wicked bandit with her companion and brother, and oppressed a most honest young man.
Chapter 79
But since you have laid out this young man’s life for yourself, set before your eyes the old age of this unhappy man who depends on his only son, rests in the boy’s hope, is alarmed at the one young man’s case; and support him, a supplicant to your pity, a slave to your powers, cast down not so much to your feet as to your morals and understanding, either by the recollection of your own parents or the pleasure of your own children, so that you may attend to the pain of another man either by your piety or your indulgence. Do not wish, judges, either to want this man--now fading at the hands of nature herself--to be extinguished sooner by your wound that by his own fate, or to overthrow /this/ man--now first blossoming, with the root of virtue already so firm in him--as if by some whirlwind or sudden storm.
Chapter 80
Save the son of the father, the father of the son, so that you all are not seen to nearly despise an already desperate old age, or not only fail to nourish but even strike and attack a young man full of the greatest hope. And if you save him for us, for his friends, for the republic, you will have him pledged, devoted, bound to you and your children, and you will especially seize the fruits, judges, of all his energy and work, rich and long-lasting.
---
* Bestia. I really do wonder about that case, and what Cicero said about Caelius the prosecutor at that time. Maybe the same sort of condescending contempt he had for Atritinus early in this speech.
** “ratio” can be translated as “reason”, but here it’s more along the lines of “political principles.”