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Pro Caelio and the Leges De Vi of Rome in the Late Republic

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Pro Caelio and the Leges De Vi of Rome in the Late Republic CICERO'S PRO CAELIO AND THE LEGES DE VI OF ROME IN THE LATE REPUBLIC by REBECCA KISELEWICH A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Classics WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts FEBRUARY, 2004 There is no system of law which affords a more favorable field for such researches [into judicial development] than that of Rome. Roman law occupies, in this regard, a place apart, which it owes, also, to the abundance of documents of every kind, always permitting the investigation of it to be approached from some new side; and which it owes, further, to the enormous mass of work which has been put into it during centuries by generations of commentators. - P. Girard, Manuel ~le'mentairede Droit ~ornain' Table of Contents Chapter I . Introduction ...................................................3 Chapter I1. Law and Rhetoric in the Pro Caelio ............................... 18 Chapter I11 . On Defining the Lex Lutatia de Vi and the Lex Plautia de Vi ...........30 Chapter IV . A Sullan Approach to Caelius' Indictment .........................47 Chapter V . The Development of Ambiguity in Leges de Vi ......................59 Chapter VI . A Comparative Look at Caelius' Indictment .......................69 Chapter VII . The Digest and Another Consideration of the Leges de Vi ............81 Appendix A . Trials of Murder and Violence from 149 to 50 B.C. .................94 Bibliography .......................................................... 97 Acknowledgements: Infinite thanks to Professor Christensen for all of her help and guidance throughout this entire thesis-writing process. to all of my professors at Williams College for getting me to the point where I could write a thesis. and to my parents for all of their love and support . Chapter I. Introduction After about 2000 years of investigation, much of the legal machinery of the Roman Late Republic remains poorly understood. The following work brings this issue into focus through the lens of the Pro Caelio, a defense speech that Cicero delivered (and later revised for publication1) for the trial of Marcus Caelius Rufus in April of 56 B.C. Firstly, examining the Pro Caelio shows how slander and gossip could be transformed into acceptable Roman courtroom evidence, under the cover of the wit and rhetorical craft of Cicero (Chapter 11). Furthermore, the speech serves as the basis for analyzing the legal particulars of Caelius' trial. Its two internal references to the law under which Caelius was indicted have led to a heated scholarly debate over the very existence of one Roman law (the lex Lutatia de vi) and have confused our understanding of another law (the lex Plautia de vi) (Chapter 111). The particular charge Cicero addresses, vis ('political violence'), is unexpected considering the exact crimes that Caelius allegedly committed. This irregular indictment illustrates the presence of some ambiguity within the mid-first century B.C. Roman legal system (Chapters IV and V). This ambiguity is further explored by consulting other criminal trials and the Digest of Justinian, the main source of almost all of our current knowledge on Roman law, to gauge how unique Caelius' indictment actually was and to look at the Roman criminal process as a whole (Chapters VI and VII). Overall, this study offers insight into the Late Republican legal system and some of its problematic intricacies, which appear in part from what Nisbet calls the "unanalysable charm which makes the Pro Caelio unique"", in part from our lack of 1 see Austin pp. 159-161 for a discussion of the composition of the Pro Caelio as we know it today sufficient resources or documentation from Roman times, and in part from the ambiguous nature of the Roman legal system itself. Cause of the trialiii Caelius stood on trial in 56 B.C. for five counts of vis. The charges against him were as follows: de seditionibus Neapolitanis ('concerning the sedition at Naples'), de Alexandrinorum pulsatione Puteolana ('concerning the beating of the Alexandrians at Puteoli'), de lionis Pallae ('concerning the goods of Palla'), de Dione ('concerning Dio'), and de veneno in Clodianz parato ('concerning the poison prepared for Clodia')'". These all stemmed from Caelius' alleged involvement in the desperate attempts of the deposed Egyptian king, Ptolemy XI1 Auletes, to reclaim his crown. Ptolemy had initially usurped the Egyptian throne in 80 B.c., after the death of his brother2. The unpopular monarch felt that he needed to secure his rule with the support of powerful allies, so in 59 B.C. Ptolemy heavily taxed his subjects to collect a large bribe3 for Pompey and Caesar. However, this plan meant to safeguard his sovereignty ended up backfiring - it enraged the Alexandrian populace and thus forced Ptolemy to flee from Egypt. He went to Italy to arrange for the assistance of the Roman army in restoring him as king4. When the Alexandrians discovered his intentions in 57 B.C., they deployed a deputation of 100 people to the Roman Senate to halt Ptolemy's attempts. Ptolemy responded by trying with violence to thwart their progress towards Rome - he arranged for a vicious mob of local citizens to greet the Alexandrians when they reached Naples, and he attacked them King Alexander I1 of 6000 talents However, Ptolemy was largely unsuccessful, since the recipients of his bribe were not much help - Caesar was away in Gaul, and Pompey had lost a lot of his power. again when they docked at the port of Puteoli. Dio, the leader of the deputation and an Academic philosopher, managed to arrive safely in Rome and took refuge at the house of the senator Lucius ~ucceius~.L. Lucceius' slaves were bribed to murder Dio, but they were discovered in time, and Dio then moved to the house of Titus Coponius, who was his acquaintance from Alexandria. However, Dio was murdered there in late 57 B.C. or early 56 B.C."~. The two main charges against Caelius (de Dione and de veneno in Clodiam pauato) refer to the attempted murder of Dio and the attempted poisoning of Clodia. The prosecution alleged that Caelius borrowed gold from Clodia under false pretenses in order to bribe L. Lucceius' slaves to murder Dio, and when Clodia discovered this, Caelius was said to have tried to poison her to conceal his first crime. The three remaining charges appear to have been lesser ones that were taken along with the main ones, since ordinarily they would have been dealt with in local courts or through private arrangementsv. One charge (de seditionibus Neapolitanis) refers to his alleged participation in the civil disturbance at Naples, and another (de Alexandrinorum pulsatione Puteolana) refers to his alleged participation in the attack on the Alexandrians at Puteoli. The last charge (de bonis Pallae) refers to damage to property of Palla, a woman largely unknown to modem scholars, although she may have been the Palla mentioned by the historian Dio Cassius as the mother or step-mother of Lucius Gellius Poplicola, who married Sempronia Atratina, the adopted sister of Lucius Atratinus, the 5 L. Lucceius was "a close friend of Pompey, and Pompey was a friend of [Ptolemy]" (Wiseman [ed.] 1985, 61), so interestingly L. Lucceius was indirectly allied with his guest's arch-enemy. ~arliera decree had been passed by the Senate, which stated that Ptolemy would be restored to the Egyptian throne with the assistance of the Roman army, but it was recalled before Dio's murder took place, when a tribune opposed to Pompey had promulgated that a Sibylline oracle warned against helping the king of Egypt. Ptolemy had therefore left Rome by the time of Dio's murder (Wiseman [ed.] 1985, 61). Publius Ascius was officially accused of Dio's murder in 56 B.C. by Gaius Licinius Calvus, but Cicero served as his defense speaker, and P. Ascius was acquitted. main prosecutor of CaeliusVi. Not much else is known about these charges. Thus they appear to be lesser charges, taken along with the remaining two charges of vis. However, the prosecution of Caelius, in fact, did not arise from the circumstances related to Ptolemy, but rather it "grew out of a personal quarre~"~".In 56 B.C. Caelius accused Lucius Calpurnius ~estia~of electoral malpractice twice. On February 11, Caelius and Cicero met in court, this time as opposing counsel, since Cicero chose to defend L. Bestia for his actions in the election for praetorship of 57 B.c.""'. Cicero won the case, and L. Bestia was acquitted, but Caelius did not give up. He began a second prosecution of L. Bestia along similar lines, but for the upcoming elections. However, these charges never went to court because L. Bestia's loyal son, Lucius Atratinus, accused Caelius of vis in an attempt to rescue his father by interrupting, postponing, or ending Caelius' prosecutionix~x. Particulars of the trial Caelius' trial was one of high importance to the Roman public. As Wiseman points out, "great issues were at stake, and great performers [were] in action""'. The trial took place in the quaestio de vi ('court for violence') located in the forum in ~ome~on April 3-4,56 B.C., before the praetor Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus. It was held during the ludi ~e~alensesl~,when most of Rome was on a holiday. Cicero whom Caelius had formerly supported in the election for praetorship in late 57 B.C. '"A criminal trial] took place in the open Forum where everyone was free to come, look on, and listen. The stage for the trial was an elevated platform [made of wood] . [which was one of eight erected] to provide space for all the criminal courts.. Each platform was large enough to accommodate the presiding judge and the jury, which sometimes numbered as many as seventy.
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