Pro Caelio

Pro Caelio is a speech given on 4 April 56 BC, by the famed Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero in defence of Marcus Caelius Rufus, who had once been Cicero's pupil but more recently had become estranged from him. Cicero's reasons for defending Caelius are uncertain, but one motive may have been his hatred of Publius Clodius Pulcher, who two years earlier had passed a law which had forced Cicero into exile, and whose sister Cicero attacks mercilessly in this speech.

The speech is regarded as one of Cicero's most brilliant and entertaining orations.^[1] It was also famous in ancient times, being quoted by Petronius, Aulus Gellius, Fronto, Quintilian, and Jerome.^[1] For modern readers it is of interest in that Clodia has been identified with some probability with the poet Catullus's Lesbia.

Caelius was charged with vis (political violence), one of the most serious crimes in Republican Rome. Caelius' prosecutors, Lucius Sempronius Atratinus, Publius Clodius (probably not Publius Clodius Pulcher, but more likely a relative),^[2] and Lucius Herennius Balbus, charged him with the following crimes:^[3]

1. Inciting civil disturbances at Naples;
2. Assault on the Alexandrians at Puteoli;
3. Damage to the property of Palla (little is known of this but it has been suggested that Palla was mother-in-law of Atratinus's adoptive sister);^[4]
4. Involvement in the murder of Dio of Alexandria, using gold obtained from Clodia.
5. Preparing poison for use against Clodia.

Caelius spoke first in his own defense and asked Marcus Licinius Crassus to defend him during the trial. Cicero's speech was the last of the defense speeches, dealing with the last two charges. The magistrate Gnaeus Domitius presided over the trial.