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  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO FOR HIS HOUSE. ADDRESSED TO THE PRIESTS
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO RESPECTING THE ANSWERS OF THE SOOTHSAYERS. ADDRESSED TO THE SENATE.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF CNAEUS PLANCIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SESTIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST PUBLIUS VATINIUS; CALLED ALSO, THE EXAMINATION OF PUBLIUS VATINIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF MARCUS CAELIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CONSULAR PROVINCES.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS CORNELIUS BALBUS.
  • THE ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST LUCIUS CALPURNIUS PISO.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF TITUS ANNIUS MILO.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN BEHALF OF MARCUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF QUINTUS LIGARIUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN BEHALF OF KING DEIOTARUS. ADDRESSED TO CAIUS CAESAR.
    		•

    M. Tullius Cicero, Orations: for his house, Plancius, Sextius, Coelius, Milo, Ligarius, etc. (ed. C. D. Yonge)

    Editions and translations: Latin (ed. Albert Clark) | English (ed. C. D. Yonge)
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    THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF CNAEUS PLANCIUS.

    THE ARGUMENT.

    Cnaeus Plancius had been quaestor in Macedonia when Cicero fled there from Rome, and had been at that time of the greatest assistance to him. He had now been chosen aedile, but was accused by a disappointed candidate, Marcus Laterensis, of bribery and corruption; and Cicero (though there had been a good deal of coldness between them of late, as Plancius when tribune of the people had very much altered towards him and shown an inclination to take the part of his adversaries) defended him in the following speech.

    The speech appears to have been spoken in the year A. U. C. 609. Plancius was acquitted.

    I. When, O judges, I saw that on account of the eminent and singular good faith of Cnaeus Plancius, shown in taking care of my safety, so many excellent men were favourers of his cause, I felt no ordinary pleasure, because I saw that the recollection of what happened at the time of my necessities was pleading for him whose kindness had been my preservation. But when I heard that men, some of whom were my enemies, and some of whom were envious of me, favoured this accusation and that the very same thing was now adverse to the interests of Cnaeus Plancius in this trial which had been advantageous to him in his canvass, I was grieved, O judges, and was very indignant at the idea of his safety being endangered for the sole reason that he, by his benevolence, and energy, and vigilance had protected my safety and my life. [2]  But now, O judges, the sight of you, and the fact of such men as you being the judges, strengthens and refreshes my mind, when I look upon and behold each individual of you; for in all this number I see no one to whom my safety has not been dear, no one who has not acted with the greatest [p. 102] kindness towards me, no one to whom I am not under eternal obligations from the recollection of their services. Therefore I do not fear that the care shown by Cnaeus Plancius for my safety will be any injury to him with those men who themselves have wished above all things to see me in safety; and, O judges, it has more frequently come into my mind that it is a strange thing that Marcus Laterensis, a man who has shown the greatest regard for my dignity and safety, should have picked out this man of all the world to institute a prosecution against, than that I have any ground to fear lest he should appear to you to have had good reason for doing so.

    [3]  Although I do not assume so much, or claim so much importance for myself, O judges, as to think that Cnaeus Plancius is entitled to impunity on account of his kindness towards me. If I do not display to you that his life is most upright, his habits most virtuous, his good faith unimpeachable,--if I do not prove him to be a man of perfect temperance, piety, and innocence, I will not object to your punishing him; but if I establish that he has every quality which may be expected in the character of a virtuous man, then I will beg of you, O judges, to grant, at my entreaty, your pity to that man, through whose pity it is that I myself have been preserved in safety. In truth, in addition to the labour which I am devoting to this cause, in a greater degree than I think necessary in other trials. I have this anxiety also, that I have not only to speak on behalf of Cnaeus Plancius, whose safety I am bound to defend equally with my own, but on behalf of myself also, since the prosecutors have said almost more about me than they have about the merits of the case, and about the real defendant.

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Cic.+Planc.+1

    The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
    OCLC: 4709897


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