دفاعاً عن كلونتيوس

دفاعاً عن كلونتيوس (Pro Cluentio)، هي خطبة للخطيب الروماني شيشرون ألقاها دفاعاً عن رجل يدعى اولوس كلونتيوس هابيتوس الأصغر.

كلونتيوس ، من لارينوم في سامنيوم، اتهمته والدته ساسيا عام 69 ق.م. بتسميم زوج والدته، ستاتيوس أبيوس أوپيانيكوس. نجح كلوينتيوس في محاكمة أوپيانيكوس عام 74 ق.م. لمحاولته تسميمه، مما أدى إلى تأمين نفي أوپيانيكوس. اتهم كلا الجانبين في الدعوى برشوة المحلفين أثناء المحاكمة لضمان إدانة بعضهم البعض، لكن لم تكتشف رشوة أوپيانيكوس إلى في ذلك الوقت فقط. توفي أوپيانيكوس مخزيًا بعد ثلاث سنوات، تاركًا أرملته ساسيا لتخطط للانتقام من ابنها. يقسم شيشرون عمله إلى جزأين: في الأول يدافع عن سمعة كلوينتيوس. ويبين أن جرائم أوبيانيكوس كانت هائلة للغاية، بحيث لم يكن كلوينتيوس بحاجة إلى إفساد القضاة؛ في الواقع، هو يسخر من أوپيانيكوس لأنه تعرض للغش من قبل وسيط في الرشاوى. أما الجزء الثاني فيتناول قضية التسمم المزعومة، وهو مختصر للغاية، لأن شيشرون يعتبر الاتهام سخيفًا.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 أوپيانيكوس

Statius Albius Oppianicus came from one of Larinum's most prominent families, the Oppianici; he was married five different times throughout his life and was widely suspected of poisoning his first wife Cluentia. Through his son Oppianicus the Younger, the issue of Oppianicus' second marriage to Magia Auria, Oppianicus senior plotted to obtain the fortune of his mother-in-law Dinaea. Oppianicus the Younger was the heir-presumptive to Dinaea's estate, recently enlarged after the deaths of two of her sons, Gnaeus Magius and Numerius Aurius, in the Civil Wars between Marius and Sulla. However, it was discovered that her presumed-dead third son, M. Aurius, was in fact alive and living in servitude in the Ager Gallicus. Oppianicus arranged for the murder of Dinaea and sent an assassin to kill M. Aurius before he could be rescued by family members. He then altered Dinaea's will, which had left only a portion of her estate to her grandson, making Oppianicus the Younger the sole inheritor.

When the news of M. Aurius's death in Gaul reached Larinum, the relatives of Dinaea raised such an outcry that Oppianicus fled the town and took refuge in one of Sulla's camps. Through the favor he enjoyed with Sulla, Oppianicus had his Aurii accusers proscribed; he returned to the town with martial powers and killed his enemies. The paternal aunt of Cluentius was Oppianicus's ex-wife; Oppianicus killed her and, with the same poison, his own brother. His brother's wife was pregnant; Oppianicus poisoned her before she gave birth to the baby, and inherited. Cn. Magius, Oppianicus' brother-in-law, died; in his will, he left everything to his yet unborn son. Oppianicus, who was next in the line of succession, paid Magius' wife a large sum, and she aborted her pregnancy. He then married her, although the marriage did not last long. Then he went to Rome, became intimate with a young dissolute, Asuvius, and killed him after he had signed a will in his favor.

In 80 BC, Oppianicus fell in love with Sassia, the widow of his former brother-in-law, Aulus Cluentius Habitus the Elder. Cluentius the Elder had fallen victim to the Sullan proscriptions and the widowed Sassia then fell in love with her son-in-law Melinus and forced her daughter to divorce him so that she could marry him herself. Oppianicus arranged for Melinus's murder so that Sassia could be free to marry him; she was disinclined, however, to be a stepmother, so Oppianicus obligingly murdered his two youngest sons before she agreed to the marriage.

 التبعات

Cicero was so successful that the young Cluentius was absolved of the charges. In the process the reputation of Sassia was completely destroyed. According to Quintilian, Cicero afterwards boasted that he had pulled the wool over the judges' eyes (se tenebras offudisse iudicibus in causa Cluenti gloriatus est, Institutio Oratoria 2.17.21; the context is in discussion of orators who say false things not because they are themselves unaware of the truth, but to deceive other people).

Cicero's spirited defence in Pro Cluentio presents an insight into the life in Larinum in 66 BC, and also provides an image of a ruthless woman which has lasted for more than two thousand years.

 وصلات خارجية

• قالب:Wikisourcelang-inline
• Cicero, Pro Cluentio, English translation at attalus.org