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Ι HAVE TWO stories to tell. The first is the story of a lawsuit
brought more than two millennia ago, and of the remarkable
speech delivered during it; the second is the story of how, in
the decades preceding and following this lawsuit, the legal
profession originated and first rose to influence. My conviction,
upon which this book is based, is that these two stories
are interlinked, though not in a direct causal way; they are
interlinked because neither story is completely comprehensible
without the other.
Cicero's speech pro Caecina was delivered during the third
and final hearing of a lawsuit brought by Aulus Caecina probably
in 69 B.C. Caecina, who had been named the principal
heir of his late wife Caesennia, attempted to enter a farm allegedly
within her estate. However, his way onto the farm
was barred by Sextus Aebutius, who had organized a band of
armed men to defend the farm's perimeter. Caecina then
brought suit against Aebutius under the interdict de vi armata,
in order to "recover" possession of the farm. Throughout the
ensuing trial Cicero spoke on Caecina's behalf; and he later
published, perhaps in a somewhat altered form, his final speech
for his client.
I have long been interested in the pro Caecina. First of all,
this speech, which is probably Cicero's last effort before the
civil bar, is exceptionally fine; Cicero himself regarded it as a
masterpiece of its kind, and later critics both ancient and
modern have shared that judgment. It is therefore a pity that,
because of its subject matter, the speech is so little known
among most students of Roman literature. Further, the pro
Caecina is the only one of Cicero's four surviving private orations
that is also complete, and no private oration by any other
Roman orator comes down in more than small fragments. This fact alone gives the pro Caecina a considerable historical importance.
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