Pro Plancio
54 BCE defence speech by Cicero / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Pro Plancio, sometimes named as the Pro Cn. Plancio,[lower-alpha 1] or the Planciana,[2] was a speech given by the Roman lawyer and statesman Cicero in September 54 BCE. In the speech, delivered in the Roman Forum, Cicero defended Gnaeus Plancius [la], who had been elected as aedile the previous year, against a charge of electoral malpractice (ambitus) levelled by Marcus Iuventius Laterensis [la], one of his defeated opponents. The outcome of the trial is not known, though it is often suggested that Cicero won.
A bust of Cicero, who delivered the Pro Plancio, from the 1st century CE | |
Date | September 54 BCE |
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Location | Roman Forum, Rome |
Motive | Defence speech for Cnaeus Plancius |
Participants | Marcus Tullius Cicero |
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Plancius was prosecuted under the lex Licinia de sodaliciis, which criminalised the improper use of electoral associations (sodalitates); the prosecution, conducted by Laterensis with the assistance of Lucius Cassius Longinus, appears to have offered little evidence that Plancius had specifically committed this crime. In the Pro Plancio, Cicero defends Plancius's character and alleges the legitimacy of his election, claiming that Laterensis had made his prosecution under the lex Licinia in order to benefit from its unusual process of jury selection, which advantaged the prosecution. Throughout the speech, Cicero emphasises his twofold friendship with Laterensis and Plancius, who had both assisted him during a period of exile in 58–57 BCE. The bulk of the speech deals not with the charges against Plancius, but with asserting his personal merits and those of Cicero himself.
The speech was described by James Smith Reid as "a thoroughly artistic handling of a somewhat ordinary theme".[3] Cicero makes reference to works of early Latin literature, such as the poetry of Ennius, and to the philosopher Plato's Crito, and makes extensive use of the rhetorical technique of sermocinatio. Cicero edited and published the speech; it is known from sporadic references in classical literature and surviving papyrus manuscripts, but was comparatively neglected by ancient rhetoricians in comparison to the rest of Cicero's speeches. However, it was widely copied in manuscripts from the early modern period, and was known to the fourteenth-century humanist Petrarch.