Source edition
Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Vol. VI. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA (per Perseus's terms)
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a judicial speech delivered by Cicero in defense of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, a Roman politician accused of extortion during his administration of the province of Sardinia. Cicero begins by praising Scaurus's noble ancestry and refuting the absurdity of the prosecution's allegations concerning poisoning and suicide through historical and philosophical examples. In the middle section, he examines the rumors surrounding the death of a Sardinian woman—the core of the accusation—and systematically exposes the dishonorable lives and untrustworthiness of the prosecution's witnesses. Furthermore, Cicero criticizes the prosecutor Triarius for his negligent lack of investigation on-site, contrasting it with his own past meticulous research, and unmasks the trial as a political conspiracy orchestrated by Appius Claudius to aid a sibling's electoral campaign. Finally, he fiercely denounces the untrustworthy character of the Sardinians while invoking the great legacy of Scaurus's father and traditional Roman virtues, passionately appealing to the judges for an acquittal.