Marcus Caelius Rufus

Marcus Caelius Rufus (ca. 87 – after 48 BC) was an orator and politician in the late Roman Republic. He was born into a wealthy equestrian family from Interamnia Praetuttiorum (Teramo), on the central east coast of Italy. He is best known for his trial for public violence (de vi publica) in March 56 BC, when Cicero defended him in the extant speech Pro Caelio, and as both recipient and author of some of the best-written letters in the ad Familiares corpus of Cicero's extant correspondence. He may be the Rufus named in the poems of Catullus.

Life and career

In his twenties Caelius became associated with Crassus and Cicero, although he was also briefly connected to Catiline and his conspiracy. Caelius first achieved fame through his successful prosecution in 59 BC of Gaius Antonius Hybrida for corruption. Antonius had been co-consul with Cicero in 63 BC, and his prosecution was a sign of the negative political atmosphere towards Cicero at the time. A year later, in 58 BC, Cicero was exiled, through the efforts of his political enemy Publius Clodius Pulcher. Cicero was recalled from exile in 57 BC with the help of his ally Titus Annius Milo, who was tribune at the time.

Sometime around 57 BC, Caelius and Clodia are believed to have had an affair which ended acrimoniously. In 56, Caelius was prosecuted for vis (violence), specifically for murdering an ambassador. He was successfully defended by Crassus and, more famously, Cicero, whose speech Pro Caelio argued that the prosecutor, Atratinus, was being manipulated by Clodia to get revenge on Caelius for an affair gone wrong.

Caelius was quaestor 55 or 54, tribune of the plebs in 52, and curule aedile in 50. During this period he wrote a series of witty and informative letters to Cicero, who was serving as proconsul of Cilicia at the time. Caelius sided with Julius Caesar against Pompey in the civil war, and in 48 BC was rewarded with the office of praetor peregrinus (“judge of suits involving foreigners”). However, when his proposed program of debt relief was opposed by the Senate and he was suspended from office, he joined Milo in a rebellion against Caesar which was quickly crushed. Both Rufus and Milo were executed.

In Catullus

Caelius may appear in the poetry of Catullus under his cognomen Rufus. Catullus writes about a former friend named Rufus who betrayed him in an unspecified way, perhaps referring to the affair with Clodia (usually identified with the loved then reviled "Lesbia" of Catullus's poetry), the alleged attempt of Caelius to poison her, or subsequent attacks on her through Cicero.^{[citation needed]} Catullus lambastes this Rufus in a epigram that ends:

You ripped it away, alas, alas cruel poison of our life

alas, alas destroyer of our friendship.^[1]

Catullus addresses a Rufus in Carmen 69, and a Caelius in 58. In the latter, he seems to expect a sympathetic ear as he bewails Lesbia's sexual profligacy; the former is an invective that taunts Rufus for bodily offensiveness that drives away women.

References

1. ^ Eripuisti, heu heu nostrae crudele venenum / vitae, heu heu nostrae pestis amicitiae: Catullus, 77.5–6.

Ancient Sources

• Clark, Albert Curtis (ed.) Oxford Classical Texts, M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes vol. I (Oxford University Press, 1905)

- pro Sex. Roscio Amerino (pp. 1–58)
- de imperio Cn. Pompei ad Quirites (pp. 59–90)
- pro A. Cluentio (pp. 91–184)
- In L. Catilinam (orationes IV) (pp. 185–242)
-- I. oratio qua L. Catilinam emisit, in Senatu habita
-- II.oratio secunda, habita ad populum
-- III.oratio tertia, habita ad populum
-- IV. oratio quarta, habita in Senatu
- pro L. Murenam (pp. 243–292)
- pro M. Caelio (pp. 293–333)

Modern works

• Boissier, G: Cicero and his friends : a study of Roman society in the time of Caesar (1897) [1]
• Austin, R G: M. Tulli Ciceronis pro M. Caelio oratio, 3rd edition (Oxford University Press, 1960),

- Introduction with bibliography (i-xxxii)
- Latin text (1-39)
- Commentary (40-143)
- Appendices and Addenda (144-175)
- Indices (176-180)

• Volponi, M: "M. Celio Rufo, ingeniose nequam", MIL 31.3 (1970), 197-280
• Sumner, Graham V: The Orators in Cicero's Brutus: Prosopography and Chronology (Phoenix supplementary volume 11, University of Toronto Press, 1973)
• Alexander, Michael C: Trials in the Late Roman Republic, 149 BC to 50 BC (Phoenix supplementary volume 26, University of Toronto Press, 1990)

External links

• Encyclopaedia Britannica Marcus Caelius Rufus