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Primary sourceSpeech1858

The Speech of Cicero for Aulus Cluentius Habitus

Marcus Tullius Cicero · 1858

An 1858 edition of Cicero's defence speech Pro Cluentio, with notes by William Ramsay.

This is the text of a courtroom speech Cicero delivered himself in defence of a client.

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The Speech of Cicero for Aulus Cluentius HabitusPDF · 238 pages
Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Speech of Cicero for Aulus Cluentius Habitus, ed. William Ramsay, 1858. Richard Griffin and Company, Glasgow.

About this source

What it is

This is an 1858 printed edition of Cicero's speech defending Aulus Cluentius Habitus, known as Pro Cluentio. It includes prolegomena and notes by William Ramsay, a professor of Humanity at the University of Glasgow, and was published in Glasgow.

Why it matters

Pro Cluentio was one of Cicero's major courtroom defences, showing his skill as a lawyer arguing a complicated case. The preface quotes advice recommending Cicero's speeches, alongside Demosthenes, as essential reading for anyone studying rhetoric and language. The book demonstrates how Cicero's legal oratory was preserved and valued as a model of argument.

Look closer

  • What does the inclusion of notes and an introduction suggest about how difficult readers found the original Latin?
  • Why might this speech, out of all of Cicero's trials, be singled out for study?
  • What does the comparison to Demosthenes in the preface tell us about how Cicero was ranked among orators?

This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Cicero on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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