Cicero
De Domo Sua Ad Pontifices Oratio
It will be advisable for the reader to have a summary to guide him through this diffuse and disordered speech. The following is a rough outline of the argument:—
§§ 1-32. C. replies to the attacks of Clodius in reference to the appointment of Pompey to the control of the food-supply.
§§ 32-42. “No citizen can be deprived of civic rights without due legal procedure. Clodius’ tribunate is invalid, his adoption having been illegally carried out.”
§§43-71. “Clodius’ law decreeing C.’s banishment was unconstitutional and ridiculously phrased, and his allegation against C.’s ‘senatus consultum’ false.”
I. Cum multa divinitus, pontifices, a maioribus nostris inventa atque instituta sunt, tum nihil praeclarius quam quod eosdem et religionibus deorum immortalium et summae rei publicae praeesse voluerunt, ut amplissimi et clarissimi cives rem publicam bene gerendo religiones, religiones1 sapienter interpretando rem publicam conservarent. Quod si ullo tempore magna causa in sacerdotum
De Domo Sua
The Speech Concerning His House Delivered Before the College of Pontiffs
[57]
§§ 72-92 1. 5. “Clodius cannot rightly describe C. as an ‘ exile,’ for he had done nothing to forfeit citizenship, and Clodius’ bill was carried by a hired mob of slaves and criminals.”
§§ 92 1. 6-99. “C. is not to blame for boasting of his services to the state, or for having left Rome.”
§§ 100-141. “Clodius’ dedication of the site of C.’s house was unjust, irregular, and impious.”
§§ 141-147. Appeal to the gods and to the Pontifices for restitution.
I. Gentlemen of the Pontifical College: Among the many divinely-inspired expedients of government established by our ancestors, there is none more striking than that whereby they expressed their intention that the worship of the gods and the vital interests of the state should be entrusted to the direction of the same individuals,a to the end that citizens of the highest distinction and the brightest fame might achieve the welfare of religion by a wise administration of the state, and of the state by a sage interpretation of religion. And if, on any occasion in the past, a case of high importance has been submitted to the discretion and arbitrament