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Cicero and the Parliament of Bats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

David Daube
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Extract

Caecina and Aebutius both laid claim to the same piece of land. When Caecina attempted to enter on it, he was driven away by the threats of Aebutius and his followers, all armed. Cicero, counsel for Caecina, obtained from the praetor an injunction, such as had often been given in similar cases, ordering Aebutius to restore Caecina to the land in dispute, ‘if indeed it was true that he had ejected him by force, with the help of armed men.’ It was, however, not true, according to Piso who pleaded the cause of Aebutius. Piso admitted most of the facts alleged by Cicero. But he maintained that, strictly speaking, his client had not ejected Caecina ‘by force’ nor, for that matter, ‘ejected’ him at all. No ‘force’ had been used, said Piso: Caecina had taken to his heels long before he was hurt.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , 1940 , pp. 53 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © David Daube 1940. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Pro Caecina 60.

2 Gregory, , Historical Collections of a Citizen (ed. Gairdner, , 1876) 160Google Scholar. Cf. Fabyan, New Chronicles (ed. Lewis, 1811) 596. My brother, B. Daube, points out to me that reference is made to this Parliament in the First Part of King Henry VI, Act i, Scene iii (where the Officers of the Mayor of London charge the people ‘not to wear, handle, or use any sword, weapon, or dagger’), and Act iii, Scene i (where the Mayor informs the king and his lords that ‘the bishop's and the Duke of Gloucester’, men, forbidden late to carry any weapons have fill'd their pockets full of pebble-stones, and … do pelt so fast … that many have heir giddy brains knock'd out'. One of the Duke's retainers remarks, ‘Nay, if we be forbidden stones, we'll fall to it with our teeth ’). I do not know whether this has been observed before.

3 ‘Ep. Matthaeus Barucius noster,’ ed. Clark, CR 1899, 125.