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.13A member of the elite herself has actually become a meretrix:14Caelius case is quite without difficulty.For what charge could there be onwhich he would not find it easy to defend himself? I am not now saying any-thing against that woman [Clodia], but suppose it were someone quite unlikeher a woman who made herself common to all, who openly had some speciallover every day, into whose grounds, house and place at Baiae every rake had aright of free entry, who even supported young men, and made their fathersstinginess bearable at her own expense; if a widow were casting off restraints, afrisky widow living frivolously, a rich widow living extravagantly, an amorouswidow living like a prostitute, should I regard any man guilty of misconduct ifhe had been somewhat free in his attentions to her? (38)If there was no stigma attached to elite men privately visiting mere-trices, as we know there wasn t from numerous passages in Roman lit-erature,15 there was obviously a great stigma attached to elite womenpublicly becoming meretrices:16If there existed such a woman as I painted a short while ago, one quite unlikeyou, with the life and manners of a prostitute would you think it very shameful The Politics of Prostitution 183or disgraceful that such a young man should have had some dealing with sucha woman? If you are not this woman, as I prefer to think, for what have the ac-cusers to reproach Caelius? But if they will have it that you are such a person,why should we be afraid of this accusation, if you despise it? Then it is for youto show us our way and method of defense; for either your sense of proprietywill disprove any vicious behavior by Caelius, or your utter impropriety willafford both him and the rest a fine opportunity for self-defense.(50)In fact Cicero suggests that Clodia has so distorted the normal socialorder and debased the elite by taking on the behavior of a meretrix, thather entire household is inverted, with bizarre activities taking placeand slaves who are no longer slaves acting at will:Lastly, in whom did he [Caelius] confide, whom did he have to assist him, whowas his partner, his accomplice, to whom did he entrust so great a crime, en-trust himself, entrust his own life? To the slaves of this woman? For this hasbeen alleged against him.But, I ask, what kind of slaves? This very point ismost important.Were they slaves whom he knew not as subject to the ordinaryconditions of servitude, but as living a life of more licence, liberty, and intimacywith their mistress? For who does not see, gentlemen, or who is ignorant that ina house of that kind, in which the mistress lives the life of a prostitute, in whichnothing is done which is fit to be published abroad, in which strange lusts, prof-ligacy, in fact, all unheard-of vices and immoralities, are rife who does notknow that in such a house those slaves are slaves no longer? (57)In this passage and in the passage in which he compares Verres ex-tremely unfavorably to Scipio Africanus, Cicero uses invective to greateffect, as he does in all of his forensic speeches (Braund 2002, 92 93).Aswith humor, Cicero employs invective as a rhetorical strategy for ac-complishing his larger goal of presenting Clodia as well as Verres to thejury as social perversions worthy of expulsion from elite civil society.ConclusionRecent research on the late Roman republic has often characterized re-publican politics as taking the form of discussions about, and contesta-tions over, the nature of the common social good in response to thedecay of republican institutions.17 Cicero s own efforts centered on ap-peals to concordia ordinum and attempts to establish consensus amongthe senatorial and equestrian elites as a means of restoring Roman so-cial and political order.In the trials of Verres and then more explicitlyCaelius, Cicero is aiming his attacks at elite individuals who are usingor becoming meretrices in a dangerous inversion of the social order, one 184 marsha mccoythat threatens the entire community (Edwards 1997; 1993; Stallybrassand White 1986).The law courts were the arena Cicero chose as themost appropriate civic setting in which to demand, from the senatorialelite and then from the senatorial and equestrian elite, the repudiationand expulsion of Verres and Clodia from civil society.The response wasclear: Verres fled before his trial ended, and Clodia vanished, never tobe heard of again in the public sphere.18 By emphasizing more than hadever been done before the (mis)placement of meretrices in the Roman so-cial order, Cicero achieved a small but significant portion of his pro-gram to restore republican civil society.19Notes1.See most recently Tatum (1999) and the critical bibliographical article byFezzi (1999); see also Gruen (1974, 305 9), Stockton (1971, 213), and Austin(1960, 154).2.Although admittedly there are several poems where he describes hervery disparagingly, with language certainly suggesting whore-like behavior,e.g., 11, 37, and 58.3.In three orations (De domo sua 111.2; 112.6; 112.8, De haruspicum responsis33.5, and Philippicae 2.44.10) and in three rhetorical or philosophical treatises(De inventione 2.118.8; 2.118.10; 2.118.12; 2.118.12; De finibus 2.12.2, and De naturadeorum 1.14.1; 1.93.3).4.In the passages in De domo sua and De haruspicum responsis Cicero is dis-paraging Clodia s brothers, Appius and Publius Clodius; in the passage in thePhilippicae Cicero is attacking Marcus Antonius.5.See, e.g., the summary in Greenwood ([1928] 1959, x xiv) and also, mostrecently, the account in Mitchell (1979).6.Verrine Orations 1.45: In fact, when Gnaeus Pompeius himself, as consul-elect, for the first time addressed a public meeting near the city, and, in ac-cordance with what appeared to be a very general expectation, declared his in-tention of restoring the powers of the tribunes, his words elicited a murmuringnoise of grateful approval from the assembly: but when he observed, in thecourse of the same speech, that our provinces had been wasted and laid deso-late, that our law-courts were behaving scandalously and wickedly, and that hemeant to take steps to deal with this evil then it was with no mere murmur,but with a mighty roar, that the people of Rome showed their satisfaction (tr.Greenwood [1928] 1959).7.The translations of the Verrine Orations are from Greenwood ([1928]1959); in some cases, I have modified them.8.See the commentary on this passage in Mitchell (1986).See also VerrineOrations 2.1.101; 2.3.6; 2.3.83; 2.4.7; 2.4.83; 2.4.123.9.See also Verrine Orations 2.5.34.10.See Verrine Orations 2.2
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