Pro Caelio is one of the most famous surviving speeches by the Roman orator, Cicero. It is Cicero's defence in 56 BC of Marcus Caelius Rufus on a number of obscure charges.
Caelius had been the lover of the notorious Clodia, sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, Cicero's enemy, who brought the prosecution. Cicero represents the charges against Caelius as the revenge of a woman scorned, and carries out a skillful character assassination of Clodia.
It is thought that Catullus perhaps wrote Carmen 49 as a thankyou epigram to Cicero for not mentioning him in proceedings against Clodia, who is generally thought to be the same person as Catullus' Lesbia.
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