Cicero: Murder at Larinum: Selections from the Pro Cluentio

Description

This brief, user friendly edition has long remained popular, for it is pitched at just the right level for school students tackling their first continuous prose, and for other early-stage learners of Latin. Moreover, the text is selected from the Pro Cluentio - the defence speech of one of the most intriguing and lurid ancient murder trials - set in the northern Italian provincial town of Larinum - for which evidence survives, by the young forensic lawyer Cicero, destined to become Rome's most celebrated political orator. The excitement and scandal of the original case still resonates with those who might compare the ancient reality with the modern fictions of Perry Mason or LA Law. The Introduction elucidates the background situation, the feud between the Cluentil and the villainous Oppicianus; the Notes give ample linguistic and historical assistance and there is also a full Vocabulary. This is unadapted and exciting Latin well within the grasp of those who are tackling a 'real' text for the first time.

H. Grose-Hodge was editor of the Cicero, The Speeches: Pro Lege Manilia, Pro Caecina, Pro Cluentio, Pro Rabirio, Perduellionis (1927) and Verres in Sicily: Being Selections from Cicero's Verrine Orations (1935).

..."the book is well indexed and organized; its introduction is for all readers, and the volume is well worth acquiring by any College library." Elaine Fantham, Classical World