Pro Plancio

The Pro Plancio, sometimes named as the Pro Cn. Plancio or the Planciana, was a speech given by the Roman lawyer and statesman Cicero in September 54 BCE. In the speech, delivered in the Roman Forum, Cicero defended Gnaeus Plancius [la], who had been elected as aedile (a junior civic official) the previous year, against a charge of electoral malpractice (ambitus) levelled by Marcus Iuventius Laterensis [la], one of his defeated opponents. The outcome of the trial is not known, though it is often suggested that Cicero won.

Plancius was prosecuted under the lex Licinia de sodaliciis, which criminalised the improper use of electoral associations (sodalitates); the prosecution, conducted by Laterensis with the assistance of Lucius Cassius Longinus, appears to have offered little evidence that Plancius had specifically committed this crime, rather than more general electoral infractions. In the Pro Plancio, Cicero defends Plancius's character and asserts the legitimacy of his election, claiming that Laterensis had made his prosecution under the lex Licinia in order to benefit from its unusual process of jury selection, which advantaged the prosecution. Throughout the speech, Cicero emphasises his twofold friendship with Laterensis and Plancius, who had both assisted him during a period of exile in 58–57 BCE. The bulk of the speech deals not with the charges against Plancius, but with asserting his personal merits and those of Cicero himself.

The speech was described by James Smith Reid as "a thoroughly artistic handling of a somewhat ordinary theme". Cicero makes reference to works of early Latin literature, such as the poetry of Ennius, and to the philosopher Plato's Crito, and makes extensive use of the rhetorical technique of sermocinatio. Cicero edited and published the speech; it is known from sporadic references in classical literature and surviving papyrus manuscripts, but was relatively neglected by ancient rhetoricians in comparison to the rest of Cicero's speeches. However, it was widely copied in manuscripts from the early modern period, and was known to the fourteenth-century humanist Petrarch.

The Pro Plancio was delivered in September 54 BCE, in the Roman Forum. In the speech, Cicero attempted to defend Gnaeus Plancius [la] against a charge of electoral malpractice (ambitus) levelled by Marcus Iuventius Laterensis [la], whom Plancius had defeated in elections for the post of curule aedile, a junior magistracy with responsibility for public buildings and festivals. Plancius was defended by Cicero, probably in addition to Quintus Hortensius. Laterensis was, in turn, assisted by Lucius Cassius Longinus.

As consul in 63 BCE, Cicero had revealed the conspiracy of Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline), a failed consular candidate who had attempted to seize power in a coup. On 5 December of that year, Cicero had Catiline's supporters in Rome executed without trial, a decision which was widely condemned. Cicero's political enemy, Publius Clodius Pulcher, passed a law as tribune in February 58 BCE condemning anyone who had executed Roman citizens without a trial. The law was seen as an attack on Cicero, who fled Rome into exile shortly after its passage; Clodius in turn secured a formal proclamation of exile (aquae et ignis interdictio) against him in early April. Cicero's exile proved an enduring source of reputational damage to him, and he referred to it frequently in his subsequent speeches.

After his return from exile in 57 BCE, Cicero's legal work largely consisted of defending allies of the ruling triumvirs and his own personal friends and allies; although he had opposed the triumvirate before his exile, he reversed his stance after Pompey and Caesar reconciled at the Luca Conference in 56. In that year, he defended his former pupil Marcus Caelius Rufus against a charge of murder. He subsequently defended, under the influence of the triumvirs, his former enemies Publius Vatinius (in August 54 BCE) and Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (between July and September), which weakened his prestige and sparked attacks on his integrity. Luca Grillo has suggested these cases as the source of the poet Catullus's double-edged comment that Cicero was "the best defender of anybody".

Gnaeus Plancius was a member of the equestrian class, the son of a tax collector (publicanus) from the Lucanian town of Atina. In 61–60 BCE, Cicero had represented an association (societas) of tax-collectors, including Plancius's father, in their attempt to reduce their financial obligations to the Roman state. The younger Plancius was a supporter of Pompey the Great, and in turn a protégé of Marcus Licinius Crassus: these two men, along with Julius Caesar, formed the triumvirate.

When the exiled Cicero arrived at Dyrrachium in western Greece late in April 58 BCE, Plancius was serving as a quaestor (a junior financial official) on the staff of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, the governor of Macedonia. Plancius travelled to meet Cicero, and took him to stay in his official residence (quaestorium) in Thessalonica, where Cicero remained until the following November, at which point Plancius was soon to return to Rome following the appointment of a new governor, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus. As Cicero later recounted their meeting in the Pro Plancio, Plancius took off his official insignia, put on mourning garb, and embraced Cicero, too overcome by tears to speak.