to be purified, that the very earth, which is the mother of us all, was defiled by the presence of a mother so abominably wicked.  There was not a single town in which she was allowed to stay; there was not an inn of all the many upon that road where the host did not shun the contagion of her presence.  And indeed she preferred to trust herself to solitude and to darkness rather than to any city or hostelry.  And now,” said Cicero, turning to the woman, who was probably sitting in court, “does she think that we do not all know her schemes, her intrigues, her purposes from day to day?  Truly we know exactly to whom she has gone, to whom she has promised money, whose integrity she has endeavored to corrupt with her bribes.  Nay, more:  we have heard all about the things which she supposes to be a secret, her nightly sacrifice, her wicked prayers, her abominable vows.”

He then turned to the son, whom he would have the jury believe was as admirable as the mother was vile.  He had certainly brought together a wonderful array of witnesses to, character.  From Larinum every grown-up man that had the strength to make the journey had come to Rome to support their fellow-townsman.  The town was left to the care of women and children.  With these witnesses had come, bringing a resolution of the local senate full of the praises of the accused, a deputation of the senators.  Cicero turned to the deputation and begged them to stand up while the resolution was being read.  They stood up and burst into tears, which indeed are much more common among the people of the south than among us, and of which no one sees any reason to be ashamed.  “You see these tears, gentlemen,” cried the orator to the jury.  “You may be sure, from seeing them, that every member of the senate was in tears also when they passed this resolution.”  Nor was it only Larinum, but all the chief Samnite towns that had sent their most respected citizens to give their evidence for Cluentius.  “Few,” said Cicero, “I think, are loved by me as much as he is loved by all these friends.”

Cluentius was acquitted.  Cicero is said to have boasted afterwards that he had blinded the eyes of the jury.  Probably his client had bribed the jury in the trial of his step-father.  That was certainly the common belief, which indeed went so far as to fix the precise sum which he paid.  “How many miles is your farm from Rome?” was asked of one of the witnesses at a trial connected with the case.  “Less than fifty-three,” he replied.  “Exactly the sum,” was the general cry from the spectators.  The point of the joke is in the fact that the same word stood in Latin for the thousand paces which made a mile and the thousand coins by which sums of money were commonly reckoned.  Oppianicus had paid forty thousand for an acquittal, and Cluentius outbid him with fifty thousand ("less than fifty-three”) to secure a verdict of guilty.  But whatever we may think of the guilt or innocence of Cluentius, there can be no doubt that the cause in which Cicero defended him was one of the most interesting ever tried in Rome.