This volume contains the explanatory sections of Cicero's speech Pro Cluentio - the defence in a particularly lurid murder case set in the northern Italian provincial town of Larinum. It forms an admirable introduction to the reading of Golden Latin prose. As narrative exposition it is in the clear, lucid style of Cicero's early career. 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.

This is the OCR-endorsed publication from Bloomsbury for the Latin AS and A-Level (Group 1) prescription of Cicero's Pro Cluentio, sections 1–7 and 10–11, and the A-Level (Group 2) prescription of sections 27–32 and 35–37, giving full Latin text, commentary and vocabulary, with a detailed introduction that also covers the prescribed poems to be read in English for A Level. In 66 BC, Aulus Cluentius Habitus was tried for the attempted murder of Statius Albius Oppianicus the Elder. The prosecutor was Sassia, Cluentius' own mother. Marcus Tullius Cicero, the famous statesman, orator and lawyer, defended Cluentius in his Pro Cluentio, a persuasive oratorical tour de force. The selections in this edition prove that Cicero was not above using character assassinations in his speeches, first attacking Oppianicus the Elder, then Sassia in a vivid, melodramatic narrative which distracts and diverts the jury from Cluentius' alleged crimes. Resources are available on the Companion Website.