Pro Caelio 38

Huic tristi ac derecto seni responderet Caelius se nulla cupiditate inductum de via decessisse.

To this grim and forthright old man Caelius would reply that he had not been led away by any passion and departed from the [right] path.

Quid signi? Nulli sumptus, nulla iactura, nulla versura.

What proof? No lavish expenditure, no squandering, no borrowing.

At fuit fama.

But there was a rumour.

Quotus quisque istam effugere potest in tam maledica civitate?

How few people can avoid that sort of thing, especially in such a slanderous city?

Vicinum eius mulieris miraris male audisse, cuius frater germanus sermones iniquorum effugere non potuit?

Are you amazed that the neighbour of that woman, whose [=Clodia’s] own brother could not avoid the gossip of unfair people, has gained a bad reputation?

Leni vero et clementi patre, cuius modi ille est:

In fact, to a lenient and merciful father of which sort that man is:

Fores ecfregit, restituentur; discidit

Vestem, resarcietur,

He has broken the doors, they will be repaired;

He has torn his garment, it will be mended,

Caeli causa est expeditissima. Quid enim esset, in quo se non facile defenderet?

Caelius’ case is very uncomplicated. For what [charge] could there be in which he could not defend himself easily?

Nihil iam in istam mulierem dico; sed, si esset aliqua dissimilis istius, quae se omnibus pervolgaret, quae haberet palam decretum semper aliquem, cuius in hortos, domum,

I am not saying anything at this time against that woman; but, if there were someone quite unlike that woman who made herself available to everyone, who always had someone she had openly decided upon, into whose gardens, home,

Baias iure suo libidines omnium commearent, quae etiam aleret adulescentes et parsimoniam patrum suis sumptibus sustentaret;

Baiae the lusts of all men came and went as they please, who even kept young men and kept in check their fathers’ stinginess with her own expenditures;

si vidua libere, proterva petulanter, dives effuse, libidinosa meretricio more viveret, adulterum ego putarem, si quis hanc paulo liberius salutasset?

if as a widow she lived freely, as a bold woman shamelessly, as a rich woman extravagantly, as a lustful woman in the manner of prostitutes, would I have considered him an adulterer if any man had greeted this woman a little too freely?