You have said that an injury was done by the family of my client to Cnaeus Decius, a Samnite;
 him I mean who was proscribed, in his calamity. He was never treated by any one more liberally
 than by Cluentius. It was the riches of Cluentius that relieved him in his distresses; and he
 himself, and all his friends and relations, know it well. You have said “that his stewards
 offered violence to and assaulted the shepherds of Ancarius and Pacenus.” When some dispute (as
 is often the case) had arisen in the hills between the shepherds, the stewards of Habitus
 defended the property and private possessions of their master. The parties expostulated with one
 another, the cause was proved to the satisfaction of the others, and the matter was settled
 without any trial or any recourse to law. You have said,
 “when a relation of Publius Aelius had been disinherited by his will, this man, who was no
 relation of his, was declared his heir.” Publius Aelius acted so from his knowledge of Habitus's
 merit. He was not present at the making of the will, and that will was signed by Oppianicus as a
 witness. You have said, “that he refused to pay Florius a legacy bequeathed to him in the will.”
 That is not the case; but as thirty sesterces had been written instead of three hundred, and as
 it did not appear to him to have been very carefully worded, he only wished him to consider what
 he received as due to his liberality. He first denied that the money was legally due, but,
 having done so, he then paid it without any dispute. You have said, “that the wife of a certain
 Samnite named Caelius was, after the war, recovered from Cluentius.” He had bought the woman as
 a slave from the brokers; but the moment that he heard that she was a free woman he restored her
 to Caelius without any action. You have said, “that there is
 a man named Ennius, whose property Habitus is in possession of.” This Ennius is a needy man, a
 bumper-up of false accusations, a hired tool of Oppianicus; who for many years remained quiet;
 then at last he accused a slave of Habitus of theft; lately, he began to claim things from
 Habitus himself. By that private proceeding, he will not (believe me), though we may perhaps be
 his advocates, escape calumny. And also, as it is reported to us, you suborn an entertainer of
 many guests, a certain Aulus Binnius, an innkeeper on the Latin road, to say that violence was
 offered to him in his own tavern by Aulus Cluentius and his slaves. But about that man I have no
 need at present to say anything. If he invited them, as is commonly the case, we will treat the
 man so as to make him sorry for having gone out of his way. 
 You have now, O judges, everything which the prosecutors,
 after eight years' meditation, have been able to collect against the morals of Aulus Cluentius
 during his whole life, the man whom they state to be so hated and unpopular. Charges how
 insignificant in their kind! how false in their facts! how briefly replied to! Learn now this, which has a reference to your oath, which belongs to your tribunal, which is a
 burden the law has imposed on you, in accordance with which you have assembled here,—the law, I
 mean, about accusations of poison; so that all may understand in how few words this cause may be
 summed up, and how many things have been said by me which had a great deal to do with the
 inclination of my client, but very little with your decision. 
 It has been urged in the case for the prosecution, that
 Caius Vibius Capax was taken off by poison by this Aulus Cluentius. It happens very seasonably
 that a man is present, endowed with the greatest good faith, and with every virtue, Lucius
 Plaetorius, a senator, who was connected by ties of hospitality with, and was an intimate friend
 of that man Capax. He used to live with him at Rome ; it
 was in his house that he was taken in, in his house that he died. “But Cluentius is his heir.” I
 say that he died without a will, and that the possession of his property was given by the
 praetor's edict to this man, his sister's son, a most virtuous young man, and one held in the
 highest esteem for honourable conduct, Numerius Cluentius, who is present in court.