RUFUS V SILVIA – LUCIUS BRUTUS

Marcus Iunius Silanus had been a regular figure in the courts - it helped to keep his name in the minds of the populace. As he was now preparing for a run at Consul, however, he did not seem to have his usual concentration and focus on the matter at hand. Thus, in a rather haphazard manner, he called forth the case of Rufus v. Silvia.

"Lucius Junius! Present your case immediately, before you and your opposition leave the city!"

“Citizens of Rome!” Lucius Brutus exclaimed. “The case that brings us here today is one of witchcraft. My client, Rufus, is a well to do Pater Familias, a Roman landowner as hundreds of thousands others, accuses this woman here, Silvia, of putting a curse on him and his farm – a quite peculiar case we have today.”

“The stories of witches are as old as the world itself. From Homer we hear of Ulysses and his twenty years long journeys to return to his house and homeland, Ithaca; on one stop of his journey we hear of a woman so powerful and terrible that he turned every man who set foot on her island to swine – her name was Circe. There the sorceress seduced Ulysses and detained him from returning home, staying there a year as her minion and lover. Also, from the Greeks as well, we here of the sorceress Medea, who abandoned from Jason, the future King of Argos, for the daughter of Corinth’s King, Glauce, poisoned the girl by sending her a golden dress, cursed Jason and thereafter killed her children by him and some poets claim that she was responsible for the stern of Argo – his ship on many dangers - that fell on Jason, causing his death as he was sleeping beneath it. And there’s Dido, the Queen of Carthage and Lover of Aeneas, a sorceress as some claim as well, tied our Forefather to her bed; but when Aeneas decides that he has a destiny to fulfill and leaves the African shore, Dido curses him and his descendants and ask the Horrid Gods to never allow peace between Troy’s descendants – Rome – and Carthage and commits suicide to seal the curse with the strongest contract, a curse that was realized after three bloody wars with Carthage. Murder, curses, spells and disaster is what these women profession, gentlemen!”

“But Citizens do not be fooled that witchcraft is only existent in fairy-tales! Nearly ninety-one years ago, on the fifth hundred and fifty third year since our glorious city’s construction here on the Seven Hills of Rome, the mystical arts of witchcraft and sorcery entered our Society from the rural Etruria. Not far from here, Citizens, on the Aventine Hill women who could engage with their incantations the minds of men to either be brought to peace and pleasure or heavy burden, women who could stop the flows of rivers and change the courses of stars, women who concerted with the Gods Below and summoned the nocturnal ghosts, held their mystical rites of salutations to Hecate and Bacchus. Playing the drums and cymbals while conceding in every debauched act, not only limited in sexual intercourses between the female participants but also internal murder through poisoning and stabbing in some foreign ritual procession; the cries for help for those being murdered were concealed by the noise made from the cymbals and the drums, their bodies disposed so that the murdered could not be buried by their families.”

“It took a Senatus Consultum during the forth hundred and fifty eighth year since our City was constructed, the famous Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, to openly ban the gathering of the witches on the Aventine Hill after a plot to destroy the State was discovered by Consul Postumius from some private citizen’s, who was called Aebustius, freedwoman, Hispala. Now, Citizens, you can see why this case in front of us is so important. A woman, Silvia, is accused of putting a curse on my client, Rufus. The Prosecution intends to prove that the allegations of witchcraft are valid.”

“My client, gentlemen of the Jury, is a landowner of two hundred iugera – not a large but a decent lot for any Roman. He claims that at an occasion Silvia passed through his farm and instantly the milk of all his cattle became sour. On another occasion, Rufus says that his cattle began to fall down and die only to discover Silvia being close on his farm. Now, I have already conducted investigation about the matter of the well-being of the cattle and Rufus’ neighbors claim that his cattle were decently looked after; there were mostly healthy with the casual one or two sickly ones found in every farmer’s herd – in fact I have the written testimonies over here.” Brutus said and provided the testimonies to the Jury.

“Now, as you can understand, cattle neither produce sour milk nor they die as simple as that. A healthy cow produces fine milk, that much is true and well-known; so, for all his cattle to start producing sour milk at the simple presence of Silvia near the farm, there can be no other explanation other that the farm is under some supernatural power, cause most likely from some curse. Rufus, as it is natural, has been collecting his cattle’s milk for years. It was though with awe that he discovered his milk turned sour for the first time in his life, when she was standing close to the cattle. Also, as I said earlier, cattle don’t just die; even if the sickly ones died, it is highly improbable that all cattle died off simultaneously at the passing of Silvia, were they not under her curse. It is well known that for the curse to work, the caster must be in close vicinity with the victim and objective of the curse, something that explains both why the cattle firstly produced sour milk and then died when Silvia was close to the farm as well as the reason for her presence at Rufus’ farm.”

“Now, as this wasn’t enough for Silvia, she seduced Rufus’ young son as well, the coupling of whom left young Rufus with an, admittedly embarrassing affliction in his genitalia. I beg the Iudex to allow to present this evidence to the Jury alone so that the decent women amongst the audience aren’t presented with this sight” Lucius Brutus said. At the curving nod of the Iudex, Brutus had young Rufus to raise his toga just enough to expose his affliction to the Jury.

“What you see, gentlemen, is the outcome of Silvia’s seduction of young Rufus, a coupling which she does not deny; she simply claims that the boy seduced her and not the other way around! Of course the young boy is trained in the art of seduction to manage Silvia – he must have been the one to seduce; that is what she claims. I ask you though, members of the Jury. Who would profit from the seduction? The boy who is too young to properly make love to a woman and who must have been warned by his Father about Silvia’s curse and her danger or Silvia who is alleged to wanting to destroy young Rufus’ father? What better way is there than to seduce Rufus’ only son and heir and make a minion out of him?”

“Members of the Jury, the defendant’s advocate will try to paint Silvia as a poor woman who is picked on by Rufus. That isn’t true! Rufus has nothing to win by bringing Silvia to the courts; he is well situated in his farm and cannot possibly have ambitions to expand his holdings to Silvia’s farm simply because the land is of her Father’s, not hers! Rufus brought Silvia to justice only because he was damaged from her curse and demands that the wrong is rectified.”

“The defendant’s advocate will also try to prove that Rufus’s son seduced her. I repeat that Rufus’s son had no reason to seduce such a dangerous woman and he was most certainly aware of the strange things going on to his Father’s farmland as well. As the highest proof, look at the boy’s affliction again; does your nether parts turn like this whenever you couple with your wife or other? The boy’s affliction must be the outcome of some foul power’s and that is proof alone that Silvia, who coupled with young Rufus, is a witch!”

“Gentlemen of the court, I rest my case.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OOC: The details on the witches and their practises are taken from Livy, Ovid and Horace.