person
Chelidonis
also: Chelidon, Chelidon's bed
Chelidon, the celebrated meretrix of Rome who exercised extraordinary influence over Verres during his urban praetorship of 74 BC; clients were said to consult her as a kind of unofficial assessor and her bedchamber was a court of appeal. She is held up by Cicero throughout Verr. 2.1 and 2.2 as the emblem of Verres's degeneracy and at Verr. 2.2.24 had been hostess to the elder Servilia.
Reading notes
- Against Verres, Second Hearing, Book I §104 Chelidon's bed
auspicato e Chelidonis cubiculo: the joke is sharp. "Auspicato" inverts the magistrate's pious morning consultation of the auspices: Verres rose with auspices not from the templum but from his courtesan's bedroom. The whole praetorship is figured as conducted under her sign.