The translation is by N.H. Watts (1931), and includes an appendix containing extracts from Asconius' commentary on the speech. Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each section. Click on ** to go to the translator's footnotes.
[25.] L [67] It has been established that these are nothing but groundless and treacherous fables; and yet, if Milo is still an object of dread, it is no longer the charge with reference to Clodius's death which frightens us - no, it is you, Pompeius, - I address you personally, in tones that may clearly catch your ear, - you, I say, and your suspicions it is that make us quake with dread. If you fear Milo, if you believe that my client is now meditating or has ever framed infamous designs upon your life, if the levies of Italy - as some of your recruiting-officers have asserted - if these arms, if the cohorts of the Capitol, if watches and sentries, if the picked stalwarts who guard your person and your house, have been armed to withstand the assaults of Milo, and if all this was devised, purposed, directed against my client alone - then surely there are attributed to him an energy and an astounding courage, a strength and a resource, that are beyond any single man, if indeed the most eminent of generals has been selected and the whole commonwealth armed to cope with him and him alone. [68] But who does not understand that everything everywhere in the state that is ailing or enfeebled has been put in your charge so that you might by these weapons bring it relief and support? As for Milo, had he been granted the opportunity, he would assuredly have proved to your own satisfaction that never had man been dearer to fellow-man than you to himself, that never had he shunned any danger that might be involved by the vindication of your preeminence, that again and again he had entered the lists in defence of your credit against that foul plague-spot; that his tribunate had, under your advice, been directed to that restoration of myself which you had held so dear; that later he had himself been defended by you when his civil privileges were in danger, and had by you been assisted in his candidature for the praetorship ; that he had hoped ever to possess two most sure friends - you, because of your good offices to him, me, because of his own to me. Should he appear to fail in making good this claim; should your suspicions prove to be so deeply engrained in your mind as to be ineradicable ; should Italy never bid fair to have repose from levies or the city from arms save through Milo's downfall, - then assuredly would he without hesitation have obeyed the dictates of his nature and his training and departed from his fatherland; and yet it is to you, whom we name Great, that he would first appeal, even as he does now :-
[26.] L [69] "Mark," he would exclaim, "how full of change and diversity is life's course, how wayward and wanton is fortune, what faithlessness is rife among friends, what time-serving hypocrisies, what desertions and faint-heartedness between loved ones in the hour of danger! Surely, surely a time will come, and a morning shall one day dawn, when you, not, as I hope, by reason of any diminution of your own estate, but peradventure by reason of some upheaval in public affairs (and experience should have taught us how often such occur), shall sigh in vain for the affection of a faithful friend and the loyalty of a true heart and the magnanimity of one whose valour has no equal in human history !"
[70] And yet who is likely to believe that Gnaeus Pompeius, a past-master in constitutional law, historical precedent, and political usage, when the Senate had charged him to "see that the Commonwealth take no harm" ** - the little phrase that has ever given the consuls all the arms they need, though no weapons have been put into their hands, - that such a man, I say, when an army and a power of levy had been given to him, was likely to have waited for the issue of a trial at law to execute vengeance on the designs of one who by violence aimed at abolishing law? What clearer intimation do we need from Pompeius that these slanders against Milo are false than his proposal of a law which, as I think, makes it your duty to acquit Milo, and which, as all admit, gives you leave to do so? [71] And surely the fact that he sits in yonder place, hedged about by the protection of an official bodyguard, is sufficient proof that he is not intimidating you, - for how could he demean himself more than by compelling you to condemn one whom he himself was empowered both by precedent and by prerogative to punish ? - but that these are purely protective measures, enabling you to realise that, despite yesterday's mass meeting, ** it is open to you to return an untrammelled verdict in accordance with your opinions. **
[27.] L [72] Nor, gentlemen, am I disturbed by the charge in connexion with Clodius; I am not so stupid, so blindly insensitive, to your feelings, as to be ignorant of your attitude with regard to Clodius's death. If I had to-day no disposition to refute this charge, as I have related it, Milo might still be permitted to avow it openly, and to glory in the lie. "Yes," he might cry, "it is I, I who have slain not a Spurius Spurius Maelius, who, by lowering the price of corn and sacrificing his wealth, fell under suspicion of aiming at tyranny, because he seemed to court the populace over much; not a Tiberius Gracchus, who unconstitutionally deposed a colleague ** from his office, and whose slayers filled the whole world with the glory of their name; but a man" (for he would dare to say this when at his own risk he had freed his country) "whose monstrous adultery upon the holy couches had been detected by high-born ladies; [73] a man whose punishment the Senate repeatedly declared to be necessary to cleanse the state from pollution; a man who, as Lucius Lucullus stated on oath that he had ascertained after an investigation, had committed foul incest with his own sister ; a man who by the weapons of slaves had expatriated a citizen whom the Senate, the people of Rome, and all nations had declared to be the preserver of the city and the life of the citizens; a man who had bestowed and taken away thrones, ** and allotted the world to whomsoever he wished ; a man who, after working many a deed of carnage in the forum, had by armed violence driven within his own doors a citizen of peerless valour and renown; a man who considered no evil deed, no impure desire, as sinful; a man who set fire to the temple of the Nymphs, ** that he might erase the national records of the censor's registration that were printed in the national rolls ; [74] a man, in fine, who had ceased to regard statute, law, or landmark; who laid claim to the estates of others not by the chicanery of litigation, not by illegal titles and securities, but by camps, armies, and standards advanced ; who attempted by armed troops to drive from their lands not merely the Etruscans - them he had come utterly to despise - but that excellent and gallant citizen Publius Varius, who sits upon our bench; who ranged with architects and measuring-rods among the villas and gardens of many; who had fixed the Janiculum and the Alps as the bounds of his prospective possessions; who, having failed to persuade the brave and distinguished Roman knight Marcus Paconius to sell him an island in Lake Prilius, suddenly conveyed in boats to that island timber, lime, stone and sand, and who, while the owner gazed from across the water at the scene, did not hesitate to erect a dwelling upon another's site ; [75] who told Titus Furfanius (a true man, if you will !) - I say nothing here of that poor lady Scantia or of young Publius Apinius; he threatened both of these with death if they did not vacate their mansions in his favour - yes, he had the face to tell Furfanius that if he did not give him the amount, whatever it was, that he asked for, he would introduce a corpse into his house, a scandal by which so respected a man must have been undone; who in his absence forcibly debarred from the possession of his manor Appius his brother, a man linked to myself by loyal affection ; and who was bent on carrying a wall and laying a foundation through his sister's fore-court in such a way as not only to prohibit his sister from the fore-court, but from all approach and entry.
[28.] L [76] Still, such acts as these came to be looked on as endurable, in spite of the impartiality of his assaults upon the state, upon individuals, upon those at hand and those at a distance, those who were his kith and kin and those who were not ; but, I know not how, through use and wont the amazing forbearance of the community had become case-hardened and callous. But as to what was imminent and impending, how could you have averted or endured that? Had he obtained a military power - I say nothing of the allies, foreign nations, kings, tetrarchs ; for you would have been praying for him to launch himself upon them rather than upon 1 lands, your dwellings, your wealth : wealth, do I say ? never, I swear it, would he have restrained his unbridled lusts from your children and your wives. Think you that these are mere fancies? They are plain, universally known, established facts. Do you think it fancy that he meant to have levied in the city armies of slaves, to enable him to make himself master of the whole state and the private possessions of all? [77] Wherefore, if Titus Annius were to raise aloft his bloody sword, and cry, "Stand by me, fellow-citizens, and hearken! I have slain Publius Clodius! With this blade and this right hand have I warded from your necks the frenzy of one whom we could no longer restrain by any laws or courts, so that it might be through me alone that justice, equity, law, liberty, honour, and decency might yet dwell amongst us ! " - he would, I suppose, have cause for apprehension ** how his fellow-citizens might take it! For, as things are, who is there who withholds his approbation, nay, his praise, and who does not declare, and at the same time believe, that Titus Annius stands unrivalled as the greatest public benefactor in history, who has shed joy unparalleled upon the Roman people, all Italy, and all nations ? I am not in a position to appraise the historic hours of triumph of the Roman people; howbeit our age has witnessed not a few brilliant victories won by great generals ; but none of these inspired a joy that was so lasting or so great. [78] Bear this well in mind, gentlemen. I trust that you and your children will live to see many blessings under a free government; but as you take each several blessing, reflect that had Publius Clodius lived you would have lived to see none of them. We venture to entertain high and, as I confidently trust, well-grounded hopes that this very year, under our present great consul, when the licence of men has been checked, passions broken, and law and justice firmly based, will be fraught with happiness to the community. Is there anyone so insane as to dream that this happiness could have fallen to us with Publius Clodius still living ? Nay, more. The private property that you each individually possess - what right of lasting tenure could it have conferred under the sway of a lunatic? [29.] L I have no fear, gentlemen, lest I should be thought, in the heat of personal animosity, to give vent to this attack upon Clodius with greater relish than respect for truth. For indeed, extreme as my hatred could not fail to be, so far was he the general enemy of all, that it scarce rose above the common average of hatred. It is impossible to express in words or even to form a conception of all the guilt, all the capacity for destruction, that were in him. [79] Nay, look at it in this way : this inquiry deals, as you know, with the death of Publius Clodius. Picture to your minds - for thought is free and can conjure up what it desires, just as we discern actual objects with our eyes - picture, I say, in imagination this alternative I offer you : suppose I could induce you to acquit Milo, but only on condition that Publius Clodius shall have come to life again. Why those terrified glances? What feelings would he inspire in you if he lived, seeing that when he lives no more he has appalled you with a baseless fancy? Again, if Gnaeus Pompeius himself, whose character and fortune is such that he has ever been able to achieve what none else could achieve - if he, I say, had had the choice between proposing an inquiry into Clodius's death and calling him back from the dead, which, think you, would he have chosen? Even had he been desirous for friendship's sake of summoning him from the dead, for the commonwealth's sake he would have refrained from doing so. You sit here, then, to avenge the death of one to whom you would refuse to restore life, even did you think you had the power; and a law has been proposed for an inquiry into his slaying, though, could he by the same law have been brought back to life, that law would never have been proposed. If then my client was the slayer of such a man as this, could he, in admitting the deed, fear punishment at the hands of the very persons whom he had delivered ?
[80] The Greeks accord divine honours to those men who have slain despots. What sights have I seen at Athens and in other cities of Greece! ** What religious rites ordained in their honour! What magnificent musical compositions and odes! Their worship reaches almost to the observance and commemoration proper to immortal beings. And will you, so far from bestowing any distinctions upon the preserver of a great nation and the avenger of a great crime, even suffer him to be haled hence to a felon's death ? Had he done the deed, he would confess - ay, confess proudly and gladly - that he had done for the sake of the general liberty a deed that he might well not confess merely, but cry from the house-tops.
[30.] L [81] And indeed if he does not deny an act ** from which he seeks for nothing save pardon for having done it, would he hesitate to confess a deed for which he might well expect praise as a reward? Unless we are to suppose that he thinks it more gratifying to you that he should have been the defender of his own life than of yours, and that too though, in making the confession, he would attain, if you chose to be duly grateful, to the highest of honours. If his deed should fail to win your approval - though how can any man not approve of what has been his salvation ? - still, if the valour of a courageous gentleman should fail of the grateful recognition of his countrymen, then he would pass, proudly and unflinchingly, from his thankless country. For what greater depth of ingratitude could there be than that the community at large should rejoice, while he to whom the community owes its rejoicing should mourn alone ?
[82] And yet this has ever been the feeling of all of us, when there were traitors against our country to be crushed, that, since ours was to be the glory, ours also should be the peril and the shame. For what praise should I myself have earned a right to expect, for having dared so much in my consulship for yourselves and your children, had I thought that the venture would not involve a terrible struggle to myself? What woman even would not venture to slay a wicked and mischievous citizen, were there no danger for her to fear? He who, with shame, death, and penalties staring him in the face, yet hangs not back from the defence of the commonwealth, he surely is the true hero. It is for a grateful nation to heap rewards upon public benefactors ; it is for the brave man to be moved not even by a felon's death to regret his noble deed. [83] Wherefore Titus Annius would resort to the same confession as was resorted to by Ahala, by Nasica, by Opimius, by Marius, and by myself, and, if the state showed due gratitude, joy would be his; but if ingratitude, still in his hard fate he would find support in the secret knowledge of his own heart.
But for this blessing, gentlemen, the fortune of the Roman people, your own happy star, and the immortal gods claim your gratitude. Nor indeed can any man think otherwise, unless there be any who thinks that there is no such thing as divine power and control, who is not stirred by the greatness of our empire or by yonder sun or the march of the constellations in the sky or by nature's round of ordered change or (last and greatest) by the wisdom of our ancestors, who themselves paid strict observance to worship and rites and auspices, and have handed them on to us their descendants.
[31.] L [84] Assuredly such a power does exist; nor can it be that while in the frail fabric of our bodies there is a Something which energises and which feels, yet that Something does not exist in the vast and glorious workings of nature; unless perchance they think otherwise just because it does not offer itself to the view or to the sight ; as though, in our own case, we could see that very mind to which we owe sense and foresight and the action and the speech of every moment, or could be cognisant of its nature and its seat. Wherefore it is this very power, which has often shed upon this city wealth and blessing beyond all expectation, that now has uprooted and abolished this scourge, having first roused such a mood in him that he dared to provoke with violence and challenge with the sword the bravest of men, and so was vanquished by one over whom, had he won the victory, he stood fair to enjoy impunity and licence for all time.
[85] It was by no device of man, nay, not even by any ordinary providence of the immortal gods, gentlemen, that the great result was achieved. Surely those sacred places ** which witnessed the monster's fall must have bestirred themselves and asserted their rights in his ruin. For to you now, hills and groves of Alba, to you, I say, I appeal and pray; and to you, ruined altars of the folk of Alba, partners and coevals with the religion of the Roman people - altars which that headstrong desperado, after hewing down and levelling the most hallowed groves, had buried beneath the insensate fabric of his underground buildings. It was your altars and your sanctities that put forth on that day their strength ; yours was the might, polluted by him by every stain, that prevailed. And it was you on your lofty hill, Jupiter Latiaris, ** whose lakes, woods, and enclosures he had often defiled with all manner of foul impurity and crime, who at last opened your eyes to punish him. It was to you, to you all, and beneath your gaze, that the retribution, long-delayed but just and due, was paid - [86] unless we are to suppose that this too was due to chance, that it was before the very chapel of the Good Goddess, that stands on the estate of the worthy and accomplished young man Titus Sertius Gallus, before, I say, the Good Goddess herself, that he entered the fray and fell beneath that first wound that ushered him to a revolting death, proving that, by that scandalous court, he had been not acquitted, but reserved for this exemplary doom.
[32.] L And assuredly it was the self-same anger of the gods that inspired his minions with such a spirit of madness that, without portraits ** or music or games, without procession, mourners, panegyric, or any funeral rites, besmeared with blood and clay, robbed of the solemnity that should attend that closing scene, and before which even foes are wont to make way, he was tossed into the street and charred in the flame ! Heaven, I think, did not suffer that the faces of famous men should lend a dignity to that foul murderer, or that in death he should be mangled in any spot save that wherein in life he had been condemned.
[87] I had begun, upon my honour, to think that the Fortune that watches over the Roman people was pitiless and cruel, in that for so many years she had suffered this man to trample upon the commonwealth. He had polluted by unchastity the most hallowed sanctities ; he had ridden rough-shod over the most solemn decrees of the Senate; he had brazenly bought himself off from the juries that were to try him ; he had harassed the Senate in his tribunate ; he had cancelled measures that had been taken for the security of the commonwealth, and which were endorsed by the consent of all the orders ; me he had banished from my country, plundered my property, burned my house, persecuted my children and my wife; against Gnaeus Pompeius he had declared an unholy war. He had wrought the massacre of magistrates and private citizens ; he had burned the house of my brother ; he had laid waste Etruria ; he had evicted many from their dwellings and their possessions. He was pressing hot-foot upon his purpose. The State, Italy, the provinces, the subject-kingdoms could not contain his mad ambitions. Even then, laws were being engraved at his house which were to make us over to our own slaves. ** There was no property of anyone which, when once he had set his fancy upon it, he did not think would be his own within the year. His schemes were barred by none save Milo. [88] The great man who had the power to bar them was, as he thought, bound as it were hand and foot by a recent reconciliation; he asserted that Caesar's influence was at his own disposal; in working my downfall he had set at naught the feelings of patriots ; Milo alone dogged his steps.
[33.] L Then it was that the immortal gods, as I remarked a while ago, instilled into his reckless and desperate brain the thought of laying a plot against my client. Not otherwise could that plague have perished ; never by the exercise of its own powers would the state have taken public vengeance on him. The Senate, ** I suppose, would have kept him in bounds when praetor! Not even when it was accustomed so to act had it effected anything even when he was a private citizen. [89] Or would the consuls have been resolute to check him as praetor? But in the first place, had Milo been slain, he would have had consuls ** who were his own creatures ; and secondly, what consul could have dealt resolutely with the praetor, remembering that it was he who, as tribune, had cruelly persecuted consular merit? He would have set the world beneath his heel, and to-day he would be in possession and enjoyment of it. By an amazing law which was discovered at his house along with the rest of the Clodian programme, he would have made our slaves his own freedmen ** ; and finally, had the immortal gods not launched him upon the impulse of attempting, effeminate creature that he was, to slay a very gallant gentleman, your free constitution would be to-day a thing of the past. [90] Had he been praetor, ay, and consul too, if these temples and these very walls could have stood so long, while he lived, and could have awaited the coming of his consulship - nay, had he been alive at all, is it to be thought that he would have done no mischief, seeing that after death, under the leadership of one poor minion of his, Sextus Clodius, he burned the Senate-house? ** What have we witnessed more pitiable, more heart-breaking, more ghastly than this? The shrine of holiness, of majesty, of intellect, of public policy, the head of the city, the sanctuary of our allies, the haven of all races, the dwelling-place accorded to a single order by the whole people - burned, razed, desecrated ! and so treated not by an ignorant mob (though even that would have been pitiable enough) but by a single man! If a mere body-burner dared so much for a dead man's sake, what would he not have dared as standard-bearer for the sake of the living man? He chose to toss the body into the Senate-house of all places, in order that he might burn in death what in life he had overthrown !
[91] And there are those who whine about "the Appian Way," yet hold their peace about the Senate-house ! And who think that the forum could have been defended while he yet breathed, whose mere carcass the Senate-house could not oppose! Rouse him, rouse the man as we knew him, if you can, from the dead ! scarce can you grapple with the demon of his unburied remains, and will you break the onset of the living will? Unless, indeed, you bore the onset of those who ran with torches to the Senate-house, and with picks to the temple of Castor, and who swaggered with swords throughout the length and breadth of the forum! You have seen the Roman people massacred, a public meeting broken up at the sword's point, though a silent hearing was being given to Marcus Caelius, tribune of the plebs, a most resolute statesman, a staunch upholder of any cause that he embraced, a devoted champion of patriotic aims and senatorial authority, and, in Milo's present peculiarly odious position - or, if you will, in his peculiarly happy one - a man of superhuman and amazing loyalty.
[34.] L [92] But I have now said enough about the case itself; about what lies outside it perhaps too much. What is left, save that I should beg and implore you, gentlemen, to extend to this brave man that mercy which he himself does not beg, but which I, in spite of his protests, both beg and demand. Do not, if amid the tears of us all you have beheld not a single tear of Milo's, if you see him with unchanging countenance and with accents and tones steady and unfaltering - do not for this reason turn away your pity. Nay, I am not sure that he does not need your succour far the more. For if in gladiatorial combats, where the fate of the lowest class of mankind is concerned, it is natural in us even to dislike the quaking suppliant who craves permission to live, while we are anxious to save the courageous and spirited who hotly fling themselves on death, and pity more those who look not for our pity than those who importune us for it, how much the rather should we do this when it is for gallant citizens we do it ?
[93] For myself, gentlemen, all life and spirit is taken out of me by those words of Milo which ring ever in my ears and amid which I daily move: "Farewell!" he cries, "farewell, my fellow-citizens ! Security, success, prosperity be theirs! Long may this city, my beloved fatherland, remain glorious, however ill she may have treated me! May my countrymen rest in full and peaceful enjoyment of their constitution, an enjoyment from. which, since I may not share it, I shall stand aloof, but which none the less is owed to myself! I shall pass and go hence. If it shall not be mine to live under good government, at least I shall be saved from bad, and in the first well-ordered and free community where I shall set foot, there I shall find repose. [94] Alas! that I must see my labours wasted, my hopes disappointed, my dreams unrealised! When the constitution lay in the dust, and I, as tribune of the plebs, had put myself at the disposal of the Senate, whom I had found annihilated, of the Roman knights, whose power was weakened, of all true men, who had abrogated all their influence in consequence of the arms of Clodius, could I have dreamed that I should ever lack the support of patriots? When I had given you back to your country"- such is his constant strain - "could I have dreamed that there would ever in that country be no room for me? Where now is the Senate, whose adherents we have been? Where," he asks, "are your Roman knights? Yes, where are they? Where is the eager support of the free towns? Where is the voice of Italy ? Where in fine, Marcus Tullius, where is your eloquent advocacy, that has brought aid to so many ? Is it to me alone, that have so often bared my breast to death for your sake, that it can lend no aid ? "
[35.] L [95] But it is not with tears in his eyes, as I speak now, that he says this, gentlemen, but with the same countenance that you see him wear at this moment. For he ardently denies that what he did was done for citizens without gratitude; but he does not deny that it was done for citizens who were in deep anxiety and quaking in the midst of perils. As for the plebeians and the base mob which, under the leadership of Publius Clodius, was menacing your welfare, he reminds us that for your safety he did his best not only to control them by his high qualities, but also to use his three patrimonies as a means of mollifying them ; he has no misgiving lest, having appeased the plebeians with his shows, his extraordinary services to the state should have failed to win your favour. The goodwill of the Senate towards himself he says that he has often proved even in these recent dark days, while, whatever be the career that fate allots to him, the friendly greetings of yourselves and the orders you represent, your favour, and your kind words shall go hence with him. [96] He remembers too that the herald's announcement ** was all that was lacking to him, and of that he had no need at all; but that by the general vote of the people (and this was all he desired) he had been declared consul; he remembers, too, that now at last, even if the present proceedings are to be turned against himself, it is a suspicion of intrigue, and not a charge of crime that thwarts him. Furthermore he says, what is undoubtedly true, that it is the fashion of the brave and the wise to pursue not the rewards of noble action so much as noble action itself; that every phase of his career has been crowned with glory, if at least a man can perform no prouder task than the deliverance of his country from danger; that those are to be envied for whom such conduct has gained honour at the hands of their fellow-citizens, [97] and yet that those are not to be pitied who have outdone their fellow-citizens in public service; but notwithstanding, among all the rewards of virtue, if rewards must be taken into account, the noblest is glory; this alone is enough to compensate for life's brevity by the remembrance of future ages, to make us present in absence and alive in death ; that, in fine, it is glory upon whose ladder men seem even to scale heaven. [98] "Of me," he says, "shall the people of Rome and all nations ever speak, of me shall no far-off age ever cease to make mention. Nay, at this very time, though all my foes are laying their torches to the pyre of my infamy, still, wherever men are gathered together my name resounds in thanksgiving and congratulation in every conversation." I say nothing of the festivals, whether held or appointed to be held, in Etruria. It is now a hundred and two days, I believe, since Clodius perished. Wherever the bounds of the Roman Empire extend, not merely the tale, but the triumph of Milo's deed has penetrated. Wherefore he says, "I care not greatly where my body is, since in all lands the glory of my name lives and will ever find a home."
[36.] L [99] Such have been your words to me out of the hearing of these gentlemen; but these, in their hearing, are mine to you: "Yourself, indeed, I cannot praise enough for this your mood; but the more surpassing your qualities, the keener the grief I feel at our separation. Nor indeed, if you are torn from my side, have I the last solace of complaint left to me - the power of resentment against those who will have dealt me so sore a wound ; for it is not my foes who wil tear you from me, but my dearest friends - not those whom I have sometimes harmed, but those whom I have at all times helped." There is no pang, gentlemen, whereby you will ever so deeply sear my heart - though what pang can be so great as this ? - no, not even this present pang, as to make me forget the estimation in which you have ever held me. And if such forgetfulness has come upon you, or if you are affronted at aught that I have done, why is this not visited upon my head rather than upon Milo's? Life will have been a proud thing for me if any fate shall come upon me before I see so dire a blow. [100] Now there is but one solace that supports me - the thought that to you, Titus Annius, there is no service of love, zeal, or duty that I have failed to render. It was I who on our behalf courted the enmity of the great ; it was I who often exposed my person and my life to the weapons of your foes ; it was I who cringed a suppliant at many feet for you. I have staked my goods, my fortunes, and those of my children, to share alike in all that may betide you; in fine, upon this very day, if any violence awaits you, any life and death struggle, I claim it for myself. What yet remains ? What return can I make to you for your services to me, save that whatsoever fortune befalls you I should count it as my own? I shrink not, I am content ; and I implore you, gentlemen, either to crown the kindnesses you have bestowed upon me by acquitting my client, or to see that, if you deal him ruin, they will fall to nothing.
[37.] L [101] These tears cannot melt Milo ; he has a strength of mind beyond all belief. There is no exile, he thinks, save where virtue has no home ; death is our allotted end and not a penalty. Herein he shows the spirit that is natural to him ; but you, gentlemen - in what spirit will you deal with him ? Will you retain Milo's memory and cast forth his person? Is there any spot on earth than can more fitly welcome this noble heart than that which bade it beat? To you, to you I make my suit, gallant gentlemen, who have shed your blood in torrents for the common weal ; to you I appeal in the peril of an unconquered man and citizen, centurions and soldiers ; shall his great soul, not merely under your gaze but despite those arms that you bear and the protection you afford to this court, be banished, expelled, cast forth from this city ? [102] O the pity, O the misery of it ! You, Milo, were able with the aid of these gentlemen to call me back to my country ; and shall I, in spite of their aid, be unable to retain you in that country ? What answer shall I make to my children, who count you as a second father? What to you, Quintus my brother, who now are far away, but who shared wit me my hours of bitterness? Shall I say that I was unable to protect Milo's welfare by the aid of the same men who had enabled him to protect my own ** ? Unable in what a cause? A cause that all nations approved. Unable to protect him from whom? From those who found the most relief by the death of Publius Clodius. [103] And who was the intercessor? Myself. Why, what wicked thought did I entertain, what enormity did I commit, gentlemen, when I tracked down, laid bare, dragged into the light of day, and stamped out the symptoms of a universal calamity ? That is the head and fount of all the sorrows that have overwhelmed my friends and myself. Why did you desire my restoration? Was it that I might stand by and watch the banishment of those by whom I was restored ? Do not, I implore you, suffer my return to be made yet bitterer than my departure ; for how can I count myself restored, if I am to be torn from those to whom my restoration was due ?
[38.] L Would that the immortal gods had brought it about - forgive the wish, O my country ! - for I fear lest expressions that are dutiful to Milo's cause may be treasonable to you - would that Publius Clodius not merely lived, but were praetor, consul, ay, dictator, rather than that I should live to see that sight! [104] O ye immortal gods, a brave man indeed, and one whose life, gentlemen, you may well preserve! "Nay, nay!" he cries, " 'tis well that he has paid a penalty that he deserves; let me, if fate so ordains, submit to one that I deserve not !" Shall this man, born for his country, die anywhere save in that country, or, it may be, in that country's cause ? Will you retain the memorials of his heroism, and will you suffer no sepulchre for his body in all Italy ? Shall any man by his free vote banish from this city one whom, when banished by you, all cities will welcome to themselves?[105] O happy land, that shall give a haven to this hero! Ungrateful this, if it shall cast him forth ! Unhappy, if it shall lose him !
But no more. Indeed I can no longer speak for tears, and my client forbids that tears should plead his cause. I implore and beseech you, gentlemen, have the courage of your convictions in recording your votes. Your courage, justice, and honour will, believe me, meet with high approval from him who, in his choice of the jury, has fixed upon the best, the wisest, and the most brave.
[1.] L [30] This speech was delivered on April 8 in the third consulship of Gnaeus Pompeius. When the trial was proceeding, troops were posted in the forum and in all the temples adjoining, a fact which we learn not only from this speech and from historians, but also from the work which Cicero entitles 'On the Masters of Oratory' {De Optimo Genere Oratorum}.
T. Annius Milo, P. Plautius Hypsaeus, and Q. Metellus Scipio supported their candidature for the consulship not only by lavish and unashamed bribery but also by gangs of armed retainers. Between Milo and Clodius there was a bitter feud; Milo was Cicero's close friend and had devoted strenuous political efforts to his restoration, while P. Clodius cherished deadly hatred against Cicero after his return, and for this reason ardently supported Hypsaeus and Scipio against Milo. At Rome Milo and Clodius at the head of their gangs had often come to blows; both were equally determined, though Milo in the better cause. Moreover Milo was standing for the consulship, and Clodius for the praetorship, of the same year and Clodius fully realised that, with Milo as consul, his praetorship would be maimed.
[2.] L Then, when the consular elections had been long drawn out and could not be consummated by reason of these same desperate struggles between the candidates, [31] and for this reason in the month of January there were as yet neither consuls nor praetors, and the election-day was continually postponed by the same means as before; when Milo desired that the elections should be at once carried out, and was like to succeed in this, not only through the support of good patriots because he was opposing Clodius, but also by his generous largesse and great expenditure upon stage-plays and gladiatorial shows (on which Cicero tells us he had squandered three patrimonies ** ), while his rivals desired to postpone them, and for this reason Pompeius, Scipio's son-in-law, and Munatius, the tribune of the plebs, would not permit a motion to be brought before the Senate for the convoking of the patricians to nominate an interrex as was customary; on January 18 (for I think the official records and the speech itself, which agrees thereto, should rather be followed than Fenestella, who says January 19) Milo set out for Lanuvium, from which town he came and where he was dictator, for the purpose of nominating a flamen on the following day. He was met about the ninth hour a little beyond Bovillae by Clodius, who was returning from Aricia, and near a spot where is a shrine of the Good Goddess; for he had been addressing the citizens of Aricia. Clodius was riding on horseback. He was attended, as was the custom of travellers at that time, by about thirty lightly-equipped slaves armed with swords. There were besides with Clodius three friends of his, one a Roman knight, C. Causinius Schola, and two plebeian "new men," P. Pomponius and C. Clodius. Milo was riding in a carriage with his wife Fausta, a daughter of L. Sulla the dictator, and his friend M. Fufius. They were attended by a great array of slaves, [32] among whom were also gladiators, two of them well known, Eudamus and Birria. [3.] L These were going slowly at the rear of the column, and began a brawl with Clodius's slaves. Clodius looked back threateningly at the disturbance. and Birria transfixed him with a javelin. A pitched battle began, and several others of Milo's party ran up. The wounded Clodius was carried into a tavern near Bovillae. As soon as Milo learned that Clodius was wounded, realising that it would be more dangerous for himself should he survive, but that should he be slain it would be a great relief, even if a penalty should have to be faced, he ordered that he should be turned out of the tavern. The leader of his slaves was M. Fustenus. So the skulking Clodius was dragged forth and finished off with many wounds. Since Clodius's slaves had either been slain or, grievously wounded, were in hiding, his corpse was left in the road, until Sex. Tedius, a senator, who chanced to be returning from the country to the city, lifted it up and ordered that it should be taken in his litter to Rome; he himself returned to the place whence he had started. The body of Clodius reached the city before the first hour of the night, where it was placed in the fore-court of his house amid deep mourning, and surrounded by a great crowd of the lowest orders and of slaves. Anger at the deed was increased by Clodius's wife Fulvia, who displayed his wounds with uncontrolled lamenting. On the morrow's dawn an even greater crowd of the same nature gathered, and many well-known men were injured, among them C. Vibienus, a senator. Clodius's house stood on the Palatine, and had been bought from M. Scaurus a short while before. Thither hastened T. Munatius Plancus, brother to L. Plancus the orator, and Q. Pompeius Rufus, son of the daughter of Sulla the dictator, tribunes of the plebs, [33] and at their suggestion the ignorant mob carried off the nude and sandalled corpse to the forum, upon the bier as it was, so that its wounds might be seen, and laid it on the rostra. [4.] L Here in a mass meeting Plancus and Pompeius, who were supporting Milo's rivals, stirred up ill-feeling against Milo. The populace, with Sex. Clodius the scribe at their head, carried Clodius's body into the Senate-house, and set it on fire by means of the benches and tribunals and tables and volumes from the booksellers' shops; the flames set on fire the Senate-house itself, and the Basilica Porcia adjoining was damaged. The houses also of M. Lepidus the interrex (he had been appointed curule magistrate) and of the absent Milo were attacked by these same gangs of Clodius, who were later repulsed by volleys of arrows. They then took the fasces from the Couch of Libitina, ** and bore them to the house of Scipio and Hypsaeus, and thence to the gardens of Cn. Pompeius, hailing him now as consul, and now as dictator.
The burning of the Senate-house had stirred the indignation of the citizens considerably more deeply than the murder of Clodius. So Milo, who it was thought had gone into voluntary exile, reassured by the ill opinion into which his enemies had fallen, returned to Rome on the night of the burning of the Senate-house, and continued to stand for the consulship; furthermore he distributed openly a thousand asses to each voter according to his tribe. Some days later M. Caelius, tribune of the plebs, accorded him a mass meeting and himself pleaded his cause before the people. Each alleged that a plot had been laid by Clodius against Milo.
Meanwhile one interrex after another was appointed, but all were prevented from holding the consular elections [34] by the disturbances of the candidates and the same armed bands. So first a decree of the Senate was passed that the Interrex and the tribunes of the plebs and Cn. Pompeius, who was proconsul and near to the city, should "see to it that the commonwealth took no harm," and that Pompeius should hold a levy from all Italy. [5.] L He raised troops with great promptitude; and two young men, called alike Appius Claudius, the sons of C. Claudius who was brother to Clodius, and who for this reason sought vengeance for their uncle's death as if at the bidding of his brother their father, demanded before him that the slaves of Milo and of Fausta his wife should be produced for examination. The slaves of Milo and Fausta were also demanded by the two Valerii, Nepos and Leo, and L. Herennius Balbus. The slaves of P. Clodius and those of his companions were at the same time demanded by Caelius; and those of Hypeaeus and Pompeius by . . . ** Milo was supported by Q. Hortensius, M. Cicero, M. Marcellus, M. Calidius, M. Cato, and Faustus Sulla. Q. Hortensius briefly said that they who were demanded as being slaves were now free ; for after the recent affray Milo had manumitted them on the ground that they had saved his life. All this was done in the intercalary month. ** About thirty days after the slaying of Clodius, Q. Metellus Scipio joined issue with Q. Caepio in the Senate in the matter of Clodius's murder. The grounds of Milo's defence, he said, were false. . . . ** Clodius had gone of his own free will to address the senators of Aricia, and had set out with twenty-six slaves; Milo, though the Senate had not been dissolved till after the fourth hour, [35] had hurried to meet him with more than 300 slaves, and above Bovillae had attacked him off his guard upon the road; here P. Clodius had sustained three wounds and had been conveyed to Bovillae; the shop in which he had taken refuge had been stormed by Milo; Clodius had been taken out still breathing and had been slain upon the Appian Way, and as he was dying the ring had been taken from his finger; thereupon Milo, knowing that there was a young son of Clodius in his villa at Alba, had gone to the villa and had examined the slave Halicor by lacerating him limb by limb; he had murdered the bailiff and two other slaves; [6.] L eleven of the slaves of Clodius who had defended their master had been slain, while Milo had had only two wounded. For this reason Milo had on the next day manumitted the slaves who had helped him the most, and had distributed a thousand asses each to the people by their tribes in order to rebut the rumours concerning himself. It was alleged that Milo had sent to Cn. Pompeius, who was ardently supporting Hypsaeus because he had been his quaestor, and said that he was ready to stand down from his candidature for the consulship, should Pompeius so choose; Pompeius had answered that he urged none either to stand or to abstain from standing, nor would he interfere in the power or design or will of the Roman people. Then by means of C. Lucilius, who was a friend to Milo on account of his own friendship with M. Cicero, it was alleged that Pompeius had requested Milo not to bring odium upon him by asking his advice in the matter. Meanwhile, when the whisper was growing that Cn. Pompeius should be elected dictator, and that not otherwise could the ills of the state be allayed, [36] it seemed safer to the optimates that he should be elected consul without a colleague ; and when the matter had been discussed in the Senate, on a decree of the Senate moved by M. Bibulus, Pompeius was appointed consul by the interrex Servius Sulpicius four days before the Kalends of March in the intercalary month, and immediately entered upon his consulship. On the third day thereafter he moved the enactment of new laws. Two of these he promulgated by decree of the Senate; one concerning assault, under which he specifically included the affray upon the Appian Way and the burning of the Senate-house and the attack upon the house of M. Lepidus the interrex ; the other dealt with corruption, making the penalties more severe and the court formalities shorter. Each law enacted that the witnesses should first be heard, that then on one and the same day both the accuser and the defendant should conclude their pleading, two hours being assigned to the accuser and three to the defendant. M. Caelius, tribune of the plebs, an ardent supporter of Milo, endeavoured to oppose these laws, on the ground that a special law was being carried against Milo, and that trials were being hurried. When Caelius obstinately assailed the law, Pompeius went so far in wrath as to assert that if he were compelled he would defend the state by arms.
[7.] L Now Pompeius feared Milo, or pretended that he feared him. For the most part he remained not in his house but in his gardens; and that too in the higher parts, around which a great body of soldiers lay on guard. Pompeius also suddenly dissolved the Senate, alleging that he feared Milo's arrival. At the next meeting of the Senate Cornificius asserted that Milo bore a weapon beneath his tunic bound to his thigh ; he bade him bare his thigh, whereupon Milo without delay lifted his tunic. Then M. Cicero exclaimed that all the other charges alleged against Milo were of a like character.
[37] Then Munatius Plancus, tribune of the plebs, brought before a mass meeting M. Aemilius Philemon, a man of note, a freedman of M. Lepidus. He stated that he had been travelling with four others, and had come on the scene when Clodius was slain, and for this reason when they had raised an outcry they had been kidnapped and taken to Milo's villa, where they had been held prisoners for two months; this statement, whether true or false, raised great ill-repute against Milo. The same Munatius, and Pompeius, tribunes of the plebs, had brought forward upon the rostra one of the triumviri capitales, and asked him whether he had apprehended Galata, a slave of Milo, in the act of murder. The other answered that he had apprehended him in a tavern as a runaway and had had him brought before him. They then ordered the triumvir not to let the slave go free; but on the next day Caelius, tribune of the plebs, and Manilius Cumanus, his colleague, had rescued the slave from his house and had sent him back to Milo. Though Cicero has made no mention of these charges, still, since they have come to my knowledge, I have thought that they should be made known. [8.] L Q. Pompeius, C. Sallustius, and T. Munatius Plancus, tribunes of the plebs, were foremost in holding meetings that were hostile to Milo, and unfavourable also to Cicero, because he was so ardent in Milo's defence. Later Pompeius and Sallustius fell under suspicion of having become reconciled to Milo and Cicero. Plancus, however, persisted in his bitterness, and roused the multitude against Cicero also; [38] he also made Milo suspected by Pompeius, loudly asserting that force was being prepared for Pompeius's destruction. Pompeius for this reason constantly complained that plots were being laid against himself, and that openly, and protected himself by a larger bodyguard. Plancus asserted that he would take out a suit against Cicero, while later Pompeius made a like threat. So great, however, was Cicero's resolution and loyalty, that neither by the estrangement of the people from himself, nor by the suspicions of Pompeius, nor by the fear of danger to come, should he be arraigned before the people, nor by the arms openly wielded against Milo, could he be deterred from his defence, although he might have avoided all danger to himself and the hatred of the embittered populace, nay, have even won back Pompeius's favour, had he abated but a little in his ardour for the defence.
A law of Pompeius was then carried in which it was among other things enacted that by the vote of the people an examiner {quaesitor} should be appointed from those who had been consuls; election was forthwith held, and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus was appointed examiner. To sit as jury in the case Pompeius proposed such men that it was agreed that never were men more famous nor more upright proposed. [9.] L Immediately thereafter by the new law Milo was arraigned by the two young Appii Claudii, the same by whom his slaves had previously been demanded, and also for corruption by the same Appii, as well as by C. Ceteius and L. Cornificius ; and for illegal association by P. Fulvius Neratus. [39] He was arraigned for illegal association and for corruption in the hope that, as seemed likely, the trial for assault would come off first, wherein they were assured he would be convicted and would not thereafter be able to answer. Selection of accusers ** for corruption was made under A. Torquatus; and both examiners, Torquatus and Domitius, ordered the accused to present himself on April 4. On this day Milo came before Domitius's tribunal, and sent his friends to that of Torquatus. Here M. Marcellus pleaded for him, and he gained that he should not plead on the charge of corruption until the trial for assault had been concluded. Before the examiner Domitius the elder Appius demanded that slaves to the number of fifty-four should be produced for examination by Milo, and upon his denying that the number named were at his disposal, Domitius on the resolution of the jury pronounced that from the number of those slaves the accuser should produce as many as he wished. ** The witnesses were then cited in accordance with the law which enacted, as mentioned above, that the witnesses should be heard during the three days before the case was heard, that their depositions should be confirmed by the jury, that on the fourth day they should all be summoned to appear on the day following, and that in the presence of the accuser and the defendant balls whereon the names of the jurymen were written should be distributed; that then on the next day there should be a drawing of lots for eighty-one jurymen; and that, when this number had drawn their lots, they should forthwith proceed to sit. The accuser should then have two, the defendant three hours in which to plead, and verdict should be given on the accused on that same day ; but that before votes were taken the accuser and the defendant should each reject five jurors from each order, ** leaving fifty-one jurymen to record their votes.
[10.] L [40] On the first day Causinius Schola was brought forward as witness against Milo. He stated that he had been with Clodius at the time of the murder, and to the best of his power he emphasised the shocking nature of the crime. When M. Marcellus. began to examine him, so terrifying was the uproar raised by the Clodian gangs which stood around, that, fearing tor his life, he was given sanctuary by Domitius upon his tribunal. For this reason M. Marcellus and Milo himself implored protection from Domitius. Cn. Pompeius was at the time sitting before the Treasury, and perturbed by the clamour he promised Domitius that on the next day he would come down to the court with troops. This he did; and the Clodians were intimidated into allowing the hearing of witnesses to go on for two days. They were examined by M. Cicero, M. Marcellus, and Milo himself. Many inhabitants of Bovillae gave evidence upon the events that had taken place there, the murder of the tavern-keeper, the attack upon the tavern, and the dragging of Clodius's corpse into the public way. The Virgins ** of Alba also stated that an unknown woman had come to them upon the instructions of Milo to pay a vow because Clodius been slain. Finally evidence was given by Sempronia, daughter of Tuditanus and daughter-in-law of P. Clodius, and by Fulvia his wife, and by their weeping they deeply stirred the hearts of the bystanders. The court was dismissed about the tenth hour, and T. Munatius in a mass meeting urged the people to present themselves in large numbers on the next day, and not to allow Milo to escape, but to let their views and their indignation be seen by those who came to record their votes. [11.] L On the next day, April 8, [41] the shops were shut throughout the whole city ; Pompeius posted guards in the forum and at all the approaches to it, while he himself sat before the Treasury as on the day previous surrounded by a picked body of soldiery. At daybreak the drawing of lots for the jury took place; the silence that ensued throughout the whole forum was as absolute as can be in any forum. Then before the second hour the accusers, the elder Appius, M. Antonius, and P. Valerius Nepos, had begun their speeches. In accordance with the law they took two hours.
M. Cicero alone replied ; and though it had been thought best by certain persons that the ground of defence should be that Clodius's death had been in the public interest - a line which M. Brutus pursued in the speech which he composed and published in Milo's defence, though he did not deliver it - Cicero determined otherwise, on the ground that the man who could be condemned to the public good, could not also be put to death without a conviction. The accusers had insisted that Milo had plotted against Clodius; this was false, for the brawl had arisen fortuitously; Cicero took up this point, and asserted that on the contrary Clodius had plotted against Milo, and his whole argument turned on this assertion. It was clear, as has been pointed out, that no one had designed the encounter on that day, but that it had arisen by chance; it had begun with a slave brawl and had ended in murder. At the same time it was undeniable that each had often threatened the other with death; and though the fact that Milo's retainers outnumbered those of Clodius cast suspicion upon him, at the same time Clodius's men had been more lightly equipped and better prepared for battle than had those of Milo. When Cicero began to speak, he was greeted by yells from Clodius's partisans, whom not even fear of the soldiers standing round could restrain; consequently he spoke with far less than his customary resolution. ** [42] The speech which was actually delivered is also extant. That which we read was written out by him afterwards; it is so elaborate that we may well look upon it as that which he originally intended to deliver.
{ Of the result of the trial Asconius says: }
[12.] L [53] When both sides had conducted their cases, the accuser and the defendant each rejected five senators and a like number of knights and tribuni aerarii, so that fifty-one recorded their votes. Twelve senators voted for condemnation and six for acquittal; of the knights thirteen for condemnation and four for acquittal ; of the tribuni aerarii thirteen for condemnation and three for acquittal. It appeared that the jury were fully aware that in the beginning Clodius had been wounded without the knowledge of Milo, but they established the fact that after he had been wounded it was at Milo's orders that he had been killed. Some believed that M. Cato's vote went for acquittal, [54] for he had not disguised his opinion that the state had gained by Clodius's death; he supported Milo in his candidature for the consulship and had assisted him in his defence. Furthermore Cicero had referred to him by name in his presence, and had called him to witness that three days before the affray took place M. Favonius had told him that Clodius had said that Milo would lose his life within the next three days. ** . . . But Milo too was known to be a man of wicked daring, and Cato thought it advisable that he should be removed from the state. But none could ever have known for certain on which side he had given his vote. He was pronounced condemned, mainly by the efforts of Appius Claudius. On the following day Milo was arraigned for corruption before Manlius Torquatus, and condemned in his absence. Under this law too his accuser was Appius Claudius, who was awarded the bounty offered by the law, ** but refused to avail himself of it. His juniors in the prosecution for corruption were P. Valerius Leo and Cn. Domitius, son of Gnaeus. A few days later Milo was condemned on a charge of illegal association before the examiner M. Favonius upon the suit of P. Fulvius Neratus, to whom the legal bounty was awarded. Following this a second conviction for assault was given against him before the examiner L. Fabius at the suit of L. Cornificius and Q. Patulcius. Milo within a very few days started for Massilia to spend his exile there. His property was sold for only one twenty-fourth of its value on account of the large debts with which it was encumbered.
[13.] L After Milo, the first person to be accused under the same Lex Pompeia was M. Saufeius M.f., [55] who had been the leader in attacking the tavern at Bovillae and in killing Clodius. He was accused by L. Cassius, L. Fulcinius C.f. and C. Valerius; and defended by M. Cicero and M. Caelius, who succeeded in getting him acquitted by the margin of one vote. He was found guilty by 10 senators, and acquitted by 8 senators; he was found guilty by 9 knights, and acquitted by 8 knights; but he was acquitted by 10 tribuni aerarii, and found guilty by 6 tribuni aerarii; and it is clear that Saufeius was saved by their hatred of Clodius, since his case was even weaker than Milo's, because he had openly been the leader in attacking the tavern. Then he was accused again a few days later before the examiner C. Considius under the Lex Plautia about violence, with the subscription that he had occupied (?) high ground and was carrying weapons; for he was the leader of Milo's gangs. He was accused by C. Fidius, Cn. Aponius Cn.f. and M. Seius . . . Sex.f.; and defended by M. Cicero and M. Terentius Varro Gibba. He was acquitted by more votes than previously; he had 19 votes against him, and 32 acquitting him, but this happened in the opposite way to the previous trial, because the knights and senators acquitted him, but the tribuni aerarii found him guilty.
However Sex. Clodius, at whose instigation the body of Clodius had been brought into the senate-house, was brought to trial, with C. Caesernius and M. Alfidius accusing him and T. Flacconius defending him; he was found guilty by a large majority, [56] forty-six votes; he only had five votes acquitting him, two of the senators and three of the knights.
Many others, both those who appeared in court and those who did not respond to their summons, were found guilty; the majority of them were followers of Clodius.
45.(↑) The senatus consultum ultimum, which gave the consuls power to resort to force in emergencies.
46.(↑) See Asconius, App. § 10.
47.(↑) "Is it likely that having received such full power to check disorder, P. would have waited to exert it until the trial of Milo, who was said to be using 'vis' to destroy all trials whatever?" Poynton.
48.(↑) M. Octavius.
49.(↑) Clodius, while tribune, had passed a law making Brogitarus king of Cyprus, and had assigned the provinces of Macedonia and Asia to Piso and Gabinius, coss. 58.
50.(↑) Mommsen has edited an inscription which seems to show that this was in the Campus Martius. Clodius probably wished to destroy evidence of election frauds.
51.(↑) lronical.
52.(↑) e.g., feasts held to Harmodius and Aristogeiton at Athens, to Timoleon at Corinth.
53.(↑) The first 'id' in this sentence means the slaying of Clodius in self-defence (by the hand of slaves); the second 'id' means the deliberate act of slaying a tyrant.
54.(↑) The Alban Mount was hallowed as having been the religious centre of the Latin Confederacy.
55.(↑) The god of the Latin Confederacy, at whose temple on the Alban Mount were held the Feriae Latinae.
56.(↑) Busts of ancestors who had held state offices were carried in the funeral procession.
57.(↑) Exaggeration ; see § 25.
58.(↑) Ironical.
59.(↑) Hypsaeus and Scipio.
60.(↑) Clodius may have projected some scheme of extensive manumission ; though we need not infer that C.'s statement rests on anything more solid than popular rumour.
61.(↑) For the facts behind this amazing reasoning see Asconius, App. § 4.
62.(↑) i.e., of the result of the voting; the announcement had not been made, as the poll had not been completed.
63.(↑) i.e, the jury, who also by their votes as citizens had secured C.'s recall.
64.(↑) A. was a Roman scholar of the 1st century A.D., who explained for his children's benefit difficulties in C.'s speeches. We possess fragments of commentaries on In Pisonem, Pro Scauro, Pro Cornelio, In Toga Candida, and Pro Milone. Besides histories, he consulted the acta diurna and acta senatus.
66.(↑) Goddess of the dead ; it would appear from this passage that the fasces were deposited in her temple when there were no consuls.
67.(↑) A gap in the mss. here.
68.(↑) A month of 22 or 23 days inserted every other year after Feb. 23, before Caesar's reformation of the Calendar.
69.(↑) Divinatio - a preliminary proceeding to determine who should prosecute, when several offered themselves.
70.(↑) This appears to contradict C. (§ 57-60), who says that Milo's slaves were not given up. Possibly Asconius's text is at fault.
71.(↑) i.e., senators, knights, and tribuni aerariI.
72.(↑) Connected with the local cult of Vesta.
73.(↑) Plutarch says: "When he saw . . . weapons glistening all round the forum, he was so confounded that he could scarce begin his oration. For he shook and his tongue faltered, though Milo attended the trial with great courage."
74.(↑) See § 44 ; the text is mutilated here and something seems to have been lost.
75.(↑) Under certain laws a reward was given to a prosecutor who won a conviction. What the reward was under the 'Lex Pompeia de Ambitu' is not known.
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