CHAPTER III
Clodius prosecutes Cicero for putting Citizens to Death without Trial --
Cicero banished and recalled--Cæsar's Conference at
Lucca--Bloodshed in the Forum--The Triumvirs divide the
Government--Death of Cæsar's Daughter -- Shocking State of
Roman Political Life -- Pompey and Milo -- Assassination of Clodius --
Disorders consequent thereon--Pompey made Sole Consul--His Law against
Bribery
[
15]
Such were the acts of Cæsar's consulship. He then
laid down his magistracy and proceeded directly to his
new government. Clodius now brought an accusation against Cicero for putting
Lentulus and Cethegus and their followers to death without trial.
1 Cicero, who had exhibited the highest courage
in that transaction, became utterly unnerved at his trial. He put on coarse
raiment and, defiled with squalor and dirt, supplicated those whom he met in
the streets, not being ashamed to annoy people who knew nothing about the
business, so that his doings excited laughter rather than pity by reason of
his unseemly aspect. Into such trepidation did he fall at this single trial
of his own, although he had been managing other people's causes successfully
all his life. In like manner they say that Demosthenes the Athenian did not
stand his ground when accused, but fled before the trial. When Clodius
interrupted Cicero's supplications on the streets with contumely, he gave
way to despair and, like Demosthenes, went into voluntary exile. A multitude
of his friends went out of the city with him, and the Senate recommended him
to the attention of cities, kings, and princes. Clodius demolished his house
and his villas. Clodius was so much elated by this affair that he compared
himself with Pompey, who was then the most powerful man in Rome.
[
16]
Accordingly, Pompey held out to Milo, who was Clodius' colleague in office
and a bolder spirit than himself, the hope of the consulship, and incited
him against Clodius, and directed him to procure a vote for the recall of
Cicero. He hoped that when Cicero should come back he would no longer speak
against the existing status (the triumvirate), remembering what he had
suffered, but would make trouble for Clodius and bring punishment upon him.
Thus Cicero, who had been exiled by means of Pompey,
was recalled by means of Pompey
about sixteen months
after his banishment, and the Senate
rebuilt his house and his villas at the public expense. He was received
magnificently at the city gates. It is said that a whole day was consumed by
the greetings extended to him, as was the case with Demosthenes when he
returned.
[
17]
In the meantime Cæsar, who had performed the
many
brilliant exploits in Gaul and Britain which have been described in my
Celtic history, had returned with vast riches to Cisalpine Gaul on the river
Po to give his army a short respite from continuous fighting. From this
place he sent large sums of money to many persons in Rome, to those who were
holding the yearly offices and to persons otherwise distinguished as
governors and generals, and they went thither by turns to meet him.
2 So many of them came that 120
lictors could be seen around him at one time, and more than 200 senators,
some returning thanks for what they had already received, others asking for
money or seeking some other advantage for themselves from the same quarter.
All things were now possible to Cæsar by reason of his large army,
his great riches, and his readiness to oblige everybody. Pompey and Crassus,
his partners in the triumvirate, came also. In their conference it was
decided that Pompey and Crassus should be elected consuls again and that
Cæsar's governorship over his provinces should be extended for
five years more. Thereupon they separated and Domitius Ahenobarbus offered
himself as a candidate for the consulship against Pompey. When the appointed
day came, both went down to the Campus Martius before daylight to attend the
comitia. Their followers got into an altercation and came to blows, and
finally somebody assaulted the torchbearer of Domitius with a sword. There
was a scattering straightway, and Domitius escaped with difficulty to his
own house. Even Pompey's clothing was carried home stained with blood, so
great was the danger incurred by both candidates.
[
18]
Accordingly, Pompey and Crassus were chosen consuls
and
Cæsar's governorship was extended for five years according to the
agreement. The provinces were allotted with an army to each consul in the
following manner: Pompey chose Spain and Africa, but sent friends to take
charge of them, he himself remaining in Rome. Crassus took Syria and the
adjacent country because he wanted a war with the Parthians, which he
thought would be easy as well as glorious and gainful. But when he took his
departure from the city there were many unfavorable omens, and the tribunes
forbade the war against the Parthians, who had done no wrong to the Romans.
As he would not obey, they invoked public imprecations on him, which Crassus
disregarded; wherefore he perished in Parthia, together with his son of the
same name, and his army, not quite 10,000 of whom, out of 100,000, escaped
to Syria. The disaster to Crassus will be described in my Parthian history.
As the Romans were suffering from scarcity, they appointed Pompey the sole
manager of the grain supply and gave him, as in his operations against the
pirates, twenty assistants from the Senate. These he distributed in like
manner among the provinces while he superintended the whole, and thus Rome
was very soon provided with abundant supplies, by which means Pompey again
gained great reputation and power.
[
19]
About this time the daughter of Cæsar, who was married to Pompey,
died in childbirth, and fear fell upon all lest, with the termination of
this marriage connection, Cæsar and Pompey with their great armies
should come into conflict with each other, especially as the commonwealth
had been for a long time disorderly and unmanageable. The magistrates were
chosen by means of money, and faction fights, with dishonest zeal, with the
aid of stones and even swords. Bribery and corruption prevailed in the most
scandalous manner. The people themselves went to the elections to be bought.
A case was found where a deposit of 800 talents had been made to obtain the
consulship. The consuls holding office yearly
could not hope to lead armies or to command in war because they were shut
out by the power of the triumvirate. The baser ones strove for gain, instead
of military commands, at the expense of the public treasury or from the
election of their own successors. For these reasons good men abstained from
office altogether. The disorder was such that at one time the republic was
without consuls for eight months, Pompey conniving at the state of affairs
in order that there might be need of a dictator.
[
20]
Many citizens began to talk to each other about this,
saying
that the only remedy for existing evils was the one-man power, but that
there was need of a man who combined strength of character and mildness of
temper, thereby indicating Pompey, who had a sufficient army under his
command and who appeared to be both a friend of the people and a leader of
the Senate by virtue of his rank, a man of temperance and self-control and
easy of access, or at all events so considered. This expectation of a
dictatorship Pompey discountenanced in words, but in fact he did everything
secretly to promote it, and willingly overlooked the prevailing disorder and
the interregnum consequent upon it. Milo, who had assisted him in his
controversy with Clodius, and had acquired great popularity by the recall of
Cicero, now sought the consulship, as he considered it a favorable time in
view of the present interregnum; but
Pompey kept postponing the comitia until
Milo became
disgusted, believing that Pompey was
false to him, and withdrew to his native town of Lanuvium, which they say
was the first city founded in Italy by Diomedes on his return from Troy, and
which is situated about 150 stades from Rome.
[
21]
Clodius happened to be coming from his own country-seat on horseback and he
met Milo at Bovillæ. They merely exchanged hostile scowls and
passed along; but one of Milo's servants attacked Clodius, either because he
was ordered to do so or because he wanted to kill his master's enemy, and
stabbed him through the back with a dagger. Clodius' groom carried him
bleeding into a neighboring inn. Milo followed with his servants and
finished him, -- whether he was still alive, or already dead, is not known,
-- for, although he claimed that he had neither advised nor ordered the
killing, he was not willing to leave the deed unfinished because he knew
that he would be accused in any event. When the news of this affair was
circulated in Rome, the people were thunderstruck, and they passed the night
in the forum. When daylight came, the corpse of Clodius was displayed on the
rostra. Some of the tribunes and the friends of Clodius and a great crowd
with them seized it and carried it to the senate-house, either to confer
honor upon it, as he was of senatorial birth, or as an act of contumely to
the Senate for conniving at such deeds. There the more reckless ones
collected the benches and chairs of the senators and made a funeral pile for
him, which they lighted and from which the senate-house and many buildings
in the neighborhood caught fire and were consumed with the corpse of
Clodius.
[
22]
Such was the hardihood of Milo that he was moved less by fear of punishment
for the murder than by indignation at the honor bestowed upon Clodius at his
funeral. He collected a crowd of slaves and rustics, and, after sending some
money to be distributed among the people and buying Marcus Cælius,
one of the tribunes, he came back to the city with the greatest boldness.
Directly he entered, Cælius dragged him to the forum to be tried
by those whom he had bribed, as though by an assembly of the people,
pretending to be very indignant and not willing to grant any delay, but
hoping that if those present should acquit him he would escape a more
regular trial. Milo said that the deed was not premeditated, since one would
not set out with such intentions encumbered with his luggage and his wife.
The remainder of his speech was directed against Clodius as a desperado and
a friend of desperadoes, who had set fire to the senate-house and burned it
to ashes with his body. While he was still speaking the other tribunes, with
the unbribed portion of the people, burst into the forum armed.
Cælius and Milo escaped disguised as slaves, but there was a heavy
slaughter of the others. Search was not made for the friends of Milo, but
all who were met with, whether citizens or strangers, were killed, and
especially those who wore fine clothes and gold rings. As the government was
without order these ruffians, who were for the most part slaves and were
armed men against unarmed, indulged their rage and, making an excuse of the
tumult that had broken out, they turned to pillage. They abstained from no
crime, but broke into houses, looking for any kind of portable property, but
pretending to be searching for the friends of Milo. For several days Milo
was their excuse for burning, stoning, and every sort of outrage.
[
23]
The Senate assembled in consternation and looked to Pompey, intending to make
him dictator at once, for they considered this necessary as a cure for the
present evils; but at the suggestion of Cato they appointed him consul
without a colleague, so that by ruling alone he might have the power of a
dictator with the responsibility of a consul. He was the first of consuls
who had two of the greatest provinces, and an army, and the public money,
and the one-man power in the city, by virtue of being sole consul. In order
that Cato might not cause obstruction by his presence, it was decreed that
he should go to Cyprus and take the island away from King Ptolemy--a law to
that effect having been enacted by Clodius because once, when he was
captured by pirates, the avaricious Ptolemy contributed only two talents for
his ransom. When Ptolemy heard of the decree he threw his money into the sea
and killed himself, and Cato settled the government of Cyprus. Pompey
proposed the prosecution of offenders and especially of those guilty of
bribery and corruption. He thought that the seat of the public disorder was
there, and that by beginning there he should effect a speedy cure. He
brought forward a law, that any citizen who chose to do so might call for an
accounting from anybody who had held office from the time of his own first
consulship to the present. This embraced a period of a little less than
twenty years, during which Cæsar also had been consul; wherefore
Cæsar's friends suspected that he included so long a time in order
to cast reproach and contumely on Cæsar, and urged him to
straighten out the present crookedness rather than stir up the past to the
annoyance of so many distinguished men, among whom they named
Cæsar. Pompey pretended to be indignant at the mention of
Cæsar's name, as though he were above suspicion, and said that his
own second consulship was embraced in the period, and that he had reached
back a considerable time in order to effect a complete cure of the evils
from which the republic had been so long wasting away.