Cicero

In the meantime, Clodius had Cicero's villas and his house in Rome burnt down. Clodius had a temple to Liberty built on the site of Cicero's house so that if by any chance Cicero returned he would not be able to take the site back, and he also tried to sell Cicero's other property, but there were no takers. Clodius managed to alienate Pompey, and his gang of toughs were generally promoting disorder. The Senate refused to transact public business unless Cicero was recalled. In the ensuing street fighting Cicero's brother Quintus was nearly killed and lay in a heap of bodies for some hours. Sixteen months after he left Rome, Cicero was able to come home. He argued that Clodius' assumption of plebeian status had been flawed and his acts as tribune, including the consecration of the site of Cicero's house, were therefore void. The Senate duly decreed that Cicero's house and villas be rebuilt at the state's cost, but the valuation they put on the property was considerably less than Cicero had actually paid for it.

Cicero had a chance of partial revenge in 56, when Marcus Caelius Rufus was charged with, among other acts of violence, attempting to poison Clodia, Clodius' sister. As one of the defending advocates, Cicero took the opportunity to launch a blistering attack on Clodia's credibility], accusing her of general sexual immorality, and specifically incest with Clodius.

Cicero had always made a regular practice of publishing his speeches, although in revised form. Indeed, he published the speeches he would have given if Verres had continued with his case back in 70. He now began writing more theoretical works on oratory and political philosophy. His De Oratore (The Orator) appeared in 55, and his De Republica (The State) in 54. He started his De Legibus (The Laws), but what we have of this is incomplete, and we do not know whether it was ever in fact finished.

In the meantime, Titus Annius Milo had formed another gang of street toughs and clashes between his gang and Clodius' became more and more frequent. In 53 Clodius was standing for the praetorship and Milo for the consulship. Because of the continual brawls and riots between the two rival gangs the elections could not be held and the year 53 opened without any magistrates. The clashes culminated in a brawl on the Appian Way, one of the main roads out of Rome, where Milo leaving Rome for the country met Clodius on his way back to Rome. Clodius was killed in the fighting. His body was brought back to Rome, and his followers insisted on cremating it in the senate house, which then caught fire and burned down.

Pompey was appointed sole consul for the year by the senate, and he introduced a law on violence under which Milo was tried. The law laid down specific procedures. Witnesses were to be heard first, and then one day would be given over to speeches from the prosecuting and defending advocates. The prosecution and defence would then each have the right to reject 15 of the 81 jurors, who would then vote. Cicero was one of the defending advocates. Marcus Marcellus was shouted down by a howling mob of Clodius supporters when he tried to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, and to keep order Pompey posted soldiers round the Forum, where the trial was being held. In these circumstances Cicero did not give of his best. Milo was found guilty and he went into exile. This could have been because of Cicero's poor performance or because Milo refused to wear mourning as was customary for defendants. Cicero later published a heavily revised version of his speech. In the speech as given he seems to have relied on the argument that Milo killed Clodius in self-defence, but in the version revised for publication, which is what has come down to us, he also used the argument that Clodius' death was in the public interest.

What is interesting is that we also have a neutral account of what actually happened from Asconius, who wrote commentaries on some of Cicero's speeches in the first century AD. Asconius' account is rather different from Cicero's. According to Asconius, Milo's and Clodius' parties met on the road by chance. Two gladiators at the rear of Milo's party started a shouting match with Clodius' slaves, and when Clodius looked back in irritation, wounded him with a spear. Clodius was taken to an inn to recover, but in the ensuing brawl, Milo had Clodius thrown out of the inn and beaten to death. According to Cicero, Clodius deliberately waylaid Milo in an attempt to kill him, but Milo ended up killing Clodius in self-defence. This was the reverse of the story Clodius' supporters had been putting about, that Milo had deliberately waylaid Clodius in order to kill him.

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