down with a military escort on the following day. Accordingly, when he appeared, the Clodians were so daunted, that they did not interrupt the examination of the witnesses during the two remaining days 57. The witnesses were cross-questioned by Marcellus, Cicero, and Milo himself. Several of the inhabitants of Bovillæ gave their testimony as to facts which had occurred in their neighbourhood, deposing to the murder of the tavern-keeper, the assault upon the tavern, and the dragging of Clodius out into the highway. Some Vestal virgins 58 also said that a woman unknown to them had come for the purpose of fulfilling a vow, at the request of Milo, in consequence of the death of Clodius. The last witnesses were Sempronia 59, the daughter of Tuditanus and mother-in-law of Clodius, and his wife Fulvia, who produced a great sensation amongst the bystanders by their sobbing. After the court broke up at about four o'clock in the afternoon, Munatius Plancus harangued the people at a meeting, urging them to be present in large numbers on the following day, and not suffer Milo to get off, but make their own verdict on the case and their sympathy for Clodius apparent to the judges when proceeding to the vote. Next day, which was the eleventh of April [? the eighth; see § 1], the shops were 57 Comp. however Dion Cassius, who states (XL. 53), that a disturbance took place after the troops had been introduced into the Forum, in which some persons lost their lives: ò yap Πομπήϊος τήν τε ἄλλην πόλιν διὰ φυλακῆς ἐποιήσατο, καὶ ἐς τὸ δικαστ τήριον σὺν ὁπλίταις ἐσῆλθε· θορυβησάντων τε ἐπὶ τούτῳ τινῶν, προσέτ ταξε τοῖς στρατιώταις ἐκδιῶξαι αὐτ τοὺς ἐκ τῆς ἀγορᾶς, πλαγίοις καὶ πλατέσι τοῖς ξίφεσι παίοντας ἐπειδή τε οὐχ ὑπεϊκον, ἀλλὰ καὶ καθάπερ εἰ παιδιᾷ τινὶ πλαγιαζόμενοι ὕβριζον, καὶ ἐτρώθησαν τινὲς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἀπέθανον. 58 The Vestal virgins were per mitted by the Roman law to give their evidence unsworn (Gaius 1. 145; comp. Plin. H. N.xxxiv.11). Orelli reads Virgines Albane; but this is only a conjecture. 59 Thought by Orelli to be the wife of D. Junius Brutus, who is mentioned by Sallust as implicated in Catilina's conspiracy, Catil. c. 25, 40. Her father, Sempronius Tuditanus, is thus described by Cicero: "Tuditanus ille qui cum palla et cothurnis nummos populo de Rostris spargere solebat.' Philipp. 111. 6. Comp. also Acad. 11. 28: 'quid loquar de insanis? qualis tandem fuit affinis tuus, Catule, Tuditanus.' closed throughout the city; Pompeius stationed guards in the Forum and its approaches, and took his seat himself, as he had done the day before, in front of the Treasury, with a body-guard of picked men. The selection of the judges by lot then took place as on the first day, after which as great a stillness prevailed throughout the Forum as was possible in any Forum under such circumstances. Before eight o'clock in the morning the elder Appius, Marcus Antonius and P. Valerius Nepos, commenced speaking for the prosecution, and consumed the two hours allowed them by the law. The reply on the part of the defendant was made by Cicero alone. Some persons were of opinion that the line of defence proper to be taken in the present instance was, that in killing Clodius Milo had proved himself a benefactor to the commonwealth; and this was the line actually adopted by M. Brutus in a defence of Milo which he wrote and published, as though it had been really delivered. Cicero, however, did not take this view, because though it might be for the public interest that a man should be condemned to death, it did not follow that for the same reason he might be killed uncondemned. As therefore the accusers had proceeded on the ground that Clodius was waylaid by Milo, (which was false, the quarrel having accidentally arisen), Cicero, taking advantage of their untenable position, undertook to prove that Milo, on the contrary, had been waylaid by Clodius; and this is the gist of his whole speech. That point, however, being as incapable of proof as the other, it then became evident, as I have said, that neither party had any intention of fighting on that day, but that the encounter was a casual one, the squabble between the slaves having led eventually to the bloodshed which ensued. It was, nevertheless, quite notorious that each of them had frequently threatened the life of the other; and while the largeness of his retinue was a suspicious circumstance in Milo's case, the followers of Clodius, on the other hand, were in better trim for fighting. As Cicero was beginning to speak, he was received with loud shouts from the Clodian party, who could not be restrained even by fear of the surrounding troops. The consequence was that he did not speak with his accustomed composure 6. The speech which was thus interrupted still remains 61; the present one having been written afterwards, and finished with such care, that it may claim to be regarded as a masterpiece 62. 60 Comp. Dion Cass. XL. 54: ò ῥήτωρ τόν τε Πομπήϊον καὶ τοὺς στρατιώτας ἐν τῷ δικαστηρίῳ παρὰ τὸ καθεστηκὸς ἰδὼν ἐξεπλάγη καὶ κατέδεισεν, ὥστε τῶν μὲν παρεσκευασμένων μηδὲν εἰπεῖν, βραχὺ δέ τι καὶ τεθνηκὸς χαλεπῶς φθεγξάμενον ἀγαπητῶς μεταστῆναι. 61 The original speech is now no longer extant, with the exception, perhaps, of a sentence or two cited by Quintilian. The author of the Scholia Bobiensia says that it was extant in his time: Existit alius præterea liber actorum pro Milone, in quo omnia interrupta et impolita et rudia, plena denique maximi terroris agnoscas.' 62 Comp. Dion Cass. XL. 54: τοῦτον γὰρ τὸν νῦν φερόμενον ὡς καὶ ὑπὲρ τοῦ Μίλωνος τότε λεχθέντα χρόνῳ ποθ ̓ ὕστερον καὶ κατὰ σχολὴν ἀναθαρσήσας ἔγραψε. He then relates the story that when Cicero sent the improved edition of his speech to Milo in exile, the latter in reply remarked how fortunate it was that such a speech had never actually been delivered, since, in that case, he should not have been enjoying such delicious mullets at Massilia (Marseilles). Dion adds, that the jest was not so much intended to express his contentment with his present lot, as to convey a sharp rebuke to Cicero for his ill-timed display of oratorical abilities, when Milo could no longer profit by them. Milo was condemned, the votes of the judges being divided as follows: -for his condemnation, 12 Senators, 13 Equites, and 13 Tribuni Ærarii; for his acquittal, 6 Senators, 4 Equites, and 3 Tribuni Erarii. (Asconius, Notes on chap. 35 of the speech). Asconius adds, that the judges appear to have been aware that Clodius was wounded in the first instance without the knowledge of Milo, but were of opinion that he was killed by Milo's order afterwards. In consequence of this decision, Milo went into exile at Massilia, and his houses both in Rome and in the country were sold by auction, together with his bands of gladiators. In B. c. 49 he was disappointed in his hopes of being allowed by Cæsar to return with other exiles to Rome; and his former ally, Cælius, having been ejected in the following year from his prætorship by the Senate for proposing some revolutionary measures, invited him to Italy for the purpose of joining in an insurrection against Cæsar. Here Milo took the lead of some surviving remnants of his former gladiators, and a motley crew of shepherds, convicts, and deserters, with whom he entered Campania in the character of a legate of Cnæus Pompeius. Finding no encouragement there, and being defeated before Capua, he retreated to Lucania, and attacked a place named Cosa (or Compsa), in the district of Thurii, a stone from the walls of which put an end to his career in B. c. 48. See Cæsar, de Bello Civ. III. c. 21, 22; Dion Cass. XLII. 23-25. Velleius Paterculus (11. 68) thus speaks of his death: 'Compsam in Hirpinis oppugnans ictusque lapide, tum P. Clodio, tum patriæ quam armis petebat, pœnas dedit, vir inquies et ultra sortem temerarius.' I MARCI TULLII CICERONIS ORATIO PRO TITO ANNIO MILONE. Introductory Ch. 1, 2. I must own that the troops by whom we are sur rounded cause me some alarm, how ever unsuitable such a feeling may sent occasion. I ETSI vereor, judices, ne turpe sit fortispro simo viro dicere incipientem timere, minimeque deceat, quum T. Annius ipse magis de rei publicæ salute quam de sua perturbetur, me ad ejus causam parem animi magnitudinem afferre non posse, tamen hæc novi judicii nova forma seem to the pre- terret oculos, qui, quocumque inciderunt, veterem consuetudinem fori et pristinum morem judiciorum requirunt. Non enim corona consessus vester 2 cinctus est, ut solebat; non usitata frequentia stipati sumus: nam illa præsidia quæ pro templis omnibus cernitis, etsi contra vim collocata sunt, non afferunt tamen oratori aliquid; ut in foro et in judicio, quamquam præsidiis salutaribus et necessariis sæpti sumus, tamen ne non timere quidem sine aliquo timore possimus. Quæ si opposita Miloni putarem, cederem tempori, judices, nec inter tantam vim armorum existimarem esse oratori locum. Sed me recreat et reficit Cn. Pom Indeed, if I thought they menaced the safety of Milo, I should at once retire: but Pompeius and so many citizens who have the success I am reassured by peii sapientissimi et justissimi viri consilium, the presence of qui profecto nec justitiæ suæ putaret esse, quem reum sententiis judicum tradidisset, eundem telis militum dedere, nec sapientiæ, temeritatem concitatæ multitudinis auctoritate publica armare. Quamobrem illa arma centuriones 3 cohortes non periculum nobis sed præsidium denuntiant, of our cause at heart. § 2. nam, vulgo et Orell.; non, Matth.-non afferunt tamen oratori aliquid. Sic Orell.; terroris add. Matth. post oratori sine causa. Vide annot. |