1. Although I am afraid, O judges, that it is a base thing for one who is beginning to speak for a very brave man to be alarmed, and though it is far from becoming, when Titus Annius Milo himself is more disturbed for the safety of the republic than for his own, that I should not be able to bring to the cause a similar greatness of mind, yet this novel appearance of a new manner of trial alarms my eyes, which, wherever they fall, seek for the former customs of the forum and the ancient practice in trials. For your assembly is not surrounded by a circle of bystanders as usual; we are not attended by our usual company.
1. vereor, iudices, ne turpe sit pro fortissimo viro dicere incipientem timere minimeque deceat, cum T. Annius ipse magis de rei publicae salute quam de sua perturbetur, me ad eius causam parem animi magnitudinem adferre non posse, tamen haec novi iudici nova forma terret oculos qui, quocumque inciderunt, veterem consuetudinem fori et pristinum morem iudiciorum requirunt. enim corona consessus vester cinctus est, ut solebat; non usitata frequentia stipati sumus;
2. For those guards which you behold in front of all the temples, although they are placed there as a protection against violence, yet they bring no aid to the orator, so that even in the forum and in the court of justice itself, although we are protected with all military and necessary defences, yet we cannot be entirely without fear. But if I thought this adverse to Milo, I should yield to the times, O judges, and among such a crowd of armed men, I should think there was no room for an orator. But the wisdom of Cnaeus Pompeius, a most wise and just man, strengthens and encourages me, who would certainly neither think it suitable to his justice to deliver that man up to the weapons of the soldiery whom he had given over as an accused person to the decision of the judges, nor suitable to his wisdom to arm the rashness of an excited multitude with public authority.
2. non illa praesidia quae pro templis omnibus cernitis, etsi contra vim conlocata sunt, non adferunt tamen oratori terroris aliquid, ut in foro et in iudicio, quamquam praesidiis salutaribus et necessariis saepti sumus, tamen ne non timere quidem sine aliquo timore possimus. si opposita Miloni putarem, cederem tempori, iudices, nec enim inter tantam vim armorum existimarem esse orationi locum. me recreat et reficit Cn. Pompei, sapientissimi et iustissimi viri, consilium, qui profecto nec iustitiae suae putaret esse, quem reum sententiis iudicum tradidisset, eundem telis militum dedere, nec sapientiae temeritatem concitatae multitudinis auctoritate publica armare.
3. So that those arms, those centurions, those cohorts, do not announce danger to us, but protection; nor do they expect us only to be calm, but even to be courageous, nor do they promise only assistance to my defence but also silence. And the rest of the multitude which consists of citizens is wholly ours; nor is there any one individual among those whom you see from this place gazing upon us from all sides from which any part of the forum can be seen and watching the result of this trial who, while he favours the virtue of Milo, does not think that this day in reality his own interests, those of his children, his country, and his fortunes, are at stake. There is one class adverse and hostile to us,—those whom the madness of Publius Clodius has fed on rapine, on conflagration, and on every sort of public disaster; and who were, even in the assembly held yesterday, exhorted to teach you, by their clamour, what you were to decide. But such shouts, if any reached you, should rather warn you to retain him as a citizen who has always slighted that class of men, and their greatest clamour, in comparison with your safety.
3. ob rem illa arma, centuriones, cohortes non periculum nobis, sed praesidium denuntiant, neque solum ut quieto, sed etiam ut magno animo simus hortantur, nec auxilium modo defensioni meae verum etiam silentium pollicentur. vero multitudo, quae quidem est civium, tota nostra est, nec eorum quisquam quos undique intuentis, unde aliqua fori pars aspici potest, et huius exitum iudici exspectantis videtis, non cum virtuti Milonis favet, tum de se, de liberis suis, de patria, de fortunis hodierno die decertari putat. genus est adversum infestumque nobis eorum quos P. Clodi furor rapinis et incendiis et omnibus exitiis publicis pavit; qui hesterna etiam contione incitati sunt ut vobis voce praeirent quid iudicaretis. clamor si qui forte fuerit, admonere vos debebit ut eum civem retineatis qui semper genus illud hominum clamoresque maximos prae vestra salute neglexit.
4. Wherefore, be of good courage, O judges, and lay aside your alarm, if indeed you feel any; for if ever you had to decide about good and brave men, and about citizens who had deserved well of their country, if ever an opportunity was given to chosen men of the most honourable ranks to show by their deeds and resolutions that disposition towards brave and good citizens which they had often declared by their looks and by their words, all that power you now have, when you are to determine whether we who have always been wholly devoted to your authority are to be miserable, and to mourn for ever, or whether, having been long harassed by the most abandoned citizens, we shall at length he reprieved and set up again by you, your loyalty, your virtue, and your wisdom.
4. ob rem adeste animis, iudices, et timorem, si quem habetis, deponite. si umquam de bonis et fortibus viris, si umquam de bene meritis civibus potestas vobis iudicandi fuit, si denique umquam locus amplissimorum ordinum delectis viris datus est ut sua studia erga fortis et bonos civis, quae voltu et verbis saepe significassent, re et sententiis declararent, hoc profecto tempore eam potestatem omnem vos habetis ut statuatis utrum nos qui semper vestrae auctoritati dediti fuimus semper miseri lugeamus an diu vexati a perditissimis civibus aliquando per vos ac per vestram fidem, virtutem sapientiamque recreemur.
5. For what, O judges, is more full of labour than we both are, what can be either expressed or imagined more full of anxiety and uneasiness than we are, who being induced to devote ourselves to the republic by the hope of the most honourable rewards, yet cannot be free from the fear of the most cruel punishments? I have always thought indeed that Milo had to encounter the other storms and tempests in these billows of the assemblies because he always espoused the cause of the good against the bad; but in a court of justice, and in that council in which the most honourable men of all ranks are sitting as judges, I never imagined that Milo's enemies could have any hope of diminishing his glory by the aid of such men, much less of at all injuring his safety.
5. enim nobis duobus, iudices, laboriosius, quid magis sollicitum, magis exercitum dici aut fingi potest, qui spe amplissimorum praemiorum ad rem publicam adducti metu crudelissimorum suppliciorum carere non possumus? ceteras tempestates et procellas in illis dumtaxat fluctibus contionum semper putavi Miloni esse subeundas, quia semper pro bonis contra improbos senserat, in iudicio vero et in eo consilio in quo ex coniunctis ordinibus amplissimi viri iudicarent numquam existimavi spem ullam esse habituros Milonis inimicos ad eius non modo salutem exstinguendam sed etiam gloriam per talis viros infringendam.
6. Although in this cause, O judges, we shall not employ the tribuneship of Titus Annius, and all the exploits which he has performed for the safety of the republic, as topics for our defence against this accusation, unless you see with your own eyes that a plot was laid against Milo by Clodius; and we shall not entreat you to pardon us this one offence in consideration of our many eminent services to the republic, nor shall we demand, if the death of Publius Clodius was your safety, that on that account you should attribute it rather to the virtue of Milo, than to the good fortune of the Roman people; but if his plots are made clearer than the day, then indeed I shall entreat, and shall demand of you, O judges, that, if we have lost everything else, this at least may be left us,—namely, the privilege of defending our lives from the audacity and weapons of our enemies with impunity.
6. in hac causa iudices, T. Anni tribunatu rebusque omnibus pro salute rei publicae gestis ad huius criminis defensionem non abutemur. Nisi oculis videritis insidias Miloni a Clodio esse factas, nec deprecaturi sumus ut crimen hoc nobis propter multa praeclara in rem publicam merita condonetis, nec postulaturi ut, quia mors P. Clodi salus vestra fuerit, idcirco eam virtuti Milonis potius quam populi Romani felicitati adsignetis. illius insidiae clariores hac luce fuerint, tum denique obsecrabo obtestaborque vos, iudices, si cetera amisimus, hoc nobis saltem ut relinquatur, vitam ab inimicorum audacia telisque ut impune liceat defendere.
7. But before I come to that part of my speech which especially belongs to this trial, it seems necessary to refute those things which have been often said, both in the senate by our enemies, and in the assembly of the people by wicked men, and lately, too, by our prosecutors; so that when every cause of alarm is removed, you may be able distinctly to see the matter which is the subject of this trial. They say that that man ought no longer to see the light who confesses that another man has been slain by him. In what city, then, are these most foolish men using this argument? In this one, forsooth, where the first trial for a man's life that took place at all was that of Marcus Horatius, a most brave man, who even before the city was free was yet acquitted by the assembly of the Roman people, though he avowed that his sister had been slain by his hand.
7. ante quam ad eam orationem venio quae est propria vestrae quaestionis videntur ea mihi esse refutanda quae et in senatu ab inimicis saepe iactata sunt et in contione ab improbis et paulo ante ab accusatoribus, ut omni errore sublato rem plane quae veniat in iudicium videre possitis. intueri lucem esse fas ei qui a se hominem occisum esse fateatur. qua tandem urbe hoc homines stultissimi disputant? in ea quae primum iudicium de capite vidit M. Horati, fortissimi viri, qui nondum libera civitate tamen populi Romani comitiis liberatus est, cum sua manu sororem esse interfectam fateretur.
8. Is there any one who does not know, that when inquiry is made into the slaying of a man, it is usual either altogether to deny that the deed has been done, or else to defend it on the ground that it was rightly and lawfully done? unless, indeed, you think that Publius Africanus was out of his mind, who, when he was asked in a seditious spirit by Caius Carbo, a tribune of the people, what was his opinion of the death of Tiberius Gracchus, answered that he seemed to have been rightly slain. For neither could Servilius Ahala, that eminent man, nor Publius Nasica, nor Lucius Opimius, nor Caius Marius, nor indeed the senate itself during my consulship, have been accounted anything but wicked, if it was unlawful for wicked citizens to be put to death. And therefore, O judges, it was not without good reason, that even in legendary fables learned men have handed down the story, that he, who for the sake of avenging his father had killed his mother, when the opinions of men varied, was acquitted not only by the voices of the gods, but even by the very wisest goddess.
8. est quisquam qui hoc ignoret, cum de homine occiso quaeratur, aut negari solere omnino esse factum aut recte et iure factum esse defendi? Nisi vero existimatis dementem P. Africanum fuisse qui, cum a C. Carbone tribuno plebis seditiose in contione interrogaretur quid de Ti. Gracchi morte sentiret, responderit iure caesum videri. enim posset aut Ahala ille Servilius aut P. Nasica aut L. Opimius aut C. Marius aut me consule senatus non nefarius haberi, si sceleratos civis interfici nefas esset. hoc, iudices, non sine causa etiam fictis fabulis doctissimi homines memoriae prodiderunt, eum qui patris ulciscendi causa matrem necavisset variatis hominum sententiis non solum divina sed etiam sapientissimae deae sententia liberatum.
9. And if the Twelve Tables have permitted that a nightly robber may be slain any way, but a robber by day if he defends himself, with a weapon, who is there who can think a man to be punished for slaying another, in whatever way he is slain, when he sees that sometimes a sword to kill a man with is put into our bands by the very laws themselves? But if there be any occasion on which it is proper to slay a man,—and there are many such,—surely that occasion is not only a just one, but even a necessary one, when violence is offered, and can only be repelled by violence. When a military tribune offered violence to a soldier in the army of Caius Marius, the kinsman of that commander was slain by the man whom he was insulting; for the virtuous youth chose to act though with danger, rather than to suffer infamously; and his illustrious commander acquitted him of all guilt, and treated him well.
9. si xii tabulae nocturnum furem quoquo modo, diurnum autem, si se telo defenderet, interfici impune voluerunt, quis est qui, quoquo modo quis interfectus sit, puniendum putet, cum videat aliquando gladium nobis ad hominem occidendum ab ipsis porrigi legibus?, si tempus est ullum iure hominis necandi, quae multa sunt, certe illud est non modo iustum verum etiam necessarium, cum vi vis inlata defenditur. cum eriperet militi tribunus militaris in exercitu C. Mari, propinquus eius imperatoris, interfectus ab eo est cui vim adferebat; facere enim probus adulescens periculose quam perpeti turpiter maluit. hunc ille summus vir scelere solutum periculo liberavit.
10. But what death can be unjust when inflicted on a secret plotter and robber? What is the meaning of our retinues, what of our swords? Surely it would never be permitted to us to have them if we might never use them. This, therefore, is a law, O judges, not written, but born with us,—which we have not learnt or received by tradition, or read, but which we have taken and sucked in and imbibed from nature herself; a law which we were not taught but to which we were made,—which we were not trained in, but which is ingrained in us,—namely, that if our life be in danger from plots, or from open violence, or from the weapons of robbers or enemies, every means of securing our safety is honourable.
10. vero et latroni quae potest inferri iniusta nex? comitatus nostri, quid gladii volunt? quos habere certe non liceret, si uti illis nullo pacto liceret. igitur haec, iudices, non scripta, sed nata lex, quam non didicimus, accepimus, legimus, verum ex natura ipsa adripuimus, hausimus, expressimus, ad quam non docti sed facti, non instituti sed imbuti sumus, ut, si vita nostra in aliquas insidias, si in vim et in tela aut latronum aut inimicorum incidisset, omnis honesta ratio esset expediendae salutis.
11. For laws are silent when arms are raised, and do not expect themselves to be waited for, when he who waits will have to suffer an undeserved penalty before he can exact a merited punishment. The law very wisely, and in a manner silently, gives a man a right to defend himself, and does not merely forbid a man to be slain, but forbids any one to leave a weapon about him with the object of slaying a man; so that as the object and not the weapon itself, is made the subject of the inquiry, the man who had used a weapon with the object of defending himself would be decided not to have had his weapon about him with the object of killing a man. Let, then, this principle remembered by you in this trial, O judges; for I do not doubt that I shall make good my defence before you, if you only remember—what you cannot forget—that a plotter against one may be lawfully slain.
11. enim leges inter arma nec se exspectari iubent, cum ei qui exspectare velit ante iniusta poena luenda sit quam iusta repetenda. persapienter et quodam modo tacite dat ipsa lex potestatem defendendi, quae non hominem occidi, sed esse cum telo hominis occidendi causa vetat, ut, cum causa, non telum quaereretur, qui sui defendendi causa telo esset usus, non hominis occidendi causa habuisse telum iudicaretur. hoc maneat in causa, iudices; non enim dubito quin probaturus sim vobis defensionem meam, si id memineritis quod oblivisci non potestis insidiatorem interfici iure posse.
12. The next point is one which is often asserted by the enemies of Milo, who say that the senate has decided that the slaughter by which Publius Clodius fell was contrary to the interests of the republic. But, in fact, the senate has approved, not merely by their votes, but even zealously. For how often has that cause been pleaded by us in the senate? with what great assent of the whole body? and that no silent nor concealed assent; for when in a very full senate were there ever four or five men found who did not espouse Milo's cause? Those lifeless assemblies of this nearly burnt tribune of the people show the fact; assemblies in which he daily used to try and bring my power into unpopularity, by saying that the senate did not pass its decrees according to what it thought itself, but as I chose. And if, indeed, that ought to be called power, rather than a moderate influence in a righteous cause on account of great services done to the republic, or some popularity among the good on account of dutiful labours for its sake, let it be called so, as long as we employ it for the safety of the good in opposition to the madness of the wicked.
12. illud quod a Milonis inimicis saepissime dicitur, caedem in qua P. Clodius occisus esset senatum iudicasse contra rem publicam esse factam. vero senatus non sententiis suis solum sed etiam studiis comprobavit. enim est illa causa a nobis acta in senatu, quibus adsensionibus universi ordinis, quam nec tacitis nec occultis! enim frequentissimo senatu quattuor aut summum quinque sunt inventi qui Milonis causam non probarent? huius ambusti tribuni plebis illae intermortuae contiones quibus cotidie meam potentiam invidiose criminabatur, cum diceret senatum non quod sentiret sed quod ego vellem decernere. quidem si potentia est appellanda potius quam propter magna in rem publicam merita mediocris in bonis causis auctoritas aut propter hos officiosos labores meos non nulla apud bonos gratia, appelletur ita sane, dum modo ea nos utamur pro salute bonorum contra amentiam perditorum.
13. But this investigation though it is not an unjust one, yet is not one which the senate thought ought to be ordered, for there were regular laws and forms of trial for murder or for assault; nor did the death of Publius Clodius cause the senate such concern and sorrow that any new process of investigation need have been appointed for when the senate had had the power of decreeing a trial in the matter of that impious pollution of which he was guilty taken from it, who can believe it thought it necessary to appoint a new form of trial about his death? Why then did the senate decide that this burning of the senate house, this siege laid to the house of Marcus Lepidus, and this very homicide had taken place contrary to the interest of the republic? Why, because no violence from one citizen to another can ever take place in a free state which is not contrary to the interests of the republic.
13. vero quaestionem, etsi non est iniqua, numquam tamen senatus constituendam putavit; erant enim leges, erant quaestiones vel de caede vel de vi, nec tantum maerorem ac luctum senatui mors P. Clodi adferebat ut nova quaestio constitueretur. enim de illo incesto stupro iudicium decernendi senatui potestas esset erepta, de eius interitu quis potest credere senatum iudicium novum constituendum putasse? igitur incendium curiae, oppugnationem aedium M. Lepidi, caedem hanc ipsam contra rem publicam senatus factam esse decrevit? nulla vis umquam est in libera civitate suscepta inter civis non contra rem publicam— non enim est ulla defensio contra vim umquam optanda, sed non numquam est necessaria,—nisi vero aut ille dies quo Ti.
14. For the defending of oneself against violence is never a thing to be wished for; but it is sometimes necessary, unless, indeed, one could say that that day on which Tiberius Gracchus was slain, or that day when Caius was, or the day when the arms of Saturninus were put down, even if they ended as the welfare of the republic demanded, were yet no wound and injury to the republic. Therefore I myself voted, when it was notorious that a homicide had taken place on the Appian road, not that he who had defended himself had acted in a manner contrary to the interests of the republic; but as there was violence and treachery in the business, I reserved the charge for trial, I expressed my disapprobation of the business. And if the senate had not been hindered by that frantic tribune from executing its wishes, we should not now have this novel trial. For the senate voted that an extraordinary investigation should take place according to the ancient laws. A division took place, it does not signify on whose motion, for it is not necessary to mention the worthlessness of every one, and so the rest of the authority of the senate was destroyed by this corrupt intercession.
14. Gracchus est caesus, aut ille quo Gaius, aut arma Saturnini non, etiam si e re publica oppressa sunt, rem publicam tamen volnerarunt. ego ipse decrevi, cum caedem in via Appia factam esse constaret, non eum qui se defendisset contra rem publicam fecisse, sed, cum inesset in re vis et insidiae, crimen iudicio reservavi, rem notavi. si per furiosum illum tr. tribunum pl. plebis senatui quod sentiebat perficere licuisset, novam quaestionem nullam haberemus. enim ut veteribus legibus, tantum modo extra ordinem, quaereretur. sententia est postulante nescio quo—nihil enim necesse est omnium me flagitia proferre —sic reliqua auctoritas senatus empta intercessione sublata est.
15. “Oh, but Cnaeus Pompeius, by his bill, gave his decision both about the fact and about the cause. For he brought in a bill about the homicide which had taken place on the Appian road, in which Publius Clodius was slain.” What then did he propose? That an inquiry should be made. What is to be inquired about? Whether it was committed? That is clear. By whom? That is notorious. He saw that a defence as to the law and right could be undertaken, even at the very moment of the confession of the act. But if he had not seen that he who confessed might yet be acquitted, when he saw that we did not confess the fact he would never have ordered an investigation to take place, nor would he have given you at this trial the power of acquitting as well as that of condemning. But it seems to me that Cnaeus Pompeius not only delivered no decision at all unfavourable to Milo, but that he also pointed out what you ought to turn your attention to in deciding. For he who did not assign a punishment to the confession, but required a defence of it, he clearly thought that what was inquired into was the cause of the death and not the mere fact of the death Now he himself shall tell us whether what he did of his own accord was done out of regard for Publius Clodius, or from a compliance with the times.
15. enim Cn. Pompeius rogatione sua et de re et de causa iudicavit: tulit enim de caede quae in Appia via facta esset, in qua P. Clodius occisus esset. ergo tulit? ut quaereretur. porro quaerendum est? factumne sit? constat. A quo? paret. igitur etiam in confessione facti iuris tamen defensionem suscipi posse. nisi vidisset, posse absolvi eum qui fateretur, cum videret nos fateri, neque quaeri umquam iussisset nec vobis tam hanc salutarem in iudicando litteram quam illam tristem dedisset. vero Cn. Pompeius non modo nihil gravius contra Milonem iudicasse sed etiam statuisse videtur quid vos in iudicando spectare oporteret. qui non poenam confessioni, sed defensionem dedit, is causam interitus quaerendam, non interitum putavit.
16. A most noble man, a bulwark, and in those times, indeed, almost a protector of the senate, the uncle of this our judge, of that most fearless man Marcus Cato, Marcus Drusus, a tribune of the people, was slain in his own house. The people had never any reference made to them in the matter of his death, no investigation was voted by the senate. What great grief was there, as we have heard from our forefathers in this city, when that attack was made by night on Publius Africanus, while sleeping in his own house! Who was there then who did not groan, who did not burn with indignation, that men should not have waited even for the natural and inevitable death of that man whom, if possible, all would have wished to be immortal? Was there then any extraordinary investigation into the death of Africanus voted? Certainly none. Why so?
16. illud ipse dicet profecto quod sua sponte fecit, Publione Clodio tribuendum putarit an tempori. suae nobilissimus vir, senatus propugnator atque illis quidem temporibus paene patronus, avunculus huius iudicis nostri fortissimi viri, M. Catonis, tribunus plebis M. Drusus occisus est. de eius morte populus consultus est, nulla quaestio decreta a senatu est. luctum fuisse in hac urbe a nostris patribus accepimus, cum P. Africano domi suae quiescenti illa nocturna vis esset inlata? tum non ingemuit, quis non arsit dolore, quem immortalem, si fieri posset, omnes esse cuperent, eius ne necessariam quidem exspectatam esse mortem? igitur ulla quaestio de Africani morte lata est? nulla.
17. Because the crime of murder is not different when eminent men, or when obscure ones are slain. Let there be a difference between the dignity of the lives of the highest and lowest citizens. If their death be wrought by wickedness, that must be avenged by the same laws and punishments in either case; unless, indeed, he is more a parricide who murders a father of consular rank than he who murders one of low degree; or, as if the death of Publius Clodius is to be more criminal because he was slain among the monuments of his ancestors,—for this is constantly said by that party; as if, I suppose, that illustrious Appius Caecus made that road, not that the nation might have a road to use, but that his own posterity might have a place in which to rob with impunity.
17. ita? non alio facinore clari homines, alio obscuri necantur. inter vitae dignitatem summorum atque infimorum; mors quidem inlata per scelus isdem et poenis teneatur et legibus. Nisi forte magis erit parricida, si qui consularem patrem quam si qui humilem necarit, aut eo mors atrocior erit P. Clodi quod is in monumentis maiorum suorum sit interfectus —hoc enim ab istis saepe dicitur— proinde quasi Appius ille Caecus viam munierit, non qua populus uteretur, sed ubi impune sui posteri latrocinarentur!
18. Therefore in that same Appian road, when Publius Clodius had slain a most accomplished Roman knight, Marcus Papirius, that crime was not to be punished; for a nobleman among his own family monuments had slain a Roman knight. Now what tragedies does the name of that same Appian road awaken? which, though nothing was said about it formerly, when stained with the murder of an honourable and innocent man, is now incessantly mentioned ever since it has been dyed with the blood of a robber and a parricide. But why do I speak of these things? A slave of Publius Clodius was arrested in the temple of Castor; whom he had placed there to murder Cnaeus Pompeius; the dagger was wrested from his hands and he confessed his design; after that Pompeius absented himself from the forum, absented himself from the senate, and from all public places; he defended himself within his own doors and walls, not by the power of the laws and tribunals.
18. in eadem ista Appia cum ornatissimum equitem Romanum P. Clodius M. Papirium occidisset, non fuit illud facinus puniendum—homo enim nobilis in suis monumentis equitem Romanum occiderat—nunc eiusdem Appiae nomen quantas tragoedias excitat! cruentata antea caede honesti atque innocentis viri silebatur, eadem nunc crebro usurpatur, postea quam latronis et parricidae sanguine imbuta est. quid ego illa commemoro? est in templo Castoris servus P. Clodi, quem ille ad Cn. Pompeium interficiendum conlocarat. est ei confitenti sica de manibus. foro postea Pompeius, caruit senatu, caruit publico; ianua se ac parietibus, non iure legum iudiciorumque texit.
19. Was any motion made? was any extraordinary investigation voted? But if any circumstance, if any man, if any occasion was ever important enough for such a step, certainly all these things were so in the greatest degree in that cause. The assassin had been stationed in the forum, and in the very vestibule of the senate. Death was being prepared for that man on whose life the safety of the senate depended. Moreover, at that crisis of the republic, when, if he alone had died, not only this state, but all the nations in the world would have been ruined, —unless, indeed, the crime was not to be punished because it was not accomplished, just as if the execution of crimes was chastised by the laws, and not the intentions of men,—certainly there was less cause to grieve, as the deed was not accomplished, but certainly not a whit the less cause to punish.
19. quae rogatio lata, num quae nova quaestio decreta est? si res, si vir, si tempus ullum dignum fuit, certe haec in illa causa summa omnia fuerunt. erat in foro conlocatus atque in vestibulo ipso senatus; ei viro autem mors parabatur cuius in vita nitebatur salus civitatis; eo porro rei publicae tempore quo, si unus ille occidisset, non haec solum civitas sed gentes omnes concidissent. Nisi vero, quia perfecta res non est, non fuit punienda, proinde quasi exitus rerum, non hominum consilia legibus vindicentur. dolendum fuit re non perfecta, sed puniendum certe nihilo minus.
20. How often, O judges, have I myself escaped from the weapons and from the bloody hands of Publius Clodius! But if my good fortune, or that of the republic, had not preserved me from them, who would have proposed any investigation into my death But it is foolish of us to dare to compare Drusus, Africanus, Pompeius or ourselves with Publius Clodius. All these things were endurable. The death of Publius Clodius no one can bear with equanimity. The senate is in mourning; the knights grieve, the whole state is broken down as if with age; the municipalities are in mourning, the colonies are bowed down; the very fields even regret so beneficent, so useful, so kind hearted a citizen!
20. ego ipse, iudices, ex P. Clodi telis et ex cruentis eius manibus effugi! ex quibus si me non vel mea vel rei publicae fortuna servasset, quis tandem de interitu meo quaestionem tulisset? stulti sumus qui Drusum, qui Africanum, Pompeium, nosmet ipsos cum P. Clodio conferre audeamus. fuerunt illa: P. Clodi mortem aequo animo ferre nemo potest. senatus, maeret equester ordo, tota civitas confecta senio est, squalent municipia, adflictantur coloniae, agri denique ipsi tam beneficum, tam salutarem, tam mansuetum civem desiderant.
21. That was not the cause, O judges, it was not indeed why Pompeius thought an investigation ought to be proposed by him; but being a man wise and endowed with lofty and almost divine intellect, he saw many things, that Clodius was his personal enemy, Milo his intimate friend; he feared that if he were to rejoice in the common joy of all men the belief in his reconciliation with Clodius would be weakened. He saw many other things, too, but this most especially,—that in whatever terms of severity he proposed the motion, still you could decide fearlessly. Therefore he selected the very lights of the most eminent ranks of the state. He did not, indeed as some are constantly saying, exclude my friends in selecting the tribunal; for neither did that most just man think of this, nor, when he was selecting good men, could he have managed to do so, even had he wished for my influence would not be limited by my intimacies which can never be very extensive, because one cannot associate habitually with many people, but, if we have any influence, we have it on this account, because the republic has associated us with the virtuous; and when he was selecting the most excellent of them, and as he thought that it especially concerned his credit to do so, he was unable to avoid selecting men who were well disposed towards me.
21. fuit ea causa, iudices, profecto, non fuit cur sibi censeret Pompeius quaestionem ferendam, sed homo sapiens atque alta et divina quadam mente praeditus multa vidit: fuisse illum sibi inimicum, familiarem Milonem; in communi omnium laetitia si etiam ipse gauderet, timuit ne videretur infirmior fides reconciliatae gratiae. etiam alia vidit, sed illud maxime, quamvis atrociter ipse tulisset, vos tamen fortiter iudicaturos. delegit ex florentissimis ordinibus ipsa lumina, neque vero, quod non nulli dictitant, secrevit in iudicibus legendis amicos meos. enim hoc cogitavit vir iustissimus, neque in bonis viris legendis id adsequi potuisset, etiam si cupisset. enim mea gratia familiaritatibus continetur, quae late patere non possunt, propterea quod consuetudines victus non possunt esse cum multis; sed, si quid possumus, ex eo possumus quod res publica nos coniunxit cum bonis. quibus ille cum optimos viros legeret idque maxime ad fidem suam pertinere arbitraretur, non potuit legere non studiosos mei.
22. But as for his especially appointing you, O Lucius Domitius, to preside over this investigation, in that he was seeking nothing except justice, dignity, humanity and good faith. He passed a law that it must be a man of consular dignity, because, I suppose, he considered the duty of the men or the highest rank to resist both the fickleness of the multitude and the rashness of the profligate; and of the men of consular rank he selected you above all; for from your earliest youth you had given the most striking proofs how you despised the madness of the people.
22. vero te, L. Domiti, huic quaestioni praeesse maxime voluit, nihil quaesivit aliud nisi iustitiam, gravitatem, humanitatem, fidem. ut consularem necesse esset: credo, quod principum munus esse ducebat resistere et levitati multitudinis et perditorum temeritati. consularibus te creavit potissimum: dederas enim quam contemneres popularis insanias iam ab adulescentia documenta maxima.
23. Wherefore, O judges, that we may at last come to the subject of action and the accusation, if it is neither the case that all avowal of the deed is unprecedented, nor that anything has been determined about our cause by the senate differently to what we could wish; and if the proposer of the law himself, when there was no dispute as to the deed, yet thought that there should be a discussion as to the law; and if the judges had been chosen, and a man appointed to preside over the investigation, to decide these matters justly and wisely; it follows, O judges, that you have now nothing else to inquire into but which plotted against the other; and that you may the more easily discern this, attend carefully, I entreat you, while I briefly explain to you the matter as it occurred.
23. ob rem, iudices, ut aliquando ad causam crimenque veniamus, si neque omnis confessio facti est inusitata, neque de causa nostra quicquam aliter ac nos vellemus a senatu iudicatum est, et lator ipse legis, cum esset controversia nulla facti, iuris tamen disceptationem esse voluit, et ei lecti iudices, isque praepositus ⟨est⟩ quaestioni qui haec iuste sapienterque disceptet, reliquum est, iudices, ut nihil iam quaerere aliud debeatis nisi uter utri insidias fecerit. quo facilius argumentis perspicere possitis, rem gestam vobis dum breviter expono, quaeso, diligenter attendite.
24. When Publius Clodius had determined to distress the republic by all sorts of wickedness during his praetorship, and saw that the comitia were so delayed the year before, that he would not be able to continue his praetorship many months, as he had no regard to the degree of honour, as others have, but both wished to avoid having Lucius Paullus, a citizen of singular virtue, for his colleague, and also to have an entire year to mangle the republic; on a sudden he abandoned his own year, and transferred himself to the next year, not from any religious scruple, but that he might have, as he said himself, a full and entire year to act as praetor, that is, to overthrow the republic.
24. P. Clodius, cum statuisset omni scelere in praetura vexare rem publicam videretque ita tracta esse comitia anno superiore ut non multos mensis praeturam gerere posset, qui non honoris gradum spectaret, ut ceteri, sed et L. Paulum conlegam effugere vellet, singulari virtute civem, et annum integrum ad dilacerandam rem publicam quaereret, subito reliquit annum suum seseque in proximum transtulit, non, ut fit, religione aliqua, sed ut haberet, quod ipse dicebat, ad praeturam gerendam, hoc est ad evertendam rem publicam, plenum annum atque integrum.
25. It occurred to him that his praetorship would be crippled and powerless, if Milo was consul; and, moreover, he saw that he was being made consul with the greatest unanimity of the Roman people. He betook himself to his competitors, but in such a manner that he alone managed the whole election, even against their will,—that he supported on his own shoulders, as he used to say, the whole comitia,—he convoked the tribes,—he interposed,—he erected a new Colline tribe by the enrolment of the most worthless of the citizens. In proportion as the one caused greater confusion, so did the other acquire additional power every day. When the fellow, prepared for every atrocity, saw that a most brave man, his greatest enemy, was a most certain consul, and that that was declared, not only by the conversation of the Roman people, but also by their votes, he began to act openly, and to say without disguise that Milo must be slain.
25. ei mancam ac debilem praeturam futuram suam consule Milone; eum porro summo consensu populi Romani consulem fieri videbat. se ad eius competitores, sed ita totam ut petitionem ipse solus etiam invitis illis gubernaret, tota ut comitia suis, ut dictitabat, umeris sustineret. tribus, se interponebat, Collinam novam dilectu perditissimorum civium conscribebat. ille plura miscebat, tanto hic magis in dies convalescebat. Vbi vidit homo ad omne facinus paratissimus fortissimum virum, inimicissimum suum, certissimum consulem, idque intellexit non solum sermonibus, sed etiam suffragiis populi Romani saepe esse declaratum, palam agere coepit et aperte dicere occidendum Milonem.
26. He had brought down from the Apennines rustic and barbarian slaves, whom you saw, with whom he had ravaged the public woods and Etruria. The matter was not concealed at all. In truth he used to say undisguisedly that the consulship could not be taken from Milo, but that life could. He often hinted as much in the senate he said it plainly in the public assembly. Besides, when Favonius, a brave man, asked him what he hoped for by giving way to such madness while Milo was alive? he answered him, that in three, or at most in four days, he would be dead. And this saying of his Favonius immediately reported to Marcus Cato, who is here present.
26. agrestis et barbaros, quibus silvas publicas depopulatus erat Etruriamque vexarat, ex Appennino deduxerat, quos videbatis. erat minime obscura. dictitabat palam consulatum Miloni eripi non posse, vitam posse. hoc saepe in senatu, dixit in contione; quin etiam ⟨M.⟩ Favonio, fortissimo viro, quaerenti ex eo qua spe fureret Milone vivo, respondit triduo illum aut summum quadriduo esse periturum; quam vocem eius ad hunc M. Catonem statim Favonius detulit.
27. In the meantime, as Clodius knew—and it was not hard to know it—that Milo was forced to take a yearly, legitimate, necessary journey on the twentieth of January to Lanuvium to appoint a priest, because Milo was dictator of Lanuvium, on a sudden he himself left Rome the day before, in order (as was seen by the event) to lay an ambush for Milo in front of his farm; and he departed, so that he was not present at a turbulent assembly in which his madness was greatly missed, and which was held that very day, and from which he never would have been absent if he had not desired to avail himself of the place and opportunity for a crime.
27. cum sciret Clodius—neque enim erat id difficile scire a Lanuvinis —iter sollemne, legitimum, necessarium ante diem xiii Kalendas Februarias Miloni esse Lanuvium ad flaminem prodendum, quod erat dictator Lanuvi Milo, Roma subito ipse profectus pridie est ut ante suum fundum, quod re intellectum est, Miloni insidias conlocaret; atque ita profectus est ut contionem turbulentam in qua eius furor desideratus est, quae illo ipso die habita est, relinqueret, quam, nisi obire facinoris locum tempusque voluisset, numquam reliquisset.
28. But Milo, as he had been that day in the senate till it was dismissed, came home, changed his shoes and his garments, waited a little, as men do, while his wife was getting ready, and then started at the time when Clodius might have returned, if, indeed, he had been coming to Rome that day. Clodius meets him unencumbered on horseback, with no carriage, with no baggage, with no Greek companions, as he was used to, without his wife, which was scarcely ever the case; while this plotter, who had taken, forsooth, that journey for the express purpose of murder, was driving with his wife in a carriage, in a heavy travelling cloak, with abundant baggage, and a delicate company of women, and maidservants, and boys.
28. Milo autem cum in senatu fuisset eo die quoad senatus est dimissus, domum venit, calceos et vestimenta mutavit, paulisper, dum se uxor, ut fit, comparat, commoratus est, dein profectus id temporis cum iam Clodius, si quidem eo die Romam venturus erat, redire potuisset. fit ei Clodius, expeditus, in equo, nulla raeda, nullis impedimentis, nullis Graecis comitibus, ut solebat, sine uxore, quod numquam fere: cum hic insidiator, qui iter illud ad caedem faciendam apparasset, cum uxore veheretur in raeda, paenulatus, magno et impedito et muliebri ac delicato ancillarum puerorumque comitatu.
29. He meets Clodius in front of his farm, about the eleventh hour, or not far from it. Immediately a number of men attack him from the higher ground with missile weapons. The men who are in front kill his driver, and when he had jumped down from his chariot and flung aside his cloak, and while he was defending himself with vigorous courage, the men who were with Clodius drew their swords, and some of them ran back towards his chariot in order to attack Milo from behind, and some, because they thought that he was already slain, began to attack his servants who were behind him; and those of the servants who had presence of mind to defend themselves, and were faithful to their master, were some of them slain, and the others, when they saw a fierce battle taking place around the chariot, and as they were prevented from getting near their master so as to help him, when they heard Clodius himself proclaim that Milo was slain, and they thought that it was really true, they, the servants of Milo, (I am not speaking for the purpose of shifting the guilt onto the shoulders of others, but I am saying what really occurred,) did, without their master either commanding it, or knowing it, or even being present to see it, what every one would have wished his servants to do in a similar case.
29. obviam Clodio ante fundum eius hora fere undecima aut non multo secus. complures cum telis in hunc faciunt de loco superiore impetum; adversi raedarium occidunt. autem hic de raeda reiecta paenula desiluisset seque acri animo defenderet, illi qui erant cum Clodio gladiis eductis, partim recurrere ad raedam ut a tergo Milonem adorirentur, partim, quod hunc iam interfectum putarent, caedere incipiunt eius servos qui post erant; ex quibus qui animo fideli in dominum et praesenti fuerunt, partim occisi sunt, partim, cum ad raedam pugnari viderent, domino succurrere prohiberentur, Milonem occisum et ex ipso Clodio audirent et re vera putarent, fecerunt id servi Milonis—dicam enim aperte non derivandi criminis causa, sed ut factum est—nec imperante nec sciente nec praesente domino, quod suos quisque servos in tali re facere voluisset.
30. These things were all done, O judges, just as I have related them. The man who laid the plot was defeated; violence was defeated by violence; or, I should rather say, audacity was crushed by valour. I say nothing about what the republic, nothing about what you, nothing about what all good men gained by the result. I do not desire it to be any advantage to me to hear that he was born with such a destiny that he was unable even to save himself, without at the same time saving the republic and all of you. If he had not a right to do so, then I have nothing which I can urge in his defence. But if both reason has taught this lesson to learned men, and necessity to barbarians, and custom to all nations, and nature itself to the beasts, that they are at all times to repel all violence by whatever means they can from their persons, from their liberties, and from their lives, then you cannot decide this action to have been wrong, without deciding at the same time that all men who fall among thieves must perish, either by their weapons, or by your sentence.
30. sicuti exposui ita gesta sunt, iudices: insidiator superatus est, vi victa vis vel potius oppressa virtute audacia est. dico quid res publica consecuta sit, nihil quid vos, nihil quid omnes boni: nihil sane id prosit Miloni, qui hoc fato natus est ut ne se quidem servare potuerit quin una rem publicam vosque servaret. id iure fieri non potuit, nihil habeo quod defendam. hoc et ratio doctis et necessitas barbaris et mos gentibus et feris natura ipsa praescripsit ut omnem semper vim quacumque ope possent a corpore, a capite, a vita sua propulsarent, non potestis hoc facinus improbum iudicare quin simul iudicetis omnibus qui in latrones inciderint aut illorum telis aut vestris sententiis esse pereundum.
31. And if he had thought that this was the law, it would have been preferable for Milo to offer his throat to Publius Clodius,—which was not attacked by him once only, nor for the first time on that day,—rather than now to be destroyed by you because he did not surrender himself then to be destroyed by him. But if there is no one of you who entertains such an opinion as that, then the question which arises for the consideration of the court is not whether he was slain or not which we admit but whether he was slain legally or illegally, which is an inquiry which has often been instituted in any causes. It is quite plain that a plot was laid and that if a thing which the senate has decided to be contrary to the laws of the republic. By whom it was laid is a question. And on this point an inquiry has been ordered to be instituted. So the senate has marked its disapproval of the fact not of the man; and Pompeius has appointed this inquiry into the merits of the case and not into the fact of its existence. Does then any other point arise for the decision of the court, except this one,—which laid a plot against the other? None whatever. The case comes before you in this way, that if Milo laid a plot against Clodius, then he is not to be let off with impunity. If Clodius laid it against Milo, then we are acquitted from all guilt.
31. si ita putasset, certe optabilius Miloni fuit dare iugulum P. Clodio, non semel ab illo neque tum primum petitum, quam iugulari a vobis, quia se non iugulandum illi tradidisset. hoc nemo vestrum ita sentit, illud iam in iudicium venit, non occisusne sit, quod fatemur, sed iure an iniuria, quod multis in causis saepe quaesitum est. factas esse constat, et id est quod senatus contra rem publicam factum iudicavit; ab utro factae sint incertum est. hoc igitur latum est ut quaereretur. et senatus rem, non hominem notavit et Pompeius de iure, non de facto quaestionem tulit. quid igitur aliud in iudicium venit nisi uter utri insidias fecerit? nihil: si hic illi, ut ne sit impune; si ille huic, tum nos scelere solvamur.
32. How then are we to prove that Clodius laid a plot against Milo? It is quite sufficient in the case of such a wicked, of such an audacious monster as that, to prove that he had great reason to do so; that he had great hopes founded on Milo's death; that it would have been of the greatest service to him. Therefore, that maxim of Cassius, to see to whose advantage it was, may well have influence in respect of these persons. For although good men cannot be induced to commit crimes by any advantage whatever, wicked men often can by a very trifling one. And, if Milo were slain, Clodius gained this, not only that he should be praetor without having him for a consul, under whom he would not be able to commit any wickedness, but also that he should have those men for consuls while he was praetor, who, if they did not aid him, would at all events connive at all his proceedings to such an extent that he hoped he should be able to escape detection in all the frantic actions which he was contemplating; as they (so he argued to himself) would not even if they were able to do so, be anxious to check his attempts when they considered that they were under such obligations to him; and on the other hand, if they did wish to do so, perhaps they would hardly be able to crush the audacity of that most wicked man when it got strength by its long continuance. Are you, O judges, the only persons ignorant of all this?
32. igitur pacto probari potest insidias Miloni fecisse Clodium? est in illa quidem tam audaci, tam nefaria belua docere, magnam ei causam, magnam spem in Milonis morte propositam, magnas utilitates fuisse. illud Cassianum “cui bono fuerit ” in his personis valeat, etsi boni nullo emolumento impelluntur in fraudem, improbi saepe parvo. Milone interfecto Clodius haec adsequebatur, non modo ut praetor esset non eo consule quo sceleris facere nihil posset sed etiam ut eis consulibus praetor esset quibus si non adiuvantibus, at coniventibus certe speraret se posse eludere in illis suis cogitatis furoribus: cuius illi conatus, ut ipse ratiocinabatur, nec cuperent reprimere, si possent, cum tantum beneficium ei se debere arbitrarentur, et, si vellent, fortasse vix possent frangere hominis sceleratissimi conroboratam iam vetustate audaciam.
33. Are you living in this city as ignorant of what passes as if you were visitors? Are your ears all abroad, do they keep aloof from all the ordinary topics of conversation of the city, as to what laws (if, indeed, they are to be called laws, and not rather firebrands to destroy the city, pestilences to annihilate the republic) that man was intending to impose upon all of us, to brand on our foreheads? Exhibit, I beg you, Sextus Clodius, produce, I beg, that copy of your laws which they say that you saved from your house, and from the middle of the armed band which threatened you by night and bore aloft, like another palladium, in order, forsooth, to be able to carry that splendid present that instrument for discharging the duties of the tribuneship, to some one, if you could obtain his election, who would discharge those duties according to your directions. And … [he was going to divide the freedmen among all the tribes, and by his new law to add all the slaves who were going to be emancipated, but who had not yet received their freedom, so that they might vote equally with the free citizens.] Would he have dared to make mention of this law, which Sextus Clodius boasts was devised by him, while Milo was alive, not to say while he was consul? For of all of us I cannot venture to say all that I was going to say. But you consider what enormous faults the law itself must have had, when the mere mention of it for the purpose of finding fault with it is so offensive. And he looked at me with the expression of countenance which he was in the habit of putting on when he was threatening everybody with every sort of calamity. That light of the senate-house moves me. What? do you suppose, O Sextus, that I am angry with you; I, whose greatest enemy you have punished with even much greater severity than my humanity could resolve to demand? You cast the bloody carcass of Publius Clodius out of the house, you threw it out into the public street, you left it destitute of all images, of all funeral rites, of all funeral pomp, of all funeral panegyric, half consumed by a lot of miserable dogs, to be torn to pieces by the dogs who nightly prowl about the streets. Wherefore, although in so doing you acted most impiously, still you were wreaking all your enemy on my enemy; though I cannot praise you, I certainly ought not to be angry with you. … [You have heard, judges, how much it was in Clodius's interest] that Milo should be slain.
33. vero, iudices, vos soli ignoratis, vos hospites in hac urbe versamini, vestrae peregrinantur aures neque in hoc pervagato civitatis sermone versantur, quas ille leges, si leges nominandae sunt ac non faces urbis, pestes rei publicae, fuerit impositurus nobis omnibus atque inusturus?, exhibe, quaeso, Sexte Clodi, librarium illud legum vestrarum quod te aiunt eripuisse e domo et ex mediis armis turbaque nocturna tamquam Palladium sustulisse, ut praeclarum videlicet munus atque instrumentum tribunatus ad aliquem, si nactus esses, qui tuo arbitrio tribunatum gereret, deferre posses. aspexit me illis quidem oculis quibus tum solebat cum omnibus omnia minabatur. me quippe lumen curiae!? tu me tibi iratum, Sexte, putas, cuius tu inimicissimum multo crudelius etiam punitus es, quam erat humanitatis meae postulare? P. Clodi cruentum cadaver eiecisti domo, tu in publicum abiecisti, tu spoliatum imaginibus, exsequiis, pompa, laudatione, infelicissimis lignis semiustilatum nocturnis canibus dilaniandum reliquisti. re, etsi nefarie fecisti, tamen, quoniam in meo inimico crudelitatem exprompsisti tuam, laudare non possum, irasci certe non debeo.
34. Now turn your attention to Milo. What advantage could it be to Milo that Clodius should be slain? What reason was there why Milo, I will not say should do such an action, but should even wish for his death? Oh, Clodius was an obstacle to Milo's hope of obtaining the consulship. But he was obtaining it in spite of him. Yes, I might rather say be was obtaining it all the more because Clodius was opposing him, nor in fact was I a more efficient support to him than Clodius was. The recollection, O judges, of the services which Milo had done to me and to the republic had weight with you. My entreaties and my tears with which I perceived at that time that you were greatly moved had weight with you, but still more weight had your own fear of the dangers which were impending. For who of the citizens was there who could turn his eyes to the unrestrained praetorship of Publius Clodius, without feeling the greatest dread of a revolution? and unrestrained you saw that it would be unless you had a consul who had both courage and power to restrain him, and as the whole Roman people saw that Milo alone was that man, who could hesitate by his vote to release himself from fear and the republic from danger? But now that Clodius is removed, Milo has got to labour by more ordinary practices to preserve his dignity. That preeminent glory which was then attributed to him alone, and which was daily increasing in consequence of his efforts to repress the frenzy of Clodius, has been put an end to by the death of Clodius. You have gained your object of being no longer afraid of any one of the citizens; he has lost that incessant arena for his valour, that which procured him votes for the consulship, that ceaseless and ever-springing fountain of his glory. Therefore, Milo's canvass for the consulship, which could not be hindered from prospering while Clodius was alive, now, the moment that he is dead, is attempted to be checked. So that the death of Clodius is not only no advantage, but is even a positive injury to Milo.
34. ⟨Audistis, iudices, quantum Clodi inter⟩fuerit occidi Milonem: convertite animos nunc vicissim ad Milonem. Milonis intererat interfici Clodium? quid erat cur Milo non dicam admitteret, sed optaret? “in spe consulatus Miloni Clodius.” eo repugnante fiebat, immo vero eo fiebat magis, nec me suffragatore meliore utebatur quam Clodio. apud vos, iudices, Milonis erga me remque publicam meritorum memoria, valebant preces et lacrimae nostrae, quibus ego tum vos mirifice moveri sentiebam, sed plus multo valebat periculorum impendentium timor. enim erat civium qui sibi solutam P. Clodi praeturam sine maximo rerum novarum metu proponeret? autem fore videbatis, nisi esset is consul qui eam auderet possetque constringere. Eum Milonem unum esse cum sentiret universus populus Romanus, quis dubitaret suffragio suo se metu, periculo rem publicam liberare? nunc, Clodio remoto, usitatis iam rebus enitendum est Miloni ut tueatur dignitatem suam; singularis illa et huic uni concessa gloria quae cotidie augebatur frangendis furoribus Clodianis iam Clodi morte cecidit. adepti estis ne quem civem metueretis; hic exercitationem virtutis, suffragationem consulatus, fontem perennem gloriae suae perdidit. Milonis consulatus qui vivo Clodio labefactari non poterat mortuo denique temptari coeptus est. modo igitur nihil prodest sed obest etiam Clodi mors Miloni.