Cicero: ORATORIA

I. 1. Etsi 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, consuetudinem fori et pristinum morem iudiciorum requirunt. Non enim corona consessus vester cinctus est, ut solebat; non usitata frequentia stipati sumus: 2. non illa praesidia, quae pro templis omnibus cernitis, etsi contra vim conlocata sunt, non adferunt tamen [oratori] aliquid, ut in foro et in iudicio, quamquam praesidiis salutaribus et necessariis saepti sumus, tamen ne non timere quidem sine aliquo timore possimus. Quae si opposita Miloni putarem, cederem tempori, iudices, nec inter tantam vim armorum existimarem esse oratori locum.

1. 1. Although I fear, judges, lest it be disgraceful that, when speaking for a most brave man, I should, as I begin, be afraid, and most unbecoming, since T. Annius himself is more troubled for the safety of the republic than for his own, that I cannot bring to his cause an equal greatness of spirit; nevertheless this new form of a new trial terrifies the eyes, which, wherever they fall, seek the consuetude of the forum and the former custom of trials. For your assembly is not encircled by a crown, as it used to be; we are not packed with the usual throng: 2. those guards which you see stationed before all the temples, although placed against violence, do not, however, bring [the orator] anything whereby, as in the forum and in a court, although we are enclosed by salutary and necessary protections, nevertheless we are not able even to not be afraid without some fear. If I thought these things were set against Milo, I would yield to the occasion, judges, nor amid so great a force of arms would I judge there to be a place for an orator.

Sed 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.

But the counsel of Gnaeus Pompey, a most wise and most just man, recreates and restores me; for surely he would not think it to belong to his own justice to hand over to the soldiers’ weapons the same man whom he had delivered as a defendant to the sentences of the judges, nor to wisdom to arm the rashness of an incited multitude with public authority.

3. Quam ob rem illa arma, centuriones, cohortes non periculum nobis, sed praesidium denuntiant; neque solum ut quieto, sed etiam ut magno animo simus hortantur; neque auxilium modo defensioni meae, verum etiam silentium pollicentur. Reliqua vero multitudo, quae quidem est civium, tota nostra est; neque 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.

3. Wherefore those arms, the centurions, the cohorts announce not peril to us, but protection; and they exhort that we be not only calm, but also of great spirit; nor do they promise only aid to my defense, but even silence. The remaining multitude, at least that which is of citizens, is wholly ours; and there is not any of those whom you see looking on from every side, from wherever some part of the forum can be viewed, and awaiting the outcome of this trial, who not only favors Milo’s virtue, but also thinks that concerning himself, his children, his fatherland, his fortunes, it is being fought out today.

II. Unum 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. Quorum clamor si qui forte fuerit, admonere vos debebit, ut eum civem retineatis, qui semper genus illud hominum clamoresque maximos prae vestra salute neglexit.

2. One kind is hostile and inimical to us, those whom the frenzy of P. Clodius has fed by rapines and burnings and every public devastation: who were even at yesterday’s assembly incited to lead you by their voice as to what you should judge. If there should perchance be any clamor of theirs, it ought to admonish you to retain that citizen who has always neglected that genus of men and even their greatest clamors when set against your safety.

4. Quam ob rem adeste animis, iudices, et timorem si quem habetis deponite. Nam—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.

4. For which reason be present in spirit, judges, and lay down, if you have any, fear. For—if ever concerning good and brave men, if ever concerning well‑deserving citizens the power [to you] of judging has been, if finally ever a place has been given to men chosen from the most distinguished orders, that they might declare by deed and by judgments their zeal toward brave and good citizens, which they had often signified by countenance and words—at this assuredly time you have all that power, to determine whether we, who have always been devoted to your authority, should always, wretched, bewail, or, long harassed by the most abandoned citizens, at last through you and through your good faith, virtue, and wisdom be refreshed.

5. Quid 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? Equidem ceteras tempestates et procellas in illis dum taxat fluctibus contionum semper putavi Miloni esse subeundas, quia semper pro bonis contra improbos senserat; in iudicio vero, et in eo consilio in quo ex cunctis 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.

5. For what, judges, can be said or imagined as more laborious for the two of us, more solicitous, more exercised, who, drawn into the republic by the hope of the most ample rewards, cannot be free from the fear of the most cruel punishments? Indeed, I have always thought that the other storms and tempests—at least amid those billows of the public assemblies—had to be undergone by Milo, since he had always felt on behalf of the good against the wicked; but in a court, and in that council in which from all the orders the most distinguished men would judge, I never supposed that Milo’s enemies would have any hope, not only of extinguishing his safety, but even of impairing his glory by means of such men.

6. Quamquam 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 factas, nec deprecaturi sumus ut crimen hoc nobis propter multa praeclara in rem publicam merita condonetis, nec postulaturi, ut si mors P. Clodi salus vestra fuerit, idcirco eam virtuti Milonis potius quam populi Romani felicitati adsignetis. Sed si illius insidiae clariores hac luce fuerint, tum denique obsecrabo obtestaborque vos, iudices, si cetera amisimus, hoc saltem nobis ut relinquatur, ab inimicorum audacia telisque vitam ut impune liceat defendere.

6. Although in this case, judges, we shall not abuse the tribunate of T. Annius and all the deeds done for the safety of the commonwealth for the defense of this charge. Unless you see with your own eyes the ambushes made against Milo by Clodius, we will neither beseech that you condone this charge for us on account of many preeminent merits toward the commonwealth, nor demand that, if the death of P. Clodius has been your safety, therefore you ascribe it to the virtue of Milo rather than to the felicity of the Roman people. But if those ambushes of his shall be clearer than this light, then at last I will entreat and adjure you, judges, if we have lost the rest, that at least this be left to us: that it be permitted with impunity to defend life against the audacity and weapons of enemies.

III. 7. Sed ante quam ad eam orationem venio quae est propria vestrae quaestionis, videntur ea 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. Negant intueri lucem esse fas ei qui a se hominem occisum esse fateatur.

3. 7. But before I come to that oration which is proper to your question, it seems that those matters must be refuted which have often been thrown about in the Senate by enemies, in the assembly by the wicked, and a little before by the accusers, so that, with every error removed, you may be able plainly to see the matter which comes into judgment. They say it is not lawful for him to look upon the light who confesses that a man has been slain by himself.

In qua tandem urbe hoc homines stultissimi disputant? nempe 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. An est quisquam qui hoc ignoret, cum de homine occiso quaeratur, aut negari solere omnino esse factum aut recte et iure factum esse defendi?

In what city, pray, do these most foolish men debate this? Surely in that city which first saw a capital judgment concerning the life of M. Horatius, a most brave man, who, when the commonwealth was not yet free, was nevertheless acquitted by the comitia of the Roman people, though he admitted that his sister had been slain by his own hand. 8. Is there anyone who is ignorant of this, that, when inquiry is made about a slain man, either it is regularly denied that the deed was done at all, or it is defended as having been done rightly and lawfully?

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. Neque 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. Itaque 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.

Unless indeed you think P. Africanus was demented, who, when by C. Carbo [tribune of the plebs, seditiously] he was being asked in a public assembly what he thought about the death of Ti. Gracchus, replied that he seemed to have been lawfully cut down. For neither could that Servilius Ahala, nor P. Nasica, nor L. Opimius, nor C. Marius, nor the senate, with me as consul, fail to be held nefarious, if it were nefas to slay criminal citizens. And so, judges, not without cause the most learned men have handed down to memory even in feigned fables this: that the man who had killed his mother for the sake of avenging his father, amid varying judgments of men, was freed not only by a divine decision, but even by the judgment of the most wise goddess.

9. Quod si duodecim 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?

9. But if the Twelve Tables willed the nocturnal thief, in whatever way, to be slain with impunity, and the diurnal thief, if he should defend himself with a weapon, to be slain with impunity, who is there who would think that, however anyone has been killed, it ought to be punished, when he sees that sometimes a sword for killing a man is proffered to us by the laws themselves?

IV. Atqui si tempus est ullum iure hominis necandi, quae multa sunt, certe illud est non modo iustum, verum etiam necessarium, cum vi vis inlata defenditur. Pudicitiam 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.

4. And yet, if there is any time by right for killing a human being—of which there are many—surely that is not only just but even necessary, when force inflicted is defended by force. When a military tribune in the army of Gaius Marius, a kinsman of that general, was assaulting a soldier’s pudicity, he was slain by the very man upon whom he was inflicting the violence. For the upright young man preferred to act perilously rather than to endure shamefully.

Atque hunc ille summus vir scelere solutum periculo liberavit. 10. Insidiatori vero et latroni quae potest inferri iniusta nex? Quid comitatus nostri, quid gladii volunt?

And that greatest man freed him from danger, as one released from crime. 10. But upon an ambusher and a brigand, what unjust slaying can be inflicted? What are our retinues for, what do our swords intend?

quos habere certe non liceret, si uti illis nullo pacto liceret. Est 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. Silent enim leges inter arma; nec se exspectari iubent, cum ei qui exspectare velit, ante iniusta poena luenda sit, quam iusta repetenda.

which we certainly would not be permitted to have, if it were in no way permitted to use them. Therefore this, judges, is a law not written but born; which we have not learned, received, read, but we have snatched from nature herself, drunk in, pressed out; to which we have been not taught but made, not instructed but imbued,—that, if our life should fall into some ambushes, if into force and into the weapons of either brigands or enemies, every honorable course would be for the expediting of our safety. 11. For the laws fall silent amid arms; nor do they bid themselves be waited for, since he who would wait must pay an unjust penalty before a just one can be exacted.

Etsi 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 minis occidendi causa habuisse telum iudicaretur. Quapropter hoc maneat in causa, iudices, non enim dubito quin probaturus sim vobis defensionem meam, si id memineritis quod oblivisci non potestis, insidiatorem iure interfici posse.

Although very wisely, and in a certain way tacitly, the law itself grants the power of defending, which forbids not that a man be killed, but that one be with a weapon for the purpose of killing a man; so that, when the cause not the weapon were to be inquired into, he who had used a weapon for the cause of defending himself would be judged not to have had the weapon for the cause of killing. Wherefore let this stand in the case, judges; for I do not doubt that I shall prove my defense to you, if you remember that which you cannot forget: that an ambusher may by right be slain.

V. 12. Sequitur illud, quod a Milonis inimicis saepissime dicitur, caedem in qua P. Clodius occisus est senatum iudicasse contra rem publicam esse factam. Illam vero senatus non sententiis suis solum, sed etiam studiis comprobavit. Quotiens enim est illa causa a nobis acta in senatu!

5. 12. Next follows that point, which is most often said by Milo’s enemies: that the senate judged the killing in which P. Clodius was slain to have been done against the commonwealth. But in truth the senate approved that matter not by its votes only, but also by its zeal. For how many times has that cause been pleaded by us in the senate!

quibus adsensionibus universi ordinis, quam nec tacitis nec occultis! Quando enim frequentissimo senatu quattuor aut summum quinque sunt inventi qui Milonis causam non probarent? Declarant huius ambusti tribuni plebis illae intermortuae contiones, quibus cotidie meam potentiam invidiose criminabatur, eum diceret senatum non quod sentiret, sed quod ego vellem decernere.

by the assents of the entire order—assents neither tacit nor concealed! For when, with the senate at its most crowded, were there found four, or at the very most five, who did not approve Milo’s cause? Those moribund assemblies of this scorched Tribune of the Plebs declare it, in which he would daily, with envious malice, lay charges against my power, saying that the senate decreed not what it felt, but what I wanted.

Quae quidem si potentia est appellanda—potius quam aut propter magna in rem publicam merita mediocris in bonis causis auctoritas, aut propter hos officiosos labores meos non nulla apud bonos gratia,—appellatur ita sane, dum modo ea nos utamur pro salute bonorum contra amentiam perditorum.

Which, indeed, if it is to be called power—rather than either a moderate authority in good causes on account of great merits toward the commonwealth, or, on account of these dutiful labors of mine, some favor among the good—let it be called so, indeed, provided only that we use it for the safety of the good against the madness of the profligate.

13. Hanc 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. Cuius enim de illo incesto stupro iudicium decernendi senatui potestas esset erepta, de eius interitu quis potest credere senatum iudicium novum constituendum putasse?

13. This inquiry, although it is not unjust, the senate nevertheless never thought should be established. For there were laws, there were inquiries either concerning slaughter or concerning violence; nor did the death of P. Clodius bring to the senate so much sorrow and mourning that a new inquiry should be set up. As for the senate, from which the power of decreeing a judgment about that incestuous defilement had been taken away, who can believe that it thought a new judgment ought to be established concerning his death?

Cur igitur incendium curiae, oppugnationem aedium M. Lepidi, caedem hanc ipsam contra rem publicam senatus factam esse decrevit? quia nulla vis umquam est in libera civitate suscepta inter civis non contra rem publicam. 14. Non enim est illa defensio contra vim umquam optanda, sed non numquam est necessaria.

Why, then, did the senate decree that the burning of the Curia, the assault upon the house of M. Lepidus, this very slaughter, had been done against the commonwealth? because no force ever undertaken in a free civitas among citizens is not against the commonwealth. 14. For that defense against force is never to be desired, but is sometimes necessary.

Nisi vero aut ille dies quo Ti. Gracchus est caesus, aut ille quo Gaius, aut quo arma Saturnini oppressa sunt, etiam si e re publica oppressa sunt, rem publicam tamen non volnerarunt.

Unless indeed either that day on which Tiberius Gracchus was slain, or that on which Gaius was, or that on which the arms of Saturninus were suppressed—even if they were suppressed in the interest of the republic—did not nonetheless wound the republic.

VI. Itaque ego ipse decrevi, cum caedem in 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. Quod si per furiosum illum tribunum senatui quod sentiebat perficere licuisset, novam quaestionem nullam haberemus. Decernebat enim, ut veteribus legibus, tantum modo extra ordinem, quaereretur.

6. Therefore I myself decreed, when it was established that a homicide had been committed on the Appian Way, that he who had defended himself had not acted against the commonwealth; but, since there were in the matter force and ambush, I reserved the charge for judgment, I noted the case. But if it had been permitted, through that frenzied tribune, for the senate to accomplish what it thought, we would have had no new court of inquiry. For it was decreeing that inquiry be made under the ancient laws, only out of order.

Divisa sententia est, postulante nescio quo: nihil enim necesse est omnium me flagitia proferre. Sic reliqua auctoritas senatus empta intercessione sublata est.

The vote was divided, at the demand of I-know-not-whom: for there is no need for me to bring forth everyone’s flagitia. Thus the remaining authority of the senate was removed by a purchased intercession (veto).

15. At 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. Quid ergo tulit? nempe ut quaereretur.

15. But indeed Cn. Pompeius by his own rogation judged both about the matter and about the case: for he carried a measure concerning the slaughter which had been done on the Appian Way, in which P. Clodius had been slain. What then did he carry? namely, that it be inquired into.

Quid porro quaerendum est? Factumne sit? at constat.

What, then, is to be inquired further? Whether it was done? But that is established.

A quo? at paret. Vidit igitur, etiam in confessione facti, iuris tamen defensionem suscipi posse.

By whom? but it is clear. Therefore he saw that, even with a confession of the fact, a defense of law could nevertheless be undertaken.

Quod 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. Mihi vero Cn. Pompeius non modo nihil gravius contra Milonem iudicasse, sed etiam statuisse videtur quid vos in iudicando spectare oporteret. Nam qui non poenam confessioni, sed defensionem dedit, is causam interitus quaerendam, non interitum putavit.

But unless he had seen that it was possible to absolve him who confessed, since he saw us confessing, he would never have ordered an inquiry to be made, nor would he have given to you, for your judging, this salutary letter rather than that gloomy one. To me indeed Gnaeus Pompeius seems not only to have judged nothing more grievous against Milo, but even to have established what you ought to look to in judging. For he who gave not a penalty to confession, but a defense, thought that the cause of the death was to be inquired into, not the death itself.

16. Iam illud ipse dicet profecto, quod sua sponte fecit, Publione Clodio tribuendum putarit an tempori.

16. Now he himself will surely say this, whether he thought that what he did of his own accord ought to be attributed to Publius Clodius or to the time.

VII. Domi 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. Nihil de eius morte populus consultus, nulla quaestio decreta a senatu est.

7. At his own home, a most noble man, a defender of the senate, and indeed in those times almost its patron, the uncle of this our judge, a most brave man, M. Cato, the tribune of the plebs M. Drusus, was slain. About his death the people were not consulted, no quaestio was decreed by the senate.

Quantum luctum in hac urbe fuisse a nostris patribus accepimus, cum P. Africano domi suae quiescenti illa nocturna vis esset inlata? Quis tum non gemuit? Quis non arsit dolore, quem immortalem, si fieri posset, omnes esse cuperent, eius ne necessariam quidem exspectatam esse mortem!

How great a mourning there was in this city, as we have received from our fathers, when that nocturnal violence was inflicted upon P. Africanus as he was resting in his own house? Who then did not groan? Who did not burn with dolor, that he—whom all would wish to be immortal, if it could be—had not even his necessary death awaited!

Num igitur ulla quaestio de Africani morte lata est? certe nulla. 17. Quid ita?

Was, then, any inquiry about the death of Africanus brought? certainly none. 17. Why so?

quia non alio facinore clari homines, alio obscuri necantur. Intersit inter vitae dignitatem summorurn atque infimorum: mors quidem inlata per scelus isdem et poenis teneatur et legibus. Nisi forte magis erit parricida, si qui consularem patrem quam si quis 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 muniverit, non qua populus uteretur, sed ubi impune sui posteri latrocinarentur!

because famous men are not slain by one kind of crime, obscure men by another. Let there be a difference in the dignity of the life of the highest and the lowest: a death inflicted through wickedness should be held by the same penalties and by the same laws. Unless perhaps one will be the more a parricide, if someone has killed a consular father rather than if someone has killed a humble one: or for that reason the death of P. Clodius will be the more atrocious, because he was slain among the monuments of his ancestors—this, indeed, is often said by those men; as though that Appius the Blind had paved the road, not for the people to use, but as a place where his own descendants might commit brigandage with impunity!

18. Itaque in eadem ista Appia via 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! Quae cruentata antea caede honesti atque innocentis viri silebatur, eadem nunc crebro usurpatur, postea quam latronis et parricidae sanguine imbuta est. Sed quid ego illa commemoro?

18. And so on that same Appian Way, when P. Clodius had killed the most distinguished Roman knight M. Papirius, that crime was not to be punished—for a nobleman had killed a Roman knight in his own monuments; now the very name of that same Appia excites how many tragedies! The same Way, which, bloodied before by the slaughter of an honorable and innocent man, was kept quiet, is now repeatedly invoked, after it has been soaked with the blood of a bandit and parricide. But why do I recall those things?

Comprehensus est in templo Castoris servus P. Clodi, quem ille ad Cn. Pompeium interficiendum collocarat: extorta est ei confitenti sica de manibus: caruit foro postea Pompeius, caruit senatu, caruit publico: ianua se ac parietibus, non iure legum iudiciorumque texit. 19. Num quae rogatio lata, num quae nova quaestio decreta est? Atqui si res, si vir, si tempus ullum dignum fuit, certe haec in illa causa summa omnia fuerunt.

At the Temple of Castor a slave of P. Clodius was apprehended, whom he had stationed for the killing of Cn. Pompeius: a dagger was wrenched from his hands as he confessed: thereafter Pompeius was without the forum, without the senate, without the public: he shielded himself with his door and walls, not by the right of laws and judgments. 19. Was any bill carried, was any new commission of inquiry decreed? And yet, if ever the matter, the man, the time was worthy, surely in that case all these were in the highest degree.

Insidiator 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 poenienda: proinde quasi exitus rerum, non hominum consilia legibus vindicentur. Minus dolendum fuit re non perfecta, sed poeniendum certe nihilo minus.

An ambusher was stationed in the forum, and in the very vestibule of the senate; and death was being prepared for the man upon whose life the safety of the commonwealth relied; and at that time of the Republic, when, if that one man had fallen, not this city alone, but all nations would have collapsed. Unless indeed, because the deed was not perfected, it was not to be punished: as though the outcomes of things, and not the counsels of men, were vindicated by the laws. There was less to be mourned from the deed not being completed, but it was certainly to be punished none the less.

20. Quotiens 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?

20. How many times I myself, judges, have escaped from the missiles of P. Clodius and from his blood-stained hands! if either my own fortune or the fortune of the Republic had not saved me from them, who, pray, would have brought an inquest concerning my destruction?

VIII. Sed stulti sumus qui Drusum, qui Africanum, Pompeium, nosmet ipsos cum P. Clodio conferre audeamus. Tolerabilia fuerunt illa: P. Clodi mortem aequo animo ferre nemo potest.

8. But we are foolish to dare to compare Drusus, Africanus, Pompeius, we ourselves, with P. Clodius. Those things were tolerable; the death of P. Clodius no one can bear with equanimity.

Luget 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. Non 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; multa etiam alia vidit, sed illud maxime, quamvis atrociter ipse tulisset, vos tamen fortiter iudicaturos. Itaque delegit ex florentissimis ordinibus ipsa lumina: neque vero, quod non nulli dictitant, secrevit in iudicibus legendis amicos meos.

The senate laments, the equestrian order mourns, the whole commonwealth is worn out with decrepitude, the municipalities are squalid, the colonies are afflicted, the fields, finally, themselves long for so beneficent, so salutary, so mild a citizen. 21. That was not the cause, judges, assuredly it was not, why Pompey judged that an inquiry should be brought forward by himself; but a wise man, endowed with a certain lofty and divine mind, he saw many things: that that man had been inimical to himself, Milo a familiar; in the common rejoicing of all, if he too rejoiced, he feared lest the faith of the reconciled favor might seem weaker; he saw many other things as well, but this most of all—that, although he himself had borne it bitterly, you nevertheless would judge bravely. And so he chose from the most flourishing orders the very luminaries; nor indeed, as some keep saying, did he, in selecting the judges, set apart my friends.

Neque enim hoc cogitavit vir iustissimus; neque in bonis viris legendis id adsequi potuisset, etiam si cupisset. Non 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: ex quibus ille cum optimos viros legeret, idque maxime ad fidem suam pertinere arbitraretur, non potuit legere non studiosos mei. 22. Quod vero te, L. Domiti, huic quaestioni praeesse maxime voluit, nihil quaesivit [aliud] nisi iustitiam, gravitatem, humanitatem, fidem.

For the most just man did not think this; nor could he have attained that in selecting good men, even if he had wished. For my favor is not contained by intimacies, which cannot extend widely, because habits of manner of life cannot be with many; but, if we have any power, we have it from this, that the commonwealth has joined us with the good: from whom, when he chose the best men, and judged that to pertain most to his own good faith, he could not choose men not well-disposed toward me. 22. Moreover, in that he most wished you, L. Domiti, to preside over this inquiry, he sought nothing [else] except justice, gravity, humanity, fidelity.

Tulit ut consularem necesse esset: credo, quod principum munus esse ducebat resistere et levitati multitudinis et perditorum temeritati. Ex consularibus te creavit potissimum: dederas enim quam contemneres popularis insanias iam ab adulescentia documenta maxima.

He carried that there must be a consular: I believe, because he deemed it the duty of leaders to resist both the levity of the multitude and the temerity of the profligate. From among the consulars he appointed you above all: for from your adolescence you had given the greatest documents (proofs) of how you despise popular insanities.

IX. 23. Quam 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. Quod quo facilius argumentis perspicere possitis, rem gestam vobis dum breviter expono, quaeso, diligenter attendite.

9. 23. Wherefore, judges, that at last we may come to the case and the charge,—since neither is an outright confession of the deed unusual, nor has anything concerning our cause been adjudged by the senate otherwise than as we would have wished, and the very proposer of the law, when there was no controversy about the fact, nevertheless wished there to be a disputation of law, and judges have been chosen for this, and he has been set over the inquiry who may debate these matters justly and wisely,—it remains, judges, that you ought now to inquire into nothing else, except which of the two laid ambush for the other. In order that you may the more easily perceive this by arguments, while I briefly set forth the event to you, I beg, attend diligently.

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 annum 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. Occurrebat ei mancam ac debilem praeturam futuram suam consule Milone: eum porro summo consensu populi Romani consulem fieri videbat. Contulit se ad eius competitores, sed ita, totam ut petitionem ipse solus etiam invitis illis gubernaret, tota ut comitia suis, ut dictitabat, umeris sustineret.

24. When P. Clodius had determined to vex the republic in his praetorship with every crime, and saw that the elections had been so dragged out in the previous year that he could not hold the praetorship for many months,—a man who did not regard the step of honor, as the rest did, but both wished to avoid having L. Paulus as colleague, a citizen of singular virtue, and was seeking a whole year for tearing the republic to pieces,—suddenly he abandoned his own year and transferred himself into the next year: not (as happens) by some religious scruple, but in order that he might have, as he himself used to say, for carrying on the praetorship, that is, for overturning the republic, a full and entire year. 25. It occurred to him that his praetorship would be maimed and feeble with Milo as consul: moreover he saw that that man was becoming consul by the highest consensus of the Roman people. He betook himself to that man’s competitors, but in such a way that he himself alone would steer the whole canvassing even with them unwilling, so that he would sustain the whole elections upon his shoulders, as he kept saying.

Convocabat tribus, se interponebat, Collinam novam dilectu perditissimorum civium conscribebat. Quanto ille plura miscebat, tanto hic magis in dies convalescebat. Ubi 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.

He was convening the tribes, interposing himself, he was conscribing a new Colline by a levy of the most profligate citizens. The more that man stirred up more disorders, the more this one grew strong by the day. When the man most prepared for every felony saw the bravest man, his most hostile enemy, a sure consul—and understood that this had been declared not only by conversations but also by the suffrages of the Roman people, and often—he began to act openly and to say outright that Milo must be killed.

26. Servos agrestis et barbaros, quibus silvas publicas depopulatus erat Etruriamque vexarat, ex Apennino deduxerat, quos videbatis. Res erat minime obscura. Etenim palam dictitabat consulatum Miloni eripi non posse, vitam posse.

26. Rustic and barbarous slaves, by whose aid he had depopulated the public forests and had vexed Etruria, he had led down from the Apennines—those whom you were seeing. The matter was by no means obscure. For indeed he kept declaring openly that Milo’s consulship could not be snatched away, but his life could.

Significavit 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.

He signified this often in the senate, he said it in the public assembly. Nay, even to M. Favonius, a most brave man, asking him with what hope he was raving while Milo lived, he replied that that man would perish within three days or at the most four days: which utterance of his Favonius immediately conveyed to this M. Cato.

X. 27. Interim cum sciret Clodius—neque enim erat difficile scire—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.

10. 27. Meanwhile, since Clodius knew—for it was not difficult to know—that Milo had a solemn, legitimate, necessary journey to Lanuvium on January 20 to have a flamen instituted, [for Milo was dictator at Lanuvium,] he himself suddenly set out from Rome the day before, in order, as was understood from the facts, to set an ambush for Milo in front of his own farm. And he so set out as to leave behind a turbulent assembly, in which his fury was missed, [which on that very day was held,] which he would never have left unless he had wished to be present at the place and time of the crime.

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 Romani venturus erat, redire potuisset. Ob viam 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. Fit ob viam Clodio ante fundum eius hora fere undecima, aut non multo secus.

28. But Milo, when he had been in the senate that day until the senate was dismissed, came home; he changed his shoes and garments; he tarried a little while, while his wife (as happens) gets herself ready; then he set out at that time when already Clodius, if indeed he were going to come to Rome that day, could have returned. Clodius meets him on the way, unencumbered, on horseback, with no carriage, with no baggage; with no Greek companions, as he was accustomed; without his wife, which hardly ever: while this ambusher, who had prepared that journey for the doing of a killing, was being carried with his wife in a carriage, cloaked in a paenula, with a large and encumbering and womanish and delicate retinue of maidservants and boys. 29. He meets Clodius on the way in front of his estate at about the eleventh hour, or not much otherwise.

Statim complures cum telis in hunc faciunt de loco superiore impetum: adversi raedarium occidunt. Cum 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.<

Immediately several with weapons make an attack against him from a higher place: facing them, they kill the coachman. But when he, with his cloak (paenula) thrown back from the carriage, had leapt down and was defending himself with a keen spirit, those who were with Clodius, their swords drawn, partly run back to the carriage to assail Milo from the rear; partly, because they supposed this man already slain, begin to cut down his slaves who were behind: of whom those who were faithful in spirit to their master and resolute were partly killed, partly, when they saw fighting at the carriage, were prevented from succoring their master, and, hearing from Clodius himself that Milo had been killed and truly thinking it so, Milo’s slaves did that—I will speak openly, not for the sake of diverting the charge, but as it happened—neither by the order nor with the knowledge nor in the presence of their master, what each one would have wished his own slaves to do in such a matter.<

XI. 30. Haec, sicuti exposui, ita gesta sunt, iudices. Insidiator superatus est, vi victa vis, vel potius oppressa virtute audacia est. Nihil 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.

11. 30. These things, just as I have set forth, were so done, judges. The ambusher was overcome, force conquered by force, or rather audacity was crushed by virtue. I say nothing of what the Republic has obtained, nothing of what you have, nothing of what all good men have: assuredly that does not profit Milo, who was born with this fate—that he could not even save himself without at the same time saving the Republic and you.

Si id iure fieri non potuit, nihil habeo quod defendam. Sin hoc et ratio doctis, et necessitas barbaris, et mos gentibus, et feris etiam beluis 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. Quod si ita putasset, certe optabilius Miloni fuit dare iugulum P. Clodio, non semel ab illo neque turn primum petitum, quam iugulari a vobis, quia se non iugulandum illi tradidisset.

If that could not be done by law, I have nothing that I may defend. But if this both reason has prescribed for the learned, necessity for barbarians, custom for nations, and for wild beasts even nature itself has prescribed,—that they should always repel every violence, by whatever aid they could, from their body, from their head, from their life,—you cannot judge this deed nefarious, without at the same time judging that all who have fallen upon brigands must perish either by their weapons or by your verdicts. 31. But if he had thought thus, certainly it was more preferable for Milo to give his throat to P. Clodius, sought by him not once nor then for the first time, than to be throttled by you, because he had not handed himself over to that man to be throttled.

Sin hoc nemo vestrum ita sentit, non illud iam in iudicium venit, occisusne sit (quod fatemur), sed iure an iniuria, quod multis in causis saepe quaesitum est. Insidias factas esse constat, et id est quod senatus contra rem publicam factum iudicavit: ab utro factae sint incertum est. De hoc igitur latum est ut quaereretur.

But if none of you thus feels about this, then that point now no longer comes into judgment—whether he was slain (which we confess)—but whether lawfully or unlawfully, a question often sought in many causes. That an ambush was laid is agreed, and that is what the Senate judged to have been done against the commonwealth; by which party it was laid is uncertain. Accordingly, on this point it has been carried that inquiry be made.

Ita et senatus rem non hominem notavit, et Pompeius de iure non de facto quaestionem tulit.

Thus both the Senate marked the matter, not the man, and Pompey brought a question concerning law, not concerning fact.

XII. Num quid igitur aliud in iudicium venit, nisi uter utri insidias fecerit? Profecto nihil: si hic illi, ut ne sit impune; si ille huic, ut scelere solvamur.

12. Is anything else, then, brought into judgment, except which of the two laid an ambush for the other? Assuredly nothing: if this man for that one, that it not go unpunished; if that man for this one, that we be absolved from crime.

32. Quonam igitur pacto probari potest insidias Miloni fecisse Clodium? Satis est in illa quidem tam audaci, tam nefaria belua, docere magnam ei causam, magnam spem in Milonis morte propositam, magnas utilitates fuisse. Itaque illud Cassianum 'cui bono fuerit' in his personis valeat; etsi boni nullo emolumento impelluntur in fraudem, improbi saepe parvo.

32. By what method, then, can it be proved that Clodius laid ambushes for Milo? It is enough, in the case of that beast so audacious, so nefarious, to show that there was for him a great cause, a great hope set before him in Milo’s death, great advantages. Therefore let that Cassian saying, ‘cui bono fuerit,’ have force in these persons; although good men are impelled into fraud by no emolument, the wicked often by a small one.

Atqui Milone interfecto Clodius haec adsequebatur, non modo ut praetor esset non eo consule quo sceleris nihil facere posset; sed etiam ut eis consulibus praetor esset, quibus si non adiuvantibus at coniventibus certe, speraret posse se 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.

But with Milo slain, Clodius was thereby attaining this—not only that he should be praetor not with that sort of consul under whom he would be able to do nothing criminal, but even that he should be praetor with those consuls under whom, if not assisting then at least conniving, he hoped that he could elude them in those premeditated frenzies of his: whose attempts, as he himself calculated, they would not wish to repress even if they could, since they judged that they owed him so great a benefit; and, if they did wish, perhaps they could scarcely break the audacity of a most criminal man, now already strengthened by long-standing.

33. An 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?

33. Or indeed, judges, are you alone ignorant? Do you move about as guests in this city? Do your ears peregrinate, and are they not engaged in this discourse of the state that has gone everywhere—what laws that man—if they are to be called laws and not the torches of the city, the plagues of the commonwealth—was going to impose upon all of us and brand into us?

Exhibe, quaeso, Sexte Clodi, exhibe 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. Atque per . . . an huius ille legis quam Clodius a se inventam gloriatur, mentionem facere ausus esset vivo Milone, non dicam consule? De nostrum enim omnium—non audeo totum dicere.

Produce, I pray, Sextus Clodius, produce that book-chest of your laws, which they say you snatched from the house and, from the midst of arms and the nocturnal mob, carried off as though it were the Palladium, so that you might be able to confer, as a very splendid gift and instrument of the tribunate, upon someone—if you should find one—who would carry the tribunate at your discretion. And by . . . would he have dared to make mention of this law, which Clodius boasts was invented by himself, while Milo was alive—I do not say as consul? For of our—of us all—I do not dare to say the whole.

Videte quid ea viti lex habitura fuerit, cuius periculosa etiam reprehensio est. Et aspexit me illis quidem oculis, quibus tum solebat cum omnibus omnia minabatur. Movet me quippe lumen curiae!

See what that defective law would have had in store, whose very reprehension is perilous. And he looked at me with those very eyes with which at that time he used to, when he was threatening everything to everyone. For indeed the light of the Curia moves me!

XIII. Quid? tu me tibi iratum, Sexte, putas, cuius inimicissimum multo crudelius etiam poenitus es, quam erat humanitatis meae postulare?

13. What? do you think me angry with you, Sextus—you, who, as my most hostile enemy, have been punished far more cruelly, even to the full, than it was for my humanity to demand?

Tu P. Clodi cruentum cadaver eiecisti domo; tu in publicum abiecisti; tu spoliatum imaginibus, exsequiis, pompa, laudatione, infelicissimis lignis semiustilatum, nocturnis canibus dilaniandum reliquisti. Qua re, etsi nefarie fecisti, tamen quoniam in meo inimico crudelitatem exprompsisti tuam, laudare non possum, irasci certe non debeo.

You threw out from the house the bloody cadaver of P. Clodius; you cast it forth into the public; you, stripped of images, exequies, pomp, laudation, half-burned on most ill‑omened logs, left it to be torn in pieces by nocturnal dogs. Wherefore, although you acted nefariously, yet since upon my enemy you displayed your cruelty, I cannot praise you, and assuredly I ought not to be angry.

34. Audistis, iudices, quantum Clodi interfuerit occidi Milonem: convertite animos nunc vicissim ad Milonem. Quid Milonis intererat interfici Clodium? Quid erat cur Milo non dicam admitteret, sed optaret?

34. You have heard, judges, how greatly it concerned Clodius that Milo be slain: turn your minds now in turn to Milo. What concerned Milo, that Clodius be slain? What was there for which Milo—not to say would admit it, but would desire it?

'Obstabat in spe consulatus Miloni Clodius.' At eo repugnante fiebat, immo vero eo fiebat magis; nec me suffragatore meliore utebatur quam Clodio. Valebat 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. Quis enim erat civium qui sibi solutam P. Clodi praeturam sine maximo rerum novarum metu proponeret?

'Clodius stood in the way of Milo’s hope of the consulship.' But with him resisting he was being elected—indeed, he was being elected all the more because of him; nor was he employing me as a better canvasser than Clodius. The memory of Milo’s merits toward me and toward the commonwealth had weight with you, judges; our prayers and tears had weight, by which I then felt you marvelously moved; but far more had weight the fear of impending dangers. For who among the citizens was there who could set before himself the unrestrained praetorship of P. Clodius without the greatest fear of revolutionary changes?

Solutam 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? At nunc, Clodio remoto, usitatis iam rebus enitendum est Miloni, ut tueatur dignitatern suam: singularis illa et huic uni concessa gloria, quae cotidie augebatur frangendis furoribus Clodianis, iam Clodi morte cecidit.

You saw, moreover, that it would be unfettered, unless there were that consul who would dare and could restrain it. Since the entire Roman people perceived that Milo alone was that man, who would hesitate by his suffrage to liberate himself from fear and the republic from danger? But now, with Clodius removed, Milo must strive by the now usual means, to protect his dignity: that singular glory conceded to him alone, which was being increased daily by the breaking of Clodian furies, has now fallen with the death of Clodius.

Vos adepti estis, ne quem civem metueretis: hic exercitationem virtutis, suffragationem consulatus, fontem perennem gloriae suae perdidit. Itaque Milonis consulatus, qui vivo Clodio labefactari non poterat, mortuo denique temptari coeptus est. Non modo igitur nihil prodest, sed obest etiam Clodi mors Miloni.

You have attained that you fear no citizen; this man has lost the exercise of virtue, the suffragation for the consulship, the perennial fount of his glory. And thus Milo’s consulship, which while Clodius lived could not be made to totter, after his death at last began to be assailed. Therefore not only does Clodius’s death profit Milo nothing, but it even harms him.

35. 'At valuit odium, fecit iratus, fecit inimicus, fuit ultor iniuriae, poenitor doloris sui.' Quid? si haec non dico maiora fuerunt in Clodio quam in Milone, sed in illo maxima, nulla in hoc? quid voltis amplius?

35. 'But hatred had the upper hand; he acted irate; he acted as an enemy; he was an avenger of an injury; a punisher for his own pain.' What then? If— I do not say that— these things were not only greater in Clodius than in Milo, but in that man at their greatest, in this man none at all— what do you want more?

Quid enim odisset Clodium Milo, segetem ac materiem suae gloriae, praeter hoc civile odium, quo omnis improbos odimus? Ille erat ut odisset, primum defensorem salutis meae, deinde vexatorem furoris, domitorem armorum suorum, postremo etiam accusatorem suum: reus enim Milonis lege Plotia fuit Clodius, quoad vixit. Quo tandem animo hoc tyrannum illum tulisse creditis?

For what, indeed, would Milo have hated Clodius— the harvest and material of his own glory—except for this civic hatred with which we all hate the wicked? He, rather, had cause to hate: first, the defender of my safety; then the vexer of his frenzy; the tamer of his arms; and, finally, even his accuser: for Clodius was a defendant on Milo’s charge under the Plautian law, as long as he lived. With what spirit do you believe that tyrant bore this?

quantum odium illius, et in homine iniusto quam etiam iustum fuisse?

how great that man’s hatred was, and—in an unjust man—how even just it was?

XIV. 36. Reliquum est ut iam illum natura ipsius consuetudoque defendat, hunc autem haec eadem coarguat. Nihil per vim umquam Clodius, omnia per vim Milo.

14. 36. It remains that now that man is defended by his very nature and consuetude, but this man these same things convict. Clodius never anything by force; Milo everything by force.

Quid? ego, iudices, cum maerentibus vobis urbe cessi, iudiciumne timui? non servos, non arma, non vim?

What? I, judges, when I withdrew from the city with you mourning, did I fear a trial? Was it not slaves, not arms, not violence?

Quae fuisset igitur iusta causa restituendi mei, nisi fuisset iniusta eiciendi? Diem mihi, credo, dixerat, multam inrogarat, actionem perduellionis intenderat; et mihi videlicet in causa aut mala aut mea, non et praeclarissima et vestra, iudicium timendum fuit. Servorum et egentium civium et facinorosorum armis meos civis, meis consiliis periculisque servatos, pro me obici nolui.37. Vidi enim, vidi hunc ipsum Q. Hortensium, lumen et ornamentum rei publicae, paene interfici servorum manu, cum mihi adesset: qua in turba C. Vibienus senator, vir optimus, cum hoc cum esset una, ita est mulcatus, ut vitam amiserit.

What, then, would have been a just cause for my restoration, unless there had been an unjust cause for my expulsion? He had, I suppose, named a day for me, had proposed a fine, had instituted an action of treason; and evidently, in a cause either bad or my own—not at once most illustrious and yours—I ought to have feared a trial. By the arms of slaves and of needy citizens and of criminals, I was unwilling that my fellow citizens, saved by my counsels and perils, be thrown forward on my behalf.37. For I saw—yes, I saw—this very Q. Hortensius, the light and ornament of the republic, almost killed by the hand of slaves, when he was attending me; in that tumult, Gaius Vibienus, a senator, an excellent man, since he was together with him, was so beaten that he lost his life.

Itaque quando illius postea sica illa, quam a Catilina acceperat, conquievit? Haec intentata nobis est; huic ego vos obici pro me non sum passus; haec insidiata Pompeio est; haec istam Appiam, monimentum sui nominis, nece Papiri cruentavit; haec eadem longo intervallo conversa rursus est in me: nuper quidem, ut scitis, me ad regiam paene confecit.

Therefore, when then did that dagger, which he had received from Catiline, ever afterwards come to rest? This was aimed at us; to this I did not allow you to be exposed in my stead; this laid ambush for Pompey; this bloodied that Appian Way, the monument of his own name, with the murder of Papirius; this same, after a long interval, was turned again against me: quite recently indeed, as you know, it almost finished me at the Regia.

38. Quid simile Milonis? cuius vis omnis haec semper fuit, ne P. Clodius, cum in iudicium detrahi non posset, vi oppressam civitatem teneret. Quem si interficere voluisset, quantae quotiens occasiones, quam praeclarae fuerunt!

38. What like of Milo? whose whole use of force was always this: that P. Clodius, since he could not be dragged into court, should not hold the state, oppressed by force. If he had wished to kill him, how many, how frequent were the occasions, how most splendid!

Potuitne, cum domum ac deos penatis suos illo oppugnante defenderet, iure se ulcisci? Potuitne, civi egregio et viro fortissimo, P. Sestio, conlega suo, volnerato? Potuitne, Q. Fabricio, viro optimo, cum de reditu meo legem ferret, pulso, crudelissima in foro caede facta ? Potuitne L. Caecili, iustissimi fortissimique praetoris, oppugnata domo?

Could he, when he was defending his house and his household gods (Penates) with that man attacking, by right avenge himself? Could he, when an outstanding citizen and a most brave man, P. Sestius, his colleague, had been wounded? Could he, when Q. Fabricius, a most excellent man, while he was proposing a law about my return, had been driven off, with a most cruel slaughter done in the forum? Could he, with the house of L. Caecilius, a most just and most brave praetor, under attack?

Potuitne illo die, cum est lata lex de me; cum totius Italiae concursus, quem mea salus concitarat, facti illius gloriam libens agnovisset, ut, etiam si id Milo fecisset, cuncta civitas eam laudem pro sua vindicaret?

Could he have, on that day, when the law about me was carried; when the concourse of all Italy, which my restoration had stirred up, had gladly recognized the glory of that deed, so that, even if Milo had done it, the whole commonwealth would claim that praise as its own?

XV. 39. At quod erat tempus? Clarissimus et fortissimus consul, inimicus Clodio, [P. Lentulus,] ultor sceleris illius, propugnator senatus, defensor vestrae voluntatis, patronus publici consensus, restitutor salutis meae; septem praetores, octo tribuni plebei, illius adversarii, defensores mei; Cn. Pompeius, auctor et dux mei reditus, illius hostis, cuius sententiam senatus [omnis] de salute mea gravissimam et ornatissimam secutus est, qui populum Romanum est cohortatus, qui cum de me decretum Capuae fecisset, ipse cunctae Italiae cupienti et eius fidem imploranti signum dedit, ut ad me restituendum Romam concurrerent; omnium denique in illum odia civium ardebant desiderio mei, quem qui tum interemisset, non de impunitate eius, sed de praemiis cogitaretur. 40. Tamen se Milo continuit, et P. Clodium in iudicium bis, ad vim numquam vocavit.

15. 39. But what was the time? The most illustrious and bravest consul, an enemy to Clodius, [P. Lentulus,] the avenger of that crime, the champion of the senate, the defender of your will, the patron of public consensus, the restorer of my safety; seven praetors, eight tribunes of the plebs, his adversaries, my defenders; Cn. Pompeius, the author and leader of my return, his enemy, whose opinion concerning my safety the senate [as a whole] followed as most weighty and most splendid, who exhorted the Roman people, who, when he had made a decree at Capua about me, himself gave the signal to all Italy—eager and imploring his good faith—that they should run together to Rome to restore me; finally, the hatreds of all the citizens against that man were blazing with longing for me, so that whoever had slain him then would have been thought of not with regard to his impunity, but to rewards. 40. Nevertheless Milo restrained himself, and summoned P. Clodius to trial twice, never to force.

Quid? privato Milone et reo ad populum accusante P. Clodio, cum in Cn. Pompeium pro Milone dicentem impetus factus est, quae tum non modo occasio, sed etiam causa illius opprimendi fuit! Nuper vero cum M. Antonius summam spem salutis bonis omnibus attulisset, gravissimamque adulescens nobilissimus rei publicae partem fortissime suscepisset, atque illam beluam, iudici laqueos declinantem, iam inretitam teneret, qui locus, quod tempus illud, di immortales, fuit!

What? when Milo was a private citizen and a defendant, with Publius Clodius prosecuting before the people, and an attack was made upon Gnaeus Pompeius as he was speaking on behalf of Milo—what then was not only an occasion, but even a cause for crushing that man! But lately indeed, when Marcus Antonius had brought the highest hope of salvation to all the good, and that most noble adolescent had most bravely undertaken the gravest part for the republic, and when he held that brute-beast, dodging the snares of judgment, already enmeshed—what a place, what a time that, immortal gods, it was!

cum se ille fugiens in scalarum tenebris abdidisset, magnum Miloni fuit conficere illam pestem nulla sua invidia, M. vero Antoni maxima gloria? 41. Quid? comitiis in campo quotiens potestas fuit!

when that man, fleeing, had concealed himself in the darkness of the stairs, would it not have been a great thing for Milo to dispatch that pest with no odium to himself, but for Marcus Antonius with the greatest glory? 41. What? At the elections on the Campus, how many times there was opportunity!

cum ille in saepta ruisset, gladios destringendos, lapides iaciendos curavisset; dein subito, voltu Milonis perterritus, fugeret ad Tiberim, vos et omnes boni vota faceretis, ut Miloni uti virtute sua liberet.

when he had rushed into the Saepta, and had taken care that swords be unsheathed and stones be hurled; then suddenly, terrified by Milo’s countenance, he would flee to the Tiber, and you and all good men would make vows, that it might be free for Milo to employ his own virtue as he pleased.

XVI. Quem igitur cum omnium gratia noluit, hunc voluit cum aliquorum querella? quem iure, quem loco, quem tempore, quem impune non est ausus, hunc iniuria, iniquo loco, alieno tempore, periculo capitis, non dubitavit occidere?

16. Whom, then, he was unwilling to kill with the good-will of all, did he wish to kill with the complaint of some? The one whom he did not dare to kill lawfully, in the right place, at the right time, and with impunity—him did he not hesitate to kill unlawfully, in an iniquitous place, at an alien time, with peril to his life?

42. praesertim, iudices, cum honoris amplissimi contentio et dies comitiorum subesset, quo quidem tempore—scio enim quam timida sit ambitio, quantaque et quam sollicita sit cupiditas consulatus—omnia, non modo quae reprehendi palam, sed etiam obscure quae cogitari possunt timemus, rumorem, fabulam fictam, levem perhorrescimus, ora omnium atque oculos intuemur. Nihil est enim tam molle, tam tenerum, tam aut fragile aut flexibile, quam voluntas erga nos sensusque civium, qui non modo improbitati irascuntur candidatorum, sed etiam in recte factis saepe fastidiunt. 43. Hunc igitur diem campi speratum atque exoptatum sibi proponens Milo, cruentis manibus scelus et facinus prae se ferens et confitens, ad illa augusta centuriarum auspicia veniebat?

42. especially, judges, when the competition for a most ample honor and the day of the elections was at hand; at which time—for I know how timid ambition is, and how great and how solicitous is the desire of the consulship—we fear everything, not only things which can be openly reprehended, but even those which can be covertly thought; we shudder at rumor, at a fictitious fable, at the slightest thing; we look to the mouths and eyes of all. For nothing is so soft, so tender, so either fragile or flexible, as the goodwill toward us and the feelings of the citizens, who not only grow angry at the depravity of candidates, but even often are fastidious about right deeds. 43. Therefore, proposing to himself that hoped-for and longed-for day of the campus, was Milo—bearing before him and confessing crime and outrage with bloody hands—coming to those august auspices of the centuries?

Quam hoc non credibile in hoc! quam idem in Clodio non dubitandum, cum se ille interfecto Milone regnaturum putaret! Quid?

How not credible is this in this man! how, as to the same in Clodius, there is no doubting, since he thought that, with Milo slain, he would rule as king! What?

(quod caput est [audaciae], iudices) quis ignorat maximam inlecebram esse peccandi impunitatis spem? In utro igitur haec fuit? in Milone, qui etiam nunc reus est facti aut praeclari aut certe necessarii, an in Clodio, qui ita iudicia poenamque contempserat, ut eum nihil delectaret quod aut per naturam fas esset, aut per leges liceret.

(quod caput est [audaciae], judges) who is ignorant that the greatest allurement to sinning is the hope of impunity? In which of the two, therefore, was this? in Milo, who even now is the defendant for a deed either illustrious or at any rate necessary, or in Clodius, who had so contemned the courts and the penalty, that nothing delighted him which either would be right by nature (fas), or would be licit by the laws.

44. Sed quid ego argumentor? quid plura disputo? Te, Q. Petili, appello, optimum et fortissimum civem: te, M. Cato, testor, quos mihi divina quaedam sors dedit iudices.

44. But why am I arguing? why do I dispute further? You, Q. Petilius, I appeal to, the best and bravest citizen: you, M. Cato, I call to witness, whom a certain divine lot has given me as judges.

Vos ex M. Favonio audistis Clodium sibi dixisse, et audistis vivo Clodio, periturum Milonem triduo. Post diem tertium gesta res est quam dixerat. Cum ille non dubitarit aperire quid cogitaret, vos potestis dubitare quid fecerit?

You heard from M. Favonius that Clodius had said to him—and you heard, while Clodius was alive—that Milo would perish within three days. On the third day the deed which he had said was done. Since he did not hesitate to reveal what he was thinking, can you doubt what he did?

XVII. 45. Quem ad modum igitur eum dies non fefellit? Dixi equidem modo.

17. 45. How, then, did the day not deceive him? I have indeed just said.

Dictatoris Lanuvini stata sacrificia nosse negoti nihil erat. Vidit necesse esse Miloni proficisci Lanuvium illo ipso quo est profectus die. Itaque antevertit.

It was no trouble to know the stated sacrifices of the Lanuvian dictator. He saw that it was necessary for Milo to set out to Lanuvium on that very day on which he set out. Therefore he forestalled him.

At quo die? Quo, ut ante dixi, fuit insanissima contio ab ipsius mercenario tribuno plebis concitata: quem diem ille, quam contionem, quos clamores, nisi ad cogitatum facinus approperaret, numquam reliquisset. Ergo illi ne causa quidem itineris, etiam causa manendi: Miloni manendi nulla [facultas], exeundi non causa solum, sed etiam necessitas fuit.

But on what day? On that on which, as I said before, there was a most insane assembly stirred up by his own mercenary tribune of the plebs: a day, an assembly, shouts which he would never have abandoned, unless he were hastening to the premeditated crime. Therefore, for that man there was not even a reason for a journey, rather even a reason for remaining; for Milo had no [opportunity] of remaining, and not only a reason for going out, but even a necessity.

Quid? si, ut ille scivit Milonem fore eo die in via, sic Clodium Milo ne suspicari quidem potuit? 46. Primum quaero qui id scire potuerit?

What? If, just as he knew that Milo would be on the road on that day, so Milo could not even suspect Clodius? 46. First I ask who could have known that?

quod vos idem in Clodio quaerere non potestis. Ut enim neminem alium nisi T. Patinam, familiarissimum suum, rogasset, scire potuit illo ipso die Lanuvi a dictatore Milone prodi flaminem necesse esse. Sed erant permulti alii, ex quibus id facillime scire posset [: omnes scilicet Lanuvini]. Milo de Clodi reditu unde quaesivit?

which you cannot ask in the same way about Clodius. For even if he had asked no one other than T. Patina, his most intimate friend, he could have known that on that very day at Lanuvium it was necessary for the flamen to be brought forth by the dictator Milo. But there were very many others, from whom he could most easily learn this [: namely, all the Lanuvinians]. From whom did Milo inquire about Clodius’s return?

Quaesierit sane—videte quid vobis largiar: servum etiam, ut Q. Arrius, meus amicus, dixit, corruperit. Legite testimonia testium vestrorum. Dixit C. Causinius Schola, Interamnas, familiarissimus et idem comes Clodi,—cuius iam pridem testimonio Clodius eadem hora Interamnae fuerat et Romae,—P. Clodium illo die in Albano mansurum fuisse; sed subito ei esse nuntiatum Cyrum architectum esse mortuum, itaque repente Romam constituisse proficisci.

Let him have inquired, to be sure—see what I am granting you: that he even bribed a slave, as Q. Arrius, my friend, said. Read the testimonies of your witnesses. C. Causinius Schola, of Interamna, a most intimate and likewise a companion of Clodius,—by whose testimony long ago Clodius had been at Interamna and at Rome at the same hour,—said that P. Clodius on that day was going to stay at his Alban estate; but that suddenly it was announced to him that Cyrus the architect was dead, and so he at once resolved to set out for Rome.

Dixit hoc comes item P. Clodi, C. Clodius.

This was said also by a companion of P. Clodius, C. Clodius.

XVIII. 47. Videte, iudices, quantae res his testimoniis sint confectae. Primum certe liberatur Milo non eo consilio profectus esse, ut insidiaretur in via Clodio: quippe, si ille obvius ei futurus omnino non erat.

18. 47. See, judges, how great matters have been brought to completion by these testimonies. First, assuredly Milo is cleared of having set out with that design, to ambush Clodius on the road: indeed, if that man was by no means going to meet him at all.

Deinde—non enim video cur non meum quoque agam negotium—scitis, iudices, fuisse qui in hac rogatione suadenda dicerent Milonis manu caedem esse factam, consilio vero maioris alicuius. Me videlicet latronem ac sicarium abiecti homines et perditi describebant. Iacent suis testibus [ei] qui Clodium negant eo die Romam, nisi de Cyro audisset, fuisse rediturum.

Then—for I do not see why I should not also transact my own business—you know, judges, that there were those who, in recommending this rogation, said that the slaughter was done by Milo’s hand, but by the counsel indeed of some greater person. Me, forsooth, abject and profligate men were portraying as a robber and a cutthroat. They lie prostrate under their own witnesses [ei], those who deny that Clodius would have returned to Rome that day, unless he had heard about Cyrus.

Respiravi, liberatus sum; non vereor ne, quod ne suspicari quidem potuerim, videar id cogitasse. 48. Nunc persequar cetera. Nam occurrit illud: 'Igitur ne Clodius quidem de insidiis cogitavit, quoniam fuit in Albano mansurus.' Si quidem exiturus ad caedem e villa non fuisset.

I breathed again, I was liberated; I do not fear that I may seem to have thought that which I could not even have suspected. 48. Now I will pursue the rest. For this objection occurs: “Therefore not even Clodius thought about ambushes, since he was going to stay at his Alban villa.” If indeed he had not been about to go out from the villa to the slaughter.

Video enim illum, qui dicatur de Cyri morte nuntiasse, non id nuntiasse, Milonem appropinquare. Nam quid de Cyro nuntiaret, quem Clodius Roma proficiscens reliquerat morientem? Una fui, testamentum simul obsignavi cum Clodio: testamentum autem palam fecerat, et illum heredem et me scripserat.

For I see that the man who is said to have announced the death of Cyrus did not announce this, that Milo was approaching. For what could he report about Cyrus, whom Clodius, setting out from Rome, had left dying? I was together; I sealed the testament at the same time with Clodius: moreover, he had made the testament openly, and had enrolled both him as heir and me.

Quem pridie hora tertia animam efflantem reliquisset, eum mortuum postridie hora decima denique ei nuntiabatur?

The man whom he had left the day before at the 3rd hour breathing out his life—was it only finally reported to him on the next day at the 10th hour that he was dead?

XIX. 49. Age, sit ita factum. Quae causa cur Romam properaret?

19. 49. Well then, suppose it was so. What cause was there why he should hasten to Rome?

cur in noctem se coniceret? Ecquid adferebat festinationis, quod heres erat? Primum, erat nihil cur properato opus esset: deinde, si quid esset, quid tandem erat quod ea nocte consequi posset, amitteret autem si postridie Romam mane venisset?

why would he plunge into the night? Did he allege any reason for haste, on the ground that he was heir? First, there was nothing for which there was need of hurrying; then, if there were anything, what, pray, was there that he could accomplish that night, but would lose if he had come to Rome the next day in the morning?

Atque ut illi nocturnus ad urbem adventus vitandus potius quam expetendus fuit, sic Miloni, cum insidiator esset, si illum ad urbem nocte accessurum sciebat, subsidendum atque exspectandum fuit. 50. Nemo ei neganti non credidisset, quem esse omnes salvum etiam confitentem volunt. Sustinuisset hoc crimen primum ipse ille latronum occultator et receptor locus, cum neque muta solitudo indicasset neque caeca nox ostendisset Milonem; deinde ibi multi ab illo violati, spoliati, bonis expulsi, multi haec etiam timentes in suspicionem caderent, tota denique rea citaretur Etruria.

And just as for that man a nocturnal arrival to the city was to be avoided rather than sought, so for Milo, since he was an ambusher, if he knew that he would approach the city by night, it was necessary to station himself and to wait. 50. No one would have failed to believe him if he denied it, whom all wish to be safe even when he confesses. This charge would, in the first place, have been borne by that very place, the concealer and receiver of brigands, since neither mute solitude would have indicated nor blind night have shown Milo; then there many would have fallen under suspicion—men violated by that fellow, despoiled, expelled from their goods, many even fearing these things; finally, all Etruria would be summoned as defendant.

51. Atque illo die certe Aricia rediens devertit Clodius ad Albanum. Quod ut sciret Milo illum Ariciae fuisse, suspicari tamen debuit eum, etiam si Romam illo die reverti vellet, ad villam suam, quae viam tangeret, deversurum. Cur neque ante occurrit, ne ille in villa resideret, nec eo in loco subsedit, quo ille noctu venturus esset?

51. And on that day certainly, returning from Aricia, Clodius diverted to his Alban estate. Granted that Milo knew that he had been at Aricia, nevertheless he ought to have suspected that he, even if he wished to return to Rome that day, would divert to his villa, which touched the road. Why did he neither go to meet him earlier, lest that man reside in the villa, nor take up position in that place to which he was going to come by night?

Video adhuc constare, iudices, omnia:—Miloni etiam utile fuisse Clodium vivere, illi ad ea quae concupierat optatissimum interitum Milonis; odium fuisse illius in hunc acerbissimum, nullum huius in illum; consuetudinem illius perpetuam in vi inferenda, huius tantum in repellenda; 52. mortem ab illo denuntiatam Miloni et praedicatam palam, nihil umquam auditum ex Milone; profectionis huius diem illi notum, reditus illius huic ignotum fuisse; huius iter necessarium, illius etiam potius alienum; hunc prae se tulisse illo die Roma exiturum, illum eo die se dissimulasse rediturum; hunc nullius rei mutasse consilium, illum causam mutandi consili finxisse; huic, si insidiaretur, noctem prope urbem exspectandam, illi, etiam si hunc non timeret, tamen accessum ad urbem nocturnum fuisse metuendum.

I see that everything still stands consistent, judges:—that it was even useful for Milo that Clodius live, but that for that man, as to the things he had concupisced, the most wished-for death was Milo’s; that his hatred toward this man was the bitterest, and that of this man toward him was none; that his perpetual custom was in inflicting violence, this man’s only in repelling it; 52. that death had been denounced and openly proclaimed by that man against Milo, but nothing was ever heard from Milo; that the day of this man’s departure was known to him, but that that man’s return was unknown to this one; that this man’s journey was necessary, that man’s even rather out of place; that this man had openly held forth that he would depart from Rome on that day, but that man had dissembled that he would return on that day; that this man had changed no plan of anything, but that man had fashioned a pretext for changing his plan; that for this man, if he were lying in ambush, the night near the city ought to have been awaited, but for that man, even if he did not fear this one, nevertheless a nocturnal approach to the city had to be feared.

XX. 53. Videamus nunc (id quod caput est) locus ad insidias ille ipse, ubi congressi sunt, utri tandem fuerit aptior. Id vero, iudices, etiam dubitandum et diutius cogitandum est? Ante fundum Clodi, quo in fundo propter insanas illas substructiones facile hominum mille versabantur valentium, edito adversari atque excelso loco, superiorem se fore putarat Milo, et ob eam rem eum locum ad pugnam potissimum elegerat?

20. 53. Let us now see (that which is the main point) for which of the two that very place for ambush, where they met, was more apt. Is that, judges, even to be doubted and thought on longer? In front of Clodius’s estate—on which estate, on account of those insane substructions, easily a thousand able-bodied men were moving about—in an elevated, opposite, and lofty position, had Milo supposed that he would be superior, and for that reason had he chosen that place especially for a fight?

an in eo loco est potius exspectatus ab eo qui ipsius loci spe facere impetum cogitarat? Res loquitur ipsa, iudices, quae semper valet plurimum. 54. Si haec non gesta audiretis, sed picta videretis, tamen appareret uter esset insidiator, uter nihil cogitaret mali, cum alter veheretur in raeda paenulatus, una sederet uxor.

Or was he rather waited for in that place by the one who had planned to make an attack in reliance on that very place? The matter itself speaks, judges, which always has the greatest weight. 54. If you were not hearing these things as done, but seeing them painted, nevertheless it would be apparent which was the ambusher, which was thinking nothing evil, since the one was being conveyed in a raeda, cloaked in a paenula, his wife sitting with him.

Quid horum non impeditissimum? vestitus an vehiculum an comes? Quid minus promptum ad pugnam, cum paenula inretitus, raeda impeditus, uxore paene constrictus esset?

Which of these was not most impeded? his vesture, or his vehicle, or his companion? What is less prompt for a fight, when he was ensnared in a paenula-cloak, impeded by a raeda-carriage, almost constricted by his wife?

Videte nunc illum, primum egredientem e villa, subito: cur? vesperi: quid necesse est? tarde: qui convenit, praesertim id temporis?

See now that man, first going out of the villa, suddenly: why? in the evening: what necessity is there? late: how is that fitting, especially at that time?

Devertit in villam Pompei. Pompeium ut videret? sciebat in Alsiensi esse: villam ut perspiceret?

He turned aside into Pompey’s villa. To see Pompey? He knew he was at the Alsian estate: to inspect the villa?

miliens in ea fuerat. Quid ergo erat? morae et tergiversationes: dum hic veniret, locum relinquere noluit.

He had been in it a thousand times. What, then, was it? delays and tergiversations: until this man should come, he did not wish to leave the place.

XXI. 55. Age nunc; iter expediti latronis cum Milonis impedimentis comparate. Semper ille antea cum uxore, tum sine ea; numquam nisi in raeda, tum in equo; comites Graeculi quocumque ibat, etiam cum in castra Etrusca properabat, tum nugarum in comitatu nihil.

21. 55. Come now; compare the journey of the unencumbered brigand with Milo’s baggage-train. He always before with his wife, then without her; never except in a carriage, then on horseback; his companions were Greeklings wherever he went, even when he was hastening to the Etruscan camp; then there was nothing of trifles in his retinue.

Milo, qui numquam, tum casu pueros symphoniacos uxoris ducebat et ancillarum greges. Ille, qui semper secum scorta, semper exoletos, semper lupas duceret, tum neminem, nisi ut virum a viro lectum esse diceres. Cur igitur victus est?

Milo, who never did so, then by chance was leading his wife’s symphoniac boys and the flocks of maidservants. He, who always used to take along with him courtesans, always exoleti, always she-wolves, then took no one—except that you would have said a man had been chosen by a man. Why, therefore, was he defeated?

Quia non semper viator a latrone, non numquam etiam latro a viatore occiditur: quia, quamquam paratus in imparatos Clodius, tamen mulier inciderat in viros. 56. Nec vero sic erat umquam non paratus Milo contra illum, ut non satis fere esset paratus. Semper [ille] et quantum interesset P. Clodi se perire, et quanto illi odio esset, et quantum ille auderet cogitabat.

Because a traveler is not always killed by a robber; sometimes even a robber is killed by a traveler: because, although Clodius was prepared against the unprepared, nevertheless a woman had chanced upon men. 56. Nor indeed was Milo ever so unprepared against that man that he was not, on the whole, sufficiently prepared. Always [he] considered both how greatly it concerned P. Clodius that he should perish, and how much he was in hatred to him, and how much that man would dare.

Quam ob rem vitam suam, quam maximis praemiis propositam et paene addictam sciebat, numquam in periculum sine praesidio et sine custodia proiciebat. Adde casus, adde incertos exitus pugnarum Martemque communem, qui saepe spoliantem iam et exsultantem evertit et perculit ab abiecto: adde inscitiam pransi, poti, oscitantis ducis, qui cum a tergo hostem interclusum reliquisset, nihil de eius extremis comitibus cogitavit, in quos incensos ira vitamque domini desperantis cum incidisset, haesit in eis poenis, quas ab eo servi fideles pro domini vita expetiverunt.<

Wherefore his life, which he knew to have been set forth with the greatest prizes and almost adjudged, he never hurled into danger without presidium and without custodians. Add the mishaps, add the uncertain outcomes of battles and the common Mars, who often overturns and strikes down the very man already stripping spoils and exulting, by one cast down; add the unskilledness of a leader lunched, drunk, yawning, who, when he had left an enemy cut off behind his back, thought nothing of that man’s hindmost companions—upon whom, inflamed with wrath and despairing of their master’s life, when he had chanced to fall, he stuck fast in those penalties which faithful slaves exacted from him for their master’s life.<

57. Cur igitur eos manu misit? Metuebat scilicet ne indicaretur, ne dolorem perferre non possent, ne tormentis cogerentur occisum esse a servis Milonis in Appia via P. Clodium confiteri. Quid opus est tortore?

57. Why then did he manumit them? He was fearing, of course, lest it be denounced, lest they could not endure the pain, lest by torments they be compelled to confess that Publius Clodius was slain by the slaves of Milo on the Appian Way. What need is there of a torturer?

quid quaeris? Occideritne? occidit.

What do you ask? Was he slain? He was slain.

Iure an iniuria? nihil ad tortorem: facti enim in eculeo quaestio est, iuris in iudicio.

By right or by wrong? Nothing to the torturer: for the inquiry of fact is on the rack, of law in the court.

XXII. Quod igitur in causa quaerendum est, indagamus hic: quod tormentis invenire vis, id fatemur. Manu vero cur miserit, si id potius quaeris, quam cur partim amplis adfecerit praemiis, nescis inimici factum reprehendere.

22. Therefore, what is to be sought in the case, let us track down here: what you wish to discover by tortures, that we confess. But why he has manumitted by the hand, if you are asking this rather than why he has in part endowed with ample rewards, you do not know how to reprehend an enemy’s deed.

58. Dixit enim hic idem, qui omnia semper constanter et fortiter, M. Cato, et dixit in turbulenta contione, quae tamen huius auctoritate placata est, non libertate solum, sed etiam omnibus praemiis dignissimos fuisse, qui domini caput defendissent. Quod enim praemium satis magnum est tam benevolis, tam bonis, tam fidelibus servis, propter quos vivit? Etsi id quidem non tanti est, quam quod propter eosdem non sanguine et volneribus suis crudelissimi inimici mentem oculosque satiavit.

58. For this same man, M. Cato—who always speaks all things consistently and bravely—said, and he said it in a turbulent assembly, which nevertheless was calmed by this man’s authority, that those who had defended their master’s head were worthy not only of liberty but even of all rewards. For what reward is sufficiently great for such benevolent, such good, such faithful slaves, thanks to whom he lives? And yet that indeed is not so great as the fact that, because of those same men, he did not satiate the mind and eyes of his most cruel enemy with his own blood and wounds.

Quos nisi manu misisset, tormentis etiam dedendi fuerunt conservatores domini, ultores sceleris, defensores necis. Hic vero nihil habet in his malis quod minus moleste ferat, quam, etiam si quid ipsi accidat, esse tamen illis meritum praemium persolutum.

Unless he had manumitted them, the preservers of their master, the avengers of the crime, the defenders against the murder would even have had to be surrendered to torments. But he, in truth, has nothing in these evils which he bears less painfully than this: that, even if something should befall himself, yet to them the merited reward has been paid in full.

59. Sed quaestiones urgent Milonem, quae sunt habitae nunc in atrio Libertatis. Quibusnam de servis? rogas?

59. But the interrogations press upon Milo, which have now been held in the Atrium of Liberty. About which slaves, pray? you ask?

de P. Clodi. Quis eos postulavit? Appius.

of P. Clodius. Who demanded them? Appius.

Quis produxit? Appius. Unde?

Who produced them? Appius. Whence?

ab Appio. Di boni! quid potest agi severius?

by Appius. Good gods! what can be done more severe?

[De servis nulla lege quaestio est in dominum nisi de incestu, ut fuit in Clodium.] Proxime deos accessit Clodius, propius quam tum cum ad ipsos penetrarat, cuius de morte tamquam de caerimoniis violatis quaeritur. Sed tamen maiores nostri in dominum [de servo] quaeri noluerunt, non quin posset verum inveniri, sed quia videbatur indignum esse et [domini] morte ipsa tristius. In reum de servo accusatoris cum quaeritur, verum inveniri potest?

[By no law is there an inquiry concerning slaves against a master except about incest, as there was against Clodius.] Clodius has come nearest to the gods—nearer than at that time when he had penetrated to them themselves—since an inquiry is made about his death as though about violated ceremonies. Yet nevertheless our ancestors did not wish inquiry to be made against the master [about a slave], not that the truth could not be found, but because it seemed unworthy and sadder than the [master’s] death itself. When inquiry is made against the defendant about the accuser’s slave, can the truth be found?

60. Age vero, quae erat aut qualis quaestio? 'Heus tu, Rufio' (verbi causa) 'cave sis mentiaris. Clodius insidias fecit Miloni ?' 'Fecit:' 'certa crux.' 'Nullas fecit:' 'sperata libertas.' Quid hac quaestione certius?

60. Come now, what was, or what kind of, the inquest? 'Hey you, Rufio' (for example), 'mind you don’t lie. Did Clodius lay an ambush for Milo?' 'He did.' 'A sure cross.' 'He laid none.' 'Hoped-for liberty.' What could be more certain than this line of questioning?

Subito abrepti in quaestionem, tamen separantur a ceteris et in arcas coniciuntur, ne quis cum eis conloqui possit. Hi centum dies penes accusatorem cum fuissent, ab eo ipso accusatore producti sunt. Quid hac quaestione dici potest integrius, quid incorruptius?

Suddenly snatched away into interrogation, yet they are separated from the others and cast into cells, lest anyone be able to converse with them. After these had been for one hundred days in the power of the accuser, they were produced by that very accuser. What can be said of this inquisition more unimpaired, more incorrupt?

XXIII. 61. Quod si nondum satis cernitis, cum res ipsa tot tam claris argumentis signisque luceat, pura mente atque integra Milonem, nullo scelere imbutum, nullo metu perterritum, nulla conscientia exanimatum, Romam revertisse, recordamini (per deos immortalis!) quae fuerit celeritas reditus eius, qui ingressus in forum ardente curia, quae magnitudo animi, qui voltus, quae oratio. Neque vero se populo solum, sed etiam senatui commisit; neque senatui modo, sed etiam publicis praesidiis et armis; neque his tantum, verum etiam eius potestati, cui senatus totam rem publicam, omnem Italiae pubem, cuncta populi Romani arma commiserat: cui numquam se hic profecto tradidisset, nisi causae suae confideret, praesertim omnia audienti, magna metuenti, multa suspicanti, non nulla credenti.

23. 61. If you do not yet discern sufficiently, although the matter itself shines with so many, so clear arguments and signs, that Milo—of pure and intact mind, imbued with no crime, terrified by no fear, stunned by no guilty conscience—returned to Rome, recall (by the immortal gods!) what the speed of his return was, how he entered the forum with the Curia blazing, what greatness of spirit, what countenance, what oration. And indeed he committed himself not to the people only, but also to the senate; nor to the senate only, but also to the public garrisons and arms; nor to these only, but even to the power of him to whom the senate had entrusted the whole commonwealth, all the youth of Italy, all the arms of the Roman people: to whom he would certainly never have surrendered himself, unless he trusted in his cause—especially to one hearing everything, fearing great things, suspecting many, believing not a few.

Magna vis est conscientiae, iudices, et magna in utramque partem, ut neque timeant qui nihil commiserint, et poenam semper ante oculos versari putent qui peccarint.

Great is the force of conscience, judges, and great on either side, so that those who have committed nothing do not fear, and those who have sinned suppose that the penalty is always revolving before their eyes.

62. Neque vero sine ratione certa causa Milonis semper a senatu probata est. Videbant enim sapientissimi homines facti rationem, praesentiam animi, defensionis constantiam. An vero obliti estis, iudices, recenti illo nuntio necis Clodianae, non modo inimicorum Milonis sermones et opiniones, sed non nullorum etiam imperitorum?

62. Nor indeed has Milo’s cause always been approved by the senate without definite reason. For the wisest men saw the rationale of the deed, the presence of mind, the constancy of the defense. Or have you, judges, truly forgotten, at that recent announcement of Clodius’s killing, not only the talk and opinions of Milo’s enemies, but even of not a few inexpert men?

Negabant eum Romam esse rediturum. 63. Sive enim illud animo irato ac percito fecisset, ut incensus odio trucidaret inimicum, arbitrabantur eum tanti mortem P. Clodi putasse, ut aequo animo patria careret, cum sanguine inimici explesset odium suum; sive etiam illius morte patriam liberare voluisset, non dubitaturum fortem virum quin, cum suo periculo salutem populo Romano attulisset, cederet aequo animo [legibus], secum auferret gloriam sempiternam, nobis haec fruenda relinqueret, quae ipse servasset. Multi etiam Catilinam atque illa portenta loquebantur: 'Erumpet, occupabit aliquem locum, bellum patriae faciet.' Miseros interdum civis optime de re publica meritos, in quibus homines non modo res praeclarissimas obliviscuntur, sed etiam nefarias suspicantur!

They were denying that he would return to Rome. 63. For whether he had done that in an irate and roused spirit, so that, inflamed with hatred, he slaughtered his enemy, they thought he had reckoned the death of P. Clodius of such worth that he would be without his fatherland with an even mind, when with the blood of his enemy he had sated his hatred; or even if by that man’s death he had wished to free the fatherland, a brave man would not hesitate but that, since at his own peril he had brought salvation to the Roman people, he would yield with an even mind to the [laws], would carry off with himself everlasting glory, and would leave to us to enjoy these things which he himself had saved. Many even were talking of Catiline and those portents: ‘He will burst forth, he will seize some place, he will make war upon the fatherland.’ Wretched, at times, are citizens who have deserved exceedingly well of the republic, in whose case men not only forget the most illustrious deeds, but even suspect nefarious ones!

64. Ergo illa falsa fuerunt, quae certe vera exstitissent, si Milo admisisset aliquid quod non posset honeste vereque defendere.<

64. Therefore those things were false, which surely would have been true, if Milo had committed anything which he could not honestly and truly defend.<

XXIV. Quid? quae postea sunt in eum congesta, quae quemvis etiam mediocrium delictorum conscientia perculissent, ut sustinuit, di immortales!

24. What? The things that afterwards were heaped upon him, which would have struck down anyone conscious only of middling delicts—how he sustained them, immortal gods!

Sustinuit? immo vero tit contempsit ac pro nihilo putavit, quae neque maximo animo nocens neque innocens nisi fortissimus vir neglegere potuisset! Scutorum, gladiorum, frenorum, pilorumque etiam multitudo deprehendi posse indicabatur; nullum in urbe vicum, nullum angiportum esse dicebant, in quo Miloni conducta non esset domus; arma in villam Ocriculanam devecta Tiberi, domus in clivo Capitolino scutis referta, plena omnia malleolorum ad urbis incendia comparatorum: haec non delata solum, sed paene credita, nec ante repudiata sunt quam quaesita.

Bore it? Nay rather, he contemned it and reckoned it as nothing—things which neither a guilty man with the greatest spirit nor an innocent man, unless a most stout-hearted man, could have neglected! A multitude of shields, swords, bridles, and even javelins was indicated as able to be discovered; they said there was no street in the city, no alley, in which a house had not been rented for Milo; arms carried down the Tiber to the Ocriculan villa, a house on the Capitoline slope crammed with shields, everything full of firebrands prepared for the burning of the city: these things were not only reported, but almost believed, nor were they repudiated before they were investigated.

65. Laudabam equidem incredibilem diligentiam Cn. Pompei, sed dicam ut sentio, iudices. Nimis multa audire coguntur, neque aliter facere possunt, ei quibus tota commissa est res publica. Quin etiam fuit audiendus popa Licinius nescio qui de Circo maximo, servos Milonis, apud se ebrios factos, sibi confessos esse de interficiendo Pompeio coniurasse, dein postea se gladio percussum esse ab uno de illis, ne indicaret.

65. I was indeed praising the incredible diligence of Cn. Pompey, but I will speak as I feel, judges. They are compelled to hear too many things, nor can they do otherwise, those to whom the whole commonwealth has been entrusted. Nay rather, even a popa, Licinius—some I-know-not-who—from the Circus Maximus had to be heard, saying that Milo’s slaves, made drunk at his place, had confessed to him that they had conspired about assassinating Pompey; then afterwards that he had been struck with a sword by one of them, so that he would not inform.

Pompeio in hortos nuntiavit; arcessor in primis; de amicorum sententia rem defert ad senatum. Non poteram in illius mei patriaeque custodis tanta suspicione non metu exanimari; sed mirabar tamen credi popae, confessionem servorum audiri, volnus in latere, quod acu punctum videretur, pro ictu gladiatoris probari. 66. Verum, ut intellego, cavebat magis Pompeius quam timebat, non ea solum quae timenda erant, sed omnia, ne vos aliquid timeretis.

Notice is given to Pompey in his gardens; a summoner at once; on the advice of his friends he refers the matter to the Senate. I could not, under so great a suspicion concerning that guardian of mine and of my fatherland, fail to be stricken senseless with fear; yet I marveled, nevertheless, that credence was given to a popa, that the confession of slaves was listened to, that a wound in the side, which seemed to have been pricked by a needle, was approved as a stroke of a gladiator. 66. But, as I understand, Pompey was taking precautions rather than being afraid, not only against the things that were to be feared, but against everything, lest you should fear anything.

Oppugnata domus C. Caesaris, clarissimi et fortissimi viri, per multas noctis horas nuntiabatur. Nemo audierat tam celebri loco, nemo senserat: tamen audiebatur. Non poteram Cn. Pompeium, praestantissima virtute virum, timidum suspicari: diligentiam, tota re publica suscepta, nimiam nullam putabam.

It was being reported that the house of Gaius Caesar, a most illustrious and most brave man, had been assaulted for many hours of the night. No one had heard in so celebrated a place, no one had perceived; nevertheless it was being heard. I could not suspect Gnaeus Pompeius, a man of most outstanding virtue, of timidity; as for diligence, with the whole republic undertaken, I thought none excessive.

Frequentissimo senatu nuper in Capitolio senator inventus est qui Milonem cum telo esse diceret. Nudavit se in sanctissimo templo, quoniam vita talis et civis et viri fidem non faciebat, ut eo tacente res ipsa loqueretur.

With the senate at its most crowded recently on the Capitol, a senator was found who said that Milo was with a weapon. He bared himself in the most holy temple, since the life of such a citizen and man did not carry conviction, so that, with him silent, the thing itself might speak.

XXV. 67. Omnia falsa atque insidiose ficta comperta sunt. Cum tamen, si metuitur etiam nunc Milo, non iam hoc Clodianum crimen timemus, sed tuas, Cn. Pompei—te enim iam appello, et ea voce ut me exaudire possis—tuas, tuas, inquam, suspiciones perhorrescimus: si Milonem times; si hunc de tua vita nefarie aut nunc cogitare aut molitum aliquando aliquid putas; si Italiae dilectus (ut non nulli conquisitores tui dictitarunt), si haec arma, si Capitolinae cohortes, si excubiae, si vigiliae, si dilecta iuventus quae tuum corpus domumque custodit contra Milonis impetum armata est, atque illa omnia in hunc unum instituta, parata, intenta sunt,—magna in hoc certe vis et incredibilis animus, et non unius viri vires atque opes iudicantur, si quidem in hunc unum et praestantissimus dux electus et tota res publica armata est.

25. 67. All was discovered to be false and insidiously feigned. Yet since, if Milo is even now feared, we no longer fear this Clodian charge, but your suspicions, Gnaeus Pompeius—for I now address you, and in such a voice that you can hear me—your, your, I say, suspicions we shudder at: if you fear Milo; if you think that this man is impiously either now plotting or has at some time attempted something against your life; if the levies of Italy (as some of your recruiters kept asserting), if these arms, if the Capitoline cohorts, if the sentries, if the vigils, if the levied youth which guards your person and your house is armed against Milo’s assault, and all those things are directed, prepared, aimed against this one man,—great force and incredible spirit are certainly being reckoned in him, and there are adjudged not the strength and resources of a single man, if indeed against this one both the most outstanding leader has been chosen and the whole commonwealth has been armed.

68. Sed quis non intellegit omnis tibi rei publicae partis aegras et labantis, ut eas his armis sanares et confirmares, esse commissas? Quod si, locus Miloni datus esset, probasset profecto tibi ipsi neminem umquam hominem homini cariorem fuisse quam te sibi; nullum se umquam periculum pro tua dignitate fugisse; cum ipsa illa taeterrima peste se saepissime pro tua gloria contendisse; tribunatum suum ad salutem meam, quae tibi carissima fuisset, consiliis tuis gubernatum; se a te postea defensum in periculo capitis, adiutum in petitione praeturae; duos se habere semper amicissimos sperasse, te tuo beneficio, me suo. Quae si non probaret, si tibi ita penitus inhaesisset ista suspicio nullo ut evelli modo posset, si denique Italia a dilectu, urbs ab armis sine Milonis clade numquam esset conquietura, ne ille hand dubitans cessisset patria, is qui ita natus est et ita consuevit: te, Magne, tamen antestaretur, quod nunc etiam facit.

68. But who does not understand that all the sick and tottering parts of the Republic have been entrusted to you, that by these arms you might heal and strengthen them? But if a place had been given to Milo, he would surely have proved to you yourself that no man was ever dearer to a man than you to him; that he has never fled any peril for your dignity; that with that very most foul pest he has most often contended for your glory; that his tribunate was steered by your counsels toward my safety, which was most dear to you; that afterward he was defended by you in a capital peril, assisted in his canvass for the praetorship; that he had always hoped to have two dearest friends, you by your benefaction, me by his own. And if he did not prove these, if that suspicion had so deeply stuck in you that it could by no means be plucked out, if, finally, Italy from the levy, the city from arms would never settle down without Milo’s ruin, then he, by no means hesitating, would have withdrawn from his country—such is the way he was born and has been accustomed: you, Magnus, he would nonetheless call to witness, which he even now does.

XXVI. 69. Vide quam sit varia vitae commutabilisque ratio, quam vaga volubilisque fortuna, quantae infidelitates in amicis, quam ad tempus aptae simulationes, quantae in periculis fugae proximorum, quantae timiditates. Erit, erit illud profecto tempus, et inlucescet aliquando ille dies, cum tu—salutaribus, ut spero, rebus tuis, sed fortasse motu aliquo communium temporum, qui quam crebro accidat experti scire debemus—et amicissimi benevolentiam et gravissimi hominis fidem et unius post homines natos fortissimi viri magnitudinem animi desideres.

26. 69. See how varied and changeable is the plan of life, how wandering and volatile fortune, how many infidelities in friends, how to-the-moment apt dissimulations, how great, in dangers, the flights of those nearest, how great the timidities. There will be, there will indeed be that time, and that day will at some point dawn, when you—through circumstances salutary to you, as I hope, yet perhaps by some movement of the common times, which, how frequently it happens, we who have experienced ought to know—will long for both the benevolence of a most friendly man, and the good faith of a most weighty man, and the magnanimity of the one man bravest since men were born.

70. Quamquam quis hoc credat, Cn. Pompeium, iuris publici, moris maiorum, rei denique publicae peritissimum, cum senatus ei commiserit ut videretNe quid res publica detrimenti caperet (quo uno versiculo satis armati semper consules fuerunt, etiam nullis armis datis), hunc exercitu, hunc dilectu dato, iudicium exspectaturum fuisse in eius consiliis vindicandis, qui vi iudicia ipsa tolleret? Satis iudicatum est a Pompeio, satis, falso ista conferri in Milonem, qui legem tulit, qua, ut ego sentio, Milonem absolvi a vobis oporteret, ut omnes confitentur, liceret. 71. Quod vero in illo loco atque illis publicorum praesidiorum copiis circumfusus sedet, satis declarat se non terrorem inferre vobis—quid enim minus illo dignum quam cogere ut vos eum condemnetis, in quem animadvertere ipse et more maiorum et suo iure posset?

70. Although who would believe this—that Gnaeus Pompeius, most skilled in public law, in the custom of the ancestors, and, in fine, in the Republic, when the senate has entrusted to him that he should see to itThat the Republic take no detriment (by which single little clause the consuls have always been sufficiently armed, even with no arms given), that this man, with an army, with a levy granted, would have waited for a court in punishing the designs of him who by force was removing the courts themselves? It has been sufficiently judged by Pompey—sufficiently—that those charges are falsely being fastened upon Milo, who carried a law by which, as I understand it, it ought to be permitted that Milo be acquitted by you, as all confess. 71. But the fact that in that place he sits, and, surrounded by those forces of the public defenses, sufficiently declares that he is not bringing terror upon you—for what is less worthy of him than to compel you to condemn him upon whom he himself could animadvert both by the custom of the ancestors and by his own right?

sed praesidio esse, ut intellegatis contra hesternam illam contionem licere vobis quod sentiatis libere iudicare.

but to be a safeguard, so that you may understand, against that assembly of yesterday, that it is permitted to you to judge freely what you think.

XXVII. 72. Nec vero me, iudices, Clodianum crimen movet, nec tam sum demens tamque vestri sensus ignarus atque expers, ut nesciam quid de morte Clodi sentiatis. De qua, si iam nollem ita diluere crimen, ut dilui, tamen impune Miloni palam clamare ac mentiri gloriose liceret: 'Occidi, occidi, non Sp. Maelium, qui annona levanda iacturisque rei familiaris, quia nimis amplecti plebem videbatur, in suspicionem incidit regni appetendi; non Ti. Gracchum, qui conlegae magistratum per seditionem abrogavit, quorum interfectores impleverunt orbem terrarum nominis sui gloria; sed eum—auderet enim dicere, cum patriam periculo suo liberasset—cuius nefandum adulterium in pulvinaribus sanctissimis nobilissimae feminae comprehenderunt; 73. eum cuius supplicio senatus sollemnis religiones expiandas saepe censuit—eum quem cum sorore germana nefarium stuprum fecisse L. Lucullus iuratus se quaestionibus habitis dixit comperisse; eum qui civem quem senatus, quem populus Romanus, quem omnes gentes urbis ac vitae civium conservatorem iudicarant, servorum armis exterminavit; eum qui regna dedit, ademit, orbem terrarum quibuscum voluit partitus est; eum qui, plurimis caedibus in foro factis, singulari virtute et gloria civem domum vi et armis compulit; eum cui nihil umquam nefas fuit, nec in facinore nec in libidine; eum qui aedem Nympharum incendit, ut memoriam publicam recensionis tabulis publicis impressam exstingueret; 74. eum denique, cui iam nulla lex erat, nullum civile ius, nulli possessionum termini; qui non calumnia litium, non iniustis vindiciis ac sacramentis alienos fundos, sed castris, exercitu, signis inferendis petebat; qui non solum Etruscos—eos enim penitus contempserat—sed hunc P. Varium, fortissimum atque optimum civem, iudicem nostrum, pellere possessionibus armis castrisque conatus est; qui cum architectis et decempedis villas multorum hortosque peragrabat; qui Ianiculo et Alpibus spem possessionum terminarat suarum; qui, cum ab equite Romano splendido et forti, M. Paconio, non impetrasset ut sibi insulam in lacu Prilio venderet, repente luntribus in eam insulam materiem, calcem, caementa, arma convexit, dominoque trans ripam inspectante, non dubitavit exstruere aedificium in alieno; 75. qui huic T. Furfanio,—cui viro, di immortales!

27. 72. Nor indeed does the Clodian charge move me, judges, nor am I so demented and so unaware and devoid of your feelings as not to know what you think about the death of Clodius. About which, even if I were now unwilling to rinse away the charge as I have rinsed it away, nevertheless it would be permitted Milo with impunity to cry out openly and to lie gloriously: “I slew him, I slew him—not Sp. Maelius, who, by alleviating the grain-supply and by sacrifices of his private estate, because he seemed to embrace the plebs too much, fell under suspicion of aiming at kingship; not Ti. Gracchus, who by sedition abrogated his colleague’s magistracy—whose slayers filled the whole world with the glory of their name—but him (for he would dare to say it, since he had freed his fatherland at his own peril) whose nefarious adultery upon the most sacred couches the noblest women caught in the act; 73. him, by whose punishment the senate often decreed that the solemn religious rites must be expiated—him whom L. Lucullus, under oath, said he had discovered, after inquiries were held, to have committed a nefarious debauch with his own sister; him who exterminated, with the arms of slaves, a citizen whom the senate, the Roman people, all nations had judged the preserver of the city and of the lives of the citizens; him who gave kingdoms, took them away, apportioned the orb of lands with whom he pleased; him who, after very many butcheries done in the forum, by force and arms compelled a citizen of singular manliness and glory to his home; him to whom nothing was ever nefas, neither in crime nor in lust; him who burned the temple of the Nymphs, in order to extinguish the public memory of the census imprinted on the public records; 74. him finally, for whom there was now no law, no civil right, no boundaries of possessions; who sought others’ estates not by the chicanery of lawsuits, not by unjust vindications and sacramenta, but by camps, by an army, by bringing in standards; who not only the Etruscans—for he utterly despised them—but this P. Varius, a most brave and excellent citizen, our judge, he strove to drive from his possessions by arms and encampments; who with architects and ten‑foot rods would traverse the villas and gardens of many; who had set the bounds of the hope of his possessions at the Janiculum and the Alps; who, when he had not obtained from a splendid and brave Roman eques, M. Paconius, that he sell him an island in Lake Prilius, suddenly in skiffs ferried to that island timber, lime, rubble, weapons, and, with the owner looking on from across the bank, did not hesitate to erect a building on another’s property; 75. who to this T. Furfanius—what a man, immortal gods!”

quid enim ego de muliercula Scantia, quid de adulescente P. Apinio dicam? quorum utrique mortem est minitatus, nisi sibi hortorum possessione cessissent,—sed ausum esse Furfanio dicere, si sibi pecuniam, quantam poposcerat, non dedisset, mortuum se in domum eius inlaturum, qua invidia huic esset tali viro conflagrandum; qui Appium fratrem, hominem mihi coniunctum fidissima gratia, absentem de possessione fundi deiecit; qui parietem sic per vestibulum sororis instituit ducere, sic agere fundamenta, ut sororem non modo vestibulo privaret, sed omni aditu et limine.'

For what am I to say about the little woman Scantia, what about the adolescent P. Apinius? To each of whom he threatened death, unless they yielded to him the possession of their gardens,—but that he dared to say to Furfanius, if he did not give him money, as much as he had demanded, he would bring himself, dead, into his house, by which odium such a man as this would have to be consumed; he who cast out Appius, his brother, a man to me conjoined by the most trustworthy favor, from the possession of a farm while absent; he who set about to lead a wall thus through his sister’s vestibule, to drive the foundations thus, so as to deprive his sister not only of the vestibule, but of every access and threshold.'

XXVIII. 76. Quamquam haec quidem iam tolerabilia videbantur, etsi aequabiliter in rem publicam, in privatos, in longinquos, in propinquos, in alienos, in suos inruebat; sed nescio quo modo iam usu obduruerat et percalluerat civitatis incredibilis patientia. Quae vero aderant iam et impendebant, quonam modo ea aut depellere potuissetis aut ferre?

28. 76. Although these things indeed already seemed tolerable, even though he was rushing indiscriminately upon the republic, upon private individuals, upon those far and near, upon outsiders and his own, yet somehow by usage the commonwealth’s incredible patience had now grown obdurate and thoroughly calloused. But as for the things that were already present and impending, by what means could you either have driven them off or borne them?

Imperium ille si nactus esset,—omitto socios, exteras nationes, reges, tetrarchas; vota enim faceretis, ut in eos se potius immitteret quam in vestras possessiones, vestra tecta, vestras pecunias:—pecunias dico? a liberis (me dius fidius) et a coniugibus vestris numquam ille effrenatas suas libidines cohibuisset. Fingi haec putatis, quae patent, quae nota sunt omnibus, quae tenentur?

If that man had obtained command,—I omit the allies, the foreign nations, the kings, the tetrarchs; for you would make vows that he would rather hurl himself upon them than upon your possessions, your roofs, your monies:—monies, do I say? from your children (by Dius Fidius) and from your spouses he would never have restrained his unbridled lusts. Do you think these things are being feigned, which lie open, which are known to all, which are established?

servorum exercitus illum in urbe conscripturum fuisse, per quos totam rem publicam resque privatas omnium possideret? 77. Quam ob rem si cruentum gladium tenens clamaret T. Annius: 'Adeste, quaeso, atque audite, cives: P. Clodium interfeci; eius furores, quos nullis iam legibus, nullis iudiciis frenare poteramus, hoc ferro et hac dextera a cervicibus vestris reppuli, per me ut unum ius, aequitas, leges, libertas, pudor, pudicitia in civitate maneret!' esset vero timendum, quonam modo id ferret civitas! Nunc enim quis est qui non probet, qui non laudet, qui non unum post hominum memoriam T. Annium plurimum rei publicae profuisse, maxima laetitia populum Romanum, cunctam Italiam, nationes omnis adfecisse et dicat et sentiat?

that he would have conscripted an army of slaves in the city, by whom he would possess the whole republic and the private affairs of all? 77. Wherefore, if T. Annius, holding a bloody sword, were to shout: 'Come near, I beg, and hear, citizens: I killed P. Clodius; his frenzies, which we could no longer bridle by any laws or any judgments, by this steel and this right hand I drove back from your necks, in order that through me alone right, equity, laws, liberty, modesty, chastity might remain in the state!' there would indeed be cause to fear how the commonwealth would bear that! For now, who is there who does not approve, who does not praise, who does not both say and feel that T. Annius, a single man beyond the memory of men, has profited the republic most, and has affected the Roman people, all Italy, all nations, with the greatest joy?

Non queo vetera illa populi Romani gaudia quanta fuerint iudicare: multas tamen iam summorurn imperatorum clarissimas victorias aetas nostra vidit, quarum nulla neque tam diuturnam attulit laetitiam nec tantam. 78. Mandate hoc memoriae, iudices. Spero multa vos liberosque vestros in re publica bona esse visuros: in eis singulis ita semper existimabitis, vivo P. Clodio nihil eorum vos visuros fuisse.

I am not able to judge how great those ancient joys of the Roman people were; nevertheless our age has already seen many most illustrious victories of the highest commanders, of which none has brought a joy either so long-lasting or so great. 78. Commit this to memory, judges. I hope that you and your children will see many good things in the republic: in each of these you will always think thus, that with P. Clodius alive you would have seen none of them.

In spem maximam, et (quem ad modum confido) verissimam sumus adducti, hunc ipsum annum, hoc ipso summo viro consule, compressa hominum licentia, cupiditatibus fractis, legibus et iudiciis constitutis, salutarem civitati fore. Num quis est igitur tam demens, qui hoc P. Clodio vivo contingere potuisse arbitretur? Quid?

We have been brought into the greatest hope, and (as I trust) the truest, that this very year, with this very most eminent man as consul, the license of men checked, cupidities broken, and laws and courts constituted, will be salutary to the commonwealth. Is there, then, anyone so demented as to judge that this could have come to pass with P. Clodius alive? What?

ea quae tenetis, privata atque vestra, dominante homine furioso quod ius perpetuae possessionis habere potuissent?

those things which you hold, private and your own—while a furious man was dominating—what right of perpetual possession could they have had?

XXIX. Non, timeo, iudices, ne odio inimicitiarum mearum inflammatus libentius haec in illum evomere videar quam verius. Etenim si praecipuum esse debebat, tamen ita communis erat omnium ille hostis, ut in communi odio paene aequaliter versaretur odium meum.

29. I do not, judges, fear lest, inflamed by the hatred of my enmities, I may seem to spew these things against him more willingly than more truly. For indeed, even if my hatred ought to have been preeminent, nevertheless he was so much the common enemy of all that, in the common odium, my own odium was almost on a par.

Non potest dici satis, ne cogitari quidem, quantum in illo sceleris, quantum exiti fuerit. 79. Quin sic attendite, iudices. Nempe haec est quaestio de interitu P. Clodi.

It cannot be said enough, nor even conceived, how much crime there was in that man, how much ruin. 79. Nay rather, attend thus, judges. Surely this is an inquiry concerning the death of P. Clodius.

Fingite animis—liberae sunt enim nostrae cogitationes, et quae volunt sic intuentur ut ea cernimus quae videmusfingite igitur cogitatione imaginem huius condicionis meae, si possim efficere ut Milonem absolvatis, sed ita, si P. Clodius revixerit. Quid voltu extimuistis? quonam modo ille vos vivus adficeret, quos mortuus inani cogitatione percussit?

Imagine in your minds—for our thoughts are free, and they gaze on what they will just as we discern the things that we see—imagine, then, by thought the image of this condition of mine: that I could bring it about that you absolve Milo, but on this condition, if P. Clodius should come back to life. Why did you blanch in countenance? How, pray, would he affect you alive, he who, dead, has stricken you by an empty thought?

Quid! si ipse Cn. Pompeius, qui ea virtute ac fortuna est ut ea potuerit semper quae nemo praeter illum, si is, inquam, potuisset aut quaestionem de morte P. Clodi ferre aut ipsum ab inferis excitare, atrum putatis potius facturum fuisse? Etiam si propter amicitiam vellet illum ab inferis evocare, propter rem publicam fecisset.

What! If Gnaeus Pompeius himself, who is of such virtue and fortune that he has always been able to accomplish those things which no one besides him, if he, I say, had been able either to bring an inquiry about the death of Publius Clodius or to rouse him himself from the lower world, which do you think he would rather have done? Even if on account of friendship he wished to call him up from the lower world, for the sake of the republic he would have done the other.

Eius igitur mortis sedetis ultores, cuius vitam si putetis per vos restitui posse, nolitis; et de eius nece lata quaestio est, qui si lege eadem reviviscere posset, lata lex numquam esset. Huius ergo interfector si esset, in confitendo ab eisne poenam timeret quos liberavisset? 80. Graeci homines deorum honores tribuunt eis viris qui tyrannos necaverunt.

Therefore you sit as avengers of his death, whose life, if you were to think it could be restored through you, you would not wish; and a special inquiry has been established concerning his slaying—he who, if by the same law he could be revived, the law would never have been passed. Therefore, if there were a slayer of this man, in confessing would he fear punishment from those whom he had freed? 80. Greek men bestow the honors of the gods upon those men who have slain tyrants.

Quae ego vidi Athenis! quae aliis in urbibus Graeciae! quas res divinas talibus institutas viris!

What things I saw at Athens! what in the other cities of Greece! what sacred rites instituted by such men!

quos cantus, quae carmina! prope ad immortalitatis et religionem et memoriam consecrantur. Vos tanti conservatorem populi, tanti sceleris ultorem non modo honoribus nullis adficietis, sed etiam ad supplicium rapi patiemini?

What chants, what songs! they are almost consecrated to immortality, to religion, and to memory. Will you allow that the preserver of so great a people, the avenger of so great a crime, not only be endowed with no honors, but even be dragged to punishment?

Confiteretur, confiteretur, inquam, si fecisset, et magno animo et libenter fecisse se libertatis omnium causa, quod et ei non confitendum modo, verum etiam praedicandum.

He would confess it, he would confess it, I say, if he had done it, and that he had done it magnanimously and willingly for the cause of the liberty of all, which is not only to be confessed by him, but even to be proclaimed.

XXX. 81. Etenim si id non negat ex quo nihil petit nisi ut ignoscatur, dubitaret id fateri ex quo etiam praemia laudis essent petenda? nisi vero gratius putat esse vobis sui se capitis quam vestri defensorem fuisse, cum praesertim [in] ea confessione, si grati esse velletis, honores adsequeretur amplissimos.

30. 81. For indeed, if he does not deny that, from which he seeks nothing except to be pardoned, would he hesitate to confess that from which even the rewards of praise ought to be sought? Unless indeed he thinks it is more pleasing to you that he was the defender of his own life rather than of yours, especially since [in] that confession, if you were willing to be grateful, he would obtain the most ample honors.

Si factum vobis non probaretur—quamquam qui poterat salus sua cuiquam non probari?—sed tamen si minus fortissimi viri virtus civibus grata cecidisset, magno animo constantique cederet ex ingrata civitate. Nam quid esset ingratius quam laetari ceteros, lugere eum solum prop ter quem ceteri laetarentur? 82. Quamquam boc animo semper omnes fuimus in patriae proditoribus opprimendis, ut, quoniam nostra futura esset gloria, periculum quoque et invidiam nostram putaremus.

If what was done were not approved by you—although how could his own safety fail to be approved by anyone?—yet if nevertheless the virtue of a most brave man had fallen out of favor with the citizens, he would withdraw from an ungrateful city with a great and steadfast spirit. For what would be more ungrateful than that the rest rejoice, while he alone mourns, on account of whom the rest rejoice? 82. Although we have always all been of this mind in oppressing betrayers of the fatherland, that, since the glory would be ours, we would reckon the danger and the envy to be ours as well.

Nam quae mihi ipsi tribuenda laus esset, cum tantum in consulatu meo pro vobis ac liberis vestris ausus essem, si id, quod conabar sine maximis dimicationibus meis me esse ausurum arbitrarer? Quae mulier sceleratum ac perniciosum civem interficere non auderet, si periculum non timeret? Proposita invidia, morte, poena, qui nihilo segnius rem publicam defendit, is vir vere putandus est.

For what praise would have to be attributed to me myself, when in my consulship I had dared so much for you and your children, if I thought that I would dare what I was attempting without my very great conflicts? What woman would not dare to kill a criminal and pernicious citizen, if she did not fear peril? With ill-will, death, and punishment set before one, he who defends the Republic none the less—he is to be deemed a true man.

Populi grati est praemiis adficere bene meritos de re publica civis; viri fortis ne suppliciis quidem moveri ut fortiter fecisse paeniteat. 83. Quam ob rem uteretur eadem confessione T. Annius qua Ahala, qua Nasica, qua Opimius, qua Marius, qua nosmet ipsi; et, si grata res publica esset, laetaretur: si ingrata, tamen in gravi fortuna conscientia sua niteretur. Sed huius benefici gratiam, iudices, fortuna populi Romani et vestra felicitas et di immortales sibi deberi putant.

It is the part of a grateful people to reward with prizes the citizens who have deserved well of the commonwealth; a brave man is not moved even by punishments so that he should repent of having acted bravely. 83. Wherefore let T. Annius use the same avowal as Ahala, as Nasica, as Opimius, as Marius, as we ourselves; and, if the commonwealth were grateful, let him rejoice: if ungrateful, yet in heavy fortune let him lean upon his conscience. But, judges, the fortune of the Roman people and your felicity and the immortal gods think that the gratitude for this benefaction is owed to themselves.

Nec vero quisquam aliter arbitrari potest, nisi qui nullam vim esse ducit numenve divinum; quem neque imperi nostri magnitudo neque sol ille nec caeli signorumque motus nec vicissitudines rerum atque ordines movent, neque (id quod maximum est) maiorum sapientia, qui sacra, qui caerimonias, qui auspicia et ipsi sanctissime coluerunt, et nobis suis posteris prodiderunt.

Nor indeed can anyone think otherwise, except one who deems there to be no force or divine numen; one whom neither the magnitude of our imperium, nor that sun, nor the motion of the heaven and of the signs, nor the vicissitudes of things and their orders move, nor (and this is the greatest) the wisdom of the ancestors, who both themselves most reverently cultivated the sacred rites, the ceremonies, the auspices, and handed them down to us, their descendants.

XXXI. 84. Est, est profecto illa vis: neque in his corporibus atque in hac imbecillitate nostra inest quiddam quod vigeat et sentiat, et non inest in hoc tanto naturae tam praeclaro motu. Nisi forte idcirco non putant, quia non apparet nec cernitur: proinde quasi nostram ipsam mentem qua sapimus, qua providemus, qua haec ipsa agimus ac dicimus, videre aut plane qualis aut ubi sit sentire possimus.

31. 84. There is, there is indeed that force: nor can it be that in these bodies and in this our imbecility there is something which is vigorous and perceives, and that it is not present in this so great and so preeminent motion of nature. Unless perhaps they therefore do not think so, because it does not appear nor is it discerned: just as if we could see our very mind itself, by which we are wise, by which we provide/foresee, by which we do and say these very things, or plainly perceive of what sort it is or where it is.

Ea vis igitur ipsa, quae saepe incredibilis huic urbi felicitates atque opes attulit, illam perniciem exstinxit ac sustulit; cui primum mentem iniecit, ut vi irritare ferroque lacessere fortissimum virum auderet, vincereturque ab eo, quem si vicisset habiturus esset impunitatem et licentiam sempiternam. 85. Non est humano consilio, ne mediocri quidem, iudices, deorum immortalium cura, res illa perfecta. Religiones me hercule ipsae, quae illam beluam cadere viderunt, commosse se videntur, et ius in illo suum retinuisse.

That very power, therefore, which often brought incredible felicities and opulence to this city, extinguished and took away that perdition; it first cast into his mind to dare to provoke by force and to challenge with iron the bravest man, and to be vanquished by him—by whom, if he had vanquished, he would have had impunity and sempiternal license. 85. Not by human counsel, not even of a middling sort, judges, but by the care of the immortal gods, was that affair perfected. By Hercules, the very Religions—the rites—which saw that beast fall, seem to have been stirred, and to have retained their own right over him.

Vos enim iam, Albani tumuli atque luci, vos, inquam, imploro atque obtestor; vosque, Albanorum obrutae arae, sacrorum populi Romani sociae et aequales, quas ille praeceps amentia, caesis prostratisque sanctissimis lucis, substructionum insanis molibus oppresserat. Vestrae tum [arae] vestrae religiones viguerunt; vestra vis valuit, quam ille omni scelere polluerat. Tuque ex tuo edito monte, Latiaris sancte Iuppiter, cuius ille lacus, nemora finisque saepe omni nefario stupro et scelere macularat, aliquando ad eum poeniendum oculos aperuisti.

For you now, Alban hills and groves, you, I say, I implore and adjure; and you, the buried altars of the Albans, associates and equals of the rites of the Roman people, which that man, headlong in madness, after the most holy groves had been felled and laid low, had overwhelmed beneath the insane masses of substructures. Your then [altars], your religious observances flourished; your force prevailed, which he had polluted with every crime. And you too, from your lofty mount, holy Jupiter of Latium, whose lake, groves, and borders he had often stained with every nefarious debauch and crime, at last opened your eyes to punish him.

Vobis illae, vobis vestro in conspectu serae, sed iustae tamen et debitae poenae solutae sunt. 86. Nisi forte hoc etiam casu factum esse dicemus, ut ante ipsum sacrarium Bonae deae, quod est in fundo T. Sergi Galli, in primis honesti et ornati adulescentis, ante ipsam, inquam, Bonam deam, eum proelium commisisset, primum illud volnus acciperet, quo taeterrimam mortem obiret; ut non absolutus iudicio illo nefario videretur, sed ad hanc insignem poenam reservatus.

To you those penalties—late, to you and in your very sight—yet just and owed, were paid. 86. Unless perchance we shall say that this too happened by chance: that, before the very sanctuary of Bona Dea, which is on the estate of T. Sergius Gallus, a particularly honorable and distinguished young man, before Bona Dea herself, I say, he engaged the combat, received that first wound, by which he met a most foul death; so that he might not seem to have been acquitted by that nefarious judgment, but reserved for this signal punishment.

XXXII. Nec vero non eadem ira deorum hanc eius satellitibus iniecit amentiam, ut sine imaginibus, sine cantu atque ludis, sine exsequiis, sine lamentis, sine laudationibus, sine funere, oblitus cruore et luto, spoliatus illius supremi diei celebritate, cui cedere inimici etiam solent, ambureretur abiectus. Non fuisse credo fas clarissimorum virorum formas illi taeterrimo parricidae aliquid decoris adferre, neque ullo in loco potius mortem eius lacerari quam in quo vita esset damnata.

32. Nor indeed did not the same wrath of the gods cast this madness upon his satellites, that, without effigies, without song and games, without funeral rites, without laments, without laudations, without a funeral, smeared with gore and mud, stripped of the celebration of that last day, to which even enemies are wont to yield, he was burned, cast away. I believe it was not right that the effigies of the most illustrious men should bring any decorum to that most foul parricide, nor that his death should be lacerated in any place rather than in that in which his life had been condemned.

87. Dura (me dius fidius) mihi iam Fortuna populi Romani et crudelis videbatur, quae tot annos illum in hanc rem publicam insultare pateretur. Polluerat stupro sanctissimas religiones, senatus gravissima decreta perfregerat, pecunia se a iudicibus palam redemerat, vexarat in tribunatu senatum, omnium ordinum consensu pro salute rei publicae gesta resciderat, me patria expulerat, bona diripuerat, domum incenderat, liberos, coniugem meam vexarat, Cn. Pompeio nefarium bellum indixerat, magistratuum privatorumque caedis effecerat, domum mei fratris incenderat, vastarat Etruriam, multos sedibus ac fortunis eiecerat. Instabat, urgebat.

87. Hard (by Dius Fidius) the Fortune of the Roman people already seemed to me, and cruel, which for so many years had allowed him to trample upon this republic. He had defiled with debauch the most sacred religions, had smashed the gravest decrees of the Senate, had openly bought himself off from the jurors with money, had harassed the Senate in his tribunate, had rescinded, by the consensus of all orders, the things done for the safety of the republic, had driven me from my fatherland, had plundered my goods, had burned my house, had harried my children and my wife, had declared an impious war upon Gnaeus Pompeius, had brought about slaughters of magistrates and private persons, had burned my brother’s house, had laid waste Etruria, had cast out many from their homes and fortunes. He pressed on, he bore down.

Capere eius amentiam civitas, Italia, provinciae, regna non poterant. Incidebantur iam domi leges, quae nos servis nostris addicerent. Nihil erat cuiusquam, quod quidem ille adamasset, quod non hoc anno suum fore putaret.

The commonwealth, Italy, the provinces, the kingdoms could not contain his madness. Laws were already at home being incised, which would adjudge us to our own slaves. There was nothing of anyone’s which, once he had grown enamored of it, he did not suppose would be his this year.

88. Obstabat eius cogitationibus nemo praeter Milonem. Illum ipsum, qui obstare poterat, novo reditu in gratiam quasi devinctum arbitrabatur: Caesaris potentiam suam esse dicebat: bonorum animos in meo casu contempserat: Milo unus urgebat.

88. No one stood in the way of his cogitations except Milo. That very man, who could stand in the way, he reckoned as if bound by the new return into favor: he used to say that Caesar’s potentia was his own: he had contemned the spirits of the good men in my case: Milo alone was pressing.

XXXIII. Hic di immortales, ut supra dixi, mentem illi perdito ac furioso dederunt, ut huic faceret insidias. Aliter perire pestis illa non potuit: numquam illum res publica suo iure esset ulta.

33. Here the immortal gods, as I said above, gave a mind to that lost and frenzied man, so that he might lay ambushes for this man. Otherwise that pest could not have perished: the republic would never, by its own right, have avenged itself upon him.

Senatus (credo) praetorem eum circumscripsisset. Ne cum solebat quidem id facere, in privato eodem hoc aliquid profecerat. 89. An consules in praetore coercendo fortes fuissent?

The Senate (I believe) would have circumscribed him as praetor. Not even when he was wont to do that had he, as a private man, made any progress in this same matter. 89. Or would the consuls have been brave in coercing a praetor?

Primum, Milone occiso habuisset suos consules: deinde quis in eo praetore consul fortis esset, per quem tribunum virtutem consularem crudelissime vexatam esse meminisset? Oppressisset omnia, possideret, teneret: lege nova [quae est inventa apud eum cum reliquis legibus Clodianis] servos nostros libertos suos fecisset: postremo, nisi eum di immortales in eam mentem impulissent, ut homo effeminatus fortissimum virum conaretur occidere, hodie rem publicam nullam haberetis.

First, with Milo slain he would have had his own consuls; then, what consul would be brave under that praetor, by whom, as tribune, he would remember the consular virtue to have been most cruelly vexed? He would have oppressed everything, would possess, would hold; by a new law [quae est inventa apud eum cum reliquis legibus Clodianis] he would have made our slaves his own freedmen; finally, unless the immortal gods had impelled him into that disposition, that an effeminate man should attempt to kill a most brave man, today you would have no commonwealth.

90. An ille praetor, ille vero consul,—si modo haec templa atque ipsa moenia stare eo vivo tam diu et consulatum eius exspectare potuissent,—ille denique vivus mali nihil fecisset, qui mortuus, uno ex suis satellitibus [Sex. Clodio] duce, curiam incenderit? Quo quid miserius, quid acerbius, quid luctuosius vidimus?

90. Or would that praetor, that consul indeed,—if only these temples and the walls themselves could have stood with him alive for so long and have awaited his consulship,—would that man, alive, have done nothing evil, who, dead, with one of his satellites [Sextus Clodius] as leader, set the Curia on fire? Than which what have we seen more wretched, more bitter, more mournful?

Templum sanctitatis, amplitudinis, mentis, consili publici, caput urbis, aram sociorum, portum omnium gentium, sedem ab universo populo concessam uni ordini, inflammari, exscindi, funestari? neque id fieri a multitudine imperita—quamquam esset miserum id ipsum—sed ab uno? Qui cum tantum ausus sit ustor pro mortuo, quid signifer pro vivo non esset ausus?

The temple of sanctity, of amplitude, of mind, of public counsel, the head of the city, the altar of the allies, the harbor of all nations, the seat granted by the entire people to a single order—set aflame, cut down, made funereal? and not this done by an unskilled multitude—though that itself would be wretched—but by one man? He who, since he dared so much as a burner on behalf of the dead, what would he not have dared as a standard-bearer on behalf of the living?

In curiam potissimum abiecit, ut eam mortuus incenderet, quam vivus everterat. 91. Et sunt qui de via Appia querantur, taceant de curia! et qui ab eo spirante forum putent potuisse defendi, cuius non restiterit cadaveri curia!

He hurled it into the Curia most of all, so that, dead, he might set on fire the very building which, alive, he had overthrown. 91. And there are those who complain about the Via Appia—let them be silent about the Curia!—and who think that the Forum could have been defended against him while he was breathing, when the Curia did not stand fast against his corpse!

Excitate, excitate ipsum, si potestis, a mortuis. Frangetis impetum vivi, cuius vix sustinetis furias insepulti? Nisi vero sustinuistis eos qui cum facibus ad curiam cucurrerunt, cum falcibus ad Castoris, cum gladiis toto foro volitarunt.

Rouse, rouse him himself, if you can, from the dead. Will you break the assault of him alive, when you scarcely endure his frenzies even unburied? Unless indeed you withstood those who ran with torches to the Curia, with sickles to the Temple of Castor, who flitted with swords through the whole Forum.

Caedi vidistis populum Romanum, contionem gladiis disturbari, cum audiretur silentio M. Caelius, tribunus plebis, vir et in re publica fortissimus, et in suscepta causa firmissimus, et bonorum voluntati et auctoritati senatus deditus, et in hac Milonis sive invidia sive fortuna singulari, divina et incredibili fide.

You saw the Roman People being cut down, the assembly being broken up by swords, while M. Caelius, tribune of the plebs, was being heard in silence—a man both most valiant in the res publica and most steadfast in the cause he had undertaken, devoted to the goodwill of the good men and to the authority of the senate, and in this affair of Milo, whether singular in ill-will or in fortune, of divine and incredible fidelity.

XXXIV. 92. Sed iam satis multa de causa: extra causam etiam nimis fortasse multa. Quid restat nisi ut orem obtesterque vos, iudices, ut eam misericordiam tribuatis fortissimo viro, quam ipse non implorat, ego etiam repugnante hoc et imploro et deposco?

34. 92. But now enough has been said about the case; outside the case perhaps even too much. What remains except that I pray and adjure you, judges, to grant that mercy to a most brave man, which he himself does not implore—while I, even with him opposing this, both implore and demand it?

Nolite, si in nostro omnium fletu nullam lacrimam aspexistis Milonis, si voltum semper eundem, si vocem, si orationem stabilem ac non mutatam videtis, hoc minus ei parcere: hand scio an multo sit etiam adiuvandus magis. Etenim si in gladiatoriis pugnis et infimi generis hominum condicione atque fortuna timidos atque supplices et ut vivere liceat obsecrantis etiam odisse solemus, fortis atque animosos et se acriter ipsos morti offerentis servare cupimus, eorumque nos magis miseret qui nostram misericordiam non requirunt quam qui illam efflagitant,—quanto hoc magis in fortissimis civibus facere debemus?

Do not, if in the weeping of us all you have beheld no tear of Milo, if you see the same countenance always, the voice, the speech stable and not changed, spare him the less for this: I do not know but that he ought even to be aided much more. For indeed, if in gladiatorial combats and in the condition and fortune of men of the lowest order we are accustomed even to hate the timid and the suppliant and those beseeching that it be permitted to live, we desire to save the brave and high-spirited and those who keenly offer themselves to death, and we pity more those who do not require our mercy than those who demand it,—how much more ought we to do this in the case of the bravest citizens?

93. Me quidem, iudices, exanimant et interimunt hac voces Milonis, quas audio adsidue et quibus intersum cotidie. 'Valeant,' inquit,—valeant cives mei: sint incolumes, sint florentes, sint beati: stet haec urbs praeclara mihique patria carissima, quoquo modo erit merita de me. Tranquilla re publica mei cives, quoniam mihi cum illis non licet, sine me ipsi, sed propter me tamen perfruantur. Ego cedam atque abibo: si mihi bona re publica frui non licuerit, at carebo mala, et quam primum tetigero bene moratam et liberam civitatem, in ea conquiescam.

93. Indeed, judges, these words of Milo unnerve me and kill me outright, which I hear assiduously and at which I am present every day. “Farewell,” he says,—let my fellow citizens fare well: let them be unharmed, let them be flourishing, let them be blessed; let this illustrious city stand, my dearest fatherland, in whatever way it shall have deserved of me. With the commonwealth tranquil, since it is not permitted me to be with them, let my fellow citizens themselves, without me, yet because of me, enjoy it to the full. I will yield and depart: if it will not have been permitted me to enjoy a good commonwealth, at least I shall be free from an evil one; and as soon as I touch a well-mannered (well-ordered) and free city, in it I shall find rest.

94. O frustra, 'inquit,' mihi suscepti labores! O spes fallaces et cogitationes inanes meae! Ego cum tribunus plebis re publica oppressa me senatui dedissem, quem exstinctum acceperam, equitibus Romanis, quorum vires erant debiles, bonis viris, qui omnem auctoritatem Clodianis armis abiecerant, mihi umquam bonorum praesidium defuturum putarem?

94. O my labors undertaken in vain, 'he says'! O my deceptive hopes and empty cogitations! I—when, as tribune of the plebs, with the republic oppressed, I had given myself to the Senate, which I had found extinguished, to the Roman equestrians, whose forces were feeble, to the good men, who had cast away all authority before Clodian arms—could I ever have thought that the protection of the good would be lacking to me?

ego cum te'—mecum enim saepissime loquitur—'patriae reddidissem, mihi putarem in patria non futurum locum? Ubi nunc senatus est, quem secuti sumus? ubi equites Romani illi [illi],' inquit, 'tui?

when I had restored you'—for he very often speaks with me—'to the fatherland, should I have thought that there would be no place for me in the fatherland? Where now is the Senate, which we have followed? where are those Roman equestrians [illi],' he says, 'of yours?

ubi studia municipiorum? ubi Italiae voces? ubi denique tua illa, M. Tulli, quae plurimis fuit auxilio, vox atque defensio?

where are the loyalties of the municipalities? where are the voices of Italy? where, finally, is that voice and defense of yours, M. Tulli, which was a help to very many?

mihine ea soli, qui pro te totiens morti me obtuli, nihil potest opitulari?'

To me, then, alone—who for you so often offered myself to death—can none of those things assist?'

XXXV. 95. Nec vero haec, iudices, ut ego nunc, flens, sed hoc eodem loquitur voltu quo videtis. Negat enim, negat ingratis civibus fecisse se quae fecerit; timidis et omnia circumspicientibus pericula non negat.

35. 95. Nor indeed does she speak these things, judges, weeping as I do now, but with this same countenance that you see. For she denies—she denies having done what she did for ungrateful citizens; for the timid and for those looking around at every peril she does not deny it.

Plebem et infimam multitudinem, quae P. Clodio duce fortunis vestris imminebat, eam, quo tutior esset vestra vita, se fecisse commemorat ut non modo virtute flecteret, sed etiam tribus suis patrimoniis deleniret; nec timet ne, cum plebem muneribus placarit, vos non conciliarit meritis in rem publicam singularibus. Senatus erga se benevolentiam temporibus his ipsis saepe esse perspectam, vestras vero et vestrorum ordinum occursationes, studia, sermones, quemcumque cursum fortuna dederit, se secum ablaturum esse dicit. 96. Meminit etiam sibi vocem praeconis modo defuisse, quam minime desiderarit; populi vero cunctis suffragiis, quod unum cupierit, se consulem declaratum: nunc denique, si haec contra se sint futura, sibi facinoris suspicionem, non facti crimen obstare.

He recounts that he made the plebs and the lowest multitude, which with P. Clodius as leader was threatening your fortunes, such that, in order that your life might be safer, he not only might bend them by virtue, but also might mollify them with three of his patrimonies; nor does he fear that, when he has appeased the plebs with gifts, he has not conciliated you by singular merits toward the republic. He says that the goodwill of the senate toward him has been often perceived in these very times, and that your attendances, zeal, and conversations—yours and those of your orders—whatever course fortune shall have given, he will carry with him. 96. He remembers also that only the voice of the herald was lacking to him, which he least desired; but that by the suffrages of all the people, that one thing he desired, he was declared consul: now at length, if these things are going to be against him, it is the suspicion of a crime that stands in his way, not the charge of a deed.

Addit haec, quae certe vera sunt: fortis et sapientis viros non tam praemia sequi solere recte factorum, quam ipsa recte facta; se nihil in vita nisi praeclarissime fecisse, si quidem nihil sit praestabilius viro quam periculis patriam liberare; beatos esse quibus ea res honori fuerit a suis civibus, 97. nec tamen eos miseros qui beneficio civis suos vicerint; sed tamen ex omnibus praemiis virtutis, si esset habenda ratio praemiorum, amplissimum esse praemium gloriam: esse hanc unam quae brevitatem vitae posteritatis memoria consolaretur; quae efficeret ut absentes adessemus, mortui viveremus; hanc denique esse, cuius gradibus etiam in caelum homines viderentur ascendere. 98.'De me,' inquit, 'semper populus Romanus, semper omnes gentes loquentur, nulla umquam obmutescet vetustas. Quin hoc tempore ipso, cum omnes a meis inimicis faces invidiae meae subiciantur, tamen omni in hominum coetu gratiis agendis et gratulationibus habendis et omni sermone celebramur.' Omitto Etruriae festos et actos et institutos dies: centesima lux est haec ab interitu P. Clodi, et (opinor) altera.

Adds these things, which surely are true: that brave and wise men are not so much accustomed to pursue the rewards of right deeds as the right deeds themselves; that he has done nothing in life except most illustriously, since indeed nothing is more to be preferred for a man than to free his fatherland from dangers; that blessed are they for whom that matter has been an honor from their fellow citizens, 97. nor yet are they wretched who have surpassed their fellow citizens by their benefaction; but still, of all the rewards of virtue, if there should be any account taken of rewards, the most ample reward is glory: that this is the one thing which consoles the brevity of life by the memory of posterity; which brings it about that, being absent, we are present; being dead, we live; that this, finally, is the thing by whose steps men seem to ascend even into heaven. 98. ‘About me,’ he says, ‘the Roman people will always speak, all nations will always speak, no antiquity will ever fall mute. Nay, at this very time, when all the torches of envy against me are being applied by my enemies, nevertheless in every gathering of men we are celebrated with the giving of thanks and with the offering of congratulations and in every discourse.’ I omit the festive days in Etruria both held and established: this is the hundred and second day from the death of P. Clodius, and (I suppose) the next.

Qua fines imperi populi Romani sunt, ea non solum fama iam de illo, sed etiam laetitia peragravit. Quam ob rem 'Ubi corpus hoc sit non,' inquit, 'laboro, quoniam omnibus in terris et iam versatur et semper habitabit nominis mei gloria.'

Wherever the boundaries of the empire of the Roman people are, there not only fame now about him, but also joy has traversed. Wherefore, 'Where this body is, I do not trouble myself,' he says, 'since in all lands the glory of my name both already is in circulation and will always dwell.'

XXXVI. 99. Haec tu mecum saepe his absentibus, sed isdem audientibus haec ego tecum, Milo: 'Te quidem, cum isto animo es, satis laudare non possum; sed, quo est ista magis divina virtus, eo maiore a te dolore divellor. Nec vero, si mihi eriperis, reliqua est illa tamen ad consolandum querella, ut eis irasci possim, a quibus tantum volnus accepero.

36. 99. These things you have often with me, when these men were absent but the same were listening; and these things I with you, Milo: 'You indeed, since you are of such a spirit, I cannot praise enough; but the more that virtue of yours is divine, by so much the greater a pain am I torn away from you. Nor indeed, if you are snatched from me, is there left, however, that complaint for consoling, that I might be able to be angry with those by whom I shall have received so great a wound.'

Non enim inimici mei te mihi eripient, sed amicissimi; non male aliquando de me meriti, sed semper optime.' Nullum umquam, iudices, mihi tantum dolorem inuretis—etsi quis potest esse tantus?sed ne hunc quidem ipsum, ut obliviscar quanti me semper feceritis. Quae si vos cepit oblivio, aut si in me aliquid offendistis, cur non id meo capite potius luitur quam Milonis? Praeclare enim vixero, si quid mihi acciderit prius quam hoc tantum mali videro.

For it will not be my enemies who will snatch you from me, but my very dearest friends; not men who have at some time merited ill of me, but who have always merited the very best.' Never, judges, brand upon me any pain so great—though what could be so great?—not even this very one, as to make me forget how highly you have always valued me. And if oblivion of these things has seized you, or if you have taken offense at something in me, why is that not paid for with my head rather than Milo’s? For I shall have lived gloriously indeed, if something befalls me before I see so great an evil.

100. Nunc me una consolatio sustentat, quod tibi, T. Anni, nullum a ille amoris, nullum studi, nullum pietatis officium defuit. Ego inimicitias potentium pro te appetivi; ego meum saepe corpus et vitam obieci armis inimicorum tuorum; ego me plurimis pro te supplicem abieci; bona, fortunas meas ac liberorum meorum in communionem tuorum temporum contuli: hoc denique ipso die, si quae vis est parata, si quae dimicatio capitis futura, deposco.

100. Now one consolation sustains me, that to you, T. Annius, no office of love, no office of zeal, no office of piety has been lacking. I sought the enmities of the powerful for you; I often threw my own body and life before the arms of your enemies; I cast myself as a suppliant before very many for you; my goods, my fortunes and those of my children I have brought into communion with the times you have fallen upon: on this very day, finally, if any force is prepared, if any capital contest is to be, I demand it.

Quid iam restat? Quid habeo quod faciam pro tuis in me meritis, nisi ut eam fortunam, quaecumque erit tua, ducam meam? Non recuso, non abnuo; vosque obsecro, iudices, ut vestra beneficia, quae in me contulistis, aut in huius salute augeatis, aut in eiusdem exitio occasura esse videatis.

What now remains? What have I to do in return for your merits toward me, save to take as my own whatever fortune shall be yours? I do not refuse, I do not gainsay; and I beseech you, judges, that your benefactions, which you have conferred upon me, you either augment in this man’s safety, or see them doomed to fall in this same man’s ruin.

XXXVII. 101. His lacrimis non movetur Milo.

37. 101. By these tears Milo is not moved.

Est quodam incredibili robore animi. Exsilium ibi esse putat, ubi virtuti non sit locus; mortem naturae finem esse, non poenam. Sed hic ea mente qua natus est.

He is of a certain incredible strength of spirit. He thinks exile to be there where there is no place for virtue; that death is nature’s end, not a penalty. But he here is of that mind with which he was born.

Quid vos, iudices? quo tandem animo eritis? Memoriam Milonis retinebitis, ipsum eicietis?

What of you, judges? With what spirit, then, will you be? Will you retain Milo’s memory, and eject the man himself?

et erit dignior locus in terris ullus qui hanc virtutem excipiat, quam hic qui procreavit? Vos, vos appello, fortissimi viri, qui multum pro re publica sanguinem effudistis: vos in viri et in civis invicti appello periculo, centuriones, vosque milites: vobis non modo inspectantibus, sed etiam armatis et huic iudicio praesidentibus, haec tanta virtus ex hac urbe expelletur, exterminabitur, proicietur? 102.

and will there be any place on earth more worthy to receive this virtue than this one which begot it? You, you I appeal to, bravest men, who have poured out much blood for the commonwealth: I appeal to you by the peril of the unconquered man and citizen, centurions, and you soldiers: with you not only looking on, but even armed and presiding over this court, shall this so great virtue be driven from this city, be banished, be cast forth? 102.

O me miserum! O me infelicem! Revocare tu me in patriam, Milo, potuisti per hos: ego te in patria per eosdem retinere non potero?

O wretched me! O unhappy me! You, Milo, were able to recall me to the fatherland by these men: shall I not be able to retain you in the fatherland by these same men?

Quid respondebo liberis meis, qui te parentem alterum putant? Quid tibi, Quinte frater, qui nunc abes, consorti mecum temporum illorum? Mene non potuisse Milonis salutem tueri per eosdem, per quos nostram ille servasset?

What shall I answer to my children, who reckon you a second parent? What to you, brother Quintus, who are now absent, a sharer with me of those times? That I could not have been able to protect Milo’s safety by the same men by whom he had preserved ours?

At in qua causa non potuisse? quae est grata gentibus . . . non potuisse? eis qui maxime P. Clodi morte acquierunt: quo deprecante?

But in what cause could I not have been able? which is acceptable to the nations . . . not to have been able? for those who gained most by the death of P. Clodius: at whose entreaty?

me. 103. Quodnam ego concepi tantum scelus, aut quod in me tantum facinus admisi, iudices, cum illa indicia communis exiti indagavi, patefeci, protuli, exstinxi? Omnes in me meosque redundant ex fonte illo dolores.

me. 103. What crime so great did I conceive, or what deed of such wickedness did I commit against myself, judges, when I tracked down, laid open, produced, and extinguished those indications of common destruction? All my griefs overflow upon me and mine from that fountain.

Quid me reducem esse voluistis? an ut inspectante me expellerentur ei per quos essem restitutus? Nolite, obsecro vos, acerbiorem mihi pati reditum esse, quam fuerit ille ipse discessus.

Why did you wish me to be brought back? Or was it so that, with me looking on, those by whom I had been restored should be expelled? Do not, I beseech you, allow my return to be more bitter to me than that very departure was.

Nam qui possum putare me restitutum esse, si distrahar ab his, per quos restitutus sum?

For how can I think that I have been restored, if I am torn away from those by whom I was restored?

XXXVIII. Utinam di immortales fecissent—pace tua, patria, dixerim; metuo enim ne scelerate dicam in te quod pro Milone dicam pieutinam P. Clodius non modo viveret, sed etiam praetor, consul, dictator esset, potius quam hoc spectaculum viderem! 104.

38. Would that the immortal gods had brought it about—with your pardon, fatherland, let me say; for I fear lest I speak wickedly against you what I shall say piously on behalf of Milo—would that Publius Clodius not only were alive, but even were praetor, consul, dictator, rather than that I should behold this spectacle! 104.

O di immortales! fortem et a vobis, iudices, conservandum virum! 'Minime, minime,' inquit.

O immortal gods! a brave man, and one to be preserved by you, judges! “By no means, by no means,” he says.

'Immo vero poenas ille debitas luerit: nos subeamus, si ita necesse est, non debitas.' Hicine vir, patriae natus, usquam nisi in patria morietur? aut, si forte, pro patria? Huius vos animi monumenta retinebitis, corporis in Italia nullum sepulcrum esse patiemini?

'Nay rather, let that man pay the penalties due; let us undergo, if so it is necessary, those not due.' Will this man, born for his fatherland, die anywhere except in his fatherland? Or, if by chance, for his fatherland? Will you retain the monuments of this man’s spirit, will you suffer that in Italy there be no tomb of his body?

Hunc sua quisquam sententia ex hac urbe expellet, quem omnes urbes expulsum a vobis ad se vocabunt? 105. O terram illam beatam, quae hunc virum exceperit: hanc ingratam, si eiecerit; miseram, si amiserit!

Will anyone by his own sentence expel this man from this city, whom all cities, once expelled by you, will call to themselves? 105. O that blessed land which shall have received this man: this one ungrateful, if it shall have cast him out; miserable, if it shall have lost him!

Sed finis sit: neque enim prae lacrimis iam loqui possum, et hic se lacrimis defendi vetat. Vos oro obtestorque, iudices, ut in sententiis ferendis, quod sentietis id audeatis. Vestram virtutem, iustitiam, fidem, mihi credite, is maxime probabit, qui in iudicibus legendis optimum et sapientissimum et fortissimum quemque elegit.

But let there be an end: for indeed I can no longer speak for tears, and this man forbids himself to be defended by tears. I beg and I adjure you, judges, that, in pronouncing sentences, you may dare what you will feel. Your virtue, justice, and faith, believe me, will be most approved by him who, in choosing the judges, chose each man as the best, the most sapient, and the bravest.