hi crime muft pafs unpunished; for a nobleman had only killed a Roman knight amoagit the monuments of his own family. Now the very name of this Appian way what a ftir does it make? what was never mentioned while it was ftained with the blood of a worthy and innocent man, is in every one's mouth, now it is dyed with that of a robber and a murderer. But why do I mention these things? one of Clodius's flaves was feized in the temple of Caitor, where he was placed by his mafter on purpose to affaffinate Pompey: he confeffed it, as they were wrefting the dagger out of his hands. Pompey abfented from the forum upon it, he abfented from the fenate, he abfented from the public. He had recourfe, for his fecurity, to the gates and walls of his own house, and not to the authority of laws, or courts of judicature. Was any law paffed at that time? was any extraordinary commiffion granted? And yet, if any circumitance, if any perfon, if any juncture, ever merited fuch a distinction, it was certainly upon this occafion. An affaffin was placed in the forum, and in the very porch of the fenate-houfe, with a defign to murder the man, on whofe life depended the fafety of the flate; and at fo critical a juncture of the republic, that if he had fallen, not this city alone, but the whole empire must have fallen with him. But poffibly you may imagine he ought not to be punished, becafe his defign did not fucceed; as if the faccefs of a crime, and not the intention of the criminal, was cognizable by the laws. There was lefs reafon indeed for grief, as the attempt did not fucceed; but certainly not at all the lefs for punishment. How cften, my lords, have I myself escaped the threatening dagger, and bloody hands of Clodius? From which if neither my own good fortune, nor that of the republic had preferved me, who would ever have pro cored an extraordinary trial upon my death? But it is weak in one to prefume to compare Drufus, Africanus, Pompey, or myfelf, with Clodius. Their lives could be difpenfed with; but as to the death of P. Clodius, no one can hear it with any degree of patience. The fenate mourns, the Equeftrian order is filled with diftrefs, the whole city is in the deepest affliction, the corporate towns are all in mourning, the colopies are overwhelmed with forrow; in a word, even the fields themselves lament the lofs of fo generous, fo useful, and fo humane a citizen. But this, my lords, is by no means the reafon why Pompey thought himself obliged to appoint a commiffion for a trial; being a man of great wisdom, of deep and almoft divine penetration, he took a great variety of things into his view. He confidered that Clodius had been his enemy, that Milo was his intimate friend, and was afraid that, if he took his part in the general joy, it would render the fincerity of his reconciliation fufpected. Many other things he faw, and particularly this, that though he had made a fevere law, you would act with becoming refolution on the trial. And accordingly, in appointing judges, he felected the greatest ornaments of the moft illuftrious orders of the state; nor in making his choice, did he, as fome have pretended, fet afide my friends. For neither had this perfon, fo eminent for his juftice, any fuch defign, nor was it poffible for him to have made fuch a distinction, if only worthy men were chofen, even if he had been defirous of doing it. My influence is not confined to my particular friends, my lords, the number of whom cannot be very large, because the intimacies of friendship can extend but to a few. If I have any interelt, it is owing to this, that the affairs of the ftate have connected me with the virtuous and worthy members of it; out of whom when he chofe the most deferving, to which he would think himself bound in honour, he could not fail of nominating thofe who had an affection for me. But in fixing upon you, L. Domitius, to prefide at this trial, he had no other motive than a regard to justice, difinterestedness, humanity and honour. He enact, 'ed that the prefident fhould be of confular rank; becaufe, I fuppofe, he was of opinion that men of distinction ought to be proof against the levity of the populace, and the rathnefs of the abandoned; and he gave you the preference to all others of the fame rank, because you had, from your youth, given the strongest proofs of your contempt of popular rage. Therefore, my lords, to come at last to the caufe itfelf, and the accufation brought against us; if it be not unufual in fome cafes to confefs the fact; if the fenate has decreed nothing with relation to our caufe, but what we ourselves could have wished; if he who enacted the law, though there was no difpute about the matter of fact, was willing that the lawfulness of it should be debated; if a number of judges have been been chofen, and a perfon appointed to prefide at the trial, who might canvafs the affair with wifdom and equity; the only remaining fubject of your enquiry is, which of thefe two parties way-laid the other. And that you may be able the more eafily to determine this point, I fhall beg the favour of an attentive hearing, while, in a few words, I lay open the whole affair before you. P. Clodius being determined, when created prætor, to harafs his country with every fpecies of oppreffion, and finding the comitia had been dlayed fo long the year before, that he could not hold his office many months; no: regarding, like the reft, the dignity of the ftation, but being folicitous both to avoid having L. Paulus, a man of exemplary virtue, for his colleague, and to obtain a whole year for oppreffing the ftate; all on a fudden threw up his own year, and referved himself to the next; not from any religious fcruple, but that he might have, as he faid himself, a full, entire year, for exercising his prætorfhip; that is, for overturning the com monwealth. He was fenfible he must be controaled and cramped in the exercife of his prætorian authority under Milo, who, he plainly faw, would be chofen conful by the unanimous confent of the Roman people. Accordingly, he joined the candidates that oppoled Milo, but in fuch a manner that he over-ruled them in every thing, had the fole management of the election, and as he ufed often to boaft, bore all the comitia upon his own fhouldus. He affembled the tribes; he thruft himfelf into their counfels, and formed a new Collinian tribe of the moft abandoned of the citizens. The more confufion and difturbance he made, the more Milo prevailed. When this wretch, who was bent upon all manner of wi kedness, faw that fo brave a man, and his moft inveterate enemy, would certainly be conful; when he perceived this, not only by the difcourfes, but by the votes of the Roman people, he began to throw off all difguife, and to declare openly that Milo muft be killed. He fent for that rude and barbarous crew of flaves from the Appennines, whom you have feen, with whom he ufed to ravage the public forefts, and harafs Etruria. The thing was not in the least a fecret; for he ufed openly to fay, that though Milo could not be deprived of the confulate, he might of his life. He often intimated this in the fe nate, and declared it exprefsly before the people; infomuch that when Favonius, that brave man, asked him what prospect he could have of carrying on his furious defigns, while Milo was alive; he replied, that in three or four days at most he fhould be taken out of the way: which reply Favonius immediately communicated to M. Cato. In the mean time, as foon as Clodius knew, (nor indeed was there any difficulty to come at the intelligence) that Milo was obliged by the eighteenth of January to be at Lanuvium, where he was dictator, in order to nominate a prieft, a duty which the laws rendered néceflary to be performed every year; he went fuddenly from Rome the day before, in order, as appears by the event, to way-lay Milo, in his own grounds; and this at a time when he was obliged to leave a tumultuous affembly, which he had fummoned that very day, where his prefence was neceffary to carry on his mad defigns; a thing he never would have done, if he had not been defirous to take the advantage of that particular time and place for perpetrating his villainy. But Milo, after having ftaid in the fenate that day till the house was broke up, went home, changed his fhoes and cloaths, waited awhile, as ufual, till his wife had got ready to attend him, and then fet forward about the time that Clodius, if he had propofed to come back to Rome that day, might have returned. Clodius meets him, equipped for an engagement, on horieback, without either chariot or baggage, without his Grecian fervants; and, what was more extraordi. nary, without his wife. While this lierin-wait, who had contrived the journey on purpose for an affaffination, was in a chariot with his wife, muffled up in his cloak, encumbered with a crowd of fervants, and with a feeble and timid train of women and boys; he meets Clodius near his own eftate, a little before fun-fet, and is immediately attacked by a body of men, who throw their darts at him from an eminence, and kill his coachman. Upon which he threw off his cloak, leaped from his chariot, and defended himielf with great bravery. In the mean time Clodius's attendants drawing their fwords, fome of them ran back to the chariot in order to attack Milo in the rear, whil others, thinking that he was already killed, fell upon his fervants who were behind: thefe, being refolute and faithful to their mafter, maiter, were, fome of them, flain; whilft the reft, feeing a warm engagement near the chariot, being prevented from going to their mafter's affiftance, hearing befides from Clodius himself that Milo was killed, and believing it to be fact, acted upon this cccalion (I mention it not with a view to elade the accuration, but because it was the true state of the cafe) without the orders, without the knowledge, without the prefence of their matter, as every man would with his own fervants should act in the like circumstances. This, my lords, is a faithful account of the matter of fact: the perfon who lay in wait was himself overcome, and force fubdued by force, or rather, audacioufnels chaftifed by true valour. I fay nothing of the advantage which accrues to the ftate in general, to yourselves in particular, and to all good men; I am content to wave the argument I might draw from hence in favour of my client, whofe deftiny was fo peculiar, that he could not fecure his own fafety, without fecuring yours and that of the republic at the fame time. If he could not do it lawfally, there is no room for attempting his defence. But if reafon teaches the learned, neceflity the barbarian, common custom all nations in general, and even nature itself inftructs the brutes to defend their bodies, limbs, and lives, when attacked, by all poffible methods, you cannot pronounce this action criminal, without determining at the fame time that whoever fails into the hands of a highwayman, mult of neceffity perish either by the fword or your decisions. Had Milo been of this opinion, he would certainly have chofen to have fallen by the hand of Clodius, who had more than once before this made an attempt upon his life, rather than be executed by your order, becaufe he had not tamely yielded himfelf a victim to his rage. But if none of you are of this opinion, the proper queftion is, not whether Clodius was killed; for that we grant; but whether juftly or unjustly, an enquiry of which many precedents are to be found. That a plot was laid, is very evident; and this is what the fenate decreed to be injurious to the ftate: but by which of them laid, is uncertain. This then is the point which the law directs us to enquire into. Thus, what the fenate decreed, related to the action, not the man; and Pompey enacted not upon the matter of fact but of law. Is nothing else therefore to be determined but this fingle queftion, which of them way-laid the other? Nothing, certainly. If it appear that Milo was the aggreffor, we ask no favour; but if Clodius, you will then acquit us of the crime that has been laid to our charge. What method then can we take to prove that Clo dius lay in wait for Milo? It is fufficient, confidering what an audacious abandoned wretch he was, to fhew that he lay under a ftrong temptation to it, that he formed. great hopes, and propofed to himself great advantages from Milo's death. Let that queftion of Caflius therefore, whoje interest was it? be applied to the prefent cale. For though no confideration can prevail upon a good man to be guilty of a bafe action, yet to a bad man the leaft profpect of advantage will often be fufficient. By Milo's death, Clodius not only gained his point of being prætor, without that retraint which his adverfary's power as conful would have laid upon his wicked defigns, but likewife that of being prætor under thofe confuls, by whofe connivance at leaft, if not affiftance, he hoped he fhould be able to betray the state into the mad fchemes he had been forming; perfuading himfelf, that as they thought themfelves under fo great an obligation to him, they would have no inclination to oppofe any of his attempts, even if they should have it in their power; and that if they were inclined to do it, they would perhaps be fcarce able to controul the most profli gate of all men, who had been confirmed and hardened in his audaciousness by a long feries of villainies. Are you then, my lords, alone ignorant? are you ftrangers in this city? Has the report, which fo generally obtains in the town, of thofe laws (if they are to be called laws, and not rather the fcourges of the city, and the plagues of the republic) which he intended to have impofed and fixed as a brand of infamy upon us all, never reached your ears? Shew us, I beg of you, Sextus Clodius, fhew us, that register of your laws; which, they fay, you rescued out of his houfe, and carried off like another Palladium, in the midst of an armed force and a midnight mob; that you might have an honourable legacy, and ample inftructions for fome future tribune, who fhould hold his office under your direction, if such a tribune you could find. Now he cafts a look at me, like that he used to affume when he threatened univerfal ruin. I am indeed ftruck with that light of the fenate. What, Sextus, do you imagine I am angry with you, who have treated my greatest enemy with more feverity than the humanity of my temper could have allowed me to have required? You threw the bloody body of P. Clodius out of his houfe, you expofed it to public view in the treets, you left it by night a prey to the dogs, half confumed with unhallowed wood, ftript of its images, and deprived of the ufual encomiums and funeral pomp. This, though it is true you did it out of mere neceffity, I cannot commend: yet as my enemy was the object of your cruelty, I ought not certainly to be angry with you. You faw there was the greatest reason to dread a revolution in the ftate from the prætorfhip of Clodius, unless the man, who had both courage and power to controul him, were chofen conful. When all the Roman people were convinced that Milo was the man, what citizen could have hefitated a moment about giving him his vote, when by that vote he at once relieved his own fears, and delivered the republic from the utmost danger? But now Clodius is taken off, it requires extraordinary efforts in Milo to fupport his dignity. That fingular honour by which he was diftinguithed, and which daily increafed by his repreffing the outrages of the Clodian faction, vanished with the death of Clodius. You have gained this advantage, that there is now no citizen you have to fear; while Milo has loft a fine field for difplaying his valour, the intereft that fupported his election, and a perpetual fource of glory. Accordingly, Milo's election to the confulate, which could never have been hurt while Clodius was living, begins now upon his death to be difputed. Milo, therefore, is fo far from receiving any benefit from Clodius's death, that he is really a fufferer by it. But it may be faid that hatred prevailed, that anger and refentment urged him on, that he avenged his own wrongs, and redreffed his own grievances. Now if all thefe particulars may be applied not merely with greater propriety to Clodius than to Milo, but with the utmoft propriety to the one, and not the leaft to the other; what more can you defire? For why fhould Milo bear any other hatred to Clodius, who furnished him with fuch a rich harvest of glory, but that which every patriot must bear to all bad men? As to Clodius, he had motives enough for bearing ill-will to Milo; firft, as my protector and guardian; then as the oppofer of his mad fchemes, and the controuler of his armed force; and, laftly, as his accufer. For while he lived, he was liable to be convicted by Milo upon the Plotian law. With what patience, do you imagine, fuch an imperious fpirit could bear this? How high muft his refentment have rifen, and with what juftice too, in fo great an enemy to juftice? It remains now to confider what arguments their natural temper and behaviour will furnish out in defence of the one, and for the conviction of the other. Clodius never made ufe of any violence, Milo never carried any point without it. What then, my lords, when I retired from this city, leaving you in tears for my departure, did I fear ftanding a trial: and not rather the infults of Clodius's flaves, the force of arms, and open violence? What reafon could there be for restoring me, if he was not guilty of injuftice in banishing me? He had fummoned me, I know he had, to appear upon my trial; had fet a fine upon me, had brought an action of treafon against me, and I had reason to fear the event of a trial in a cause that was neither glorious for you, nor very honourable for myfelf. No, my lords, this was not the cafe; I was unwilling to expofe my countrymen, whom I had faved by my counfels and at the hazard of my life, to the fwords of flaves, indigent citizens, and a crew of ruffians. For I faw, yes, I myself beheld this very Q. Hortenfius, the light and ornament of the republic, almoft murdered by the hands of flaves, while he waited on me and it was in the fame tumult, that C. Vibienus, a fenator of great worth, who was in his company, was handled fo roughly, that it coft him his life. When, therefore, has that dagger, which Clodius received from Cataline, refted in its fheath? it has been aimed at me; but I would not fuffer you to expose yourselves to its rage on my account; with it he lay in wait for Pompey, and ftained the Appian way, that monument of the Clodian family, with the blood of Papirius. The fame, the very fame weapon was, after a long distance of time, again turned against me; and you know how narrowly I escaped being destroyed by it lately lately at the palace. What now of this kind can be laid to Milo's charge? whofe force has only been employed to fave the ftate from the violence of Clodius, when he could not be brought to a trial. Had he been inclined to kill him, how often had he the fairest opportunities of doing it? Might he not legally have revenged himfelf upon him, when he was defending his houfe and household gods against his af fault? might he not, when that excellent citizen and brave man, P. Sextus, his colleague, was wounded? might he not, when Q. Fabricius, that worthy man, was abufed, and a most barbarous flaughter made in the forum, upon his propofing the law for my restoration? might he not, when the houfe of L. Cæcilius, that upright and brave prætor was attacked? might he not, on that day when the law paffed in relation to me? when a vast concourse of people from all parts of Italy, animated with a concern for my fafety, would, with joyful voice, have celebrated the glory of the action, and the whole city have claimed the honour of what was performed by Milo alone? At that time P. Lentullus, a man of diftinguished worth and bravery, was conful; the profeffed enemy of Clodius, the avenger of his crimes, the guardian of the fenate, the defender of your decrees, the fupporter of that public union, and the reftorer of my fafety: there were feven prætors, and eight tribunes of the people in my intereft, in oppofition to him. Pompey, the first mover and patron of my return, was his enemy; whofe important and illuftrious decree for my restoration was feconded by the whole fenate; who encouraged the Roman people, and when he paffed a decree in my favour at Capua, gave the fignal to all Italy, folicitous for my fafety, and imploring his affiftance in my behalf, to repair in a body to Rome to have my sentence reverfed. In a word, the citizens were then fo inflamed with rage against him from their affection to me, that had he been killed at that junc, tare, they would not have thought fo much of acquitting as of rewarding the perfon by whofe hand he fell. And yet Milo fo far governed his temper, that though he, profecuted him twice in a court of judicature, be never had recourfe to violent meafures against him. But what do I fay? while Milo was a private perfon, and stood accufed by Clodius before the people, when Pompey was aflaulted in the midst of a fpeech he was making in Milo's favour, what a fair opportunity, and I will even add, fufficient reafon was there for difpatching him? Again, when Mark Antony had, on a late occafion, raised in the minds of all good men the most lively hopes of feeing the state in a happier condition; when that noble youth had bravely undertaken the defence of his country in a most dangerous quarter, and had actually fecured that wild beast in the toils of justice, which he endeavoured to avoid: Immortal gods! how favourable was the time and place for deftroying him? When Clodius concealed himself beneath a dark ftair-cafe, how easily could Milo have deftroyed that plague of his country, and thus have heightened the glory of Antony, without incurring the hatred of any? How often was it in his power, while the comitia were held in the field of Mars? when Clodius had forced his way within the inclofure, and his party began, by his direction, to draw their fwords and throw ftones; and then on a fudden, being ftruck with terror at the fight of Milo, fled to the Tiber, how earnestly did you and every good man wish that Milo had then difplayed his valour? Can you imagine then that Milo would chufe to incur the ill-will of any, by an action which he forbore when it would have gained him the applaufe of all? Would he make no fcruple of killing him at the hazard of his own life, without any provocation, at the most improper time and place, whom he did not venture to attack when he had justice on his fide, had fo convenient an opportunity, and would have run no rifque efpecially, my lords, when his ftruggle for the fupreme office in the ftate, and the day of his election was at hand; at which critical season (for I know by experience how timorous ambition is, and what a folicitous concern there is about the confulate) we dread not only the charges that may openly be brought against us, but even the moft fecret whispers and hidden furmifes; when we tremble at every rumour, every falfe, forged, and frivolous ftory; when we explore the features, and watch the looks of every one we meet. For nothing is fo changeable, fo ticklish, fo frail, and fo flexible, as the inclinations and fentiments of our fellow-citizens upon fuch occafions; they are not only dif pleafed with the dishonourable conduct of a candidate, but are often difgufted with his moft worthy actions. Shall Milo then |
