28
P. CLODIUS.
was a good-natured, but superstitious and little-minded person;
as, however, he was wealthy, and belonged to a noble family,
he obtained the highest honours in the republic. Clodius had
also two sisters, one of whom was married to LucuIIus. He thus
belonged to the highest aristrocracy of Rome ; but this was no
longer of any consequence : the question at that time was, not
who was the noblest, but who possessed the greatest power.
P. Clodius is an exemplification of that most fearful state of
demoralisation, which was just then at its height; he was one
of those who contributed most to the fall of Rome. At the
festival of the Bona Dea, which, like the Thesmophoria, was
celebrated by the vestals and matrons, he had sneaked, in the
disguise of a woman, into the house of the pontifcx maximus,
to have a rendezvous there with Pompeia, the wife of J. Caesar.
The crime was discovered, and Clodius was brought to trial.
The whole proceeding shews that a change must have taken
place; for, according to the ancient law, he ought to have been
tried by the ecclesiastical court of the pontiffs ; and would to
God that this regulation had now been in force, for Clodius
would unquestionably have been condemned, and Cicero would
have been spared all his subsequent misfortunes. But the old law,
and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the pontiffs, except in cases
relating to the ceremonies, must have been abolished, though
nobody knows when this was done. Clodius tried to prove an
alibi, and had the impudence to call Cicero as his witness.6 Up to
this time, no hostility is said to have existed between the two
men; and Clodius was so dangerous a person, that Cicero ought
to have been satisfied with simply stating that he knew nothing
about the matter; but he was led away, it is said, by the desire
to justify himself to his domineering wife, and to prove to her
that he was not a friend of the Claudian family. Accordingly,
he not only bore witness against Clodius, but gave free expres-
sion to his indignation, and said things which would necessarily
have brought about the condemnation of Clodius, had he not
purchased his acquittal.7 Things were then in such a frightful
condition, that the defendant had to deposit his bribe before
the trial began.
Clodius could never forget the conduct of Cicero on that day,
6 Cicero, ad Atticumt i. 14.
7 Cicero, ad Atticum, i. 16, 18; Plutarcli, Cicero, 29, Caesar, 10, and espe-
cially Cicero, In Clodium et Curionem.
Tbibuneship of clodius.
29
and meditated revenge. Pompey, too, on Iiis return to
Bome, shewed the same conduct towards Cicero as before. He
treated him with worse than indifference ; he insulted him, and
encouraged Clodius to undertake something against him.
Clodius now caused himself to be adopted into a plebeian family
for the sake of appearances, in order to obtain the tribuneship.8
Disgraceful things were then going on at Rome, and Clodius
had a hand in all of them. I shall mention only one. Ptolemy
Auletes, who had been expelled from Alexandria on account of
his vices, came to Rome, and bargained with the rulers about
the price of his restoration. The people of Alexandria sent an
embassy to Rome to justify themselves, and to prove the shame-
ful conduct of their late king: but he, with the connivance of
the Romans, caused the most distinguished among the ambas-
sadors to be assassinated.9
The tribuneship of Clodius falls in the year after Caesar’s
consulship (a. U. 693) and four years after that of Cicero. It
may be considered as the beginning of the civil wars. Pompey
and M. Crassus had hitherto been the most powerful men in
the republic, and Caesar had not yet exercised any great influ-
ence, though his favour with the people was immense. It is
greatly to be regretted that we know so little about his family.10
The Julia gens which had come from Alba to Rome, was one
of the most ancient gentes minores. During the first period of
the republic, members of it were often invested with curule
8 Such transitiones ad plebem were not !infrequent in early times, when it was
not even necessary to be adopted into a plebeian family, for a man might go
completely over to the plebeians by the mere act of his own will. IIe became an
aerarian, and was registered by the censor in a tribe. But this custom had long
fallen into disuse, and persons knew little or nothing about it; hence Cicero
disputed the legality of Clodius’ tribuneship, but there was no real ground for
doing "o.—N.
9 Cicero, pro Caelio, 10. Comparethefragments of Cicero’s oration, “De
rege Alexandrino. ”
‘° It is a singular circumstance that his two biographies by Suetonius and
Plutarch are both ⅛κe'φαλoι. With regard to Suetonius the fact is well known,
but it is only Sinectheyear 1812 (Lydus, De Magistr. ii. 6 ) that we know that
the part which is wanting also contained a dedication to the praefoctus praetorio
of the time, a fact which has not yet found its way into any history of Roman
literature. That Plutarch’s life of Caesar is likewise aκeψaλos has, as far as I
am aware, not yet been noticed. The fact is not mentioned any where; but there
can be no doubt that the beginning is wanting. Plutarch could not have passed
over Caesar’s ancestors, father, and whole family, together with the history of
his youth. The life, as it now stands, opens with the demand of Sulla relative
to Caesar’s second wife Corixdia; but this is no beginning at all.—N.