[B.C. 50 (a.u. 704)]
[-44-] Thus this trouble came to an end in the consulship of Lucius Paulus and Gaius Marcellus. Caesar in the interest of the Gauls and to see about the term allowed him for leadership had to leave Gaul and return to Rome. His office was about to terminate, the war had ceased, and he had no longer any satisfactory excuse for not disbanding his troops and returning to private life. Affairs in the city at this time were in turmoil, Crassus was dead, and Pompey had again come to power, after being three times consul and having managed to get the government of Spain granted to him for five years more. The latter had no longer any bond of alliance with Caesar, especially now that the child, who alone had kept them on friendly terms, had passed away. The returning general therefore was afraid that stripped of his soldiers he might fall into the power of Pompey and of his other enemies, and therefore did not dismiss them.
[B.C. 53 (a.u. 701)]
[-45-] In these same years many tumults of a seditious character had arisen in the city, and especially in connection with the elections, so that it was fully six months before Calvinus and Messala could be appointed consuls. And not even then would they have been chosen, had not Quintus Pompeius Rufus, though the grandson of Sulla and serving as tribune, been cast into prison by the senate, whereupon the measure was voted by the rest who were anxious to commit some outrages, and the campaign against opposition was handed over to Pompey. Sometimes the birds had prevented elections, refusing to allow the offices to belong to interreges; above all the tribunes, by managing affairs in the city so that they instead of the praetors conducted games, hindered the remaining offices from being filled. This also accounts for Rufus having been confined in a cell. He later on brought Favonius the aedile to the same place on some small charge, in order that he might have a companion in his disgrace. But all the tribunes introduced various obstructive pleas, proposing, among other things, to appoint military tribunes, so that more persons, as formerly, might come to office. When no one would heed them, they declared that Pompey, at all events, must be chosen dictator. By this pretext they secured a very long delay: for he was out of town, and of those on the spot there was no one who would venture to vote for the demand (for in remembrance of Sulla's cruelty they all hated that policy), nor yet venture to refuse to choose Pompey, on account of their fear of him.[-46-] At last, quite late, he came himself, refused the dictatorship offered to him, and made preparation to have the consuls named. These likewise on account of the turmoil from assassinations did not appoint any successors, though they had laid aside their senatorial garb and in the dress of knights convened the senate as if on the occasion of some great calamity. They also passed a decree that no one,—either an ex-praetor or an ex-consul,—should assume foreign office until five years should have elapsed: this they did to see if people when it was no longer in any one's power to be immediately elected would cease their craze for office. For no moderation was being shown and there was no purity in their methods, but they vied with one another in expending great sums and fighting more than ever, so that once the consul Calvinus was wounded. Hence no consul nor praetor nor prefect of the city had any successor, but at the beginning of the year the Romans were absolutely without a government in these branches.
[B.C. 52 (a.u. 702)]
[-47-] Nothing good resulted from this, and among other things the market recurring every ninth day was held on the very first of January. This seemed to the Romans to have taken place not by accident, and being considered in the light of a portent it caused trepidation. The same feeling was increased when an owl was both seen and caught in the city, a statue exuded perspiration for three days, a flash darted from the south to the east, and many thunderbolts, many clods, stones, tiles and blood descended through the air. It seems to me that that decree passed the previous year, near the close, with regard to Serapis and Isis, was a portent equal to any: the senate decided to tear down their temples, which some private individuals had built. For they did not reverence these gods any long time and even when it became the fashion to render public devotion to them, they settled them outside the pomerium.
[-48-] Such being the state of things in the city, with no one in charge of affairs, murders occurred practically every day and they did not finish the elections, though they were eager for office and employed bribery and assassination on account of it. Milo, for instance, who was seeking the consulship, met Clodius on the Appian Way and at first simply wounded him: then, fearing he would attack him for what had been done, he slew him. He at once freed all the servants concerned in the business, and his hope was that he might be more easily acquitted of the murder, now that the man was dead, than he would be for the wound in case he had survived. The people in the city heard of this about evening and were thrown into a terrible uproar: for to factional disturbances there was being added a starting-point for war and evils, and the middle class, even though they hated Clodius, yet on account of humanity and because on this excuse they hoped to get rid of Milo, showed displeasure.[-49-] While they were in this frame of mind Rufus and Titus Munatius Plancus took hold of them and excited them to greater wrath. As tribunes they conveyed the body into the Forum just before dawn, placed it on the rostra, exhibited it to all, and spoke appropriate words with lamentations. So the populace, as a result of what it both saw and heard, was deeply stirred and paid no further heed to considerations of sanctity or things divine, but overthrew all the customs of burial and nearly burned down the whole city. The body of Clodius they picked up and carried into the senate-house, arranged it in due fashion, and then after heaping a pyre of benches burned both the corpse and the convention hall. They did this, therefore, not under the stress of such an impulse as often takes sudden hold of crowds, but of set purpose, so that on the ninth day they held the funeral feast in the Forum itself, with the senate-house still smouldering, and furthermore undertook to apply the torch to Milo's house. This last was not burned because many were defending it. Milo for a time, in great terror over the murder, was hidden not only by ordinary citizens but under the guard of knights and some senators. When this other act, however, occurred, he hoped that the wrath of the senate would pass over to the outrage of the opposing party. They had assembled late in the afternoon on the Palatine for this very purpose, and had voted that an interrex be chosen by show of hands and that he and the tribunes and Pompey, moreover, care for the guarding of the city, that it suffer no detriment. Milo, accordingly, made his appearance in public, and pressed his claims to the office as strongly as before, if not more strongly.
[-50-] As a consequence of this, conflicts and killings in plenty began again, so that the senate ratified the aforementioned measures, summoned Pompey, allowed him to make fresh levies, and changed their garments. Not long after his arrival they assembled under guard near his theatre outside the pomerium and resolved that the bones of Clodius should be taken up, and assigned the rebuilding of the senate-house to Faustus, son of Sulla. It was the Curia Hostilia which had been remodeled by Sulla. Wherefore they came to this decision about it and ordered that when repaired it should receive again the former's name. The city was in a fever of excitement about the magistrates who should rule it, some talking to the effect that Pompey ought to be chosen dictator and others that Caesar should be elected consul. They were so determined to honor the latter for his achievements that they voted to offer sacrifices over them sixty[66] days. Fearing both of the men the rest of the senate and Bibulus, who was first to be asked and to declare his opinion, anticipated the onset of the masses by giving the consulship to Pompey to prevent his being named dictator, and to him alone in order that he might not have Caesar as his colleague. This action of theirs was strange; it had been taken in no other case, and yet they seemed to have done well. For since he favored the masses less than Caesar, they hoped to detach him from them altogether and to make him their own. This expectation was fulfilled. Elated by the novelty and unexpectedness of the honor, he no longer formed any plan to gratify the populace but was careful to do everything that pleased the senate.
[-51-] He did not, however, wish to hold office alone. Possessing the glory that lay in such a vote having been passed he was anxious to divert the envy that arose from it. Also he felt afraid that, as the field was vacant, Caesar might be given him as colleague through the enthusiasm of the powerful classes and the populace alike. First of all, therefore, in order that his rival might not think he had been entirely neglected and therefore show some just displeasure, he arranged through the tribunes that he should be permitted even in absence to be a candidate for the office, when the proper time came according to law. Pompey himself then chose as assistant Quintus Scipio, who was his father-in-law and had incurred a charge of bribery. This man, by birth son of Nasica, had been transferred by the lot of succession to the family of Metellus Pius, and for that reason bore the latter's name. He had given his daughter in marriage to Pompey, and now received in turn from him the consulship and immunity from accusation.[-52-] Very many had been examined in the complaint above mentioned, especially because the courts, by Pompey's laws, were more carefully constituted. He himself selected the entire list of names from which drawings for jurors had to be made, and he limited the number of advocates on each side, in order that the jurymen might not be confused and disturbed by the numbers of them. He ordered that the time allotted to the plaintiff be two hours, and to the defendant three. And what grieved many most of all, he revised the custom of eulogizers being presented by those on trial (for great numbers kept escaping the clutches of the law because commended by persons worthy of confidence); and he had a measure passed that such prisoners should in future be allowed no one whomsoever to eulogize them. These and other reforms he instituted in all the courts alike; and against those who practiced bribery for office he raised up as accusers those who had formerly been convicted of some such offence, thus offering the latter no small prize. For if any one secured the conviction of two men on charges equal to that against himself, or even on smaller charges, or if one man on a greater charge, he went scot free.
[-53-] Among many others who were thus convicted was Plautius Hypsaeus, who had been a rival of Milo and of Scipio for the consulship. Though all three had been guilty of bribery he alone was condemned. Scipio was indicted, and by two persons at that, but was not tried, on account of Pompey: and Milo was not charged with this crime (for the murder formed a greater complaint against him), but being brought to trial on the latter charge he was convicted, as he was not able to use any violence. Pompey kept the city in general well under guard and himself with armed soldiers entered the court. When some raised an outcry at this, he ordered the soldiers to drive them out of the Forum by striking them with the side, or the flat, of their swords. When they would not yield, but showed defiance as if the broadsides were being used for mere sport, some of them were wounded and killed.