[386] Appius Claudius Pulcher, brother of P. Clodius, was a prætor this year.
[387] It is not clear that Clodius was wrong; the pontifices decided that for a valid consecration an order of the people was requisite, and, of course, Clodius could allege such an order. Cicero devoted the greater part of his speech, therefore, to shewing (1) that Clodius's adoption was invalid, and that he was therefore no tribune, and incapable of taking an order of the people; (2) that the law was a privilegium, and therefore invalid. The pontifices did not consider either of these points, which were not properly before them, or within their competence; they merely decided the religious question—that unless there had been a iussus populi or plebis scitus there was no valid consecration.
[388] Or perhaps only "statue of Liberty," as the temple was not yet completed.
[389] A portico or colonnade, built by Q. Catulus, the conqueror of the Cimbri, on the site of the house of M. Flaccus, who was killed with Saturninus in B.C. 100. It was close to Cicero's house, and what Clodius appears to have done was to pull down the portico, and build another, extending over part of Cicero's site, on which was to be a temple for his statue of Liberty.
[390] Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus was called on first as consul designate for B.C. 56.
[391] Sext. Attilius Serranus, a tribune. He had been a quæstor in Cicero's consulship, but had opposed his recall.
[392] Cn. Oppius Cornicinus, the father-in-law of Serranus, is said in p. red. at Quir. § 13 to have done the same in the senate on the 1st of January, when Serranus also went through the same form of "demanding a night" for consideration.
[393] Prof. Tyrrell brackets porticum. But I do not understand his difficulty, especially as he saw none in the last letter. Cicero (de Domo, § 102) certainly implies that Clodius had, at any rate, partly pulled down the porticus Catuli, in order to build something on a larger scale, which was to take in some of Cicero's site. This was now to come down, and so leave Cicero his area, and, I presume, the old porticus Catuli was to be restored.
[394] Cicero had given Crassus 3,500,000 for it (about £28,000). See Letter [XVI].
[395] I.e., my modest reserve. There does not seem any reason for Tyrrell's emendation of num for nam.