[406] A slope of the Palatine. Milo's other house (p. [196]).
[407] P. Cornelius Sulla, nephew of the dictator. Cicero defended him in B.C. 62, but he had taken the part of Clodius in the time of Cicero's exile.
[408] Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, the consul-designate for the next year. In that capacity he would be called on for his sententia first.
[409] Q. Cæcilius Metellus Nepos, the consul. Though he had not opposed Cicero's recall, he stood by his cousin, P. Clodius, in regard to the threatened prosecution. Appius is Appius Claudius, brother of P. Clodius.
[410] P. Sestius, the tribune favourable to Cicero, afterwards defended by him.
[411] Mr. Purser's reading of nisi anteferret before proscripsit seems to me to darken the passage. What happened was this. Marcellinus's sententia was never put to the vote, because Metellus, Appius, and Hortensius (Cicero seems to mean him) talked out the sitting. Accordingly, Marcellinus published it, i.e., put it up outside the Curia to be read: and under it he (or some other magistrate whose name has dropped out of the text) put a notice that he was going to "watch the sky" all the dies comitiales, so as to prevent the election being held. But this had been rendered inoperative by Clodius's amendment of the lex Ælia Fufia (see 2 Phil. § 81)—or at any rate of doubtful validity—and, accordingly, the only thing left was the obnuntiatio by a magistrate, which Milo proceeded to make. The rule, however was that such obnuntiatio must be made before the comitia were begun (2 Phil. ib.), which again could not begin till sunrise. Hence Milo's early visit to the campus. For the meaning of proposita see Letter [XLVII].
[412] After which the comitia could not be begun.
[413] P. Clodius, his brother Appius, and his cousin Metellus Nepos.
[414] Metellus means that he shall take the necessary auspices for the comitia in the comitium, before going to the campus to take the votes.
[415] Generally called inter duos lucos, the road down the Capitolium towards the Campus Martius, originally so called as being between the two heads of the mountain. It was the spot traditionally assigned to the "asylum" of Romulus.