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52 B.C.] Marcellus. The tribunes were divided between the one party and the other.

Rome now looked to Pompey as the only man capable of restoring order. The Senate issued its proclamation of martial law, and as there were no consuls to whom it could be addressed, the mandate ran "that the interrex and the tribunes of the plebs and the proconsul Cnæus Pompeius should see to it that the State took no harm." Finally the reconciliation of Pompey with the Optimates was sealed by a decree, proposed by Bibulus and assented to by Cato, that Pompey should be elected sole consul. This recommendation was carried out by the interrex and the assembly of the People, and Pompey assumed a position resembling that of the dictator in the Old Republic. His first care was to enlist a strong body of troops. He next passed severe and retrospective laws against rioting and electoral corruption, and provided a machinery for trials under them, by which the bribing of a jury was made almost impossible.

Milo was speedily arraigned. The most damning charge against him was that, after Clodius had been wounded and carried into a house, Milo had caused him to be dragged forth and despatched. This accusation is not noticed in Cicero's speech, but the verdict of the jury makes it highly probable that it was true. The Forum was occupied during the trial by armed guards, and the consul himself took