Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/792

Rh 774 CLAUDIUS. made it a handle for a fresh attack upon him. Cicero replied in the speech De Ilaruspicum Re- sponsis. By this time Porapey and Clodius had found it convenient to make common cause with each other. A fresh attack which Clodius soon afterwards made on Cicero's house was repulsed by Milo. With the assistance of the latter also, Cicero, after being once foiled in his attempt by Clodius and his brother, succeeded during the ab- sence of Clodius in carrying off from the capitol the tablets on which the laws of the latter were engraved. Clodius actively supported Pompey and Crassus when they became candidates for the consulship, to which they were elected, in the beginning of B. c. 55, and nearly lost his life in doing so. He appears to have been in a great measure led by the hope of being appointed on an embassy to Asia, which would give him the opportunity of recruiting his almost exhausted pecuniary resources, and getting from Brogitarus and some others whom he had assisted, the rewards they had promised him for his ser^'ices. It appears, however, that he remained in Rome. We hear nothing more of him this year. In n. c. 54 we find him prosecuting the ex-tril)une Procilius, who, among other acts of violence, was charged with murder ; and soon after we find Clodius and Cicero, with four others, ap- pearing to defend M. Aemilius Scaurus. Yet it appears that Cicero still regarded him with the greatest apprehension. (Cic. ad Ait. iv. 15^ ad Q. Fr. ii. 15, b., iii. 1. 4.) In B. c. 53 Clodius was a candidate for the praetorship, and Milo for the consulship. Each strove to hinder the election of the other. They collected armed bands of slaves and gladiators, and the streets of Rome became the scene of fresh tu- nmlts and frays, in one of which Cicero himself was endangered. When the consuls endeavoured to hold the coraitia, Clodius fell upon them with his band, and one of them, Cn. Domitius, was wounded. The senate met to deliberate. Clodius spoke, and attacked Cicero and Milo, touching, among other things, upon the amount of debt with which the latter was burdened. Cicero replied in the speech D^ Acre alieno Milonis. The contest, however, was soon after brought to a sudden and violent end. On the ^Oth of January, B.c. 52, Milo set out on a journey to Lanuvium. Near Bovillae he met Clodius, who was returning to Rome after visiting some of his property. Both were accom- panied by anned followers, but Milo's party was the stronger. The two Jintagonists had passed each other without disturbance ; but two of the gladiators in the rear of Milo's troop picked a quarrel with some of the followers of Clodius, who immediately turned round, and rode up to the scene of dispute, when he was wounded in the shoulder by one of the gladiators. The fray now became general. The party of Clodius were put to flight, and betook themselves with their leader to a house near Bovillae. Milo ordered his men to attack the house. Several of Clodius' men were slain, and Clodius himself dragged out and despatched. The body was left lying on the road, till a senator named Sex. Tedius found it, and conveyed it to Rome. Here it was exposed to the view of the populace, who crowded to see it. Next day it was carried naked to the forum, and again exposed to view before the rostra. The luob, enraged by the spectacle, and by the infl;un- CL AUDI US. matory speeches of the tribunes Munatius Plancns and Q. Pompeius Rufus, headed by Sex. Clodius carried the corpse into the Curia Hostilia, made a funeral pile of the benches, tables, and writings, and burnt the body on 4he spot. Not only the senate-house, but the Porcian basilica, erected by Cato the Censor, and other adjoining buildings, were reduced to ashes. (For an account of the proceedings which followed, see Milo.) Clodius was twice married, first to Pinaria, and afterwards to Fulvia. He left a son, Publius, and a daughter. Cicero charges him with having held an incestuous intercourse with his three sisters. [Claudia, Nos. 7 — 9.] Clodius inherited no property from his father. [See No. .35.] Besides what he obtained by less honest means, he re- ceived some money by legacies and by letting one of his houses on the Palatine. He al«o received a considerable xlowiy with his wife Fulvia. He was the owner of two houses on the Palatine hill, an estate at Alba, and considerable possessions in Etruria, near lake Prelius. His personal appear- ance was effeminate, and neither handsome nor commanding. That he was a man of great energy and ability there can be little question ; still less that his character was of the most profligate kind. Cicero himself admits that he possessed considera- ble eloquence. The chief ancient sources for the life of Clodius are the speeches of Cicero, pro Cuelio, pro Sejrtio, pro Milone, pro Domo sua, de Ilaruspicum Res- ponsis^ in Pisonem, and in Clodinm et Curionem, and his letters to Atticus and his brother Quintus; Plutarch's lives of Lucullus, Pompey, Cicero, and Caesar; Jind Dion Cassius. Of modem writers, Middleton, in his Life of Cicero, has touched upon the leading points of Clodius's history ; but the best and fullest account has been given by Dru- mann, Gescltichte Roms, vol. ii. pp. 1 99 — 370. 41 — 45. Clodiab. [Claudiae, Nos. 7 — 11.] 46. App. Claudius or Clodius Pulcher, the elder of the two sons of C. Claudius. [No. 39.] Both he and his younger brother bore the praeno- men Appius (Ascon. Arg. in Milon. p. 35, Orell.), from which it was conjectured by Manutius (m Cic. ad Fam. ii. 13. § 2, and viii. 8. § 2), that the former had been adopted by his uncle Appius [No. 38], a conjecture which is confirmed by a coin, on which he is designated c. clod. c. f. (Vaillant, Claud.'So. 1 3.) Cicero, in letters written to Atticus during his exile (iii. 17. § 1, 8. § 2, 9. § 3) ex- presses a fear lest his brother Quintus should be brought to trial by this Appius before his uncle on a charge of extortion. On the death of P. Clodius he and his brother appeared as accusers of Milo. (Ascon. in Milon. pp. 35, 39, 40, 42, ed. Orell.) In B. c. 50 he led back from Gallia the two legions which had been lent to Caesar by Pompey. (Plut. Pom-p. 57.) AVhether it was this Appius or his brother who was consul in B. c. 38 (Dion. Cass, xlviii. 43) cannot be determined. 47. App. Claudius or Clodius Pulcher, bro- ther of No. 46, joined his brother in prosecuting Milo. (b, c. 52.) Next year he exposed the in- trigue through which his father had escaped [see No. 39], in hopes of getting back the bribe that had been paid to Servilius. But he managed the matter so clumsily, that Servilius escaped, and Appius, having abandoned a prosecution with which he had threatened Servilius, was himself not long after impeached for extortion by the Ser-