Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/254

240 under the existing laws, but secured the passage of a law made for the occasion: that every magistrate who should execute, or had executed, a Roman citizen without appeal, or due process of law, should be punished with banishment (aquae et ignis interdictio). This enactment was apparently only a renewal of the Sempronian law and was quite popular. As Clodius used force in the preliminary meetings and was supported by the triumvirs and the consuls, Cicero knew what to expect, and left Rome before the day of voting.

To prevent his return, Clodius carried a second law providing that, inasmuch as Cicero, by virtue of a forged decree of the senate, had executed Roman citizens without due process of law, he should be banished to a distance of at least 368 miles from Rome (400 millia passuum) — an amendment increased the distance — and that his property be confiscated. The first enactment was practically, and the second also formally, special legislation against a particular individual (privilegium), and accordingly contrary to one of the fundamental principles of Roman law.

Relegation of Cato. — Clodius had no such popular and plausible charge to make against Cato, and therefore proposed that the island of Cyprus be annexed, and that the property of the reigning king, who had been too miserly to buy off the triumvirs, should be confiscated. By another law Cato was intrusted with the execution of this scheme. It was sarcastically intimated that a person of such abnormal honesty was just the man to handle so much money. He obtained the rank of a quaestor with praetorian powers. In this way Cato, the opponent of all extraordinary commands, was forced to accept one himself and to leave Rome. Caesar congratulated Clodius on his success.

Strife between Clodius and Pompeius. — When Cicero had departed, Caesar also left Rome for his provinces, in the