Cicero says that Clodius
revived Catiline's faction; but what was Catiline's faction? or how came
Catiline to have a faction which survived him?
Be this as it may, Clodius had banished Cicero, and had driven him away
over the seas to Greece, there, for sixteen months, to weary Heaven and
his friends with his lamentations. Cicero had refused Caesar's offered
friendship; Caesar had not cared to leave so powerful a person free to
support the intended attacks on his legislation, and had permitted,
perhaps had encouraged, the prosecution. Cicero out of the way, the second
person whose presence in Rome Caesar thought might be inconvenient, Marcus
Cato, had been got rid of by a process still more ingenious. The
aristocracy pretended that the acts of Caesar's consulship had been
invalid through disregard of the interdictions of Bibulus; and one of
those acts had been the reduction of Clodius to the order of plebeians. If
none of them were valid, Clodius was not legally tribune, and no
commission which Clodius might confer through the people would have
validity. A service was discovered by which Cato was tempted, and which he
was induced to accept at Clodius's hands. Thus he was at once removed from
the city, and it was no longer open to him to deny that Caesar's laws had
been properly passed. The work on which he was sent deserves a few words.
Pages:
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325