est, quod, in hoc tam exiguo vitae curriculo et tam brevi, tantis nos in laboribus exerceamus? Certè, si nihil animus praesentiret in posterum, et si, quibus regionibus vitae spatium circumscriptum est, eisdem omnes cogitationes terminaret suas; nec tantis se laboribus frangeret, nec tot curis vigiliisque angeretur, neque toties de vitâ ipsâ dimicaret. Nunc insidet quaedam in optimo quoque virtus, quae noctes et dies animum gloriae stimulis concitat atque admo net, non cum vitae tempore esse dimittendam commemorationem nominis nostri, sed cum omni posteritate adaequandam.

XII. An verò tam parvi animi videamur esse omnes, qui in republicâ atque in his vitae periculis laboribusque versamur, ut, cum, usque ad extremum spatium, nullum tranquillum atque otiosum spiritum duxerimus, nobiscum simul moritura omnia arbitremur? An cum statuas et imagines, non animorum simulacra, sed corporum, studiosè multi summi homines reliquerunt, consiliorum relinquere ac virtutum nostrarum effigiem non-ne multò malle debemus, summis ingeniis expressam et politam? Ego verò omnia, quae gerebam, jam tum in gerendo spargere me ac disseminare arbitrabar in orbis terrae memo

riam sempiternam. Haec verò sive a meo sensu post mortem abfutura sunt, sive, ut sapientissimi homines putaverunt, ad aliquam animi mei partem pertinebunt, nunc quidem certè cogitatione quâdam speque delector. Quare, conservate, Judices, hom

5. Ut sapientissimi homines-Many of the philosophers of antiquity believed in the immortality of the soul.

inem pudore eo, quem amicorum studiis videtis comprobari tum dignitate, tum etiam venustate; ingenio autem tanto, quantum id convenit existimari, quod summorum hominum ingeniis expetitum esse videatis; causâ verò ejusmodi, quae beneficio legis, auctoritate municipii, testimonio Luculli, tabulis Metelli comprobetur. Quae cum ita sint, petimus a vobis, Judices, si qua non modò humana, verùm etiam divina in tantis negotiis commendatio debet esse; ut eum, qui vos, qui vestros imperatores, qui populi Romani res gestas semper ornavit, qui etiam 7his recentibus nostris vestrisque domesticis periculis aeternum se testimonium laudum daturum esse profitetur, quique est eo numero, qui semper apud omnes sancti sunt habiti atque dicti, sic in vestram accipiatis fidem, ut humanitate vestrâ levatus potiùs, quàm acerbitate violatus esse videatur. Quae de causâ, pro meâ consuetudine, brevitèr simplicitèrque dixi, Judices, ea confido probata esse omnibus : quae non fori neque judiciali consuetudine, et de hominis ingenio, et communitèr de ipsius studio locutus sum, ea, Judices, a vobis spero esse in bonam partem accepta; ab eo, qui judicium exercet, certè scio.

6. Si-The particle si is here used affirmatively.

7. His recentibus......periculis This oration was delivered a short time after the republick had been delivered from the danger of Catiline's conspiracy.

8. Ab eo-It is not known who the Praetor was, before whom Cicero delivered this oration. The eloquence of Cicero, however, was successful; Archias was acquitted.

ORATIO PRO T. A. MILONE.

INTRODUCTION.

THE most remarkable event, which happened in the close of the year of Rome 691, says Dr. Middleton, "was the pollution of the mysteries of BONA DEA, OF GOOD GODDESS by P. Clodius; which, by an unhappy train of consequences, not only involved Cicero in an unexpected calamity, but seems to have given the first blow towards the ruin of the republick. Clodius was now Quaestor, and by that means a Senator; descended from the noblest family in Rome, in the vigour of his age, of a graceful person, lively wit, and flowing eloquence; but, with all the advantages of nature, he had a mind incredibly vicious, was fierce, insolent, audacious, but above all most profligately wicked, an open contemner of gods and men; disdaining even honours in the common forms of the republick; nor relishing pleasures, but what were impious, adulterous, incestuous. He had an intrigue with Caesar's wife, Pompeia, who, according to annual custom, was now celebrating in her house those awful and mystick sacrifices, to which no male creature was ever admitted, and where every thing masculine was so scrupulously excluded, that even pictures of that sort were covered during the ceremony. This was a proper scene for Clodius' genius to act upon, an opportunity of daring, beyond what man had ever dared before him; the thought of mixing the impurity of his lusts with the sanctity of these venerable rites flattered his imagination so strongly, that he resolved to gain access to his mistress in the very midst of her holy ministry. With this view he dressed himself in a woman's habit, and, by the benefit of his smooth face, and the introduction of one of the maids, he hoped to pass without discovery; but, by some mis. take between him and his guide, he lost his way, when he came within the house, and fell in unluckily among the other female servants, who, detecting him by his voice, alarmed the whole company by their shrieks to the great amazement of the matrons, who presently threw a veil over the sacred mysteries, while Clodius found means to escape by the favour of some of the damsels."

These facts being publickly known, Clodius was called to a trial: and because Cicero gave in evidence, what justice and a regard to truth obliged him to testify, Clodius from that time became his implacable enemy. He not only procured the banishment of Cicero, but extended his resentment to deeds of malice against the friends of the orator. Of these friends Milo was one, and consequently was often persecuted by Clodius.. It afterwards happened, in the 701st year of Rome, when Milo with two powerful competitors was a candidate for the Consulship, that Clodius was a candidate for the Praetorship; and so great was their enmity, that each by all the means in his power endeavoured to prevent the success of the

other. The Senate and all the virtuous part of the community were in favour of Milo, but the intrigues of the Clodian faction prevented the election of Consuls for a long time after its usual period.

At this time, says Asconius, Milo endeavoured to procure a meeting of the Comitia as soon as possible, and was upon the point of succeeding: for he had not only the good wishes of all virtuous men, who opposed Clodius, but likewise of the populace itself, who caressed him on account of his largesses, and his great expense in entertaining them with plays and shews of gladiators. But his competitors endeavoured to put off the day appointed for this purpose as long as they could, and would not suffer an address to be made to the Senate for assembling the patricians, in order to create an Interrex, which was customary upon occasions of the like nature.

While the republick was thus situated, it happened, that on the 13th of the Kalends of February Milo went to Lanuvium (of which he was a citizen and at that time Dictator) in order to create a priest on the next day; and that Clodius, in his return from Aricia, met him about three in the afternoon a little on the other side of Bovillae, and nigh the place where the temple of Bona Dea stood. Clodius was on horseback; his retinue consisted of about thirty slaves with swords, and every way prepared for an attack, which was the usual way of travelling in those days. Besides these Clodius had three companions, one a Roman Knight, named C. Cassinius Schola, the other two, P. Pomponius and Caius Clodius, raised from the plebeian to the equestrian order. Milo was in a chariot together with his wife Fausta and Marcus Fusius, his intimate acquaintance. He was attended by a great number of servants, some of them gladiators and two of them, Aeudanius and Birria, famous in their profession; who, walking slowly in the rear, happened to enter into a quarrel with the servants of Clodius. As Clodius turned about with a stern and menacing air to behold the fray, Birria run him through the shoulder with a sword. The riot increasing, Milo's servants ran up to the assistance of their companions, and Clodius, being wounded, was carried into a tavern near Bovillae. Milo, hearing that Clodius was wounded, and thinking that it might prove dangerous, if he should live to resent it, but that his death would give him great satisfaction, even though he should be punished for it, ordered the tavern to be broken open. Marcus Fustenus was the leader of Milo's servants, and Clodius, attempting to conceal himself, was dragged forth, and killed with repeated stabs. His body was left on the highway, because his servants were either slain, or, being wounded, took care to conceal themselves. Sextus Tedius, a Senator, as he happened to return from the country, took it up, and ordered it to be carried to Rome. The body reached Rome, before the first hour of the night; a great multitude of servants and of the lower class of people flocked about it, and mourned over it, when lying in the court before the house- What heightened the horrour of the deed was his wife Fulvia's exposing his wounds to publick view, in all the action and agony of grief. By the dawn of the next day, a greater multitude of the same kind assembled, and many men of note were squeezed to death. Munatius Plancus and Q.Pompeius Rufus, Tribunes of the people, repair

ed to the house of Clodius, and by their instigations prevailed upon the mob to convey his body (stript of every thing save shoes, just as it lay in the bed) into the Forum, and place it on the Rostra, that the wounds might be better seen. There these Tribunes, being enemies to Milo, made invective speeches against him, while the people, under the conduct of Sextus Clodius, a scribe, brought the body into the Forum, and burnt it with the desks, seats, tables, and books belonging to the clerks; by which fire the court itself was burnt, and the Porcia Basilica adjoining to it damaged. The same mob favouring Clodius, beset the house of Milo, then absent, and of Marcus Lepidus, who had been appointed Interrex. Their irregularities, however, made their party unpopular, and Milo, whose friends now recovered their spirits, returned to Rome, distributed to the people a thousand asses a man, and, notwithstanding the unpopular act he had committed, stood for the Consulship.

But, for some days after the death of Clodius, Rome was in the greatest confusion. Factious tumults and the commotions of different mobs destroyed all the vestiges of regular government. These disturbances at length terminated in Cneius Pompey's being created sole Consul. Three days after this magistrate entered upon office, he enacted a law for enquiring into the circumstances of Clodius' death. By this law it was enacted, that an extraordinary president should be chosen to regulate the trial of Milo. The Comitia being held upon this, Lucius Domitius Aenobarbus was recommended by Pompey, with the other judges, men of the greatest abilities and integrity in Rome. The accusers were the two Appii, young men, and kinsmen of Clodius. After the evidence for the prosecution had been heard before this court, which Pompey, to prevent the violent efforts of either party, had guarded with a strong body of regular troops, Cicero was permitted to proceed to the defence of the accused. When he began to speak, he was interrupted by a shout of the Clodian faction, (whom even the terror of the guards could not restrain) which so much disconcerted him, as to deprive him in a degree of his presence of mind. Indeed it has been said, he was so much terrified, that he made a frigid and weak defence. The following beautiful and persuasive oration, therefore, which Asconius thinks is the masterpiece of Cicero's eloquence, it is supposed, was composed by the orator, and received all its beauty and fire, some time after sentence was passed. It was written in the 701st year of Rome, and in the 54th of Cicero's age.