Publius Clodius Pulcher
Encyclopedia
Publius Clodius Pulcher was a Roman
politician
known for his popularist
tactics. As tribune
, he pushed through an ambitious legislative program, including a grain dole, but is chiefly remembered for his feud with Cicero
and Milo
, whose supporters murdered him in the street.
A Roman nobilis
of the patrician gens
Claudia
, and a senator
of "bold and extreme" character, he became a major, if disruptive, force in Roman politics during the rise of the First Triumvirate
of Pompey
, Crassus
and Caesar
(60–53 BC). He passed numerous laws
in the tradition of the populares
(the Leges Clodiae
), and has been called "one of the most innovative urban politicians in Western history." Recent scholarship, especially the 1999 biography by W. Jeffrey Tatum, has tried to counteract a largely hostile tradition based on the invective of his opponent Cicero and to present a more balanced picture of Clodius's politics.
He was sibling of two brothers and apparently five sisters (some historians think four). The identity of his mother's family continues to be one of the most disputed issues of 1st century BC Roman social history, but she was certainly not the Caecilia, daughter of Metellus Balearicus
, deduced by Friedrich Münzer. Most likely she was a Servilia of the patrician Caepiones, daughter of Q. Servilius Caepio
, or a Caecilia Metella
sister of Q. Metellus Celer pater. It is certain that he was close enough by maternal bloodline to be called frater of some notable figures of the time:
It appears that his father married twice and that among his numerous Claudian brothers and sisters, Clodius was a full sibling of only the two youngest girls, Claudia Metelli and Claudia Luculli. At various times he was accused of incestuous relations with all his sisters. The evidence is fairly conclusive that long-term, if intermittent, intimate relations had taken place with the two full sisters, both of whom were known as Clodia in consequence of his transfer to plebeian status in 59 BC.
Between 68 BC and 67 BC he was a Legatus
. In 62 BC or later he married Fulvia
of Tusculum, daughter of Sempronia the formidable principal heiress of the plebeian high noble family of Semproni Tuditani, which had died out in the male line with her father (70s BC). Fulvia bore him at least one son and one daughter who survived to adulthood, and following his death she married C. Scribonius Curio, tribune of plebs in 50 BC, and then Marcus Antonius
the Triumvir (47–40 BC), also producing children by both of those important politicians.
Their daughter Claudia (c. 57 BC or c. 55 BC – aft. 36 BC) was wed to the young Caesar heir for political reasons in 43 BC or 42 BC, when she was barely of age, and soon divorced in 40 BC after the imperious Fulvia joined with the consul Lucius Antonius in stirring up the Perusine War
in 41.
His homonymous son, Publius Claudius Pulcher (born c. 62–59 BC – aft. 31 BC), turned out badly: a lethargic nonentity who only rose to the praetorship after 31 BC under the Second Triumvirs and died amid scandals of luxurious excess and an obsessive attachment to a common prostitute. An inscription of ownership on an expensive Egyptian alabaster vase once owned by the son has survived to attest the latter's short official career, and includes an unusual triple filiation which confirms the literary evidence to the effect that Clodius' own filiation was: Ap. f. Ap. n. (son of Appius
cos.79, grandson of Appius
cos.143).
He took part in the Third Mithridatic War
under his brother-in-law, Lucullus
. However, considering himself treated with insufficient respect, he stirred up a revolt. Another brother-in-law, Q. Marcius Rex
, governor of Cilicia
, gave him the command of his fleet, but he was captured by pirates. On his release he repaired to Syria
, where he nearly lost his life during a mutiny
he was accused of instigating.
A curious incident took place during his time in pirate hands which was to have later consequences. The pirates sought a good ransom price from Ptolemy of Cyprus
, a nominal ally of Rome who was then involved in negotiations for a potential marriage to a daughter of Mithradates VI of Pontus. Ptolemy sent a fairly trivial sum which so amused the pirates that they released Clodius without taking any money. He had evidently been overestimating his worth, and this transaction filled him with hatred for the Cypriot ruler.
in 66 BC, Clodius was in serious need of protection from his brother-in-law because of the treason he had committed in Lucullus' army, and his incestuous relations with Lucullus' wife, which Lucullus had discovered upon his return the same year and prompted him to divorce her. Turning 27 in the year of his return (and already having exceeded the normal age for a first marriage, which was 20–26, owing to his extended service in the east), Clodius wed Fulvia
the daughter of Sempronia of the Tuditani in a clever piece of social politics that year or the next. At about the same time, Lucullus' very close relative (probably nephew) L. Licinius Murena
became Sempronia's third husband. He also collusively prosecuted Catiline
in 65 on a charge of extortion
from his African command, and so helped secure his acquittal
.
In 64 BC Clodius went to Gaul
on Lucius Murena's command staff. He returned to Rome with his commander in 63 in time for the elections at which Murena secured his family's first consulate, mainly with the help of Lucullus' army veterans and the consul
Cicero
. Clodius will certainly have assisted too. Catiline
's defeat at the same elections was the signal to begin his attempt at a violent coup d'état, with the aim of slaughtering most of the nobility, especially the plebeian nobles and senators, and setting up a small patrician-dominated oligarchy. Although Clodius was still patrician and it later suited Cicero to portray him as a participant in the Catilinarian conspiracy
, Clodius was not involved. On the contrary, he maintained his protective closeness to Murena and the cause of the optimates
, rendering Cicero
every assistance. As the great drama of the detection and arrest of the conspirators unfolded, Clodius appears to have joined the many other equestrian and noble youths who clustered about the consul
as an informal but potent and intimidating bodyguard
.
In the same year one of Clodius' sisters (presumably Lucullus' former wife, since the other two were still married to Marcius Rex and Metellus Celer, respectively) attempted to persuade Cicero
to divorce his wife Terentia and marry her instead. This made Terentia furious with the Claudia in question, and by association with the wider family.
, who was then the pontifex maximus
. The rites of the Bona Dea
were held at Caesar's home that year, as the consuls were seriously ill (they both died soon afterwards). This was a cult from which men were excluded, so completely that they were not permitted to know or even speak the goddess's name, and hence used the euphemism "Good Goddess". The rites took place in December each year in the home of a senior magistrate. Terentia had presided in 63 at the home of the consul Cicero
. In 62 the rites were held in the Regia
, which then served as Caesar's residence, and presided over by his wife Pompeia and his mother Aurelia
.
Clodius went in dressed as a woman, and sought out Pompeia, but was discovered by a servant girl when forced to speak. The ensuing scandal dragged on for months, during which Pompey returned from the east, Caesar divorced his wife, and most public business was suspended. Lucullus had determined to use the opportunity to destroy Clodius' political career, and eventually he was tried on the capital charge of incestus (sexual immorality).
Three Corneli Lentuli prosecuted, the senior of whom is thought to have been L. Lentulus Crus (later pr.58, cos.49). Gaius Curio pater, consul in 76, was the vigorous chief advocate. The evidence was conclusive. Lucullus provided numerous slaves from his household to testify to Clodius' incest with his sister when she had been his wife, the same Claudia who had attempted to supplant Terentia as Cicero's wife. Caesar's mother Aurelia and sister Julia
testified to Clodius' violation of the rites in the Regia. Caesar did his best to help Clodius by claiming he knew nothing. When asked in turn why he divorced his wife if he knew nothing, Caesar made the famous response that Caesar's wife had to be beyond suspicion. Clodius perjured himself with a fabricated alibi that he was not in Rome on the day of the rites, which Cicero was in a position to refute, though he was uncertain whether he should do so. Eventually national and domestic politics forced his hand. He was most eager to forge a détente between Lucullus
and Pompey
, who were at loggerheads over the settlement of the eastern provinces, and wished to do Lucullus a favour in this matter, while at home Terentia demanded that he give his testimony and ensure the destruction of her subversive rival's brother and lover. Cicero did so, but Crassus
decided the outcome of the trial by bribery of the jurors en masse to secure Clodius' acquittal.
When it was all over Clodius' politics had been transformed and became more deeply personal than ever before. He clung to Crassus as his chief benefactor, and was grateful to Caesar for his attempt to help him. He even appears to have borne no serious grudge against the leading princes who had engineered his prosecution, owing to the wrongs he had done them. But he had risked interfering with Lucullus' army in the east directly in the interests of Pompey, who had not lifted a finger to help him, despite being locked in serious political dispute with the Luculli brothers. And he had assisted Cicero
against Catiline
. So his hatred for the pair began to burn white hot and he focused all his energies on how he might destroy them, beginning with the much easier target, the novus homo from Arpinum.
). Clodius's transvestitism in the Bona Dea incident was to supply Cicero with invective ammunition for years. Like other popularist
politicians of his time, as embodied by Caesar and Antony
, Clodius was accused of exerting a sexual magnetism that was attractive to both women and men and enhanced his political charisma: "The sexual power of Clodius, his suspected ability to win the wife of Caesar, might be read as indicating the potency of his political influence."
Cicero frequently plays on the meaning of the cognomen
Pulcher ("handsome, lovely") with an intensity that betrays, as Eleanor Winsor Leach has noted in her Lacan
ian analysis, a certain fascination masquerading under rebuke. Cicero's description of Clodius's attire when he intruded on the rites amounts to a verbal striptease, as the privative
Latin preposition a ("from") deprives the future tribune of his garments and props one by one:
Cicero's accusations of sexual profligacy against Clodius, including the attempt to seduce Caesar's wife into adultery and incestuous relations with his sisters, fail to enlarge in scope over time, as Clodius's marriage to the formidable Fulvia appears to have been an enduring model of fidelity until death cut it short. At the same time, even devotion to one's wife could be construed by the upholders of traditional values as undermining one's manhood, since it implied dependence on a woman.
(where he had been Quaestor
between 61 BC and 60 BC), Clodius chose to renounce his Patrician rank in order to hold a tribunate of plebs, which was not permitted to patricians. In 59 BC, during Caesar's first consulship, Clodius was able to enact a transfer to plebeian status by getting himself adopted by a certain P. Fonteius, probably a distant relative. The process violated almost every proper form of adoption in Rome
, which was a serious business involving clan and family rituals and inheritance rights. On 16 November, Clodius took office as tribune of the plebs and began preparations for his destruction of Cicero and an extensive populist legislative program in order to bind as much of the community as possible to his policies as beneficiaries.
Nonetheless the legality of Clodius' transfer, and therefore all his acts and laws, remained a contentious issue for many years. Most seriously, in order to be permitted to adopt a fellow citizen from another clan and its rites into his own, a Roman citizen was required to be at least middle aged (beyond adulescentia, i.e. 30 or older) and able to prove that he had tried but failed to produce children. In this case Clodius himself turned 34 in 59 BC and Fonteius his adoptor was even younger, something entirely illegal and unprecedented. Furthermore, once an adoption was made, the adoptee took his place within the adopting family with full rights and duties as the adopter's eldest son. This included changing his name
to that of the adopter, to which an additional cognomen was normally appended, in order to indicate either the clan or the family of his birth. Thus P. Claudius Pulcher should have become P. Fonteius Claudianus or P. Fonteius Pulcher. Instead he also violated this essential convention and simply changed the spelling of his clan name from Claudius to Clodius, emphasizing that his sole interest in the enactment of this public socio-religious farce was to obtain a semblance of technical permission to hold the key plebeian magistracy, with its extensive legislative powers and protective sacrosanctity.
indemnified him from punishment, and he attempted to gain the support of the senators and consuls, especially of Pompey
. When help was not forthcoming, he went into exile. He arrived at Thessalonica, Greece
on May 29, 58 BC. The day Cicero left Italy into exile, Clodius proposed another law which forbade Cicero approaching within 400 miles (643.7 km) of Italy and confiscated his property. The bill was passed forthwith, and Cicero's villa on the Palatine
was destroyed by Clodius' supporters, as were his villas in Tusculum
and Formiae. Cicero's property was confiscated by order of Clodius, his mall on the Palatine
burned down, and its site put up for auction. It was purchased by Clodius himself, who, not wishing his name to appear in the matter, had someone else place the bid for him.
Clodius became exhilarated with his power and importance and wasted no time enacting a substantial legislative programme. The Leges Clodiae
included setting up a regular dole of free grain, which used to be distributed monthly at variously and heavily discounted prices, but was now to be given away at no charge, thereby increasing Clodius' political status. Clodius also abolished the right of taking the omen
s on a fixed day and (if they were declared unfavourable) of preventing the assembly of the comitia
, possessed by every magistrate
by the terms of the Lex Aelia Fufia. He re-established the old social and political clubs or guilds of workmen, and the censors
were forbidden from excluding any citizen from the Senate or inflicting any punishment upon him unless he had been publicly tried and convicted.
Out of personal hatred for the Lagid
king Ptolemy of Cyprus
, younger brother of Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes
, he passed a bill terminating his kingship and annexing Cyprus to the Empire. He cleverly selected Cato the Younger
to be sent to Cyprus
with a special grant of praetorian command rights to take possession of the island and the royal treasures, and preside over the administrative incorporation of Cyprus into the Roman province of Cilicia
. This measure was planned both to remove Cato, potentially a serious and difficult opponent, from the City for some time (in the event he was away for more than two years), and to turn him into an advocate for the legitimacy of Clodius' adoption and tribunate, which it also effected, later causing a great deal of friction between Cato and Clodius' bitterest enemies, especially Cicero
.
In 57 BC, one of the tribunes proposed the recall of Cicero, and Clodius resorted to force to prevent the passing of the decree. His effort was foiled by Milo
, who led an armed gang sufficiently strong to hold him in check. Clodius subsequently attacked the workmen who were rebuilding Cicero's house at public cost, assaulted Cicero himself in the street, and set fire to the house of Cicero's younger brother Q. Tullius Cicero
.
In 56 BC, while curule aedile, he impeached Milo for public violence (de vi) while defending his house against the attacks of Clodius' gang, and also charged him with keeping armed bands in his service. Judicial proceedings were hindered by violent outbreaks, and the matter was finally dropped.
. A fight erupted between members of the two groups, and Clodius died in the ensuing mêlée. Suetonius
, however, contradicts this story, saying simply that Clodius was assassinated. His enraged clients built his funeral pyre in the Senate House, which ignited the building and ultimately burned it down. The Senate then voted that Julius Caesar
(still in Gaul
) be removed from power in favor of Pompey
, but the Tribunes were able to block this decree.
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
politician
Cursus honorum
The cursus honorum was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in both the Roman Republic and the early Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts. Each office had a minimum...
known for his popularist
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
tactics. As tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
, he pushed through an ambitious legislative program, including a grain dole, but is chiefly remembered for his feud with Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
and Milo
Titus Annius Milo
Titus Annius Milo Papianus was a Roman political agitator, the son of Gaius Papius Celsus, but adopted by his maternal grandfather, Titus Annius Luscus...
, whose supporters murdered him in the street.
A Roman nobilis
Nobiles
During the Roman Republic, nobilis was a descriptive term of social rank, usually indicating that a member of the family had achieved the consulship. Those who belonged to the hereditary patrician families were noble, but plebeians whose ancestors were consuls were also considered nobiles...
of the patrician gens
Gens
In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...
Claudia
Claudius (gens)
The gens Claudia, sometimes written Clodia, was one of the most prominent patrician houses at Rome. The gens traced its origin to the earliest days of the Roman Republic...
, and a senator
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
of "bold and extreme" character, he became a major, if disruptive, force in Roman politics during the rise of the First Triumvirate
First Triumvirate
The First Triumvirate was the political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Unlike the Second Triumvirate, the First Triumvirate had no official status whatsoever; its overwhelming power in the Roman Republic was strictly unofficial influence, and...
of Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
, Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician who commanded the right wing of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus, provided political and financial support to Julius Caesar and entered into the political alliance known as the...
and Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
(60–53 BC). He passed numerous laws
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
in the tradition of the populares
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
(the Leges Clodiae
Leges Clodiae
Leges Clodiae were a series of laws passed by the Plebeian Council of the Roman Republic under the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher in 58 BC. Clodius was a member of the patrician family Claudius; the alternate spelling of his name is sometimes regarded as a political gesture...
), and has been called "one of the most innovative urban politicians in Western history." Recent scholarship, especially the 1999 biography by W. Jeffrey Tatum, has tried to counteract a largely hostile tradition based on the invective of his opponent Cicero and to present a more balanced picture of Clodius's politics.
Family and early career to 67 BC
Born as Publius Claudius Pulcher in 93 BC, the youngest son of Appius Claudius, he became known as Publius Clodius after his controversial adoption into the plebeian family of Fontei in 59 BC.He was sibling of two brothers and apparently five sisters (some historians think four). The identity of his mother's family continues to be one of the most disputed issues of 1st century BC Roman social history, but she was certainly not the Caecilia, daughter of Metellus Balearicus
Caecilia Metella (priestess)
Caecilia Metella, , elder daughter of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus, was a Vestal Virgin and a Priestess of the Goddess Juno Sospita....
, deduced by Friedrich Münzer. Most likely she was a Servilia of the patrician Caepiones, daughter of Q. Servilius Caepio
Quintus Servilius Caepio
Quintus Servilius Caepio the Elder was a Roman statesman and general, consul in 106 BC, and proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul in 105 BC. He was the father of Quintus Servilius Caepio the Younger and the grandfather of Servilia Caepionis....
, or a Caecilia Metella
Caecilia Metella
Caecilia Metella was the name of all women in the Caecilius Metellus family, since feminine names were taken from the father's gens and cognomen declined in the female form.The name may refer to the following people:* Caecilia Metella Dalmatica...
sister of Q. Metellus Celer pater. It is certain that he was close enough by maternal bloodline to be called frater of some notable figures of the time:
- Q. Metellus CelerQuintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (consul)Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer was a Consul in 60 BC and son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, or, according to some, the son of Tribune Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer while the latter is the son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos...
(consul 60 BC), the husband of his elder full sister; - Q. Metellus NeposQuintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos IuniorQuintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos Iunior was a son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos. He was a Tribune in 62 BC, a Praetor in 60 BC, a Consul in 57 BC and the Governor of Hispania Citerior in 56 BC....
(consul 57); - Mucia TertiaMucia TertiaMucia Tertia was a Roman matrona who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex maximus, consul in 95 BC. Her mother was a Licinia that divorced her father to marry Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, in a scandal mentioned by several sources...
, the successive wife of Pompeius MagnusPompeyGnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
(c. 80–62 BC) and M. Aemilius ScaurusMarcus Aemilius ScaurusMarcus Aemilius Scaurus was a Roman consul in 115 BC and considered one of the most talented and influential politicians of the Republic....
(praetor 56), and mother of their children; - and Mucia's brothers P. Scaevola the pontifex (c. 92–61/60 BC) and Q. Scaevola the augur, tribune of plebs in 54 (born c. 90).
It appears that his father married twice and that among his numerous Claudian brothers and sisters, Clodius was a full sibling of only the two youngest girls, Claudia Metelli and Claudia Luculli. At various times he was accused of incestuous relations with all his sisters. The evidence is fairly conclusive that long-term, if intermittent, intimate relations had taken place with the two full sisters, both of whom were known as Clodia in consequence of his transfer to plebeian status in 59 BC.
Between 68 BC and 67 BC he was a Legatus
Legatus
A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...
. In 62 BC or later he married Fulvia
Fulvia
Fulvia Flacca Bambula , commonly referred to as simply Fulvia, was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the Late Roman Republic. Through her marriage to three of the most promising Roman men of her generation, Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaius Scribonius Curio and Mark Antony, she gained...
of Tusculum, daughter of Sempronia the formidable principal heiress of the plebeian high noble family of Semproni Tuditani, which had died out in the male line with her father (70s BC). Fulvia bore him at least one son and one daughter who survived to adulthood, and following his death she married C. Scribonius Curio, tribune of plebs in 50 BC, and then Marcus Antonius
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
the Triumvir (47–40 BC), also producing children by both of those important politicians.
Their daughter Claudia (c. 57 BC or c. 55 BC – aft. 36 BC) was wed to the young Caesar heir for political reasons in 43 BC or 42 BC, when she was barely of age, and soon divorced in 40 BC after the imperious Fulvia joined with the consul Lucius Antonius in stirring up the Perusine War
Fulvia's civil war
The Perusine War was a civil war of the Roman Republic, which lasted from 41 to 40 BC. It was fought by Lucius Antonius and Fulvia to support Mark Antony against his political enemy , Octavian....
in 41.
His homonymous son, Publius Claudius Pulcher (born c. 62–59 BC – aft. 31 BC), turned out badly: a lethargic nonentity who only rose to the praetorship after 31 BC under the Second Triumvirs and died amid scandals of luxurious excess and an obsessive attachment to a common prostitute. An inscription of ownership on an expensive Egyptian alabaster vase once owned by the son has survived to attest the latter's short official career, and includes an unusual triple filiation which confirms the literary evidence to the effect that Clodius' own filiation was: Ap. f. Ap. n. (son of Appius
Appius Claudius Pulcher (praetor 88 BC)
Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC.His father is uncertain — Gaius Claudius Pulcher or most likely Appius, Consul in 143 BC. The son was a supporter of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and served as praetor in 88 BC. He was exiled in that year by Gaius Marius while Sulla...
cos.79, grandson of Appius
Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 143 BC)
Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman politician of the 2nd century BC.-Life:Son of Gaius Claudius Pulcher , he was appointed consul in 143 BC, and, to obtain a pretext for a triumph, attacked the Salassi, an Alpine tribe...
cos.143).
He took part in the Third Mithridatic War
Third Mithridatic War
The Third Mithridatic War was the last and longest of three Mithridatic Wars fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and his allies and the Roman Republic...
under his brother-in-law, Lucullus
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...
. However, considering himself treated with insufficient respect, he stirred up a revolt. Another brother-in-law, Q. Marcius Rex
Quintus Marcius Rex (consul 68 BCE)
Quintus Marcius Rex was a consul of the Roman Republic.He was the grandson of another Quintus Marcius Rex, the consul of 118 BC. He was elected consul for 68 BC with Lucius Caecilius Metellus. Caecilius Metellus died near the start of the year and was not replaced...
, governor of Cilicia
Cilicia
In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...
, gave him the command of his fleet, but he was captured by pirates. On his release he repaired to Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, where he nearly lost his life during a mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
he was accused of instigating.
A curious incident took place during his time in pirate hands which was to have later consequences. The pirates sought a good ransom price from Ptolemy of Cyprus
Ptolemy of Cyprus
Ptolemy of Cyprus was the king of Cyprus c. 80-58 BC. He was the younger brother of Ptolemy XII Auletes, king of Egypt, and, like him, an illegitimate son of Ptolemy IX Lathyros. He appears to have been acknowledged king of Cyprus at the same time that his brother Auletes obtained the possession of...
, a nominal ally of Rome who was then involved in negotiations for a potential marriage to a daughter of Mithradates VI of Pontus. Ptolemy sent a fairly trivial sum which so amused the pirates that they released Clodius without taking any money. He had evidently been overestimating his worth, and this transaction filled him with hatred for the Cypriot ruler.
In Rome and Gaul, 66–62 BC
Returning to RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 66 BC, Clodius was in serious need of protection from his brother-in-law because of the treason he had committed in Lucullus' army, and his incestuous relations with Lucullus' wife, which Lucullus had discovered upon his return the same year and prompted him to divorce her. Turning 27 in the year of his return (and already having exceeded the normal age for a first marriage, which was 20–26, owing to his extended service in the east), Clodius wed Fulvia
Fulvia
Fulvia Flacca Bambula , commonly referred to as simply Fulvia, was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the Late Roman Republic. Through her marriage to three of the most promising Roman men of her generation, Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaius Scribonius Curio and Mark Antony, she gained...
the daughter of Sempronia of the Tuditani in a clever piece of social politics that year or the next. At about the same time, Lucullus' very close relative (probably nephew) L. Licinius Murena
Lucius Licinius Murena
Lucius Licinius Murena was Roman consul in 62 BC. His father had the same name.At the end of the First Mithridatic War, he was left in Asia by Sulla in command of the two legions formerly controlled by Gaius Flavius Fimbria...
became Sempronia's third husband. He also collusively prosecuted Catiline
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
in 65 on a charge of extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
from his African command, and so helped secure his acquittal
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
.
In 64 BC Clodius went to Gaul
Gallia Narbonensis
Gallia Narbonensis was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in southern France. It was also known as Gallia Transalpina , which was originally a designation for that part of Gaul lying across the Alps from Italia and it contained a western region known as Septimania...
on Lucius Murena's command staff. He returned to Rome with his commander in 63 in time for the elections at which Murena secured his family's first consulate, mainly with the help of Lucullus' army veterans and the consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
. Clodius will certainly have assisted too. Catiline
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
's defeat at the same elections was the signal to begin his attempt at a violent coup d'état, with the aim of slaughtering most of the nobility, especially the plebeian nobles and senators, and setting up a small patrician-dominated oligarchy. Although Clodius was still patrician and it later suited Cicero to portray him as a participant in the Catilinarian conspiracy
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
, Clodius was not involved. On the contrary, he maintained his protective closeness to Murena and the cause of the optimates
Optimates
The optimates were the traditionalist majority of the late Roman Republic. They wished to limit the power of the popular assemblies and the Tribunes of the Plebs, and to extend the power of the Senate, which was viewed as more dedicated to the interests of the aristocrats who held the reins of power...
, rendering Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
every assistance. As the great drama of the detection and arrest of the conspirators unfolded, Clodius appears to have joined the many other equestrian and noble youths who clustered about the consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
as an informal but potent and intimidating bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
.
In the same year one of Clodius' sisters (presumably Lucullus' former wife, since the other two were still married to Marcius Rex and Metellus Celer, respectively) attempted to persuade Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
to divorce his wife Terentia and marry her instead. This made Terentia furious with the Claudia in question, and by association with the wider family.
Bona Dea scandal and trial for incestus
Clodius, however, soon became bored with his newly respectable family life and began a liaison with Pompeia, the sister of his closest friend Q. Pompeius Rufus (tribune in 52), and wife of Julius CaesarJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, who was then the pontifex maximus
Pontifex Maximus
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
. The rites of the Bona Dea
Bona Dea
Bona Dea was a divinity in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state and people...
were held at Caesar's home that year, as the consuls were seriously ill (they both died soon afterwards). This was a cult from which men were excluded, so completely that they were not permitted to know or even speak the goddess's name, and hence used the euphemism "Good Goddess". The rites took place in December each year in the home of a senior magistrate. Terentia had presided in 63 at the home of the consul Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
. In 62 the rites were held in the Regia
Regia
The Regia was a structure in Ancient Rome, located in the Roman Forum. It was originally the residence of the kings of Rome or at least their main headquarters, and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Roman religion. It occupied a triangular patch of terrain between the...
, which then served as Caesar's residence, and presided over by his wife Pompeia and his mother Aurelia
Aurelia Cotta
Aurelia Cotta or Aurelia was the mother of Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar .-Family:...
.
Clodius went in dressed as a woman, and sought out Pompeia, but was discovered by a servant girl when forced to speak. The ensuing scandal dragged on for months, during which Pompey returned from the east, Caesar divorced his wife, and most public business was suspended. Lucullus had determined to use the opportunity to destroy Clodius' political career, and eventually he was tried on the capital charge of incestus (sexual immorality).
Three Corneli Lentuli prosecuted, the senior of whom is thought to have been L. Lentulus Crus (later pr.58, cos.49). Gaius Curio pater, consul in 76, was the vigorous chief advocate. The evidence was conclusive. Lucullus provided numerous slaves from his household to testify to Clodius' incest with his sister when she had been his wife, the same Claudia who had attempted to supplant Terentia as Cicero's wife. Caesar's mother Aurelia and sister Julia
Julia Caesaris (sister of Julius Caesar)
Julia is the name of two daughters of praetor Gaius Julius Caesar and Aurelia Cotta, the parents of dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. The sisters were born and raised in Rome....
testified to Clodius' violation of the rites in the Regia. Caesar did his best to help Clodius by claiming he knew nothing. When asked in turn why he divorced his wife if he knew nothing, Caesar made the famous response that Caesar's wife had to be beyond suspicion. Clodius perjured himself with a fabricated alibi that he was not in Rome on the day of the rites, which Cicero was in a position to refute, though he was uncertain whether he should do so. Eventually national and domestic politics forced his hand. He was most eager to forge a détente between Lucullus
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...
and Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
, who were at loggerheads over the settlement of the eastern provinces, and wished to do Lucullus a favour in this matter, while at home Terentia demanded that he give his testimony and ensure the destruction of her subversive rival's brother and lover. Cicero did so, but Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician who commanded the right wing of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus, provided political and financial support to Julius Caesar and entered into the political alliance known as the...
decided the outcome of the trial by bribery of the jurors en masse to secure Clodius' acquittal.
When it was all over Clodius' politics had been transformed and became more deeply personal than ever before. He clung to Crassus as his chief benefactor, and was grateful to Caesar for his attempt to help him. He even appears to have borne no serious grudge against the leading princes who had engineered his prosecution, owing to the wrongs he had done them. But he had risked interfering with Lucullus' army in the east directly in the interests of Pompey, who had not lifted a finger to help him, despite being locked in serious political dispute with the Luculli brothers. And he had assisted Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
against Catiline
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
. So his hatred for the pair began to burn white hot and he focused all his energies on how he might destroy them, beginning with the much easier target, the novus homo from Arpinum.
Sex and politics in late Republican Rome
If the Republic must be destroyed by someone, Cicero fulminates against Clodius in mock resignation, let it at least be destroyed by a real man (Latin virVirtus (virtue)
Virtus was a specific virtue in Ancient Rome. It carries connotations of valor, manliness, excellence, courage, character, and worth, perceived as masculine strengths...
). Clodius's transvestitism in the Bona Dea incident was to supply Cicero with invective ammunition for years. Like other popularist
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
politicians of his time, as embodied by Caesar and Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
, Clodius was accused of exerting a sexual magnetism that was attractive to both women and men and enhanced his political charisma: "The sexual power of Clodius, his suspected ability to win the wife of Caesar, might be read as indicating the potency of his political influence."
Cicero frequently plays on the meaning of the cognomen
Cognomen
The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...
Pulcher ("handsome, lovely") with an intensity that betrays, as Eleanor Winsor Leach has noted in her Lacan
Lacan
Lacan is surname of:* Jacques Lacan , French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist** The Seminars of Jacques Lacan** From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, a book on political philosophy by Saul Newman** Lacan at the Scene* Judith Miller, née Lacan...
ian analysis, a certain fascination masquerading under rebuke. Cicero's description of Clodius's attire when he intruded on the rites amounts to a verbal striptease, as the privative
Privative
A privative, named from Latin privare, "to deprive", is a particle that negates or inverts the value of the stem of the word. In Indo-European languages many privatives are prefixes; but they can also be suffixes, or more independent elements....
Latin preposition a ("from") deprives the future tribune of his garments and props one by one:
Cicero's accusations of sexual profligacy against Clodius, including the attempt to seduce Caesar's wife into adultery and incestuous relations with his sisters, fail to enlarge in scope over time, as Clodius's marriage to the formidable Fulvia appears to have been an enduring model of fidelity until death cut it short. At the same time, even devotion to one's wife could be construed by the upholders of traditional values as undermining one's manhood, since it implied dependence on a woman.
Adoption into plebeian family of the Fonteii
On his return from SicilySicilia (Roman province)
Sicilia was the first province acquired by the Roman Republic, organized in 241 BC as a proconsular governed territory, in the aftermath of the First Punic War with Carthage. It included Sicily and Malta...
(where he had been Quaestor
Quaestor
A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
between 61 BC and 60 BC), Clodius chose to renounce his Patrician rank in order to hold a tribunate of plebs, which was not permitted to patricians. In 59 BC, during Caesar's first consulship, Clodius was able to enact a transfer to plebeian status by getting himself adopted by a certain P. Fonteius, probably a distant relative. The process violated almost every proper form of adoption in Rome
Adoption in Ancient Rome
In ancient Rome, adoption of boys was a fairly common procedure, particularly in the upper senatorial class. The need for a male heir and the expense of raising children were strong incentives to have at least one son, but not too many children. Adoption, the obvious solution, also served to...
, which was a serious business involving clan and family rituals and inheritance rights. On 16 November, Clodius took office as tribune of the plebs and began preparations for his destruction of Cicero and an extensive populist legislative program in order to bind as much of the community as possible to his policies as beneficiaries.
Nonetheless the legality of Clodius' transfer, and therefore all his acts and laws, remained a contentious issue for many years. Most seriously, in order to be permitted to adopt a fellow citizen from another clan and its rites into his own, a Roman citizen was required to be at least middle aged (beyond adulescentia, i.e. 30 or older) and able to prove that he had tried but failed to produce children. In this case Clodius himself turned 34 in 59 BC and Fonteius his adoptor was even younger, something entirely illegal and unprecedented. Furthermore, once an adoption was made, the adoptee took his place within the adopting family with full rights and duties as the adopter's eldest son. This included changing his name
Roman naming conventions
By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a name in ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts : praenomen , nomen and cognomen...
to that of the adopter, to which an additional cognomen was normally appended, in order to indicate either the clan or the family of his birth. Thus P. Claudius Pulcher should have become P. Fonteius Claudianus or P. Fonteius Pulcher. Instead he also violated this essential convention and simply changed the spelling of his clan name from Claudius to Clodius, emphasizing that his sole interest in the enactment of this public socio-religious farce was to obtain a semblance of technical permission to hold the key plebeian magistracy, with its extensive legislative powers and protective sacrosanctity.
Tribunate
As tribune Clodius introduced a law threatening exile to anyone who executed a Roman citizen without a trial. Cicero, having executed members of the Catiline conspiracy four years before without formal trial, and having had a public falling-out with Clodius, was clearly the intended target of the law. Cicero argued that the senatus consultum ultimumSenatus consultum ultimum
Senatus consultum ultimum , more properly senatus consultum de re publica defendenda is the modern term given to a decree of the Roman Senate during the late Roman Republic passed in times of emergency...
indemnified him from punishment, and he attempted to gain the support of the senators and consuls, especially of Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
. When help was not forthcoming, he went into exile. He arrived at Thessalonica, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
on May 29, 58 BC. The day Cicero left Italy into exile, Clodius proposed another law which forbade Cicero approaching within 400 miles (643.7 km) of Italy and confiscated his property. The bill was passed forthwith, and Cicero's villa on the Palatine
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times...
was destroyed by Clodius' supporters, as were his villas in Tusculum
Tusculum
Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy.-Location:Tusculum is one of the largest Roman cities in Alban Hills. The ruins of Tusculum are located on Tuscolo hill—more specifically on the northern edge of the outer crater ring of the Alban volcano...
and Formiae. Cicero's property was confiscated by order of Clodius, his mall on the Palatine
Palatine Hill
The Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city...
burned down, and its site put up for auction. It was purchased by Clodius himself, who, not wishing his name to appear in the matter, had someone else place the bid for him.
Clodius became exhilarated with his power and importance and wasted no time enacting a substantial legislative programme. The Leges Clodiae
Leges Clodiae
Leges Clodiae were a series of laws passed by the Plebeian Council of the Roman Republic under the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher in 58 BC. Clodius was a member of the patrician family Claudius; the alternate spelling of his name is sometimes regarded as a political gesture...
included setting up a regular dole of free grain, which used to be distributed monthly at variously and heavily discounted prices, but was now to be given away at no charge, thereby increasing Clodius' political status. Clodius also abolished the right of taking the omen
Omen
An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change...
s on a fixed day and (if they were declared unfavourable) of preventing the assembly of the comitia
Roman assemblies
The Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic were political institutions in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the contemporary historian Polybius, it was the people who had the final say regarding the election of magistrates, the enactment of new statutes, the carrying out of capital...
, possessed by every magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
by the terms of the Lex Aelia Fufia. He re-established the old social and political clubs or guilds of workmen, and the censors
Censor (ancient Rome)
The censor was an officer in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances....
were forbidden from excluding any citizen from the Senate or inflicting any punishment upon him unless he had been publicly tried and convicted.
Out of personal hatred for the Lagid
Ptolemaic dynasty
The Ptolemaic dynasty, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC...
king Ptolemy of Cyprus
Ptolemy of Cyprus
Ptolemy of Cyprus was the king of Cyprus c. 80-58 BC. He was the younger brother of Ptolemy XII Auletes, king of Egypt, and, like him, an illegitimate son of Ptolemy IX Lathyros. He appears to have been acknowledged king of Cyprus at the same time that his brother Auletes obtained the possession of...
, younger brother of Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes
Ptolemy XII Auletes
Ptolemy Neos Dionysos Theos Philopator Theos Philadelphos , more commonly known as "Auletes" or "Nothos" , was an Egyptian king of Macedonian descent...
, he passed a bill terminating his kingship and annexing Cyprus to the Empire. He cleverly selected Cato the Younger
Cato the Younger
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis , commonly known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather , was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a follower of the Stoic philosophy...
to be sent to Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
with a special grant of praetorian command rights to take possession of the island and the royal treasures, and preside over the administrative incorporation of Cyprus into the Roman province of Cilicia
Cilicia
In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...
. This measure was planned both to remove Cato, potentially a serious and difficult opponent, from the City for some time (in the event he was away for more than two years), and to turn him into an advocate for the legitimacy of Clodius' adoption and tribunate, which it also effected, later causing a great deal of friction between Cato and Clodius' bitterest enemies, especially Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
.
In 57 BC, one of the tribunes proposed the recall of Cicero, and Clodius resorted to force to prevent the passing of the decree. His effort was foiled by Milo
Titus Annius Milo
Titus Annius Milo Papianus was a Roman political agitator, the son of Gaius Papius Celsus, but adopted by his maternal grandfather, Titus Annius Luscus...
, who led an armed gang sufficiently strong to hold him in check. Clodius subsequently attacked the workmen who were rebuilding Cicero's house at public cost, assaulted Cicero himself in the street, and set fire to the house of Cicero's younger brother Q. Tullius Cicero
Quintus Tullius Cicero
Quintus Tullius Cicero was the younger brother of the celebrated orator, philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. He was born into a family of the equestrian order, as the son of a wealthy landowner in Arpinum, some 100 kilometres south-east of Rome.- Biography :Cicero's well-to-do father...
.
In 56 BC, while curule aedile, he impeached Milo for public violence (de vi) while defending his house against the attacks of Clodius' gang, and also charged him with keeping armed bands in his service. Judicial proceedings were hindered by violent outbreaks, and the matter was finally dropped.
Death
In 53 BC, when Milo was a candidate for the consulship, and Clodius for the praetorship, the rivals collected armed bands and clashed in the streets of Rome. Some sources state that on December 6, 53 BC, by chance Clodius and Milo (each accompanied by an armed escort) passed each other on the Appian Way near BovillaeBovillae
Bovillae was an ancient town in Lazio, central Italy, currently part of the Frattocchie frazione in the municipality of Marino.It was a station on the Via Appia , located c. 18 km SE of Rome. It was a colony of Alba Longa, and appears as one of the thirty cities of the Latin league...
. A fight erupted between members of the two groups, and Clodius died in the ensuing mêlée. Suetonius
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era....
, however, contradicts this story, saying simply that Clodius was assassinated. His enraged clients built his funeral pyre in the Senate House, which ignited the building and ultimately burned it down. The Senate then voted that Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
(still in Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
) be removed from power in favor of Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
, but the Tribunes were able to block this decree.
Clodius in popular culture
- Clodius plays a minor role in the Ides of MarchIdes of March (novel)The Ides of March is an epistolary novel by Thornton Wilder that was published in 1948. It is, in the author's words, 'a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic... Historical reconstruction is not among the primary aims of this work'...
, a 1948 epistolatory novel by Thornton WilderThornton WilderThornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
dealing with characters and events leading to, and culminating in the assassination of Julius Caesar. Clodius' possible involvement with Caesar'sJulius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
second wife Pompeia and his attempt to attend the secret rites of the Bona DeaBona DeaBona Dea was a divinity in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state and people...
are mentioned (though these events are shifted in time). - Clodius is a key player in Colleen McCulloughColleen McCulloughColleen McCullough-Robinson, , is an internationally acclaimed Australian author.-Life:McCullough was born in Wellington, in outback central west New South Wales, in 1937 to James and Laurie McCullough. Her mother was a New Zealander of part-Māori descent. During her childhood, her family moved...
's Masters of RomeMasters of RomeMasters of Rome is a series of historical fiction novels by author Colleen McCullough set in ancient Rome during the last days of the old Roman Republic; it primarily chronicles the lives and careers of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompeius Magnus, Gaius Julius Caesar, and the early...
series books Caesar's WomenCaesar's WomenCaesar's Women is the fourth historical novel in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, published on 21 March 1996.-Plot summary:...
and CaesarCaesar (novel)Caesar: Let the Dice Fly is the fifth historical novel in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.-Plot summary:The novel opens in 54 BC, with Caesar in the middle of his epochal Gallic campaigns, having just invaded Britannia...
. His entire exploits from his time in the East to his death in 52 BC are chronicled as a subplot to the greater story. - Clodius makes several appearances in Roma Sub RosaRoma Sub RosaRoma Sub Rosa is the title of the series of mystery novels by Steven Saylor set in, and populated by, noteworthy denizens of ancient Rome. The series is noted for its historical authenticity. The phrase "Roma Sub Rosa" means, in Latin, "Rome under the rose"...
, a series of novels by the American author Steven SaylorSteven SaylorSteven Saylor is an American author of historical novels. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and Classics....
. A Murder on the Appian Way tells the story of his death. - Clodius is a particular enemy of Decius Caecilius Metellus the YoungerDecius MetellusDecius Caecilius Metellus the Younger is a fictional character created by author John Maddox Roberts, the protagonist of Roberts's SPQR series...
in the SPQR seriesSPQR seriesThe SPQR series is a collection of detective stories by John Maddox Roberts set in the time of the Roman Republic. SPQR is a Latin initialism for Senatus Populusque Romanus , the official name of the Republic.The stories are told in first-person form by Senator Decius...
of mysteries by John Maddox RobertsJohn Maddox RobertsJohn Maddox Roberts is an author who has written many science fiction and fantasy novels, including his successful historical fiction, such as the SPQR series and Hannibal's Children....
. - Clodius plays a key role similar to that of a crime lord in the Emperor series written by Conn Iggulden.
- Clodius also plays a central role in Robert Harris's novel LustrumLustrum (novel)Lustrum is a 2009 novel by British author Robert Harris. It is the sequel to Imperium and the middle volume of a trilogy about the life of Cicero....
(published as Conspirata in the USA), the sequel to ImperiumImperium (novel)Imperium is a 2006 novel by English author Robert Harris. It is a fictional biography of Cicero, told through the first-person narrator of his secretary Tiro, beginning with the prosecution of Verres....
, which both chronicle the career of Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Ancient sources
- CiceroCiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
numerous Letters (ad Atticum, ad Familiares, ad Quintum fratrem); de domo sua ad pontifices, de haruspicum responso, pro M. Caelio, pro P. Sestio, de provincis consularibus, In L. Pisonem, pro T. Milone. - Stangl, ThomasThomas Stangl----Thomas Stangl was a German classical scholar and text critic. He is found referenced most often for his edition of scholia to Cicero's speeches , especially for his work on Asconius and the Bobbio Scholiast....
: Ciceronis Orationum Scholiastae: Asconius. Scholia Bobiensia. Scholia Pseudoasconii Sangallensia. Scholia Cluniacensia et recentiora Ambrosiana ac Vaticana. Scholia Lugdunensia sive Gronoviana et eorum excerpta Lugdunensia (Vienna, 1912; reprinted Georg Olms, Hildesheim, 1964) - Asconius. Caesar Giarratano (ed.) Q. Asconii Pediani Commentarii, (Rome, 1920; reprinted Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1967)
- PlutarchPlutarchPlutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
Roman Lives of: Lucullus, Pompeius, Cicero, Caesar, Cato - L. Cassius Dio Roman History, books XXXVI-XL
Modern works
- Gentile, I: Clodio e Cicerone (Milan, 1876)
- Beesley, E S: "Cicero and Clodius," in Fortnightly Review, v.; G Lacour-Gayet, De P. Clodio Pulchro (Paris, 1888), and in Revue historique (Sept. 1889);
- G Boissier, Cicero and his Friends (Eng. trans., 1897)
- White, H: Cicero, Clodius and Milo (New York, 1900)
- Lintott, Andrew W.Andrew LintottAndrew William Lintott is a classical scholar who specializes in the political and administrative history of ancient Rome, Roman law, and epigraphy. He is an emeritus fellow of Worcester College, University of Oxford....
: "P. Clodius Pulcher – Felix Catilina?”, Greece & Rome, n.s.14 (1967), 157-69 - —: Violence in Republican Rome (Oxford University Press, 1968)
- Moreau, Philippe: Clodiana religio. Un procès politique en 61 av. J.-C. (Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1982) ISBN 2-251-33103-4
- Tatum, W. Jeffrey. The Patrician Tribune: P. Clodius Pulcher. Studies in the History of Greece and Rome (University of North Carolina Press, 1999) hardcover ISBN 0-8078-2480-1
- Stanisław Stabryła, "P. Clodius Pulcher: a Politician or a Terrorist," in Jerzy Styka (ed), Violence and Agression in the Ancient World (Krakow, Ksiegarnia Akademicka, 2006) (Classica Cracoviensia, 10),
- Wilfried Nippel: Publius Clodius Pulcher – „der Achill der Straße“. In: Karl-Joachim Hölkeskamp, Elke Stein-Hölkeskamp (Hrsg.): Von Romulus zu Augustus. Große Gestalten der römischen Republik. Beck, München 2000. S. 279–291. ISBN 3-406-46697-4
- Fezzi, L: Il tribuno Clodio (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2008) ISBN 88-420-8715-7
- Christian SettipaniChristian SettipaniChristian Settipani is the Technical Director of an IT company in Paris and a genealogist and historian.He has a Master of Advanced Studies degree from the Paris-Sorbonne University and is currently preparing his doctoral thesis, while he often gives lectures to students undergraduates at the...
. Continuité gentilice et continuité sénatoriale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale, 2000