With the support of Julius Caesar, who held his first consulship in 59 BC, Clodius had himself adopted into a plebeian family in order to qualify for the office of tribune of the plebs, which was not open to patricians.
If a citizen had a nota placed besides his name, he was subject to a range of penalties, including fines, exile, assignment to an inferior tribe for voting purposes, or even the loss of his citizenship.
[2][3] This law was repealed in 52 BC by the Lex Caecilia de censoria, which was enacted by a political enemy of Clodius, Metellus Scipio.
The law threatened punishment for anyone who offered fire and water to those who had executed Roman citizens without a trial "qui civem Romanum indemnatum interemisset, ei aqua et igni interdiceretur."
Cicero, an enemy of Clodius having executed members of the Catilinarian conspiracy several years before without formal trial, was clearly the intended target of the law.
[6][7] This was somewhat radical, as during the first centuries of the republic, as per the Valerian and Porcian laws, several citizens had been executed for distributing free grain to the poor, under the concern that they were plotting to win popular support in order to overthrow the government and seize a tyranny.