Publius Clodius Pulcher
He successfully stood as tribune of the plebs for 58 BC and passed six laws to restore Rome's collegia (private guilds and fraternities), expand the grain dole (making it free rather than subsidised while also using those collegia as means for distribution), annex Cyprus to pay for the dole, clarify augural law on religious obstruction, make it more difficult for the censors to expel senators from the senate, and exile Cicero for the unlawful execution of conspirators during the Catilinarian conspiracy.
When curule aedile in 56 BC, he feuded with and attempted to prosecute his political enemy, Titus Annius Milo, who controlled a rival set of urban mobs.
These violent tactics, however, were not his only sources of influence: his family connections and nobilitas made him a valuable ally to many parties – including, at various times, Caesar, Cato, and Pompey – in the ad hoc factionalism of the late republic.
[36] Prior, however, to his taking office, he was involved in a scandal where some time in December 62 BC he infiltrated the female-only secret rites of the Bona Dea in the house of the pontifex maximus, Julius Caesar.
[43] After a motion in the senate to repeal the decree to establish the tribunal, brought by Curio's homonymous father (who had been consul in 76 BC), failed 400–15,[44][45] Clodius and his allies took to the streets.
Amid orations connecting the senate's tribunal to Cicero's illegal execution of citizens just a few months earlier during the Catilinarian conspiracy,[44] those supporting the bill eventually accepted selection by lot.
[46] The prosecution at the trial was led by Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Crus – joined by other Cornelii Lentuli arrayed in an alliance against Clodius – and the main advocate for the defence was Curio's father who had been consul in 76 BC.
[52] Scholars are divided as to whether Clodius was involved in an affair with Pompeia: W Jeffrey Tatum rejects it as an unnecessary elaboration while John W Rich believes Caesar's divorce indicates uncertainty as to her complicity.
[55] Clodius eventually was assigned to a quaestorian post in Sicily under its propraetor, Gaius Vergilius Balbus, and he returned to Rome by June 60 BC after a short tour of duty.
Two of his political allies brought legislation in 60 BC to that effect on his behalf: Gaius Herrenius, then plebeian tribune, and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, then consul.
Clodius evidently believed that this rite was sufficient to render him a plebeian; Metellus Celer, the consul, disagreed strenuously and that consular opinion was ratified by the senate after a debate in early June, ending this attempt as well.
The validity of these obstruction tactics, however, is mostly rejected by scholars, who emphasise not only that the senate at the time dismissed these claims in multiple different debates but also that the lex Aelia et Fufia required that unfavourable omens be reported in person to the presiding official to have effect.
[92][93] Moreover, due to the lenient census in 61 BC, there were likely fears among junior members of the senate – especially those who never held senior magistracies, the pedarii, – that censors might want to trim the senatorial rolls.
Making his intercession evident, Clodius summoned a mob which entirely disrupted the prosecutorial proceedings, overturned the praetor's benches, and smashed the jury's voting urns.
With Clodius formally consecrating Gabinius' property to the plebeian goddess Ceres, he clearly approved of his attack on consular authority; this was unacceptable to the political class: "too severe a threat to public order";[117] "a step too far".
[118] Ninnius consecrated Clodius' property in retaliation and on the first day of June brought a bill to recall Cicero from exile that was supported unanimously in the senate but promptly vetoed.
Eight of the ten tribunes in October brought a bill to recall Cicero together – it was again vetoed – and eventually the opposition decided to wait Clodius out since his term ended in December.
In January 57 BC, the two new consuls – Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos – announced in the senate that they supported or acceded to Cicero's return.
[122] When the bill to lift Cicero's exile came to a vote on 23 January 57 BC, two tribunes – Quintus Fabricius and Marcus Cispius – occupied the forum to prevent a veto from being raised.
[125] On 4 August 57 BC, Clodius attempted to disrupt a public meeting where Quintus Cicero, brought by Pompey, was to speak in favour of lifting his brother's exile.
When Marcellinus, Lucius Marcius Philippus (also consul-elect in 57 BC), and Cicero attempted to have the senate direct the praetor to appoint the jury instead, Clodius' gangs disrupted the meeting.
[143] But the reconciliation between the Claudii and the triumvirs included a marriage between Pompey's son and Appius' daughter (Clodius' niece): tact was quickly changed to reflect this new relationship.
Amid these extreme political tactics, Pompey and Crassus were able by violence to secure the election of interreges in early 55 and drive, with the help of soldiers on leave from Caesar, their enemies from the consular canvass.
While it is not clear whether Clodius participated in the violence that year needed to win Pompey and Crassus their desired electoral outcomes as well as the lex Trebonia that gave them provincial commands, favours from the triumvirs followed.
[157] For personal and political reasons,[158] Clodius was part of the Pompeian effort to deny Titus Annius Milo, a candidate for 52 and friend of Marcus Porcius Cato, victory in the consular elections.
[171][172] The next morning, 19 January, two tribunes aligned with Clodius, Titus Munatius Plancus and Quintus Pompeius Rufus, held a contio in the forum lambasting Milo for the murder.
Milo, who had fled the city for his safety, returned on news of this excess a few days later; the destruction of this senatorial symbol reversed the public mood; he therefore continued his consular campaign.
[182] In the aftermath of Clodius' death, his political legacy and tactics, which combined aristocratic connections with mass support from the poorer urban plebs, influenced later politicians.
Publius Cornelius Dolabella, a patrician by birth and Cicero's son-in-law via Tullia, had himself adopted by a plebeian to stand for the tribunate, succeeding in 47 BC, and that year proposed the complete abolition of debts while raising statues of Clodius to great acclaim.
[186] Modern historiography largely viewed him as an agent of Caesar, an anarchic enigma – for Theodor Mommsen, "an irrational anarchist",[187] – or a revolutionary enemy of Cicero and the senatorial republic.
