[-44-] After this occurrence Caesar, who was now praetor, likewise showed no further revolutionary tendencies.  He effected the removal of the name of Catulus from the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus—­he was calling him to account for theft and was demanding an account of the money he had spent—­and the entrusting to Pompey of the construction of the remainder of the edifice.  For many details, considering the size and character of the work, were but half finished.  Or else Caesar pretended it was so, in order that Pompey might gain the glory for its completion and inscribe his name instead.  He was not, to be sure, so ready to do him a favor as to submit to having passed concerning himself some decrees similar to that regarding Nepos.  He did not, in fact, act thus for Pompey’s sake, but in order that he might ingratiate himself with the populace.  Still, as it was, all feared Pompey to such an extent, seeing that it was not yet clear whether he would give up his legions, that when he sent ahead Marcus Piso, his lieutenant, to seek the consulship, they postponed the elections in order that the latter might attend them, and on his arrival elected him unanimously.  For Pompey had recommended the man not only to his friends, but also to his enemies.

[-45-] It was at this time that Publius Clodius debauched Caesar’s wife in her house and during the performance of the secret rites which according to ancestral precedent the Vestals carried out at the residences of consuls and praetors in behalf of the whole male population.  Caesar brought no charge against him, understanding well that on account of his connections he would not be convicted, but divorced his wife, telling her that he did not really believe the story but that he could no longer live with her inasmuch as she had been suspected of committing adultery at all:  a chaste woman must not only not err, but not even incur any evil suspicion.

[B.C. 61 (a.u. 693)]

[-46-] Following these events the stone bridge, called the Fabrician, leading to the little island in the Tiber was constructed.  The next year in the consulship of Piso and Marcus Messala, the men in power showed their hatred of Clodius and at the same time made expiation for his pollution by delivering him to the court, after the pontifices had decided that the rites because of his act had not been duly performed and should be annulled.  He was accused of adultery, in spite of Caesar’s silence, and of desertion at Nisibis and furthermore of having had guilty relations with his sister:  yet he was acquitted, although the juries had requested and obtained of the senate a guard to prevent their suffering any harm at his hands.  Regarding this Catulus said jestingly that they had asked for the guard not in order to condemn Clodius with safety, but in order to preserve for themselves the money which they had received in bribes.[25]