It is an appropriate thing that a man destined to lead so stormy a life as Curio did, should come on the stage as a leader in the wild turmoil of the Clodian affair.  What brought the two Curios to the front in this matter as champions of Cicero’s future enemy Clodius, it is not easy to say.  It is interesting to notice in passing, however, that our Curio enters politics as a Democrat.  He was the leader, in fact, of the younger element in that party, of the “Catilinarian crowd,” as Cicero styles them, and arrayed himself against Lucullus, Hortensius, Messala, and other prominent Conservatives.  What the methods were which Curio and his followers adopted, Cicero graphically describes.[122] They blocked up the entrances to the polling places with professional rowdies, and allowed only one kind of ballots to be distributed to the voters.  This was in 61 B.C., when Curio can scarcely have been more than twenty-three years old.

In the following year Caesar was back in Rome from his successful propraetorship in Spain, and found little difficulty in persuading Pompey and Crassus to join him in forming that political compact which controlled the fortunes of Rome for the next ten years.  As a part of the agreement, Caesar was made consul in 59 B.C., and forced his radical legislation through the popular assembly in spite of the violent opposition of the Conservatives.  This is the year, too, of the candidacy of Clodius for the tribunate.  Toward both these movements the attitude of Curio is puzzling.  He reports to Cicero[123] that Clodius’s main object in running for the tribunate is to repeal the legislation of Caesar.  It is strange that a man who had been in the counsels of Clodius, and was so shrewd on other occasions in interpreting political motives, can have been so deceived.  We can hardly believe that he was double-faced toward Cicero.  We must conclude, I think, that his strong dislike for Caesar’s policy and political methods colored his view of the situation.  His fierce opposition to Caesar is the other strange incident in this period of his life.  Most of the young men of the time, even those of good family, were enthusiastic supporters of Caesar.  Curio, however, is bitterly opposed to him.[124] Perhaps he resented Caesar’s repression of freedom of speech, for he tells Cicero that the young men of Rome will not submit to the high-handed methods of the triumvirs, or perhaps he imbibed his early dislike for Caesar from his father, whose sentiments are made clear enough by a savage epigram at Caesar’s expense, which Suetonius quotes from a speech of the elder Curio.[125] At all events he is the only man who dares speak out.  He is the idol of the Conservatives, and is surrounded by enthusiastic crowds whenever he appears in the forum.  He is now the recognized leader of the opposition to Caesar, and a significant proof of this fact is furnished at the great games given in honor of Apollo in the summer of 59.  When Caesar entered the theatre there was faint applause;