It was at this period that T. Maurius Milo, being a candidate for the office of consul, during the heat of the canvassing happened, when riding into the country, to meet Clodius, a turbulent man, who favoured his opponent.

[Illustration:  Exposure of Clodius’s body in the Forum.]

The meeting was accidental, but a skirmish between their attendants drew on a contest which terminated in the death of Clodius.  The body was brought into Rome where it was exposed, all covered with blood and wounds, to the view of the populace, who flocked around it in crowds to lament the miserable fate of their leader.  The next day the mob, headed by a kinsman of the deceased, carried the body, with the wounds exposed, into the forum; and the enemies of Milo, addressing the crowd with inflammatory speeches, wrought them up to such a frenzy that they carried the body into the senate-house, and, tearing up the benches and tables, made a funeral pile, and, together with the body, burnt the house itself, and then stormed the house of Milo, but were repulsed.  This violence, and the eloquence of Cicero in his defence, saved Milo from the punishment which he had good reason to fear for the assassination of Clodius.

20.  Caesar, who now began to be sensible of the jealousies of Pompey, took occasion to solicit for the consulship, together with a prolongation of his government in Gaul, desirous of trying whether Pompey would thwart or promote his pretensions. 21.  In this Pompey seemed to be quite inactive; but, at the same time, privately employed two of his creatures, who alleged in the senate that the laws did not permit a person who was absent to offer himself as a candidate for that high office. 22.  Pompey’s view in this was to allure Caesar from his government, in order to stand for the consulship in person. 23.  Caesar, however, perceiving his artifice, chose to remain in his province, convinced that while he headed an army devoted to him, he could give law as well as magistrates to the state.

24.  The senate, which was devoted to Pompey, because he had for some time attempted to defend them from the encroachments of the people, ordered home the two legions which were in Caesar’s army belonging to Pompey, as it was pretended, to oppose the Parthians, but in reality to diminish Caesar’s power. 25.  Caesar saw their motive:  but as his plans were not yet ripe for execution, he sent them home in pursuance of the orders of the senate, having previously attached the officers to him by benefits, and the soldiers by bounties. 26.  The next step the senate took, was to recall Caesar from his government, as his time was very near expiring.  But Cu’rio, his friend in the senate, proposed that Caesar should not leave his army till Pompey had set him the example. 27.  This for a while perplexed Pompey; however, during the debate, one of the senate declaring that Caesar had passed the Alps, and was marching with his whole army directly towards Rome, the consul,