Pro Milone
Encyclopedia
The Pro Tito Annio Milone ad iudicem oratio (Pro Milone) is a speech made by Marcus Tullius Cicero on behalf of his friend Titus Annius Milo
. Milo was accused of murdering his political enemy Publius Clodius Pulcher on the Via Appia. The speech was written by Cicero in 52 BC
.
was a praetor
at the time, attempting to gain the much-vaunted post of consul
; Clodius was a former tribune
standing for the office of praetor
. The charge was brought against Milo for the death of Clodius following a violent altercation on the Via Appia outside Clodius' estate in Bovillae
. After the initial brawl, it seems that Clodius was wounded during the fight started by his own slaves as well as those of Milo.
This was the sequence of events described by the prosecution and the commentary of Asconius
, an ancient commentator who analyzed several of Cicero's speeches and had access to various ancient documents which are no longer extant. The absence of a summary of the chain of events in Cicero’s speech may be attributed to their incriminating evidence against Milo. Presumably, Cicero realized that this was the primary weakness, and as the trial unfolded it turned out to be so. We can assume from the fact that the jury did indeed convict Milo, that they felt that although Milo may not have been aware of Clodius's initial injury, his ordering of Clodius’s butchering warranted punishment.
When initially questioned about the circumstances of Clodius’s death, Milo responded with the excuse of self-defense, that it was Clodius who laid a trap for Milo in which he might kill him. Cicero had to fashion his speech to be congruent with Milo's initial excuse, restraint which probably affected the overall presentation of his case. In order to convince the jury of Milo’s innocence, Cicero used the fact that following Clodius's death, a mob of his own supporters, led by the scribe Sextus Cloelius, carried his corpse into the Senate house (curia
) and cremated it using the benches, platforms, tables and scribes' notebooks as a pyre. In doing so they also burnt down much of the curia; the Clodian supporters in their fury also launched an attack on the house of the then interrex
, Marcus Lepidus; and therefore Pompey
ordered a special inquest to investigate this as well as the murder of Clodius. Cicero refers to this incident throughout the Pro Milone, implying that there was greater general indignation and uproar at the burning of the curia than there was at the murder of Clodius.
Due to the violent nature of the crime as well as its revolutionary repercussions (the case had special resonance with the Roman people as a symbol of the clash between the populares and the optimates), the special inquest set up by Pompey
included a hand-picked panel of judges. This was in order to avoid the corruption that was rife in the political scene of the late Roman Republic
. In addition, armed guards were stationed around the law courts to placate the violent mobs of each side's supporters.
The first four days of Milo’s trial were dedicated to opposition argument and the testimony of witnesses. On the first day Gaius Causinius Schola appeared as a witness against Milo and described the deed in such a way as to portray Milo as a cold-blooded murderer. This worked up the Clodian crowd who in turn terrified the advocate on Milo's side, Marcus Marcellus. As he began his questioning of the witnesses, the Clodian crowd drowned out his voice and surrounded him. This action taken by Pompey
prevented too much furore from the vehemently anti-Milonian crowds for the rest of the case. On the second day of the trial the armed cohorts were introduced by Pompey. On the 5th and final day, Cicero delivered the Pro Milone in the hope of reversing the damning evidence accrued over the previous days.
leader of the restless plebeian mobs that plagued the political scene of the late Roman Republic
. Possibly Cicero's strongest argument was that of the circumstances of the assault: its convenient proximity to Clodius' villa, and the fact that Milo was leaving Rome on official business (nominating a priest for election in Lanuvium
). Clodius, on the other hand, had been distinctly absent from his usual rantings in the popular assemblies (contiones). Milo was encumbered in a coach, with his wife, a heavy riding cloak and a retinue of harmless slaves (though his retinue also included slaves and gladiators as well as revellers for the festival at Lanuvium, to whose presence Cicero only implicitly refers). Clodius, however, was on horseback, without a carriage, his wife or his usual retinue but with a band of armed brigands and slaves. If Cicero could convince the judges that Clodius had laid a trap for Milo, he could postulate that Milo murdered out of self-defense (Roman law at the time had no distinction between murder
and manslaughter
). Not once does Cicero mention the possibility that the two met by chance (which was the conclusion of both Asconius and Appian).
Clodius is made out repeatedly in the Pro Milone to be a malevolent, invidious, effeminate character; craving power and organizing the ambush on Milo. In his speech Cicero gives Clodius a motive for setting a trap: his realization that Milo would easily secure the consulship, and thus stand in the way of Clodius' scheme to attain greater power and influence as a praetor. Fortunately, there was plentiful material for Cicero to build this profile, such as the Bona Dea
incident in 62BC; involving Clodius stealing into the abode of the Pontifex Maximus
of the time, Julius Caesar
, during the ritual festival of the Bona Dea
, to which only women were allowed. It is said that he dressed up as a woman in order to gain access and pursue an illicit affair with Pompeia, the wife of Caesar. Clodius was taken to the law courts for this act of great impiety, but escaped the punishment of death by bribing the judges, most of whom had been poor (according to Cicero, who was the prosecutor during the case). Earlier in his career Lucullus
had accused Clodius of committing incest with his sister Clodia
, then Lucullus's wife; this too is often referred to in order to blacken Clodius's reputation.
Milo, on the other hand, is perpetually depicted as a 'saviour of Rome' by his virtuous actions and political career up until that point. Cicero even goes as far as to paint an amicable relationship with Pompey
. Asconius, as he does with many other parts of the Pro Milone, disputes this fact, claiming that Pompey was in fact afraid of Milo, "or else pretended to be afraid", staying in the upper parts of his property in the suburbs and employing a constant body of troops to keep guard. His fear was attributed to a series of public assemblies in which Titus Munatius Plancus, a fervent supporter of Clodius, stirred up the crowd against Milo and Cicero, casting suspicion upon Milo by shouting that he was preparing a force to destroy him. However, in the view of Plutarch
, a first century AD writer and biographer of notable Roman men, Clodius had also stirred up enmity between Pompey and himself, along with the fickle crowds of the forum he controlled with his malevolent goading.
The early part of the refutation of the opposition's arguments (refutatio), contains the first known exposition of the phrase silent enim leges inter arma
("in times of war, the laws fall silent"). This has since been rephrased as inter arma enim silent leges
, and was most recently used by the American media in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks
of 11 September 2001. At this point in the speech this phrase is integral to Cicero's argument. In the context of the Pro Milone the meaning behind the phrase remains the same as its use in contemporary society. Cicero was asserting that the killing of Clodius was admissible so long as it was an act of self-defence; postulating that in extreme cases, where one's own life is immediately threatened, violence without proper regard to the laws is justifiable. Indeed, Cicero goes as far as to say that such behaviour is instinctive (nata lex: "an inborn law") to all living creatures (non instituti, sed imbuti sumus: "we are not taught [self-defence] through instruction, but through natural intuition"). This argument of the murder of Clodius being in the public interest is only presented in the written version of the Pro Milone, as, according to Asconius, Cicero did not mention it in the actual version delivered.
The speech also contains the first known use of the legal axiom res ipsa loquitur
, albeit in the form res loquitur ipsa, (literally "the thing itself speaks" but usually translated as "the facts speak for themselves"). The phrase was quoted in an 1863 judgment in the English case Byrne v Boadle
and became the tag for a new common law
doctrine.
, the actual defense failed to secure an acquittal for Milo for three primary reasons. Firstly, Cicero’s intimidation by the Clodian mob present on the final day, the political pressure exerted implicitly by Pompey for the judges to convict Milo, and finally, the sheer number of testimonies against Milo over the course of the case. Milo was condemned for the murder by a margin of 38 votes to 13 and was ostracized to the Gallic town of Massilia (Marseille). During his absence, Milo was prosecuted for bribery, unlawful association, and violence, for all of which he was successfully convicted. As an example of the volatile, contradictory and confusing political atmosphere of the time, the superintendent of Milo's slaves, one Marcus Saufeius, was also prosecuted for the murder of Clodius shortly after the conviction of Milo. The team of Cicero and Caelius
defended him, and together, managed to acquit Saufeius by a margin of one vote. Furthermore, Clodian supporters did not all escape unscathed. The associate of Clodius, Sextus Cloelius, who supervised the cremation of Clodius's corpse, was prosecuted for the burning down of the curia and was convicted by an overwhelming majority of 46 votes. Following the trial, violence raged unchecked in the city between supporters of Clodius and Milo. Pompey had been made sole consul
in Rome during the violent troubled times after the murder but before the legal proceedings against Milo had begun and he quelled the riots following this string of controversial cases with brutal military efficiency, regaining stability in Rome - for a while.
The Pro Milone text which survives to date is a rewritten version, published by Cicero after the trial. Despite its failure to secure an acquittal, the surviving rewrite is considered to be one of Cicero's best works: thought by many to be the magnum opus
of his rhetorical repertoire. Asconius
describes the Pro Milone as "so perfectly written that it can rightly be considered his best".
The speech is full of deceptively straightforward strategies. Throughout his speech Cicero explicitly seems to follow his own rhetorical guidelines published in his earlier work De Inventione, but on occasion subtly breaks away from these stylistic norms in order to emphasise certain elements of his case and use the circumstances to his advantage. As example, he places his refutation of the opposition's arguments (refutatio) far earlier in the speech than expected, and pounces on the opportunity to disprove quickly the plethora of evidence collected over the first four days of the trial. His arguments are interwoven with one another and coalesce during the conclusion (peroratio). There is heavy use of pathos
throughout the speech, starting with his assertion of fear for the guards posted around the courts by Pompey
in this special inquisition (the very first sentence of the speech contains the word vereor - "I fear"). However, Cicero ends his speech fearless, becoming more emotive with each argument, and finally finishing by the beseeching of his audience with tears to acquit Milo. Irony is omnipresent in the speech, along with continual appearances of humour and constant appeals to traditional Roman virtues and prejudices, all of these tactics designed solely to involve and persuade his jury.
In many ways the circumstances surrounding the case were apposite for Cicero, forcing him back to his own oratorical foundations. The charge of vis ('violence') against Milo not only suited a logical and analytical legal framework with evidence indicating a specific time, date, place and cast for the murder itself, but generally concerned actions that affected the community. This allowed Cicero ample maneuvering room to include details of the fire in the curia, as well as the attack on Marcus Lepidus' house and the Bona Dea
incident.
Milo, having read the later published speech whilst in exile, humorously commented that if Cicero had only spoken that well in court, he would "not now be enjoying the delicious red mullet of Massilia".
Titus Annius Milo
Titus Annius Milo Papianus was a Roman political agitator, the son of Gaius Papius Celsus, but adopted by his maternal grandfather, Titus Annius Luscus...
. Milo was accused of murdering his political enemy Publius Clodius Pulcher on the Via Appia. The speech was written by Cicero in 52 BC
52 BC
Year 52 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Scipio...
.
Events surrounding the case
MiloTitus Annius Milo
Titus Annius Milo Papianus was a Roman political agitator, the son of Gaius Papius Celsus, but adopted by his maternal grandfather, Titus Annius Luscus...
was a praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
at the time, attempting to gain the much-vaunted post of consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
; Clodius was a former tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
standing for the office of praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
. The charge was brought against Milo for the death of Clodius following a violent altercation on the Via Appia outside Clodius' estate in Bovillae
Bovillae
Bovillae was an ancient town in Lazio, central Italy, currently part of the Frattocchie frazione in the municipality of Marino.It was a station on the Via Appia , located c. 18 km SE of Rome. It was a colony of Alba Longa, and appears as one of the thirty cities of the Latin league...
. After the initial brawl, it seems that Clodius was wounded during the fight started by his own slaves as well as those of Milo.
This was the sequence of events described by the prosecution and the commentary of Asconius
Asconius Pedianus
Quintus Asconius Pedianus , Roman grammarian and historian, was probably a native of Patavium .In his later years he resided in Rome, and there he died, after having been blind for twelve years, at the age of eighty-five. During the reigns of Claudius and Nero he compiled for his sons, from various...
, an ancient commentator who analyzed several of Cicero's speeches and had access to various ancient documents which are no longer extant. The absence of a summary of the chain of events in Cicero’s speech may be attributed to their incriminating evidence against Milo. Presumably, Cicero realized that this was the primary weakness, and as the trial unfolded it turned out to be so. We can assume from the fact that the jury did indeed convict Milo, that they felt that although Milo may not have been aware of Clodius's initial injury, his ordering of Clodius’s butchering warranted punishment.
When initially questioned about the circumstances of Clodius’s death, Milo responded with the excuse of self-defense, that it was Clodius who laid a trap for Milo in which he might kill him. Cicero had to fashion his speech to be congruent with Milo's initial excuse, restraint which probably affected the overall presentation of his case. In order to convince the jury of Milo’s innocence, Cicero used the fact that following Clodius's death, a mob of his own supporters, led by the scribe Sextus Cloelius, carried his corpse into the Senate house (curia
Curia
A curia in early Roman times was a subdivision of the people, i.e. more or less a tribe, and with a metonymy it came to mean also the meeting place where the tribe discussed its affairs...
) and cremated it using the benches, platforms, tables and scribes' notebooks as a pyre. In doing so they also burnt down much of the curia; the Clodian supporters in their fury also launched an attack on the house of the then interrex
Interrex
The Interrex was literally a ruler "between kings" during the Roman Kingdom and the Roman Republic. He was in effect a short-term regent....
, Marcus Lepidus; and therefore Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
ordered a special inquest to investigate this as well as the murder of Clodius. Cicero refers to this incident throughout the Pro Milone, implying that there was greater general indignation and uproar at the burning of the curia than there was at the murder of Clodius.
Due to the violent nature of the crime as well as its revolutionary repercussions (the case had special resonance with the Roman people as a symbol of the clash between the populares and the optimates), the special inquest set up by Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
included a hand-picked panel of judges. This was in order to avoid the corruption that was rife in the political scene of the late Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
. In addition, armed guards were stationed around the law courts to placate the violent mobs of each side's supporters.
The first four days of Milo’s trial were dedicated to opposition argument and the testimony of witnesses. On the first day Gaius Causinius Schola appeared as a witness against Milo and described the deed in such a way as to portray Milo as a cold-blooded murderer. This worked up the Clodian crowd who in turn terrified the advocate on Milo's side, Marcus Marcellus. As he began his questioning of the witnesses, the Clodian crowd drowned out his voice and surrounded him. This action taken by Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
prevented too much furore from the vehemently anti-Milonian crowds for the rest of the case. On the second day of the trial the armed cohorts were introduced by Pompey. On the 5th and final day, Cicero delivered the Pro Milone in the hope of reversing the damning evidence accrued over the previous days.
Content of the speech
Throughout the duration of his speech Cicero does not attempt to convince the judges that Milo did not kill Clodius, but that the killing of Clodius was committed lawfully in self-defense. Cicero even goes as far as to suggest that the death of Clodius was in the best interests of the republic. Clodius as a tribune was a popularist, a popularesPopulares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
leader of the restless plebeian mobs that plagued the political scene of the late Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
. Possibly Cicero's strongest argument was that of the circumstances of the assault: its convenient proximity to Clodius' villa, and the fact that Milo was leaving Rome on official business (nominating a priest for election in Lanuvium
Lanuvium
Lanuvium is an ancient city of Latium , some 32 km southeast of Rome, a little southwest of the Via Appia....
). Clodius, on the other hand, had been distinctly absent from his usual rantings in the popular assemblies (contiones). Milo was encumbered in a coach, with his wife, a heavy riding cloak and a retinue of harmless slaves (though his retinue also included slaves and gladiators as well as revellers for the festival at Lanuvium, to whose presence Cicero only implicitly refers). Clodius, however, was on horseback, without a carriage, his wife or his usual retinue but with a band of armed brigands and slaves. If Cicero could convince the judges that Clodius had laid a trap for Milo, he could postulate that Milo murdered out of self-defense (Roman law at the time had no distinction between murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
and manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
). Not once does Cicero mention the possibility that the two met by chance (which was the conclusion of both Asconius and Appian).
Clodius is made out repeatedly in the Pro Milone to be a malevolent, invidious, effeminate character; craving power and organizing the ambush on Milo. In his speech Cicero gives Clodius a motive for setting a trap: his realization that Milo would easily secure the consulship, and thus stand in the way of Clodius' scheme to attain greater power and influence as a praetor. Fortunately, there was plentiful material for Cicero to build this profile, such as the Bona Dea
Bona Dea
Bona Dea was a divinity in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state and people...
incident in 62BC; involving Clodius stealing into the abode of the Pontifex Maximus
Pontifex Maximus
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
of the time, Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, during the ritual festival of the Bona Dea
Bona Dea
Bona Dea was a divinity in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state and people...
, to which only women were allowed. It is said that he dressed up as a woman in order to gain access and pursue an illicit affair with Pompeia, the wife of Caesar. Clodius was taken to the law courts for this act of great impiety, but escaped the punishment of death by bribing the judges, most of whom had been poor (according to Cicero, who was the prosecutor during the case). Earlier in his career Lucullus
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...
had accused Clodius of committing incest with his sister Clodia
Clodia
Clodia, Clodia, Clodia, (born Claudia Pulchra Prima or Maior or also Quadrantaria c. 95 BC or c. 94 BC and often referred to in scholarship as Clodia Metelli ("Clodia the wife of Metellus"), was the third daughter of the patrician Appius Claudius Pulcher and Caecilia Metella Balearica.She is not to...
, then Lucullus's wife; this too is often referred to in order to blacken Clodius's reputation.
Milo, on the other hand, is perpetually depicted as a 'saviour of Rome' by his virtuous actions and political career up until that point. Cicero even goes as far as to paint an amicable relationship with Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
. Asconius, as he does with many other parts of the Pro Milone, disputes this fact, claiming that Pompey was in fact afraid of Milo, "or else pretended to be afraid", staying in the upper parts of his property in the suburbs and employing a constant body of troops to keep guard. His fear was attributed to a series of public assemblies in which Titus Munatius Plancus, a fervent supporter of Clodius, stirred up the crowd against Milo and Cicero, casting suspicion upon Milo by shouting that he was preparing a force to destroy him. However, in the view of Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, a first century AD writer and biographer of notable Roman men, Clodius had also stirred up enmity between Pompey and himself, along with the fickle crowds of the forum he controlled with his malevolent goading.
The early part of the refutation of the opposition's arguments (refutatio), contains the first known exposition of the phrase silent enim leges inter arma
Inter arma enim silent leges
Inter arma enim silent leges is a Latin phrase meaning "For among [times of] arms, the laws fall mute," although it is more popularly rendered as "In times of war, the law falls silent." This maxim was likely first written in these words by Cicero in his published oration Pro Milone, although...
("in times of war, the laws fall silent"). This has since been rephrased as inter arma enim silent leges
Inter arma enim silent leges
Inter arma enim silent leges is a Latin phrase meaning "For among [times of] arms, the laws fall mute," although it is more popularly rendered as "In times of war, the law falls silent." This maxim was likely first written in these words by Cicero in his published oration Pro Milone, although...
, and was most recently used by the American media in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
of 11 September 2001. At this point in the speech this phrase is integral to Cicero's argument. In the context of the Pro Milone the meaning behind the phrase remains the same as its use in contemporary society. Cicero was asserting that the killing of Clodius was admissible so long as it was an act of self-defence; postulating that in extreme cases, where one's own life is immediately threatened, violence without proper regard to the laws is justifiable. Indeed, Cicero goes as far as to say that such behaviour is instinctive (nata lex: "an inborn law") to all living creatures (non instituti, sed imbuti sumus: "we are not taught [self-defence] through instruction, but through natural intuition"). This argument of the murder of Clodius being in the public interest is only presented in the written version of the Pro Milone, as, according to Asconius, Cicero did not mention it in the actual version delivered.
Res ipsa loquitur
In the common law of negligence, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur states that the elements of duty of care and breach can be sometimes inferred from the very nature of an accident or other outcome, even without direct evidence of how any defendant behaved...
, albeit in the form res loquitur ipsa, (literally "the thing itself speaks" but usually translated as "the facts speak for themselves"). The phrase was quoted in an 1863 judgment in the English case Byrne v Boadle
Byrne v Boadle
Byrne v Boadle is an English tort law case that first applied the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur.-Facts:A barrel of flour fell from a second-storey window and hit the plaintiff on his head...
and became the tag for a new common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
doctrine.
Outcome and aftermath of the case
In the account of later writer and Ciceronian commentator AsconiusAsconius Pedianus
Quintus Asconius Pedianus , Roman grammarian and historian, was probably a native of Patavium .In his later years he resided in Rome, and there he died, after having been blind for twelve years, at the age of eighty-five. During the reigns of Claudius and Nero he compiled for his sons, from various...
, the actual defense failed to secure an acquittal for Milo for three primary reasons. Firstly, Cicero’s intimidation by the Clodian mob present on the final day, the political pressure exerted implicitly by Pompey for the judges to convict Milo, and finally, the sheer number of testimonies against Milo over the course of the case. Milo was condemned for the murder by a margin of 38 votes to 13 and was ostracized to the Gallic town of Massilia (Marseille). During his absence, Milo was prosecuted for bribery, unlawful association, and violence, for all of which he was successfully convicted. As an example of the volatile, contradictory and confusing political atmosphere of the time, the superintendent of Milo's slaves, one Marcus Saufeius, was also prosecuted for the murder of Clodius shortly after the conviction of Milo. The team of Cicero and Caelius
Marcus Caelius Rufus
Marcus Caelius Rufus was an orator and politician in the late Roman Republic. He was born into a wealthy equestrian family from Interamnia Praetuttiorum , on the central east coast of Italy...
defended him, and together, managed to acquit Saufeius by a margin of one vote. Furthermore, Clodian supporters did not all escape unscathed. The associate of Clodius, Sextus Cloelius, who supervised the cremation of Clodius's corpse, was prosecuted for the burning down of the curia and was convicted by an overwhelming majority of 46 votes. Following the trial, violence raged unchecked in the city between supporters of Clodius and Milo. Pompey had been made sole consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
in Rome during the violent troubled times after the murder but before the legal proceedings against Milo had begun and he quelled the riots following this string of controversial cases with brutal military efficiency, regaining stability in Rome - for a while.
The Pro Milone text which survives to date is a rewritten version, published by Cicero after the trial. Despite its failure to secure an acquittal, the surviving rewrite is considered to be one of Cicero's best works: thought by many to be the magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
of his rhetorical repertoire. Asconius
Asconius Pedianus
Quintus Asconius Pedianus , Roman grammarian and historian, was probably a native of Patavium .In his later years he resided in Rome, and there he died, after having been blind for twelve years, at the age of eighty-five. During the reigns of Claudius and Nero he compiled for his sons, from various...
describes the Pro Milone as "so perfectly written that it can rightly be considered his best".
The speech is full of deceptively straightforward strategies. Throughout his speech Cicero explicitly seems to follow his own rhetorical guidelines published in his earlier work De Inventione, but on occasion subtly breaks away from these stylistic norms in order to emphasise certain elements of his case and use the circumstances to his advantage. As example, he places his refutation of the opposition's arguments (refutatio) far earlier in the speech than expected, and pounces on the opportunity to disprove quickly the plethora of evidence collected over the first four days of the trial. His arguments are interwoven with one another and coalesce during the conclusion (peroratio). There is heavy use of pathos
Pathos
Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
throughout the speech, starting with his assertion of fear for the guards posted around the courts by Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
in this special inquisition (the very first sentence of the speech contains the word vereor - "I fear"). However, Cicero ends his speech fearless, becoming more emotive with each argument, and finally finishing by the beseeching of his audience with tears to acquit Milo. Irony is omnipresent in the speech, along with continual appearances of humour and constant appeals to traditional Roman virtues and prejudices, all of these tactics designed solely to involve and persuade his jury.
In many ways the circumstances surrounding the case were apposite for Cicero, forcing him back to his own oratorical foundations. The charge of vis ('violence') against Milo not only suited a logical and analytical legal framework with evidence indicating a specific time, date, place and cast for the murder itself, but generally concerned actions that affected the community. This allowed Cicero ample maneuvering room to include details of the fire in the curia, as well as the attack on Marcus Lepidus' house and the Bona Dea
Bona Dea
Bona Dea was a divinity in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state and people...
incident.
Milo, having read the later published speech whilst in exile, humorously commented that if Cicero had only spoken that well in court, he would "not now be enjoying the delicious red mullet of Massilia".
External links
- Pro Milone in Latin, at The Latin LibraryThe Latin LibraryThe Latin Library is a website that collects public domain Latin texts. The texts have been drawn from different sources. Many were originally scanned and formatted from texts in the Public Domain. Others have been downloaded from various sites on the Internet . Most of the recent texts have been...
- Pro Milone in English, translated by C.D. Yonge, at perseus.tufts.eduPerseus ProjectThe Perseus Project is a digital library project of Tufts University that assembles digital collections of humanities resources. It is hosted by the Department of Classics. It has suffered at times from computer hardware problems, and its resources are occasionally unavailable...