ROME’S BAD BOY: CLODIUS PULCHER - PART II
check out Part I before reading this one!
Marcus Tulius Cicero, famed orator, politician, executioner, exile and all-around self-absorbed guy
In 61 BC, Clodius Pulcher stood trial for blasphemy after crashing the female-only Bona Dea festival. His guilt was clear, yet he denied being present and asked Cicero to provide an alibi - to claim they were together elsewhere. Cicero, a morally upright and influential politician, refused, thus sparking Clodius' lasting animosity.
With support from Julius Caesar, who saw him as politically useful, and thanks to generous bribes to the jury, Clodius was acquitted. Now free, he nurtured his hatred for Cicero but needed power to act on it. Clodius sought election as Tribune of the Plebes, a powerful office that represented the populares and could bypass the aristocratic Senate entirely.
However, as an aristocrat, Clodius was ineligible to run. In a bold move, he renounced his patrician status and arranged to be adopted by a plebeian family — a legal but highly unusual step. Despite the strain on their relationship, Julius Caesar ratified the adoption, and Clodius likely changed his name from the aristocratic Claudius to the more rustic Clodius to reflect his new status, though scholars remain divided on this. With Caesar’s blessing and popular support, he was elected Tribune. One of his first acts was to banish the conservative lawmaker Cato the Younger by assigning him to a distant outpost. One problem down.
At Clodius’ bidding, the Plebeian assembly then addressed his other major problem by banishing Cicero, seizing all his assets and forbidding his return to Rome under penalty of death. While consul, Cicero had thwarted a treasonous plot by Catiline, an ally of Clodius, nominally a good thing. But he ordered the execution of the conspirators, all Senators, without trial. Clodius responded by passing a law that retroactively made Cicero’s actions illegal, forcing him to leave Rome. Clodius had bided his time and got his revenge.
Imagine if this retroactive law happened today: Congress makes a past action illegal, and you’re punished for something you did a decade ago. Absurd, right? Thankfully, ex post facto laws like this are forbidden in the US, but this illustrates how unstable such governance can be.
Couldn't find any decent public domain images of Milo, so here's an artist's representation.
Cicero and Clodius exchanged bitter insults — Cicero accused Clodius of incest, while Clodius accused Cicero of having king-like ambitions, both serious offenses in Rome. Eventually, Cicero returned under Pompey’s protection, but his history of making powerful enemies would lead to further conflicts, particularly with Marc Antony and an optimate named Titus Annius Milo who advocated the conservative cause.
The relationship between Clodius and Milo was emblematic of the violent political climate that marked the late Roman Republic. Milo, a mouthpiece for the elite who desperately clung to power, was a fierce rival of Clodius. They frequently clashed by proxy through their street gangs. This often disrupted elections and threatened public order. Cicero, though primarily an observer, was caught up in conflict as tensions escalated. Eventually, the rivalry reached its bloody climax when the two factions clashed, and Clodius was killed in the chaos by one of Milo’s supporters. Milo would later be convicted of this murder.
In the aftermath of Clodius' death, his wife Fulvia intentionally stoked public outrage by parading his naked body through the streets, inflaming his supporters. The fallout led to Milo’s murder trial, during which Cicero, representing Milo, struggled to deliver a strong defense. Despite his estimable oratory skills, Cicero’s speech faltered under the intense pressure, and Milo was found guilty, resulting in his exile. Cicero later rewrote his speech, delivering a masterful piece of rhetoric, about which Milo wryly remarked that it would have been more useful had it been delivered during the trial. After his exile from Rome, Milo died after a stone’s throw to the head.
Ruins of Bovillae, a town a few miles from Rome, which earlier was the location of Clodius Pulcher's murder at the hands of Milo's gang.
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Clodius Pulcher was one of the most colorful and controversial figures in the late Roman Republic, a man whose audacity and populist appeal made him both a hero and an anti-hero. It’s hard not to root for some of his reckless schemes and marvel at his outrageous behavior, moves which defied Roman norms.
Despite his aristocratic birth, Clodius carved out a new identity as a champion of the populares, the faction representing the common people. He introduced the free grain dole to Rome and reinstated the collegia, essentially the unions of their day, as legal institutions. His relentless ambition, charisma, and willingness to flout tradition made him a force to be reckoned with and shocked the system. Clodius garnered immense support among the lower classes who saw in him a figure willing to challenge the established order. In a Rome increasingly divided along social and political lines, Clodius thrived on his ability to stir up the crowds, often using violence and intimidation to achieve his ends. He transformed political rivalry into street warfare, where gangs loyal to him clashed with those of his enemies, like his fierce rival, Milo.
Clodius' death on the Appian Way at the hands of Milo's supporters in 52 BC was a flashpoint that brought Rome to the brink of anarchy. Thanks in no small part to Fulvia’s provocations, his funeral became a riot, and his supporters burned down the Senate House (which, incidentally, is where Caesar likely would have met his end, rather than the Theater of Pompey, had it not burned down), It also showcased the deep societal fractures Clodius had helped to widen. In many ways, his life and death symbolized the decline of the Roman Republic, as politics became increasingly violent and populist figures like him exacerbated tensions between the classes.
His legacy, however, goes beyond his dramatic personal story. Clodius represents the audacious new breed of politician that emerged in the final years of the Republic — figures who blurred the lines between demagogue and reformer, anti-hero and agitator. In his hands, politics became a weapon of personal ambition and populist appeal. This helped fuel the crisis that would eventually lead to the Republic's collapse. Clodius' ability to pull outsiders into politics, to mobilize the masses against the Senate, and to inflame tensions that Julius Caesar and the Triumvirs later exploited, sealed his place in history as a catalyst for the end of the Roman Republic.
