A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50% Coss-P. Corn. Lent. Spinther. Q Cæc. Metel. Nepos. the account of his late conduct in favour of Pompey, by explaining the motives, and shewing the necessity of it; contriving at the same time to turn the odium on the other side, by running over the history of Clodius's tribunate, and painting all its violences in the most lively colours; but the question on which the cause singly turned, was about the efficacy of the pretended consecration of the house, and the dedication of the temple: to shew the nullity, therefore, of this act, he endeavours to overthrow the very foundation of it," and prove Clodius's tribunate to be originally "null and void, from the invalidity of his adoption, "on which it was entirely grounded:" he shews, "that the sole end of adoption, which the laws acacknowledged, was to supply the want of children, by borrowing them as it were from other families ; “that it was an essential condition of it, that he who "adopted had no children of his own, nor was in con"dition to have any: that the parties concerned were "obliged to appear before the priests, to signify their "consent, the cause of the adoption, the circumstan 66 66 ces of the families interested in it, and the nature of "their religious rites; and that the priests might judge of the whole, and see that there was no fraud or deceit in it, nor any dishonour to any family or 66 66 person concerned: that nothing of all this had been "observed in the case of Clodius: that the adopter "was not full twenty years old, when he adopted a senator, who was old enough to be his father: that "he had no occasion to adopt, since he had a wife "and children, and would probably have more, which A Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lent. Spinther. Q. Cæc. Metel. Nepos. -66 "he must necessarily disinherit by this adoption, if it "was real: that Clodius had no other view than, by "the pretence of an adoption, to make himself a ple"beian and tribune, in order to overturn the state; "that the act itself, which confirmed the adoption, was null and illegal, being transacted while Bibulus "was observing the auspices, which was contrary to express law, and huddled over in three hours by "Cæsar, when it ought to have been published for "three market days successively, at the interval of "nine days each*: that if the adoption was irregu"lar and illegal, as it certainly was, the tribunate "must needs be so too, which was entirely built up" on it: but granting the tribunate, after all, to be "valid, because some eminent men would have it so, 66 yet the act made afterwards for his banishment could "not possibly be considered as a law, but as a privi lege only, made against a particular person, which "the sacred laws, and the laws of the twelve tables, "had utterly prohibited: that it was contrary to the 66 very constitution of the republic, to punish any citizen, either in body or goods, till he had been ac❝cused in proper form, and condemned of some crime 66 by competent judges: that privileges, or laws to in"flict penalties on single persons by name, without a legal trial, were cruel and pernicious, and nothing "better than proscriptions, and of all things not to be "endured in their city +." Then, in entering upon * Pro dom. 13, 14, 15, 16. Ib. 17. in privos homines leges ferri noluerunt; id est enim privilegium: quo quid est injustius? de Legib. 3. 19. A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lent. Spinther. Q. Cæc. Metel. Nepos the question of his house, he declares, " that the whole "effect of his restoration depended upon it; that if "it was not given back to him, but suffered to re"main a monument of triumph to his enemy, of grief "and calamity to himself, he could not consider it as “a restoration, but a perpetual punishment: that his "house stood in the view of the whole people, and if "it must continue in its present state, he should be "forced to remove to some other place, and could “never endure to live in that city, in which he must always see trophies erected both against himself and "the republic: the house of Sp. Melius," says he, "who affected a tyranny, was levelled; and by the "name of Equimelium, given to the place, the peo 66 66 66 66 ple confirmed the equity of his punishment: the "house of Sp. Cassius was overturned also for the "same cause, and a temple raised upon it to Tellus : "M. Vaccus's house was confiscated and levelled; and, to perpetuate the memory of his treason, the place is still called Vaccus's meadows: M. Manlius likewise, after he had repulsed the Gauls from the Capitol, not content with the glory of that service, "was adjudged to aim at dominion, so that his house "was demolished, where you now see the two groves planted must I therefore suffer that punishment, which our ancestors inflicted as the greatest, on "wicked and traitorous citizens, that posterity may "consider me, not as the oppressor, but the author " and captain of the conspiracy *?" When he comes 66 *Pro dom. 37, 38. 66 66 66 66 A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lent. Spinther. Q. Cæc. Metel. Nepos. "that to speak of the dedication itself, he observes, "the goddess Liberty, to which the temple was dedicated, was the known statue of a celebrated strumpet, which Appius brought from Greece, for the ornament of his ædileship: and, upon dropping the thoughts of that magistracy, gave orders to his bro"ther Clodius to be advanced to a deity *: that the ceremony was performed without any licence or judgment obtained from the college of priests, by "the single ministry of a young raw man, the bro"ther-in-law of Clodius, who had been made priest "but a few days before; a mere novice in his busi"ness, and forced into the service +: but if all had "been transacted regularly, and in due form, that it "could not possibly have any force, as being contrary to the standing laws of the republic: for there was an old tribunician law made by Q. Papirius, which prohibited the consecration of houses, lands, or al"tars, without the express command of the people; which was not obtained, nor even pretended in the present case that great regard had always been paid to this law in several instances of the gravest "kind: that Q. Marcius, the censor, erected a statue "of Concord in a public part of the city, which C. "Cassius afterwards, when censor, removed into the "senate-house, and consulted the college of priests, "whether he might not dedicate the statue and the "house also itself to Concord: upon which M. Æmilius, "the high-priest, gave answer, in the name of the 46 66 86 66 66 66 A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lent. Spinther. Q. Cæc. Metel. Nepos. college, that unless the people had deputed him by name, and he acted in it by their authority, they were of opinion that he could not rightly dedicate "them*: that Licinia also, a vestal virgin, dedicated "an altar and little temple under the sacred rock; upon which S. Julius, the prætor, by order of the "senate, consulted the college of priests; for whom "P. Scævola, the high-priest, gave answer, that what "Licinia had dedicated in a public place, without any "order of the people, could not be considered as sa"cred: so that the senate enjoined the prætor to see "it desecrated, and to efface whatever had been in"scribed upon it: after all this, it was to no purpose, "he tells them, to mention what he had proposed to speak to in the last place, that the dedication was "not performed with any of the solemn words and "rites which such a function required, but by the ig"norant young man before mentioned, without the 66 66 66 66 help of his colleagues, his books, or any to prompt "him; especially when Clodius, who directed him, "that impure enemy to all religion, who often acted "the woman among men, as well as the man among women, huddled over the whole ceremony in a blundering, precipitate manner, faultering and con"founded in mind, voice, and speech, often recalling himself, doubting, fearing, hesitating, and performing every thing, quite contrary to what the sacred "books prescribed: nor is it strange, says he, that in an act so mad and villainous, his audaciousness 66 66 *Pro dom. 51. 53. |