Publius Clodius Pulcher

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 1.16 §2 the law about the sacrilege

  The special-court bill set up to try Clodius for violating the December 62 BC rites of Bona Dea, which he had infiltrated disguised as a woman. The dispute was over how the jury would be empanelled.

• Ad Atticum 1.18 §2 the case of the Clodian play

  The trial of P. Clodius Pulcher for sacrilege: in December 62 BC he had intruded, disguised as a woman, on the all-female rites of the Bona Dea held in Caesar's house. Cicero testified against him in the trial of 61 BC; Clodius was acquitted by a bribed jury, becoming Cicero's bitterest enemy.

• Ad Atticum 1.18 §4 transferring Publius Clodius to the plebs

  Clodius, a patrician, sought adoption into a plebeian family (transitio ad plebem) so as to stand for the tribunate, an office barred to patricians. He achieved it in 59 BC and used the tribunate of 58 to drive Cicero into exile.

• Ad Atticum 1.19 §5 transferring Publius Clodius to the plebs

  Clodius, a patrician, sought adoption into a plebeian family (transitio ad plebem) so he could hold the tribunate; the tribune Herennius pushed it. The scheme, repeatedly vetoed in 60, succeeded in 59 and led to Clodius's tribunate and Cicero's exile.

• Ad Atticum 2.1 §4 the madness of Pulchellus

  "Pulchellus" (little Pulcher) is Cicero's contemptuous diminutive for P. Clodius Pulcher, then maneuvering to become a plebeian so he could hold the tribunate. The consul Metellus Celer was blocking him.

• Ad Atticum 2.12 §1 Publius has been made a plebeian

  P. Clodius Pulcher, a patrician, had himself adopted into a plebeian family (transitio ad plebem) so he could stand for the tribunate. Caesar as consul and Pompey as augur pushed the irregular adoption through in 59 BC; Cicero treats the denial that it happened as outright "kingship."

• Ad Atticum 2.15 §2 Surely the hope is in Publius

  Heavily ironic. P. Clodius, who became tribune of the plebs in 58, would drive Cicero into exile; here Cicero pretends to long for the "spectacle" of his tribunate as entertainment to be watched with Atticus.

• Ad Atticum 2.18 §3 the shame of little Pulcher

  "Little Pulcher" (Pulchellus) is Cicero's contemptuous diminutive for P. Clodius Pulcher, whose adoption to the plebs and impending tribunate threatened him with prosecution and exile.

• Ad Atticum 2.22 §1 our little Pulcher

  Pulchellus, a contemptuous diminutive of P. Clodius Pulcher's cognomen --- "little Pulcher." Cicero's habitual sneering nickname for his enemy, who was about to enter his tribunate (December 59 BC) and would drive Cicero into exile.

• Ad Atticum 2.22 §2 armed by allowing him to be made a plebeian

  Clodius, a patrician, could only hold the tribunate after a transitio ad plebem, his adoption into a plebeian family. Pompey and Caesar had permitted this in 59 BC; Pompey now feels honour-bound, having armed Clodius, to restrain him from attacking Cicero.

• Ad Atticum 2.23 §3 the kinsman of our Ox-Eyed Hera

  A double riddle: the "Ox-Eyed Hera" (Greek boopis, Homer's epithet for the goddess) is Clodia, scandalously rumoured to be intimate with her brother, and her "kinsman" is therefore P. Clodius Pulcher. Clodius is now openly threatening Cicero with his coming tribunate.

• Ad Atticum 4.2 §3 he who said he had dedicated

  The pontiffs' ruling turned on a technicality: a valid dedication required that the man performing it be named to the task by a vote of the people. Since Clodius had no such authorisation, the consecration could be lifted.

• Ad Atticum 4.3 §2 set on fire by Clodius's order

  P. Clodius Pulcher, Cicero's chief enemy, who as tribune in 58 BC had engineered his exile and razed his house. Here his armed gangs torch the rebuilding works and the house of Cicero's brother Quintus.

• Ad Atticum 4.7 §2 unless he made Publius

  P. Clodius Pulcher, Cicero's enemy and Metellus's kinsman. Cicero jokes that whoever Metellus named as heir is a decent man so long as it was not Clodius.

• Ad Atticum 11.23 §3 the statue of Clodius

  Dolabella, tribune in 47 BC, revived the radical politics of P. Clodius Pulcher — pushing debt-cancellation and erecting a statue of the dead demagogue who had once driven Cicero into exile. That his own son-in-law should take up Clodius's cause cut Cicero deeply.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.17 §1 Bestia and Clodius were to reproach his consulship

  Publius Clodius Pulcher, the populist tribune of 58 BC who passed the law sending Cicero into exile, was Cicero's bitterest enemy; Clodius made political capital of the unconstitutional execution of the Catilinarians throughout his career until his death in 52 BC.

• Ad Familiares 1.7 §7 the levity and weakness of Clodius

  P. Clodius Pulcher, Cicero's great enemy who had engineered his exile; by 56 BC his political grip was loosening (Milo's gangs checking his), which Lentulus had congratulated Cicero upon.

• Ad Familiares 1.9 §2 that perennial enemy of his own friends

  P. Clodius Pulcher, never named in the letter; the man Lentulus's kindnesses had advanced who then turned on him. By 54 BC Clodius's career had collapsed in scandal and street violence.

• Ad Familiares 1.9 §15 that fury of feminine rites

  Clodius again unnamed, branded by his profanation of the Bona Dea mysteries in 62 BC (he entered Caesar's house disguised as a woman). His acquittal, Cicero says, removed the precedent for punishing sedition.

• On Duties §2.58 Publius Clodius

  Publius Clodius Pulcher, the demagogic tribune of 58 BC who engineered Cicero's exile; his gangs were eventually checked by Milo. He was killed in a clash with Milo's men in 52 BC.

• Against Piso §21 that funeral creature

  P. Clodius Pulcher, tribune of the plebs 58 BC, who carried Cicero's exile. The 'wicked debauchery, civil bloodshed' refer to the Bona Dea scandal of 62 BC.