des. The party of Clodius was overpowered, and Clodius
himself, exhausted by his wound, took refuge in a roadside tavern, which
probably marked the first stage out of Rome. Milo, thinking that now he
had gone so far he might go a little further and rid himself of his
enemy forever, ordered his slaves to drag Clodius from his refuge and
finish him. This was promptly done. Cicero indeed declared that the
slaves did it without orders, and in the belief that their master had
been killed. But Rome believed the other story. The corpse of the dead
man lay for some time upon the road uncared for, for all his attendants
had either fallen in the struggle or had crept into hiding-places. Then
a Roman gentleman on his way to the city ordered it to be put into his
litter and taken to Rome, where it arrived just before nightfall. It was
laid out in state in the hall of his mansion, and his widow stood by
showing the wounds to the sympathizing crowd which thronged to see his
remains. Next day the excitement increased. Two of the tribunes
suggested that the body should be carried into the market-place, and
placed on the hustings from which the speaker commonly addressed the
people. Then it was resolved, at the suggestion of another Clodius, a
notary, and a client of the family, to do it a signal honor. "Thou shalt
not bury or burn a man within the city" was one of the oldest of Roman
laws. Clodius, the favorite of the people, should be an exception. His
body was carried into the Hall of Hostilius, the usual meeting-place of
the Senate. The benches, the tables, the platform from which the orators
spoke, the wooden tablets on which the clerks wrote their notes, were
collected to make a funeral pile on which the corpse was to be consumed.
The hall caught fire, and was burned to the ground; another large
building adjoining it, the Hall of Porcius, narrowly escaped the same
fate. The mob attacked several houses, that of Milo among them, and was
with difficulty repulsed.

It had been expected that Milo would voluntarily go into exile; but the
burning of the senate-house caused a strong reaction of feeling of which
he took advantage. He returned to Rome, and provided to canvass for the
consulship, making a present in money (which may be reckoned at
five-and-twenty shillings) to every voter. The city was in a continual
uproar; though the time for the new consuls to enter on their office was
long past, they had not even been elected, nor was the