uld be transacted in
the commonwealth or any suit introduced.

[-20-] For a season Milo served as a shield for their abuses and
assassinations, but about this time some portents occurred. In Albanum a
small temple of Juno, set on a kind of table facing the east, was turned
around to the west; a flash of light starting from the south shot across
to the north; a wolf entered the city; an earthquake occurred; some of
the citizens were killed by a thunderbolt; in Latin territory a
subterranean tumult was distinctly heard: and the soothsayers, being
anxious to produce a remedy, said that some spirit was angry with them
because of some temples or sites not inhabited for holy purposes. Then
Clodius substituted Cicero for Milo and attacked him vigorously in
speeches because he had built upon the foundation of the house dedicated
to Liberty; and once he went to it, with the apparent intention of
razing it anew to the ground, though he did not do so, being prevented
by Milo. [-21-] Cicero was angry at such treatment and kept making
complaints, and finally with Milo and some tribunes as attendants he
ascended the Capitol and took down the tablets set up by Clodius to
commemorate his exile. This time Clodius came up with his brother Gaius,
a praetor, and took them away from him, but later he watched for a time
when Clodius was out of town, ascended the Capitol again, took them and
carried them home. After this occurrence no quarter was shown on either
side, but they abused and slandered each other as much as they could,
without refraining from the basest means. One declared that the
tribuneship of Clodius had been contrary to law and that therefore his
deeds in office had no authority, and the other that Cicero's exile had
been justly decreed and his restoration unlawfully voted.

[-22-]While they were contending, and Clodius was getting much the worst
of it, Marcus Cato came upon the scene and made them equal. He had a
grudge against Cicero and was likewise afraid that all his acts in
Cyprus would be annulled, because he had been sent out under Clodius as
tribune: hence he readily took sides with the latter. He was very proud
of his deeds and anxious above all things that they should be confirmed.
For Ptolemy, who at that time was master of the island, when he learned
of the vote that had been passed, and neither dared to rise against the
Romans nor could endure to live, deprived of that province, had taken
his life by drinking p