When the consuls for the year 57 BCE assumed office, Rome was in bad shape.
Cicero had been banished from the city, Clodius and his supporters were on the streets, and
political violence was on the rise.
Two new consuls were walking into this mess: the first was Lentulus, a well respected politician
on friendly terms with Caesar and Pompey, as well as Cicero.
The second was Metellus Nepos.
He was not well respected.
He was a populist who had got into a bit of a tussle with Cato in 62 BCE, which had ended
with him being humiliated, and fleeing Rome in disgrace.
But he was one of Pompey's people, and Pompey's support was enough to secure for him the consulship.
Cicero's younger brother, Quintus, went to Pompey at the beginning of the year to make
a deal on his brother's behalf.
He promised that if Pompey could get Cicero's banishment lifted, Cicero would agree to not
criticize Pompey, Caesar, or Crassus openly.
Remember that these three were in a semi-secret alliance.
Pompey agreed, but he had to run it by his allies first.
So a messenger was sent to Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul.
Initially Caesar wasn't super supportive, he was still feeling sore towards Cicero for
not supporting his agenda during his year as Consul, but getting this kind of concession
out of one of Rome's most influential politicians was too good to pass up.
He agreed.
Crassus had no special quarrel with Cicero, so he was cool with it too.
With that, it was decided.
Pompey pulled some strings, and at the Senate's first meeting, Lentulus put forward a proposal
to lift Cicero's banishment.
Cicero's personal popularity in the Senate remained high, so that wasn't the problem.
The problem was that the Senate had been strong-armed by Clodius the year before, and had felt pressured
to force Cicero into exile.
But with Lentulus introducing the bill, and Metellus Nepos supporting it, and Pompey speaking
passionately on its behalf, everybody felt comfortable getting on board.
It passed with a huge majority.
As always, the legislation then went to a Public Assembly to be rubber-stamped by the
people.
Clodius was no longer in elected office, but he was still a senator, and had voted against
the bill.
And more importantly, he still had his gangs of supporters out on the streets.
On the day of the vote, Clodius showed up with his gang, which included bunch of gladiators,
armed with swords.
Let's not gloss over this.
Up to this point political violence had been somewhat normalized in Rome.
Pushing and shoving had become common.
Open street fights between different factions were becoming more and more frequent.
But make no mistake, Clodius was bringing this to a whole new level.
All of our sources say that he brought "gladiators," but don't forget that these were professional
killers, and Clodius was paying them.
We have a word for that: mercenaries.
Armed with swords.
Rome was supposed to be a demilitarized zone, and swords were forbidden in the city.
I can't overstate how significant this was.
This was looking more and more like an armed militia.
Clodius's supporters moved against the Public Assembly, and there's no other way to say
it, it was horrible.
Dead bodies covered the streets, and people fled in terror.
Several of the Tribunes of the Plebs were seriously wounded, which, let's not forget,
was a death penalty offense.
Cicero's brother Quintus was there to see the lifting of his brother's banishment, and
he survived the slaughter only by crawling under some bodies and pretending to be dead.
Titus Annius Milo was a popular, conservative Tribune of the Plebs, and for him this was
a life-altering experience.
He decided on that day that the only way to put an end to this political violence was
to fight fire with fire.
Milo rallied his supporters, and told them to take to the streets.
He then enlisted his own cadre of gladiators, or mercenaries, whatever we're calling them,
and illegally armed them with swords as well.
From that moment on, whenever Clodius showed up and started to cause trouble on the streets,
Milo responded by rallying his supporters and causing trouble in return.
Violent clashes broke out all over the city, and the death toll skyrocketed.
We have one description of the Tiber being filled with corpses, and the ground at the
Forum being covered in blood.
This wasn't just gangs getting into fistfights anymore, these were men armed to the teeth,
showing up with the intent to kill.
This was anarchy.
As the body count continued to rise, public opinion began to turn.
The mob violence was horrifying, and normal citizens began to call for Cicero's return.
There are two reasons for this.
First, people were hopeful that the violence would stop if Cicero's banishment was taken
off the table.
Second, Cicero was most well known for being the guy who restored order during the Catiline
Conspiracy.
This "rule of law" kind of conservatism was now looking pretty good, and as a result Cicero's
personal popularity soared.
If Cicero was popular in Rome, he was a rock-star in the rest of Italy.
He had been born a provincial Italian, not a native Roman, and the Italians viewed him
as one of their own.
It helped matters that he put in the work to maintain these relationships, especially
with some of the richer landowners in the countryside.
Pompey could sense that Rome was approaching a tipping point, so he went on a tour of Italy,
giving speeches and whipping up support.
People from all over the countryside began to flood into Rome to voice their support
for overturning Cicero's banishment.
With Cicero's popularity higher than ever, the consul Lentulus launched a trial balloon.
He introduced some legislation that didn't actually do anything except formally thank
everybody in Rome who was working to get Cicero's banishment lifted.
This passed with plenty of support, and got through the Public Assembly without any violence.
That was a good sign, so for the second time, he introduced the legislation that would formally
lift Cicero's banishment.
And again, Clodius voted against the bill, but it didn't matter.
It passed with plenty of support.
When it went before the People's Assembly, many powerful senators joined together and
spoke to the crowd in support of the bill.
Milo and his hired gladiators, armed with their swords, were lined up protecting the
stage.
Clodius showed up with his supporters, but when he saw Milo's show of force, that scared
him off.
The bill was approved by the Public Assembly pretty much unanimously.
Cicero was free to re-enter the city.
When he finally did, he was greeted with cheering crowds.
Cicero spoke before the Senate, and singled out Pompey, thanking him for working tirelessly
behind the scenes to get his banishment lifted.
And with Cicero finally back in the Senate, it was back to business.
The most pressing issue to attend to was the fact that Rome was currently in the middle
of a food shortage.
Clodius's grain program, which had been passed last year, had promised free food to the urban
poor.
Supply simply couldn't keep up, and Rome's granaries were dry.
Cicero suggested that the Senate appoint a special commissioner to take command of Rome's
agricultural supply chain.
This commissioner would have unilateral authority to go and fix the problem, with the power
to override regional governors or generals.
Cicero then suggested that Pompey be that man.
Lentulus seized on this idea, and formally put it before the Senate.
With Cicero's support, and the support of both consuls, it passed easily.
We can kind of piece together the deal that was made here.
Cicero's banishment gets lifted with the help of Pompey, and now Pompey gets a powerful
assignment with the help of Cicero.
Pompey left Rome to go and fix the grain situation, and, Pompey being Pompey, he did it in no
time at all, and made it look easy.
Cicero was emboldened by his renewed popularity, and had some scores to settle.
Shortly after Pompey left Rome, Cicero marched up to the Capitoline Hill with a small group
of supporters, took the tablet that listed Clodius's accomplishments during his term
as Tribune of the Plebs, and destroyed it.
He then gave a speech, arguing that none of Clodius's actions as Tribune of the Plebs
were valid, because his conversion from Patrician to Plebeian was illegal.
Keep in mind that Pompey and Caesar had been the ones to oversee this conversion.
Cicero had a legitimate feud with Clodius, but indirectly dragging Pompey and Caesar
into it makes it seem like Cicero was beginning to go back on his promise not to criticize
them openly.
Cicero was making an extremely controversial claim, and at the next Senate meeting Cato
slapped him down by saying that it would be highly irregular for them to overturn an entire
year's worth of legislation.
Cicero was clearly out for blood, which is why he had opened up with a full frontal assault
on Clodius's entire legislative legacy.
But with that avenue closed to him, Cicero began to make it clear that he was particularly
interested in overturning a specific piece of legislation, which he considered to be
a highly symbolic, lingering, personal attack against him.
While Cicero had been banished, Clodius had had Cicero's home in the center of Rome demolished
and had erected a temple to Liberty in its place.
To Cicero, this was a daily reminder of his humiliation, and he felt that the only way
to complete his political comeback was to rebuild his home.
The problem was, you couldn't just tear down a temple.
It was religious issue, which took him before a body we're now familiar with, the College
of Pontiffs.
Remember, Caesar was the Pontifex Maximus, which meant that he was supposed to oversee
the College of Pontiffs.
But he was off in Cisalpine Gaul, which meant that the College kind of governed itself.
Cicero made his arguments to them, and when he was done, the College discussed the case
behind closed doors.
Finally, they came to a decision, and made their report to the Senate.
The College decided that it didn't feel comfortable overturning all of Clodius's laws, since the
Senate had actually affirmed all of his actions when they had voted in favour of his legislation.
But, taking into account the Senate's acknowledgement that they had acted foolishly when they banished
Cicero, the College said that they would be comfortable with changing the designation
of the temple, allowing it to be demolished if Cicero wished.
On top of this ruling, the Senate voted to foot a portion of the bill to rebuild Cicero's
home.
This was a big symbolic victory for Cicero, even though he would go on to complain that
the Senate was deliberately snubbing him by refusing to pay 100% of the cost.
You just can't please some people.
Clodius was pretty upset by the Senate's rebuke, even if it was symbolic.
Once the construction crews started work on Cicero's home, Clodius had his gang attacked,
chasing them away.
This wasn't quite enough for them, so they also attacked Cicero's brother's home, which
was nearby, and set it on fire.
Not long after this, Cicero was walking down the street when Clodius's gang attacked him.
They were all throwing rocks, and he could see that some had swords.
He darted into the home of one of his supporters, and a crowd gathered outside to fended off
Clodius's gang.
When it's no longer safe for senators to go about their daily business, you know the political
violence is out of control.
The continuing threat of this violence had forced the elections to be postponed several
times.
But finally, late in the year, they were held, and Clodius was elected Aedile, proving once
and for all that his support remained strong, even after a year of setbacks at the hands
of Milo and Cicero.
At this point, Clodius and Milo were at each other's throats, each at the head of their
own militia.
Political rhetoric had reached unprecedented heights, with the two men openly threatening
to murder each other in public.
And sadly, it would only get worse.