the limits to which Clodius' law confined him, and was at liberty to approach close to Italy and await the restoration which was drawing nigh.
Clodius had become intolerable in Rome. "Like Cæsar himself," writes Mommsen, "Cæsar's ape kept governorships and other posts great and small on sale for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, and sold the sovereign rights of the State for the benefit of subject kings and cities." "What region," asks[1] Cicero, "what district of any extent was there on the face of the earth, in which some principality was not set up? What king was there who did not recognise that it was time for him to buy what was another's right, or to pay black-mail for what was his own?"
Grown bold with impunity, Clodius at length ventured to cross the path of Pompey himself. He May, 58 B.C.accepted money from the King of Armenia to procure the release of his son, who had been brought to Rome as a hostage, and in pursuance of his bargain carried off the young prince from the custody in which Pompey had placed him. When Pompey tried to oppose force by force, Clodius not only defeated him in the streets, but attempted his life by means of an assassin. Pompey was obliged to barricade himself in his own house for the remainder of Clodius' year of office.
The departure of Cæsar's army and the estrangement of Pompey left the Romans more free to June, 58 B.C.express their real feelings as to Cicero's banishment. Though not one of Clodius' colleagues had dared to interpose his veto- ↑ Pro Sestio, 30, 66.
