accordance with the forms of the constitution. These men
remained in office each for five days, and it was customary that an
election which had been delayed should be completed within the days of
the second or third interrex. There were three candidates, Milo,
Hypsaeus, and Q. Metellus Scipio, by all of whom bribery and violence
were used with open and unblushing profligacy. Cicero was wedded to
Milo's cause, as we have seen from his letter to Curio, but it does not
appear that he himself took any active part in the canvass. The duties
to be done required rather the services of a Curio. Pompey, on the other
hand, was nearly as warmly engaged in favor of Hypsaeus and Scipio,
though in the turn which affairs took he seems to have been willing
enough to accept the office himself when it came in his way. Milo and
Clodius had often fought in the streets of Rome, each ruffian attended
by a band of armed combatants, so that in audacity, as Asconius says,
they were equal.

On the 20th of January Milo was returning to Rome from Lanuvium, where
he had been engaged, as chief magistrate of the town, in nominating a
friend for the municipality. He was in a carriage with his wife Fausta,
and with a friend, and was followed, as was his wont, by a large band of
armed men, among whom were two noted gladiators, Eudamus and Birria. At
Bovillae, near the temple of the Bona Dea, his cortege was met by Clodius
on horseback, who had with him some friends, and thirty slaves armed
with swords. Milo's attendants were nearly ten times as numerous. It is
not supposed by Asconius that either of the two men expected the
meeting, which may be presumed to have been fortuitous. Milo and Clodius
passed each other without words or blows--scowling, no doubt; but the
two gladiators who were at the end of the file of Milo's men began to
quarrel with certain of the followers of Clodius. Clodius interfered,
and was stabbed in the shoulder by Birria; then he was carried to a
neighboring tavern while the fight was in progress. Milo, having heard
that his enemy was there concealed--thinking that he would be greatly
relieved in his career by the death of such a foe, and that the risk
should be run though the consequences might be grave--caused Clodius to
be dragged out from the tavern and slaughtered. On what grounds Asconius
has attributed these probable thoughts to Milo we do not know. That the
order was given the jury believed, or at any rate affected to belie