llia assuum"--perhaps something over ten pounds to
every man. Both he and Caelius harangued the people, and declared that
Clodius had begun the fray. But no Consuls could be elected while the
city was in such a state, and Pompey, having been desired to protect the
Republic in the usual form, collected troops from all Italy.
Preparations were made for trying Milo, and the friends of each party
demanded that the slaves of the other party should be put to the torture
and examined as witnesses; but every possible impediment and legal
quibble was used by the advocates on either side. Hortensius, who was
engaged for Milo, declared that Milo's slaves had all been made free men
and could not be touched. Stories were told backward and forward of the
cruelty and violence on each side. Milo made an offer to Pompey to
abandon his canvass in favor of Hypsaeus, if Pompey would accept this as
a compromise. Pompey answered, with the assumed dignity that was common
to him, that he was not the Roman people, and that it was not for him to
interfere.

It was then that Pompey was created sole Consul at the instigation of
Bibulus. He immediately caused a new law to be passed for the management
of the trial which was coming on, and when he was opposed in this by
Caelius, declared that if necessary he would carry his purpose by force
of arms. Pretending to be afraid of Milo's violence, he remained at
home, and on one occasion dismissed the Senate. Afterward, when Milo
entered the Senate, he was accused by a Senator present of having come
thither with arms hidden beneath his toga; whereupon he lifted his toga
and showed that there were none. Asconius tells us that upon this
Cicero declared that all the other charges made against the accused were
equally false. This is the first word of Cicero's known to us in the
matter.

Two or three men declared that because they had been present at the
death of Clodius they had been kidnapped and kept close prisoners by
Milo; and the story, whether true or false, did Milo much harm. It seems
that Milo became again very odious to the people, and that their hatred
was for the time extended to Cicero as Milo's friend and proposed
advocate. Pompey seems to have shared the feeling, and to have declared
that violence was contemplated against himself. "But such was Cicero's
constancy," says Asconius, "that neither the alienation of the people
nor the suspicions of Pompey, no fear of what might befall himself at
t