e cannot but imagine that the winds
which Curio was called upon to govern were the tornadoes and squalls
which were to be made to rage in the streets of Rome to the great
discomfiture of Milo's enemies during his canvass. To such a state had
Rome come, that for the first six months of this year there were no
Consuls, an election being found to be impossible. Milo had been the
great opponent of Clodius in the city rows which had taken place
previous to the exile of Cicero. The two men are called by Mommsen the
Achilles and the Hector of the streets.[48] Cicero was of course on
Milo's side, as Milo was an enemy to Clodius. In this matter his feeling
was so strong that he declares to Curio that he does not think that the
welfare and fortunes of one man were ever so dear to another as now were
those of Milo to him. Milo's success is the only object of interest he
has in the world. This is interesting to us now as a prelude to the
great trial which was to take place in the next year, when Milo, instead
of being elected Consul, was convicted of murder.

In the two previous years Caesar had made two invasions into Britain, in
the latter of which Quintus Cicero had accompanied him. Cicero in
various letters alludes to this undertaking, but barely gives it the
importance which we, as Britons, think should have been attached to so
tremendous an enterprise. There might perhaps be some danger, he
thought, in crossing the seas, and encountering the rocky shores of the
island, but there was nothing to be got worth the getting. He tells
Atticus that he can hardly expect any slaves skilled either in music or
letters,[49] and he suggests to Trebatius that, as he will certainly
find neither gold nor slaves, he had better put himself into a British
chariot and come back in it as soon as possible.[50] In this year Caesar
reduced the remaining tribes of Gaul, and crossed the Rhine a second
time. It was his sixth year in Gaul, and men had learned to know what
was his nature. Cicero had discovered his greatness, as also Pompey must
have done, to his great dismay; and he had himself discovered what he
was himself; but two accidents occurred in this year which were perhaps
as important in Roman history as the continuance of Caesar's success.
Julia, Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife, died in childbed. She seems
to have been loved by all, and had been idolized from the time of the
marriage by her uxorious husband, who was more than twenty-four y