« Dio 40.53 | Dio 40.54 | Dio 40.55 | About This Work »
54The courts convened in quiet in consequence of these reforms, and many were convicted on various charges, among others, Milo for the murder of Clodius, though he had Cicero to defend him. 2That orator, seeing Pompey and the soldiers in the court, contrary to custom, was alarmed and overwhelmed with dread, so that he did not deliver the speech he had prepared at all, but after uttering with difficulty a few words that all but died on his lips, was glad to retire. The speech which is now extant, purporting to have been delivered at that time in behalf of Milo, he wrote some time later and at leisure, when he had recovered his courage. Indeed, the following story has come down about it. 3When Milo, in banishment, had read the speech sent to him by Cicero, he wrote back saying that it was lucky for him those words had not been spoken in that form in the court; for he should not be eating such mullets in Massilia (where he was passing his exile), if any such defence had been made. 4This he wrote, not because he was pleased with his condition,—indeed, he made many efforts to secure his return,—but as a joke on Cicero, because the orator, after saying nothing useful at the time of the defence, had later composed and sent to him these fruitless words, as if they could then be of any service to him.
« Dio 40.53 | Dio 40.54 | Dio 40.55 | About This Work »