“I AM A SON OF HADES!” Cries Lucius Vorenus(Kevin McKidd) after destroying a statue of Concordia, Roman goddess of harmony. But this was no random act of iconoclasm. Vorenus has been charged by First Counsel Mark Antony(James Purefoy) to stop a violent street war that has been brewing between the various gangs of Rome for control of the Aventine. After frightening the other gang bosses into submission by the destruction of Concodia, Vorenus is able to establish himself in the Roman underworld and quell the hostilities between the gangs; at least for the moment.
Though the following is a fictional scene from HBO’s Rome, Ancient Rome did have organized street gangs. The best account of these gangs can be found in Andrew William Lintott’s Violence in Republican Rome. In his book, Lintott describes what could be considered the first gang war in recorded history between Titus Annius Milo and Publius Clodius Pulcher. To the readers who are unfamiliar with Roman history, it should be noted that neither Milo nor Clodius made their living as street thugs; these men were not archaic Tony Sopranos. Both Clodius and Milo held political positions in the Roman Republic. The late Republic of Rome gives us a perfect example of how gangsters of the state and armed thugs can form a symbiotic relationship.
Clodius was a populist and wanted to hold the office of tribune of the plebeians, who were the free, land owning, non-aristocratic citizens of Rome. The problem was that Clodius was a patrician from the house of Claudius. Due to his noble birth, Clodius legally wasn’t allowed to become tribune of the plebs. Thankfully, for Clodius, this was all fixed by proconsul and Pontifex Maximus Gaius Julius Caesar. Before Caesar departed to his new command in the Gallic Wars of 58 B.C., he passed a law allowing Clodius to be adopted by a pleb named Fonteius, who was fifteen years younger than Clodius(1). In giving Clodius the opportunity to become Tribune of the Plebs, Caesar was unleashing a political gangster upon a political foe of a close ally; the infamous Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Cicero had made an enemy of both Marcus Licinius Crassus(who was apart of the First Triumvirate along with Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Caesar) and Clodius. Cicero was responsible for unraveling a conspiracy aimed at overthrowing the Republic, lead by Crassus’s protégé Catiline(2). Cicero also successfully struck down a land bill proposed by Publius Servilius Rullus, which would have given Crassus a political edge over Pompey(3). Cicero had crossed Clodius when he ousted him in the Bona Dea scandal. The Roman festival of Bona Dea(the good goddess) could only be attended by women. Clodius, either in jest or to continue an alleged affair with Caesar’s current wife, dressed up as a woman and attended the festival. After he was discovered at the festival, a mob of angry women attacked him; Cloidus barley escaped. Clodius’s stunt was considered such a sacrilege that he was brought to trial. His defense was that there was no way that he could have been at the festival, because he had been at an exhibition fifty miles away from Rome on the day in question. Cicero destroyed Clodius’s alibi by claiming that he had visited him the same day of the festival. There was no way that Clodius could have been fifty miles away from Rome and would have been able to visit Cicero in Rome on the same day. Even though Clodius was acquitted of all charges, he never forgave Cicero(4).
Elected as Tribune of the Plebs in 59 B.C., Clodius proposed a series of bills that would help him establish his gang. The first bill would reinstate and would allow the new organization of collegia, which functioned as associations for craftsmen, guilds, and religious cults. The majority of collegia were dismantled in 64 B.C. by the senate, after several of them were involved in the before mentioned failed Catiline conspiracy. Clodius eventually would use members of the collegia as enforcers of his own political will. The second bill that Clodius proposed would give free grain to all citizens of Rome, making him ever more popular with the plebs. Clodius was able to supply free grain to the people of Rome by adding the kingdom of Cyprus into the Roman Empire, which would increase the supply of the dole(5). To pass these bills, Clodius would count on Cicero for his support. While Cicero wholeheartedly agreed not to veto any of Clodius’s bills, once they were passed, he strongly supported a resolution to review Caesar’s acts as consul. With plebs pouring in to join Clodius’s new political organizations, he was building up and arming gangs that would try to silence both Cicero and Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, who were the two biggest threats to Caesar’s growing power. His criminal organization became so large that he had to appoint faithful lieutenants to take charge of a specific gang. The names of these ancient capos(6) are given to us by Cicero, but besides their names, nothing is really known about them(7). Soon after proposing that Cypress was absorbed into the expanding Roman Empire, Clodius also proposed a law that would force exile upon any Roman citizen that executed another Roman citizen without a proper trial. The proposal and eventual passing of this law was no random act. Four years before, in 64 B.C., Cicero condemned four members of the botched Catiline conspiracy to death without a proper trial. It was obvious that the passing of this law was in order to neutralize Cicero(8).
Realizing that political aid was not coming, Cicero fled to Greece in 58 B.C. Now with Caesar gone, Clodius began turning his armed gangs on those who helped him get elected. Pompey, who supported the public’s cry for Cicero’s return, was besieged by Clodius’s gang of armed thugs. Clodius threatened to kill Pompey and burn his house down if he continued to ask for the return of Cicero. After being roughed up in the street by Clodius’s thugs, Pompey would not leave his house. Since Roman armies could not legally enter the city, there was no armed force to stop Clodius‘s street gangs. In an effort to destabilize Clodius’s new powerful grip over the streets of Rome, Pompey supported Titus Annius Milo(9). Milo, a tribune himself, organized his own street gang to fight Clodius. But there was a big difference between the gangs of Clodius and Milo. Clodius’s gangs were mostly made up of loyal supporters of the collegia; either of craftsmen or slaves. Milo hired gladiators or mercenaries from outside of Rome to be apart of his gang. The two gangs clashed in the streets of Rome. Milo’s small band of mercenary gladiators easily defeated Clodius’s large force of dedicated volunteers(10).
As the violence between the two gangs continued, legally, it was ignored. In his book, Violence in Republican Rome, Linott states that as long as the gangs could prove that the other gang struck first, self defense was totally legal(11). But with the streets of Rome running red with blood, the plebs began to abandon the violent tactics of Clodius. In 57 B.C., when consideration of letting Cicero return to Rome was discussed, Clodius and his gang attacked the assembly, killing several in the Fourm. Cicero’s brother, Quintus Cicero, was only able to escape by hiding under a slain corpse(12). This type of violence was commonplace every time the return of Cicero was considered, even in the Senate. Clodius would strike, and Milo would respond with blood. Eventually, the vote to allow Cicero to return to Rome was passed, and he returned to cheering crowds in 57 B.C.
Cicero returned to a Rome on the brink of chaos. His return did not end the gang war between Clodius and Milo, and Cicero allied himself with Milo in an attempt to defeat Clodius. Beside the streets of Rome in shambles, the Senate was equally in poor shape. Without Cicero’s skeptical voice in the senate, glorified tales of Caesar’s victories in Gaul strengthened his political support immensely. Soon even Crassus(part of the First Triumvirate) departed Rome for war against the Parthians, where eventually his army would be decimated; leaving Caesar as the new great general of Rome.
The animosity between the two gangs continued. Clodius harassed Cicero with violence. Armed men chased off workers building Cicero’s new house, and Clodius, accompanied with an armed entourage, would stalk Cicero through the city; waiting for their time to strike(13). The gang violence lasted until 52 B.C., when Clodius was finally struck down in a gang battle on the Appian Way. In his book Pompey: The Republican Prince, Peter Greenhalgh describes Clodius’s demise:
“On 18 January the crisis was precipitated by a fatal encounter between Clodius and Milo on the Appian Way, the former riding back to Rome from a visit to Aricia, the latter driving out to Lanuvium. As they passed each other, one of the gladiators in Milo’s armed entourage picked a quarrel with one of Clodius’ slaves, and when Clodius looked round to see what was happening, he was spitted by a javelin. The Clodians carried their wounded leader into a wayside inn, but Milo had him hauled out and finished off in the middle of the road.”
After Clodius’s murder, Sextus Clodius, a relative of Clodius, took over his gangs and exacted revenge on the city. Clodius’s naked body was carried through the city, deposited in the Senate House, and then it was set on fire, acting as a funeral pyre. Milo’s house was attacked by Clodius’s men, only to be fended off by archers. Anyone walking the streets was harassed or even murdered(14).
Out of desperation to end the violence, the Senate decided to make Pompey sole consul(Crassus died in 53 and Caesar was in Gaul, leaving Pompey the sole power in the city), giving him dictatorship powers. The Senate was so desperate, that even the strict constitionalist Cato agreed to the decree. Pompey now had the power to raise troops to restore order to the city. As Consul, Pompey passed a series of laws that exasperated the relationship between he and Caesar and isolated Caesar’s allies, which helped lead to the oncoming civil war(15). Milo was blamed for Clodius’s death and was brought to trial. Cicero came to his defense, but the unrelenting plebs would often interrupt his speaking, despite Pompey’s soldiers standing by. Milo would eventually be condemned for Clodius’s death, and faced exile in modern day Marseille. Three years after Pompey was made lead consul to end the violence sparked by this gang war, Caesar and his army crossed the Rubicon. Caesar taking his legions pass this river was one of the most vile acts of treason a Roman could commit, and it would be the beginning of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, signaling the end of the Republic.
Would have Caesar allowed Clodius to become Tribune of the Plebs if he would have known what violence he would have unleashed upon Rome? It’s hard to say. For a brief period of time, Clodius could have been considered the most powerful man in Rome, surpassing even Pompey and Caesar. Illegally taking his legions across the Rubicon upon his return to Rome, it would be hard to say if Caesar, if he wasn’t away in Gaul, would have waited for the Senate to give him legal power to deal with the violence caused by these organized gangs. According to Cicero in his Pro Milone, his speech defending Milo, he claimed that Mark Antony tried to assassinate Clodius earlier in 53 B.C. Antony, who was a former member of Clodius’s gang, at this time was openly Caesar’s man. It could be that Caesar, resenting Clodius for seizing street power in Rome, could have put his loyal friend up to assassinating Clodius in the forum . Rather Caesar ordered the death of Clodius or not, the assassination attempt failed. Clodius was able to avoid death this time, just to meet it on the Appian way months later. It should be mentioned that although most historians regard Cicero’s claim about this attempt to be true, there are skeptics. Notably among them is Dean Anthony Alexander of the University of Otago, whose paper, Marc Anthony’s Assault of Publius Clodius: Fact or Ciceronian Fiction?, which is available online, suggests that either Cicero invented the assassination attempt against Clodius, or he radically misinterpreted it to the public.
It would be grossly inaccurate to claim that the Roman Republic collapsed simply because of organized gang warfare in Rome, but it being one of the principal factors certainly deserves more discussion. Because of Clodius and Milo’s gang war, Pompey was given dictatorship powers over Rome, which exasperated the tension between Pompey and Caesar, leading to civil war and the death of the Republic.
Endnotes
(1) In his book, The Education of Julius Caesar, Arthur D. Kahn references the adoption ceremony that Caesar performed for Clodius.
(2) W.K. Lacey, in his book Cicero, goes into detail about Cicero’s speeches against Catiline.
(3) Peter Greenhalgh references the proposed land bills proposed by Rullus, and how Pompey benefited from them being struck down by Cicero, in Pompey: The Republican Prince.
(4) The entire Bona Dea scandal, and Clodius’s alleged affair with Caesar’s wife, can be found in Kahn’s The Education of Julius Caesar.
(5) A majority of Clodius’s acts as Tribune of the Plebs can be found in F.R. Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic.
(6) A Capo or Caporegime is a ranking term used in the hierarchy of the Mafia. A Capo is a captain of a crew of soldiers.
(7) Cicero gives the names of Clodius’s lieutenants in de Domo sua, his speech against Clodius. It can also be found in Andrew Linott's Violence in Republican Rome.
(8) Clodius passing this law, and its effects on Cicero can be found in Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic.
(9) Clodius’s harassment of Pompey can be found in Greenhalgh’s Pompey: The Republican Prince.
(10) Descriptions of the two gangs can be found in Linott's Violence in Republican Rome.
(11) Again, see Linott’s Violence in Republican Rome.
(12) Clodius’s exploits can be found in any of the sources listen thus far, but Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic is recommended.
(13) Clodius’s harrasment of Cicero can be found in Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic.
(14) The details of the aftermath of Clodius’s death can be found in Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic and in Kahn’s The Education of Julius Caesar.
(15) Discussed in Kahn’s The Education of Julius Caesar.
