[35]
“Oh, but his hatred prevailed with him; he slew him in a passion;
he slew him because he was his enemy; he acted as the avenger of his own
injury; he was exacting atonement to appease his private
indignation.” But what will you say if these feelings, I do not
say existed in a greater degree in Clodius than in Milo, but if they existed
in the greatest possible degree in the former, and not at all in the latter?
What will you require beyond that? For why should Milo have hated Clodius,
the material and ground-work of his glory, except as far as that hatred
becoming a citizen goes, with which we hate all worthless men? There was
plenty of reason for Clodius to hate Milo, first, as the defender of my
safety; secondly, as the repressor of his frenzy, the defeater of his arms;
and lastly, also, as his prosecutor. For Clodius was liable to the
prosecution of Milo, according to the provisions of the Plotian law, as long
as he lived. And with what feelings do you suppose that that tyrant bore
that? how great do you suppose was his hatred towards him? and, indeed, how
reasonable a hatred was it for a wicked man to entertain.
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