A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome

by Emma Southon

On 18 January 52 BCE, Clodius was travelling with his entourage of gladiators and enslaved men, thirty enslaved men with arms according to Asconius, when he met his arch-nemesis, Milo, at Bovillae. After Milo had leapt on the armed gang bandwagon so enthusiastically, he had emerged in the politics of the 50s BCE as a real problem for Clodius. The two of them spent years having gang fights over whether Cicero should be allowed to return to Rome and taking it in turns to unsuccessfully prosecute one another for said gang fights. Their relationship was one of vehement antipathy. So when Clodius and his entourage met Milo and his on the Appian Way that day in 52 bce, the violent clash was tediously inevitable. Except, this time, one of Milo’s gladiators went too far.