Publius Clodius

Publius Clodius Pulcher (c. December 93 BC – 52 BC, on January 18 of the pre-Julian calendar) was a Roman politician known for his popularist tactics. As tribune, he pushed through an ambitious legislative program, including a grain dole, but he is chiefly remembered for his feud with Marcus Tullius Cicero and Titus Annius Milo, whose bodyguards murdered him on the Appian Way.

A Roman nobilis of the patrician gens Claudia and a senator of an eccentric, mercurial and arrogant character, Clodius became a major if disruptive force in Roman politics during the rise of the First Triumvirate of Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar (60–53 BC). He passed numerous laws in the tradition of the populares (the Leges Clodiae), and has been called "one of the most innovative urban politicians in Western history".

Born Publius Claudius Pulcher in 93 BC, Clodius was the youngest son of Appius Claudius Pulcher. The identity of his mother's family continues to be one of the most disputed issues of 1st century BC Roman social history. Most likely she was a Servilia of the patrician Caepiones, daughter of Quintus Servilius Caepio, or a Caecilia Metella, sister of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer. Clodius affected the "plebeian" spelling of his nomen after his controversial adoption into the plebeian Fonteii in 59 BC.

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