Publius Clodius Pulcher Publius Clodius Pulcher (c. December 93
BC – 52 BC, on January 18th 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 is chiefly remembered for his feud with Cicero
and Milo, whose supporters murdered him in the street. A Roman
nobilis of the patrician gens Claudia, and a senator of "bold
and extreme" character, he became a major, if disruptive, force
in Roman politics during the rise of the First Triumvirate of
Pompey, Crassus and 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." Recent scholarship, especially the 1999
biography by W. Jeffrey Tatum, has tried to counteract a largely
hostile tradition based on the invective of his opponent Cicero
and to present a more balanced picture of Clodius's politics.
Beginnings and rise F