Page "Publius Clodius Pulcher" Paragraph 15

In 64 BC Clodius went to Gaul on Lucius Murena's command staff.

He returned to Rome with his commander in 63 in time for the elections at which Murena secured his family's first consulate, mainly with the help of Lucullus ' army veterans and the consul Cicero, Clodius almost certainly having assisted as well.

Catiline's defeat at the same elections was the signal to begin his attempt at a violent coup d ' état, with the aim of slaughtering most of the nobility, especially the plebeian nobles and senators, and setting up a small patrician-dominated oligarchy.

Although Clodius was still patrician and it later suited Cicero to portray him as a participant in the Catilinarian conspiracy, Clodius was not involved.

On the contrary, he maintained his protective closeness to Murena and the cause of the optimates, rendering Cicero every assistance.

As the great drama of the detection and arrest of the conspirators unfolded, Clodius appears to have joined the many other equestrian and noble youths who clustered about the consul as an informal but potent and intimidating bodyguard.