The trial began on the morning of the fourth day of the month of Aprilis with the examination of witnesses in the courtyard of the temple of Liberty. Presiding over the courts from a raised tribunal was the former consul L. Domitious Ahenobarbus. Testimony was given before a panel of 360 potential jurors who sat on raised bleachers on either side of the courtyard...selected from a list of eligible senators and landowners provided by Pompey...81 would ultimately be chosen.
Milo and his advocates, Cicero and M.Claudius Marcellus sat with their secretaries on benches facing the tribunal as did the prosecutors, Clodius's nephew A. Claudius, P. Valerius Nepos and M. Antonius....numerous officers of the court, including a battery of secretaries to record the testimony in Tironian shorthand.
A huge crowd gathered at the open end of the courtyard.
The first witness was G.. Causinius Schola (who) testified that Clodius's party had met and passed Milo's larger party close to the tenth hour of the day; that a scuffle had broken out among the rear guards of the two parties...suspected that Milo's men had started it...etc. (When Marcellus began the cross examination) there was an eruption of jeering from the crowd, drowning him out. A stone struck him in the back. The mob still screaming and jeering, began to rush toward the tribunal, knocking down bystanders.
Domitius shouted furiously at the prosecutors (who) shrugged helplessly. Milo and his party retreated into the temple of Liberty. Satisfied, the mob occupied the tribunal. They began to stamp their feet and recite lewd chants. Rumor that Pompey was coming with a troop of armed soldiers caused the mob to break up.
Thus ended the first day...
The next day began much as the first...Pompey had assigned troops to keep order during the trial. The hearing of witnesses resumed.
"The third day of testimony began with the lst of the witnesses from the vicinity of Bovillae... Cicero called M. Cato...(who) gave secondhand testimony to the effect that a certain M. Favonius had passed along a remark to him which Clodius had made exactly three days before the fatal incident...(that Clodius told Favonius that T.Annius Milo would be dead within 3 days." This last day of testimony ended with Fulvia and Sempronia's weeping testimony. Cicero did not cross examine the women.
"On the fourth and final day of Milo's trial", taverns were closed and Pompey's troops were everywhere. Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly.
"The officials of the court brought out three large urns; these contained the wooden balls on which each potential juror had written his name. Balls were chosen by lot until eighty one jurors had been selected"
The prosecutors gave their arguments, which were short but potent. Nepos gave the opening argument describing the incident. Marcus Antonius delivered the middle speech making the case that this was premeditated murder engineered by Milo and Appius Claudius, Clodius' nephew deliver an emotional finale filled with pathos and making references to the great Claudian family.
" Milo was there clad in a pure white, stainless toga, freshly groomed. A Roman defemdant is expected to look as wretched as he possibly can, in order to play upon the sympathy of the jurors. This is often merely a formality but everyone goes along with it out of respect for legal tradition. by showing up looking as if he were paying court to the widow or posing for his portrait, Milo was deliberately thumbing his nose not only at the jury but at the whole judicial process. "
When it was time for Cicero to speak, he seemed clumsy, his voice shoot and the crowd began to shout. Cicero began to stammer and the crowd grew louder. " He was the very portrait of a man cowed by fear. He stuttered, averted his eyes, broke out in a sweat, stumbled over his lines. He was like an actor crippled by stage fright." Cicero concluded his speech. Each juror was given a tables with wax on each side. The lette A for absolvo was on one side and C for condemno on the others. The juror wiped out one letter and the tablets were collected so that each vote remained secret. The vote was 38-13 to condemn.
J. Jahnige, Oct. 2003 - from 'Murder on the Appian Way', pp 245-263
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