Publius Clodius Pulcher

Who was Publius Clodius Pulcher?

Publius Clodius Pulcher 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. He passed numerous laws in the tradition of the populares, 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.