Mil. 17.1Quem ad modum igitur eum diēs nōn fefellit?How, then, did the day not escape him? Mil. 17.1Dīxī equidem modo.I told you just now. Mil. 17.1Dictātōris Lānuvīnī stata sacrificia nōsse negōtī nihil erat.To know the fixed sacrifices of the dictator of Lanuvium was no trouble at all. Mil. 17.1Vīdit necesse esse Milōnī proficīscī Lānuvium illō ipsō quō est profectus diē: itaque antevertit.He saw that Milo had to set out for Lanuvium on the very day on which he did set out: and so he got in first. Mil. 17.1At quō diē?But on what day? Mil. 17.1Quō, ut ante dīxī, fuit īnsānissima cōntiō ab ipsīus mercennāriō tribūnō plēbis concitāta: quem diem ille, quam contiōnem, quōs clamōrēs, nisi ad cōgitātum facinus approperāret, numquam relīquisset.On the day on which, as I said before, a most frenzied public meeting was stirred up by his own hired tribune of the plebs: a day, a meeting, an uproar which he would never have left unless he were hurrying to a premeditated crime. Mil. 17.1Ergō illī nē causa quidem itineris, etiam causa manendī;So he had not even a reason for the journey, and had besides a reason for staying; Mil. 17.1Milōnī manendī nūlla facultās, exeundī nōn causa sōlum sed etiam necessitās fuit.Milo had no possibility of staying, and not only a reason but even a necessity for leaving.
Mil. 17.1Quid sī, ut ille scīvit Milōnem fore eō diē in viā, sīc Clōdium Milō nē suspicārī quidem potuit?What if, just as he knew that Milo would be on the road that day, so Milo could not even suspect the same of Clodius? Mil. 17.46Prīmum quaerō quī id scīre potuerit?First I ask how he could have known it? Mil. 17.46quod vōs īdem in Clōdiō quaerere nōn potestis.a question you cannot likewise ask in the case of Clodius. Mil. 17.46Vt enim nēminem alium nisi T. Patinam, familiārissimum suum, rogāsset, scīre potuit illō ipsō diē Lānuvī ā dictātōre Milōne prōdī flāminem necesse esse.For even if he had asked no one but Titus Patina, his closest friend, he could have known that on that very day a flamen had to be nominated at Lanuvium by Milo as dictator. Mil. 17.46Sed erant permultī aliī ex quibus id facillimē scīre posset: omnēs scīlicet Lānuvīnī.But there were very many others from whom he could most easily have learnt it: all the people of Lanuvium, of course. Mil. 17.46Milō dē Clōdī reditū unde quaesīvit?From whom did Milo inquire about Clodius' return?
Mil. 17.46Quaesierit sānē—vidēte quid vōbīs largiar—servum etiam, ut Q. Arrius, amīcus meus, dīxit, corrūperit.Suppose he did inquire — see what I am conceding to you — suppose he even bribed a slave, as my friend Quintus Arrius said. Mil. 17.46Legite testimōnia testium vestrōrum.Read the evidence of your own witnesses. Mil. 17.46Dīxit C. Causinius Schola, Interamnānus, familiārissimus et īdem comes Clōdī, P. Clōdium illō diē in Albānō mānsūrum fuisse, sed subitō eī esse nūntiātum Cȳrum architectum esse mortuum, itaque repente Rōmam cōnstituisse proficīscī.Gaius Causinius Schola of Interamna, a very close friend and also a companion of Clodius, said that Publius Clodius had intended to stay that day at his Alban villa, but that it was suddenly announced to him that Cyrus the architect had died, and so he had suddenly decided to set out for Rome. Mil. 17.46Dīxit hoc item comes P. Clōdī, C. Clōdius.Gaius Clodius, a companion of Publius Clodius, said the same.