1Come, suppose it happened so: what reason was there for him to hurry to Rome, to throw himself into the night? 1What urgency did the fact that he was an heir bring? 1First, there was no reason why haste was needed; 1next, if there were any, what was there, pray, that he could secure that night but would lose if he arrived at Rome early the next morning? 1And just as for him an arrival at the city by night was to be avoided rather than sought, so Milo, if he was the plotter and knew that Clodius would approach the city by night, ought to have lain in wait and waited for him.
50He would have killed him by night: he would have killed him in a place full of ambushes and full of brigands. 50No one would have refused to believe him if he denied it, when everyone wants him safe even if he confesses. 50First the place itself, the very hider and harbourer of brigands, would have borne the charge; then neither the silent solitude would have informed against Milo nor the blind night revealed him; 50next, many who had been injured, plundered and driven from their property by Clodius, and many who even feared these things, would fall under suspicion; in short, all Etruria would be summoned to court. 51And on that day Clodius, returning from Aricia, certainly turned aside to his Alban villa.
51Even granting that Milo knew he had been at Aricia, he still ought to have suspected that, even if he wished to return to Rome that day, he would turn aside to his villa, which bordered the road. 51Why did he neither meet him earlier, so that he should not stay at the villa, nor lie in wait in the place where Clodius was to come by night? 52I see that so far, judges, everything is agreed: that it was even to Milo's advantage that Clodius should live, while for Clodius, with a view to what he had set his heart on, Milo's death was most desirable; 52that Clodius' hatred for Milo was most bitter, Milo's for Clodius none; 52that Clodius' habit was constant in using violence, Milo's only in repelling it; 52that death had been threatened against Milo by Clodius and openly proclaimed, while nothing was ever heard from Milo; 52that the day of Milo's departure was known to Clodius, while Clodius' return was unknown to Milo; 52that Milo's journey was necessary, Clodius' rather even inconvenient; 52that Milo had made it plain he would leave that day, while Clodius had concealed that he would return that day; 52that Milo had changed his plans in nothing, while Clodius had invented a reason for changing his; 52that Milo, if he were plotting, would have had to wait for night near the city, while Clodius, even if he did not fear Milo, would still have had to dread an approach to the city by night.