1And so I myself, since it was agreed that a killing had been done on the Appian Way, voted not that the man who had defended himself had acted against the state, but, since there was violence and ambush in the affair, I reserved the charge for a trial and censured the deed. 1But if, through that raving tribune 1of the plebs, 1the senate had been allowed to carry out what it thought, we would have no new court at all. 1For it was decreeing that the inquiry should be held under the old laws, only out of the regular order. 1The motion was divided at the demand of someone or other — for there is no need for me to bring out the disgraces of everyone — and so the rest of the senate's resolution was set aside by a purchased veto.
15But, they say, Gnaeus Pompey by his bill gave judgement both on the fact and on the case: for he brought in a measure concerning the killing which had been done on the Appian Way, in which Publius Clodius had been slain. 15What, then, did he propose? 15That there should be an inquiry, of course. 15And what is to be inquired into? 15Whether it was done? 15But that is agreed. 15By whom? 15But that is plain. 15He saw, therefore, that even when the deed was admitted, a defence on grounds of right could still be undertaken. 15And if he had not seen that one who confessed could be acquitted, when he saw that we were confessing, he would never have ordered an inquiry, nor given you, in casting your votes, this saving letter as well as that grim one.
15Indeed Gnaeus Pompey seems to me not only to have given no harsher judgement against Milo, but even to have laid down what you ought to look to in judging. 15For he who granted to a confession not punishment but a defence thought that the cause of the death, not the death itself, should be inquired into. 16Now he himself will surely say whether he thought that what he did of his own accord should be granted to Publius Clodius or to the times.