On the 13th of the Calends of February, 702 (13th of December, 701), Milo started from Rome to proceed to Lanuvium, his native town, of which he was the dictator.[738] Towards the ninth hour, he met on the Appian Way, a little beyond Bovillæ, Clodius, who, on his part, was returning on horseback from Aricia to Rome, accompanied by three friends and thirty slaves, all armed with swords. Milo was in a chariot with his wife Fausta, daughter of Sylla, and M. Fufius, his familiar. In his train marched an escort ten times more numerous than that of Clodius, and in which were several celebrated gladiators. The two troops passed near a small temple of the _Bona Dea_,[739] without exchanging a single word, but casting on each other furious looks. They had hardly passed, when two of Milo’s gladiators, who lagged behind, picked a quarrel with the slaves of Clodius. At the noise of this dispute, the latter turned his bridle, and advanced uttering threats. One of the gladiators, named Birria, struck him with his sword, and wounded him grievously in the shoulder;[740] he was carried into a neighbouring tavern.[741] Milo, learning that Clodius was wounded, feared the consequences of this aggression, and believed that he would incur less danger by dispatching his enemy. He therefore sent his men to burst open the tavern; Clodius, dragged from the bed on which he had been placed, is pierced with blows, and thrown into the high road. His slaves are slain or put to flight. The corpse remained stretched on the Appian Way, until a senator, Sext. Tedius, who was passing, caused him to be taken up, placed in a litter, and carried to Rome, where he arrived at night, and was laid on a bed in the _atrium_ of his house. But already the news of the fatal meeting was spread through the whole town, and the crowd hastened towards the residence of Clodius, where his wife, Fulvia, pointing to the wounds with which he was covered, urged the people to vengeance. The concourse was so great that several men of mark, and among others C. Vibienus, a senator, were stifled in the crowd. The corpse was carried to the Forum, and exposed on the rostra; two tribunes of the people, T. Munatius Plancus and Q. Pompeius Rufus, harangued the multitude, and demanded justice. Afterwards, at the instigation of a scribe named Sext. Clodius, the body was carried to the curia, in order to insult the Senate; a funereal pile was made of the benches, tables, and registers. The fire communicated to the Curia Hostilia, and thence gained the Basilica Porcia, and the two buildings were reduced to ashes. Then the multitude, becoming more and more furious, snatched the fasces which surrounded the funereal bed,[742] and proceeded to the front of the houses of Hypsæus and Q. Metellus Scipio, as if to offer them the consulship. Lastly, they presented themselves before the abode of Pompey; some demanded with loud shouts that he should be consul or dictator, others shouted the same wishes for Cæsar.[743]