Nevertheless, nine days after, when the smoke was still rising from the ruins, the populace, on the occasion of a funereal banquet in the Forum, sought to burn the house of Milo and that of the interrex, M. Lepidus. They were driven away by a shower of arrows.[744] Milo, in the first moment, had dreamt only of hiding himself; but on hearing the indignation and terror caused by the burning of the curia, he resumed his courage. Persuaded, moreover, that, to repress these excesses, the Senate would proceed to severities against the opposite party,[745] he returned into Rome by night, carried his boldness so far as to announce that he still solicited the consulship, and began actually to buy the votes. Cœlius, a tribune of the people, spoke in his favour in the Forum. Milo himself mounted the tribune, and accused Clodius of having laid an ambush for him. He was interrupted by a considerable number of armed men, who rushed into the public place. Milo and Cœlius wrapped themselves in the mantles of slaves, and took flight. A great slaughter of their adherents was made. But soon the rioters, profiting by this pretext for disorder, murdered all they met, whether citizens or strangers, especially such as attracted their attention by their rich garments and gold rings; armed slaves were the chief instruments of these disorders. No crime was spared; under pretence of seeking Milo’s friends, a great number of houses were pillaged, and during several days all sorts of outrages were committed.[746] [Sidenote: The Republic is declared in Danger.] II. Meanwhile the Senate declared the Republic in danger, and charged the interrex, the tribunes of the people, and the proconsul Cn. Pompey, having the _imperium_ near the town, to watch over the public safety, and make levies in all Italy. The care of rebuilding the Curia Hostilia was entrusted to the son of Sylla: it was decided that it should bear the name of the old dictator, the memory of whom the Senate sought to place in honour.[747] As soon as Pompey had assembled a military force sufficiently imposing, the two nephews of Clodius, both named Appius, demanded the arrest of the slaves of Milo, and of those of Fausta, his wife. But the first care of Milo, his enemy once dead, had been to enfranchise his slaves, as a reward for having defended him, and, once enfranchised, they could no longer depose against their patron.