The great Claudian family was desecrated, and there was no one so ignorant as not to know that the purpose intended was that of entering the Tribunate by a fraud.

It was required by the general law that the Sacred College should report as to the proper observances of the prescribed regulations, but no priest was ever consulted.

Yet Clodius was adopted, made a Plebeian, and in the course of the year elected as Tribune.
In reading all this, the reader is mainly struck by the wonderful admixture of lawlessness and law-abiding steadfastness.

If Caesar, who was already becoming a tyrant in his Consulship, chose to make use of this means of silencing Cicero, why not force Clodius into the Tribunate without so false and degrading a ceremony?
But if, as was no doubt the case, he was not yet strong enough to ignore the old popular feelings on the subject, how was it that he was able to laugh in his sleeve at the laws, and to come forth at a moment's notice and cause the people to vote, legally or illegally, just as he pleased?
It requires no conjurer to tell us the reason.

The outside hulls and husks remain when the rich fruit has gone.