“Oh, but the son of Caius Cornelius accuses him, and
 that ought to have the same weight as if his father had given information against him.” O wise
 Cornelius,—the father; I mean—who left all the reward which is usually given for information,
 but has got all the discredit which a confession can involve, through the accusation brought by
 his son! However; what is it that Cornelius gives information of by the mouth of that boy? If it
 is a part of the business which is unknown to me, but which has been communicated to Hortensius,
 let Hortensius reply. If as you say, his statement concerns that crew of Autronius and Catiline,
 when they intended to commit a massacre in the Campus Martius, at the consular comitia , which were held by me; we saw Autronius that day in the
 Campus. And why do I say we saw? I myself saw him (for you at that time, O judges, had no
 anxiety, no suspicions; I, protected by a firm guard of friends at that time, checked the forces
 and the endeavours of Catiline and Autronius). Is there,
 then, any one who says that Sulla at that time had any idea of coming into the Campus? And yet,
 if at that time he had united himself with Catiline in that society of wickedness, why did he
 leave him? why was not he with Autronius? why, when their cases were similar, are not similar
 proofs of criminality found? But since Cornelius himself even now hesitates about giving
 information against him, he, as you say, contents himself with filling up the outline of his
 son's information what then does he say about that night, when, according to the orders of
 Catiline, he came into the Scythemakers' This was the name of a
 street. street, to the house of Marcus Lecca, that night which followed the sixth of
 November; in my consulship? that night which of all the moments of the conspiracy was the most
 terrible and the most miserable. Then the day in which Catiline should leave the city, then the
 terms on which the rest should remain behind, then the arrangement and division of the whole
 city, with regard to the conflagration and the massacre, was settled. Then your father, O
 Cornelius, as he afterwards confessed, begged for himself that especial employment of going the
 first in the morning to salute me as consul, in order that, laving been admitted, according to
 my usual custom and to the privilege which his friendship with me gave him, he might slay me in
 my bed. 
 At this time, when the conspiracy was at its height; when Catiline was starting for the army,
 and Lentulus was being left in the city; when Cassius was being appointed to superintend the
 burning of the city, and Cethegus the massacre; when Autronius had the part allotted to him of
 occupying Italy; when, in short, everything was being arranged, and settled, and prepared;
 where, O Cornelius, was Sulla? Was he at Rome? No, he was very far away. Was he in those
 districts to which Catiline was betaking himself? He was still further from them. Was he in the
 Camertine, Picenian, or Gallic district? lands which the disease, as it were, of that frenzy had
 infected most particularly. Nothing is further from the truth; for he was, as I have said
 already, at Naples. He was in that part of Italy which above all others was free from all
 suspicion of being implicated in that business. What then
 does he state in his information, or what does he allege—I mean Cornelius, or you who bring
 these messages from him? He says that gladiators were bought, under pretence of some games to be
 exhibited by Faustus, for the purposes of slaughter and tumult.—Just so;—the gladiators are
 mentioned whom we know that he was bound to provide according to his father's will. “But he
 seized on a whole household of gladiators; and if he had left that alone, some other troop might
 have discharged the duty to which Faustus was bound.” I wish this troop could satisfy not only
 the envy of parties unfavourable to him, but even the expectations of reasonable men. “He was in
 a desperate hurry, when the time for the exhibition was still far off.” As if in reality, the
 time for the exhibition was not drawing very near. This household of slaves was
 got without Faustus having any idea of such a step; for he neither knew of it nor wished it.
 But there are letters of Faustus's extant, in which he begs
 and prays Publius Sulla to buy gladiators, and to buy this very troop: and not only were such
 letters sent to Publius Sulla, but they were sent also to Lucius Caesar, to Quintus Pompeius,
 and to Gains Memmius, by whose advice the whole business was managed. But Cornelius This Cornelius is not the Roman knight mentioned before; but some freedman of
 Publius Sulla. was appointed to manage the troop. If in the respect of the purchase of
 this household of gladiators no suspicion attaches to the circumstances, it certainly can make
 no difference that he was appointed to manage them afterwards. But still, he in reality only
 discharged the servile duty of providing them with arms; but he never did superintend the men
 themselves; that duty was always discharged by Balbus, a freedman of Faustus.