When Catiline saw those, whom I have just above mentioned, XX. Just above mentioned] In c. 17. assembled, though he had often discussed many points with them singly, yet thinking it would be to his purpose to address and exhort them in a body, retired with them into a private apartment of his house, where, when all witnesses were withdrawn, he harangued them to the following effect: " If your courage and fidelity had not been sufficiently proved by me, this favorable opportunity Favorable opportunity] Opportuna res. See the latter part of c. 16. would have occurred to no purpose; mighty hopes, absolute power, would in vain be within our grasp; nor should I, depending on irresolution or ficklemindedness, pursue contingencies instead of certainties. But as I have, on many remarkable occasions, experienced your bravery and attachment to me, I have ventured to engage in a most important and glorious enterprise. I am aware, too, that whatever advantages or evils affect you, the same affect me; and to have the same desires and the same aversions, is assuredly a firm bond of friendship. "What I have been meditating you have already heard separately. But my ardor for action is daily more and more excited, when I consider what our future condition of life must be, unless we ourselves assert our claims to liberty. Assert our claims to liberty] Nosmet ipsi vindicamus in libertatem. Unless we vindicate ourselves into liberty. See below, "En illa, illa, quam sæpe optâstis, libertas," etc. For since the government has fallen under the power and jurisdiction of a few, kings and princes Kings and princes] Reges tetrarchæ. Tetrarchs were properly those who had the government of the fourth part of the country; but at length, the signification of the word being extended, it was applied to any governors of any country who were possessed of supreme authority, and yet were not acknowledged as kings by the Romans. See Hirt. Bell. Alex . c. 67: Deiotarus, at that time tetrarch of almost all Gallogræcia, a supremacy which the other tetrarchs would not allow to be granted him either by the laws or by custom, but indisputably acknowledged as king of Armenia Minor by the senate," etc. Dietsch. " Cicero , Phil . II., speaks of Reges Tetrarchas Dynastasque. And Lucan has (vii. 46) Tretrarchæ regesque tenent, magnique tyranni." Wasse. Horace also says,
 — Modo reges atque tetrarchas, Omnia magna loquens. 
I have, with Rose, rendered the word princes, as being the most eligible term.
 have constantly been their tributaries; nations and states have paid them taxes; but all the rest of us, however brave and worthy, whether noble or plebeian, have been regarded as a mere mob, without interest or authority, and subject to those, to whom, if the state were in a sound condition, we should be a terror. Hence, all influence, power, honor, and wealth, are in their hands, or where they dispose of them; to us they have left only insults, Insults] Repulsas. Repulses in standing for office. dangers, persecutions, and poverty. To such indignities, O bravest of men, how long will you submit? Is it not better to die in a glorious attempt, than, after having been the sport of other men's insolence, to resign a wretched and degraded existence with ignominy? "But success (I call gods and men to witness!) is in our own hands. Our years are fresh, our spirit is unbroken; among our oppressors, on the contrary, through age and wealth a general debility has been produced. We have therefore only to make a beginning; the course of events The course of events, etc.] Cætera res expediet. —" Of. Cic. Ep. Div. xiii. 26: explicare et expedire negotia. " Gerlach . will accomplish the rest. "Who in the world, indeed, that has the feelings of a man, can endure that they should have a superfluity of riches, to squander in building over seas Building over seas] See c. 13. and leveling mountains, and that means should be wanting to us even for the necessaries of life; that they should join together two houses or more, and and that we should not have a hearth to call our own ? They, though they purchase pictures, statues, and embossed plate ; Embossed plate] Toreumata. The same as vasa cælata, sculptured vases, c. 11. Vessels ornamented in bas-relief; from τορεύειν, scuolere; see Bentley ad Hor. A. P., 441. "Perbona toreumata, in his pocula duo," etc. Cic. in Verr. iv. 18. though they pull down new buildings and erect others, and lavish and abuse their wealth in every possible method, yet can not, with the utmost efforts of caprice, exhaust it. But for us there is poverty at home, debts abroad; our present circumstances are bad, our prospects much worse; and what, in a word, have we left, but a miserable existence ? "Will you not, then, awake to action? Behold that liberty, that liberty for which you have so often wished, with wealth, honor, and glory, are set before your eyes. All these prizes fortune offers to the victorious. Let the enterprise itself, then, let the opportunity, let your poverty, your dangers, and the glorious spoils of war, animate you far more than my words. Use me either as your leader or your fellow-soldier; neither my heart nor my hand shall be wanting to you. These objects I hope to effect, in concert with you, in the character of consul; unless, iudeed, my expectation deceives me, and you prefer to be slaves rather than masters." When these men, surrounded with numberless evils, but without any resources or hopes of good, had heard this address, though they thought it much for their advantage to disturb the public tranquillity, yet most of them called on Catiline to state on what terms they were to engage in the contest; what benefits they were to expect from taking up arms; and what support and encouragement they had, and in what quarters. XXI. What support or encouragement they had, and in what quarters] Quid ubique opis aut spei haberent; i.e. quid opis aut spei, et ubi, haberent. So c. 27, init. Quem ubique opportunum credebat, i.e., says Cortius, "quem, et ubi illum, opportunum credebat." Catiline then promised them the abolition of their debts; Abolition of their debts] Tabulas novas. Debts were registered on tablets; and, when the debts were paid, the score was effaced, and the tablets were ready to be used as new. See Ernesti's Clav. in Cic. sub voce. 
 a proscription of the wealthy citizens; Proscription of the wealthy citizens] Proscriptionem locupletium. The practice of proscription was commenced by Sylla, who posted up, in public places of the city, the names of those whom he doomed to death, offering rewards to such as should bring him their heads. Their money and estates he divided among his adherents, and Catiline excited his adherents with hopes of similar plunder.
 offices, sacerdotal dignities, plunder, and all other gratifications which war, and the license of conquerors, can afford. He added that Piso was in Hither Spain, and Publius Sittius Nucerinus with an army in Mauritania , both of whom were privy to his plans; that Caius Antonius, whom he hoped to have for a colleague, was canvassing for the consulship, a man with whom he was intimate, and who was involved in all manner of embarrassments; and that, in conjunction with him, he himself, when consul, would commence operations. He, moreover, assailed all the respectable citizens with reproaches, commended each of his associates by name, reminded one of his poverty, another of his ruling passion, Another of his ruling passion] Admonebat—alium cupiditatis secæ. Rose renders this passage, " Some he put in mind of their poverty, others of their amours." De Brosses renders it, "Il remontre à l'un sa pauvreté, à l'autre son ambition." Ruling passion, however, seems to be the proper sense of cupiditatis; as it is said, in c. 14, " As the passions of each, according to his years, appeared excited, he furnished mistresses to some, bought horses and dogs for others," etc.
 several others of their danger or disgrace, and many of the spoils which they had obtained by the victory of Sylla. When he saw their spirits sufficiently elevated, he charged them to attend to his interest at the election of consuls, and dismissed the assembly. There were some, at that time, who said that Catiline, having ended his speech, and wishing to bind his accomplices in guilt by an oath, handed round among them, in goblets, the blood of a human body mixed with wine; and that when all, after an imprecation, had tasted of it, as is usual in sacred rites, he disclosed his design; and they asserted XXII. They asserted] Dictitare. In referring this word to the circulators of the report, I follow Cortius, Gerlach , Kritzius, and Bernouf. Wasse, with less discrimination, refers it to Catiline. This story of the drinking of human blood is copied by Florus, iv. 1, and by Plutarch in his Life of Cicero . Dio Cassius (lib. xxxvii.) says that the conspirators were reported to have killed a child on the occasion. that he did this, in order that they might be the more closely attached to one another, by being mutually conscious of such an atrocity. But so some thought that this report, and many others, were invented by persons who supposed that the odium against Cicero , which afterward arose, might be lessened by imputing an enormity of guilt to the conspirators who had suffered death. The evidence which I have obtained, in support of this charge, is not at all in proportion to its magnitude. Among those present at this meeting was Quintus Curius, XXIII. Quintus Curius] The same that is mentioned in c. 17. a man of no mean family, but immersed in vices and crimes, and whom the censors had ignominiously expelled from the senate. In this person there was not less levity than impudence; he could neither keep secret what he heard, nor conceal his own crimes; he was altogether heedless what he said or what he did. He had long had a criminal intercourse with Fulvia, a woman of high birth; but growing less acceptable to her, because, in his reduced circumstances, he had less means of being liberal, he began, on a sudden, to boast, and to promise her seas and mountains; To promise her seas and mountains] Maria montesque polliceri. A proverbial expression. Ter. Phorm., i. 2, 18: Modò non montes auri pollicens. Pers., iii. 65: Et quid opus Cratero magnos promittere emontes. threatening her, at times, with the sword, if she were not submissive to his will; and acting, in his general conduct, with greater arrogance than ever. With greater arrogance than ever] Ferociùs quàm solitus erat. Fulvia, having learned the cause of his extravagant behavior, did not keep such danger to the state a secret; but, without naming her informant, communicated to several persons what she had heard and under what circumstances, concerning Catiline's conspiracy. This intelligence it was that incited the feelings of the citizens to give the consulship to Marcus Tullius Cicero . To Marcus Tullius Cicero] Cicero was now in his forty-third year, and had filled the office of quæstor, edile, and prætor. For before this period, most of the nobility were moved with jealousy, and thought the consulship in some degree sullied, if a man of no family, A man of no family] Novus homo. A term applied to such as could not boast of any ancestor that had held any curule magistracy, that is, had been consul, prætor, censor, or chief edile. however meritorious, obtained it. But when danger showed itself, envy and pride were laid aside. Accordingly, when the comitia were held, Marcus Tullius and Caius Antonius were declared consuls; an event which gave the first shock to the conspirators. The ardor of Catiline, however, was not at all diminished; he formed every day new schemes; he deposited arms, in convenient places, throughout Italy ; he sent sums of money borrowed on his own credit, or that of his friends, to a certain Manlius , XXIV. Manlius ] He had been an officer in the army of Sylla, and, having been distinguished for his services, had been placed at the head of a colony of veterans settled about Fæsulæ; but he had squandered his property in extravagance. See Plutarch, Vit. Cic., Dio Cassius, and Appian. at Fæsulæ, Fæsulæ] A town of Etruria, at the foot of the Appennines, not far from Florence. It is the Fesole of Milton:
 At evening from the top of Fesole,
 Or in Valdarno to desery new lands, etc. Par. L. i. 289. 
 who was subsequently the first to engage in hostilities. At this period, too, he is said to have attached to his cause great numbers of men of all classes, and some women, who had, in their earlier days, supported an expensive life by the price of their beauty, but who, when age had lessened their gains but not their extravagance, had contracted heavy debts. By the influence of these females, Catiline hoped to gain over the slaves in Rome, to get the city set on fire, and either to secure the support of their husbands or take away their lives.