Conspiracy of Catiline (30-34)

A few days afterward, Lucius Sænius, a senator, read to the senate a letter, which, he said, he had received from Fæsulæ, and in which it was stated that Caius Manlius, with a large force, had taken the field by the 27th of October.[*] Others at the same time, as is not uncommon in such a crisis, spread reports of omens and prodigies; others of meetings being held, of arms being transported, and of insurrections of the slaves at Capua and in Apulia. In consequence of these rumors, Quintus Marcius Rex[*] was dispatched, by a decree of the senate, to Fæsulæ, and Quintus Metellus Creticus[*] into Apulia and the parts adjacent; both which officers, with the title of commanders,[*] were waiting near the city, having been

prevented from entering in triumph, by the malice of a cabal, whose custom it was to ask a price for every thing, whether honorable or infamous. The prætors, too, Quintus Pompeius Rufus, and Quintus Metellus Celer, were sent off, the one to Capua, the other to Picenum, and power was given them to levy a force proportioned to the exigency and the danger. The senate also decreed, that if any one should give information of the conspiracy which had been formed against the state, his reward should be, if a slave, his freedom and a hundred sestertia; if a freeman, a complete pardon and two hundred sestertia[*]. They further appointed that the schools of gladiators[*] should be distributed in Capua and other municipal towns, according to the capacity of each; and that, at Rome, watches should be posted throughout the city, of which the inferior magistrates[*] should have the charge.

By such proceedings as these the citizens were struck with alarm, and the appearance of the city was changed. In place of that extreme gayety and dissipation,[*] to which long tranquillity[*] had given rise, a sudden gloom spread over all classes; they became anxious and agitated; they felt secure neither in any place, nor with any person; they were not at war, yet enjoyed no peace; each measured the public danger by his own fear. The women, also, to whom, from the extent of the empire, the dread of war was new, gave way to lamentation, raised supplicating hands to heaven, mourned over their

infants, made constant inquiries, trembled at every thing, and, forgetting their pride and their pleasures, felt nothing but alarm for themselves and their country.

Yet the unrelenting spirit of Catiline persisted in the same purposes, notwithstanding the precautions that were adopted against him, and though he himself was accused by Lucius Paullus under the Plautian law.[*] At last, with a view to dissemble, and under pretense of clearing his character, as if he had been provoked by some attack, he went into the senatehouse. It was then that Marcus Tullius, the consul, whether alarmed at his presence, or fired with indignation against him, delivered that splendid speech, so beneficial to the republic, which he afterward wrote and published.[*]

When Cicero sat down, Catiline, being prepared to pretend ignorance of the whole matter, entreated, with downcast looks and suppliant voice, that "the Conscript Fathers would not too hastily believe any thing against him;" saying "that he was sprung from such a family, and had so ordered his life from his youth, as to have every happiness in prospect; and that they were not to suppose that he, a patrician, whose services to the Roman people, as well as those of his ancestors, had been so numerous, should want to ruin the state, when Marcus Tullius, a mere adopted citizen of Rome,[*] was eager to preserve it." When he was proceeding to add other invectives, they all raised an outcry against him, and called him an enemy and a

traitor.[*] Being thus exasperated, " Since I am encompassed by enemies," he exclaimed,[*] "and driven to desperation, I will extinguish the flame kindled around me in a general ruin."

He then hurried from the senate to his own house; and then, after much reflection with himself, thinking that, as his plots against the consul had been unsuccessful, and as he knew the city to be secured from fire by the watch, his best course would be to augment his army, and make provision for the war before the legions could be raised, he set out in the dead of night, and with a few attendants, to the camp of Manlius. But he left in charge to Lentulus and Cethegus, and others of whose prompt determination he was assured, to strengthen the interests of their party in every possible way, to forward the plots against the consul, and to make arrangements for a massacre, for firing the city, and for other destructive operations of war; promising that he himself would shortly advance on the city with a large army.

During the course of these proceedings at Rome, Caius Manlius dispatched some of his followers as deputies to Quintus Marcius Rex, with directions to address him[*] to the following effect:

"We call gods and men to witness, general, that we have taken up arms neither to injure our country, nor to occasion peril to any one, but to defend our own persons from harm; who, wretched and in want, have been deprived,

most of us, of our homes, and all of us of our character and property, by the oppression and cruelty of usurers; nor has any one of us been allowed, according to the usage of our ancestors, to have the benefit of the law,[*] or, when our property was lost to keep our persons free. Such has been the inhumanity of the usurers and of the prætor.[*]

"Often have your forefathers, taking compassion on the commonalty at Rome, relieved their distress by decrees ;[*] and very lately, within our, own memory, silver, by reason of the pressure of debt, and with the consent of all respectable citizens, was paid with brass.[*]

"Often too, we must own, have the commonalty themselves, driven by desire of power, or by the arrogance of their rulers, seceded[*] under arms from the patricians. But at power or wealth, for the sake of which wars, and all kinds of strife, arise among mankind, we do not aim; we desire only our liberty, which no honorable man relinquishes but with life. We therefore conjure you and the senate to befriend your unhappy fellow-citizens; to restore us the protection of the law, which the injustice of the prætor has taken from us; and not to lay on us the necessity of considering how we may perish, so as best to avenge our blood."

To this address Quintus Marcius replied, that, "if they wished to make any petition to the senate, they

must lay down their arms, and proceed as suppliants to Rome;" adding, that "such had always been the kindness[*] and humanity of the Roman senate and people, that none had ever asked help of them in vain."

Catiline, on his march, sent letters to most men of consular dignity, and to all the most respectable citizens, stating that "as he was beset by false accusations, and unable to resist the combination of his enemies, he was submitting to the will of fortune, and going into exile at Marseilles; not that he was guilty of the great wickedness laid to his charge, but that the state might be undisturbed, and that no insurrection might arise from his defense of himself."

Quintus Catulus, however, read in the senate a letter of a very different character, which, he said, was delivered to him in he name of Catiline, and of which the following is a copy:

[*]XXXV. "Lucius Catiline to Quintus Catulus, wishing health. Your eminent integrity, known to me by experience,[*] gives a pleasing confidence, in the midst of great

perils, to my present recommendation.[*] I have determined, therefore, to make no formal defense[*] with regard to my new course of conduct; yet I was resolved, though conscious of no guilt,[*] to offer you some explanation,[*] which, on my word of honor,[*] you may receive as true.[*] Provoked by injuries and indignities, since, being robbed of the fruit of my labor and exertion,[*] I did not obtain the post of honor due to me,[*] I have undertaken, according to my custom, the public cause of the distressed. Not but that I could have paid, out of my own property, the debts contracted on my own security ;[*] while the generosity of Orestilla, out of her own fortune and her daughter's, would discharge those incurred on the security of others. But because I saw unworthy men ennobled with honors, and myself proscribed[*] on groundless suspicion, I have for this very reason, adopted a course,[*] amply justifiable in my present circumstances, for preserving what honor is left to me. When I was proceeding to write more, intelligence was brought that violence is preparing against me. I now commend and intrust Orestilla to your protection ;[*] intreating you, by your love for your own children, to defend her from injury.[*] Farewell."