and men of note, he was proclaimed first of all; and he was considered
to have discharged his judicial functions with integrity and skill. It
is said that Licinius Macer, a man who of himself had great weight in
the city, and who was also supported by Crassus, being tried before
Cicero for peculation, was so confident in his power and the exertions
made on his behalf, that while the judices were giving their votes he
went home, and after cutting his hair with all speed, and putting on a
clean dress, as if he had been acquitted, he was about to return to the
Forum; but on Crassus meeting him near the hall door and telling him
that he was condemned by all the votes, he turned back, took to his bed
and died. And the circumstance brought Cicero credit for his careful
administration of justice. Vatinius[167] was a man whose manner was
somewhat rough and contemptuous towards the magistrates when he was
pleading before them, and his neck was full of swellings: on one
occasion when he was before Cicero, he made a certain demand, and as
Cicero did not grant it forthwith, but deliberated some time, Vatinius
said that he should not hesitate about it if he were prætor, on which
Cicero quickly answered, "But I have not such a neck as you."
While Cicero had still two or three days in his office, some person
brought Manilius[168] before him on a charge of peculation; but Manilius
had the goodwill of the people and their zeal in his favour, as it was
considered that he was attacked on account of Pompeius, whose friend he
was. On Manilius asking for time Cicero gave him only one day, which was
the next; and the people were angry, inasmuch as the prætors were
accustomed to allow ten days at least to those who were accused. The
tribunes also brought Cicero to the Rostra and found fault with him, but
he prayed to be heard, and he said that as he had always behaved to
accused persons with forbearance and kindness, so far as the laws
allowed, he thought it would be harsh not to do so in the case of
Manilius, and accordingly he had purposely limited him to the only day
which was at his disposal as prætor, for that to throw the trial into
the period of another prætor's jurisdiction was not the part of one who
was willing to help another. These words wrought a wonderful change in
the people, and with many expressions of goodwill they prayed him to
undertake the defence of Manilius. Cicero readily undertook it, and
chiefly for the sake of Pompeius who was absent, and coming before the
people he again harangued them, in bold terms censuring the oligarchal
faction and the enviers of Pompeius.
X. Cicero was invited to the consulship[169] no less by the
aristocratical party than by the many who for the interest of the state
gave him their aid, and for the following reason. The changes which
Sulla had introduced into the constitution at first appeared
unseasonable, but now they seemed to the many by length of time and
usage to have received a kind of settlement, and not a bad one; but
there were those who sought to shake and change the present condition of
affairs for the sake of their own gain and not for the public good,
while Pompeius was still fighting with the kings in Pontus and Armenia,
and there was no power in Rome able to resist those who were for change.
These men had for their head a bold man and an ambitious and one of
versatile temper, Lucius Catilina, who in addition to other great crimes
had once laboured under the imputation of unlawful commerce with his
virgin daughter, and of murdering his own brother,[170] and being afraid
of being punished for this he persuaded Sulla to proscribe his brother
among those who were doomed to die, as if he were still alive. Him the
evil-minded took for their leader, and they gave various pledges to one
another, and among these they sacrificed a man and ate of his
flesh.[171] Catilina had corrupted a large part of the youth in the city
by supplying every one of them with pleasure and banquets, and amours
with women, and furnishing unsparingly the expense for all this. All
Etruria was roused to revolt, and the greater part of Gaul within the
Alps: and Rome was exposed to the greatest hazard of change, on account
of the inequality in properties, for those who had most reputation and
lofty bearing had impoverished themselves by theatrical expenses and
entertainments, and love of magistracies and building, and the wealth
had all come into the hands of men of mean birth and low persons, so
that things needed only a slight inclination, and it was in the power of
every man who had courage for the thing to unsettle the state, which of
itself was in a diseased condition.
XI. However Catilina, wishing to secure a stronghold, was a candidate
for the consulship, and he was high in hope that he should be the
colleague of Caius Antonius, a man who of himself was not calculated to
be a leader either for good or bad, but one who would add force to
another who was a leader. It was from seeing this that the majority of
the honourable and the good encouraged Cicero to the consulship, and as
the people readily seconded them, Catilina was rejected, and Cicero and
Caius Antonius were elected. And yet Cicero alone of the candidates was
the son of an eques, not of a senator.
XII. Now the designs of Catilina still remained unknown to the many, but
great struggles awaited the consulship of Cicero. For in the first
place, those who by the laws of Sulla were excluded from magistracies,
being neither weak nor few, became candidates and attempted to gain
popular favour, and they made many charges against the tyranny of Sulla
which were indeed true and just, but yet they were disturbing the state
of affairs at an unfit time and out of season; and in the next place the
tribunes brought forward measures to the same purpose, in which they
proposed an administration composed of ten men[172] with full powers,
whose instructions were to have authority to sell the public property in
all Italy and in all Syria, and all that had lately been acquired by
Pompeius, to try whom they pleased, to send them into exile, to colonise
cities, to take money from the treasury, and to maintain and raise as
many soldiers as they might require. Accordingly others of the nobles
were in favour of the law, and especially Antonius, the colleague of
Cicero, who expected to be one of the ten. It was supposed also that he
was acquainted with the designs of Catilina, and was not averse to them
on account of the magnitude of his debts, which chiefly gave alarm to
the nobles. And this was the first object that Cicero directed his
attention to, and he caused the province of Macedonia[173] to be given
to Antonius, and Gaul, which was offered to himself, he declined; and
by these favours he gained over Antonius like a hired actor to play a
second part to himself on behalf of his country. Now when Antonius was
gained and had become tractable, Cicero, being emboldened, opposed
himself to those who were for making change. Accordingly, in the Senate,
he made an attack upon the law, and so alarmed the promoters of it that
they had nothing to say against him. When they made a second attempt,
and being fully prepared invited the consuls to appear before the
people, Cicero, nothing alarmed, bade the Senate follow him, and coming
forward, he not only caused the rejection of the law, but made the
tribunes give up even the rest of their measures and to yield to his
overpowering eloquence.
XIII. For this man most of all showed the Romans what a charm eloquence
adds to a good thing, and that justice is invincible if it be rightly
expressed in words, and that it befits him who duly directs political
affairs, always in his acts to choose the good instead of that which
merely pleases, and in his speech to deprive what is useful of that
which gives pain. And a sample of his persuasive eloquence was what
happened in his consulship with respect to the public exhibitions. In
former times those of the equestrian class were mingled with the crowd
in the theatres and were spectators among the people, just as chance
would have it; but Marcus Otho[174] in his prætorship was the first
who, for the sake of distinction, separated the equites from the rest of
the citizens, and gave them a particular place, which they still retain.
The people took this as a disparagement of themselves, and when Otho
appeared in the theatre, they hissed for the purpose of insulting him,
but the equites received him with loud applause. Again the people began
to hiss louder, and the equites to make still greater plaudits. Upon
this they fell to abusing one another, and kept the theatre in
confusion. When Cicero heard of this he came, and summoning the people
to the temple of Bellona both rebuked and admonished them, on which they
went back to the theatre and loudly applauded Otho, and vied with the
equites in doing honour to the man and showing their respect.
XIV. The conspirators with Catilina[175] at first crouched and were
afraid, but they recovered heart, and assembling together urged one
another to take matters in hand with more courage before Pompeius
returned, who was said to be now coming home with his force. Catilina
was chiefly stirred up by the old soldiers of Sulla, who were planted
all through Italy, but the greatest number and the most warlike of them
were distributed in the Tuscan cities, and were again forming visions of
robbery and plunder of the wealth that existed. These men, with
Manlius[176] for their leader, one of those who had served with
distinction under Sulla, were on the side of Catilina, and came to Rome
to assist at the Comitia; for Catilina was again a candidate for the
consulship, and had resolved to kill Cicero in the tumult of the
elections. The dæmon also seemed to pre-signify what was going on by
earthquakes and lightnings and sights. The information from human
testimony was indeed clear, but not sufficient for conviction of a man
of reputation and great power, like Catilina. Wherefore Cicero deferred
the day of election, and summoning Catilina to the Senate questioned him
about what was reported. Catilina, thinking that there were many in the
Senate who were desirous of change, and at the same time wishing to make
a display before the conspirators, gave Cicero an insane answer: "What
am I doing so strange, if when there are two bodies, one lean and
wasted, but with a head, and the other headless, but strong and large, I
myself furnish it with a head?"[177] This allusion of his was to the
Senate and to the people, which made Cicero more alarmed, and putting on
his armour he was conducted by all the nobles from his house and by many
of the young men to the Campus Martius. And he purposely let the people
have a glimpse of his armour by loosing his tunic from his shoulders,
and he showed the spectators there was danger. The people were enraged
and rallied round him, and at last by their votes they again rejected
Catilina, and chose Silanus[178] and Murena consuls.
XV. Not long after the men in Etruria came together to support Catilina,
and were forming themselves into companies; and the appointed day for
executing their plan was near, when there came to Cicero's house about
midnight men who were among the first and most powerful in Rome, Marcus
Crassus, and Marcus Marcellus,[179] and Scipio Metellus; and knocking at
the door and calling the doorkeeper, they bade him rouse Cicero and
tell him that they were there. And the matter was thus: after Crassus
had supped, the doorkeeper gave him letters brought by some unknown
man, which were addressed to different persons, and one to Crassus
himself without a signature. Crassus, having read this letter only, and
seeing that the letter intimated that there would be great bloodshed
caused by Catilina and that it urged him to quit the city, did not open
the rest, but went forthwith to Cicero in alarm at the danger, and
desiring to acquit himself somewhat of the blame which he bore on
account of his friendship with Catilina. Accordingly Cicero after
deliberating convened the Senate at daybreak, and taking the letters
gave them to the persons to whom they were directed, and bade them read
the letters aloud: and all the letters alike gave notice of a
conspiracy. When Quintus Arrius, a man of prætorian rank, reported the
forming of armed companies in Etruria, and news arrived that Manlius
with a large force was hovering about those cities expecting every
moment something new from Rome, a decree of the Senate was made to put
affairs in the hands of the consuls, and that the consuls on receiving
this commission should administer the state as they best could, and save
it. The Senate is not used to do this frequently, but only when they
apprehend great danger.
XVI. Cicero upon receiving this authority intrusted affairs out of the
city to Quintus Metellus; he undertook the care of the city himself, and
he daily went forth guarded by so large a body of men, that when he
entered the Forum those who accompanied him occupied a large part of the
ground, whereupon Catilina, no longer enduring delay, resolved to make
his escape to Manlius, and he commissioned Marcius[180] and Cethegus to
arm themselves with swords, and going to Cicero's door in the morning on
pretence of paying their respects, to fall on him and kill him.
Fulvia,[181] a woman of rank, reported this to Cicero by night, and
exhorted him to be on his guard against Cethegus and his associate. The
men came at daybreak, and as they were not permitted to enter, they fell
to railing and abuse at the doors, which made them still more suspected.
Cicero going out called the Senate to the temple of Jupiter the Stayer,
whom the Romans call Stator, which is situated at the commencement of
the Sacred Road as you go up to the Palatine. Catilina also came there
with the rest to make his defence, but none of the senators would sit
down with him, and all moved from the bench. Catilina began to speak,
but he was interrupted by cries, and at last Cicero got up and bade him
leave the city; for he said it was fit that as he was administering
affairs with words and Catilina with arms, there should be a wall[182]
between them. Accordingly Catilina immediately left the city with three
hundred armed men, and surrounding himself with fasces and axes as if he
were a magistrate, and raising standards he marched to Manlius; and as
about twenty thousand men altogether were collected, he visited the
cities and endeavoured to persuade them to revolt, so that there was
open war, and Antonius was sent to fight with the new rebels.
XVII. Those who remained in the city of the persons who had been
corrupted by Catilina were assembled and encouraged by Cornelius
Lentulus Sura,[183] a man of illustrious birth, but who had lived a bad
life and been already expelled from the Senate on account of his
licentious habits. He was then prætor for the second time, as is the
custom for those who recover the senatorial dignity. It is said that he
got the name Sura from the following circumstance. In the times of Sulla
he was quæstor, and lost and wasted much of the public money. Sulla was
angry at this, and called him to account before the Senate; but
Lentulus, coming forward in a very indifferent and contemptuous way,
said that he had no account to give, but he offered his leg, as boys
were wont to do when they had made a miss in playing at ball. From this
he got the nickname of Sura, for the Romans call the leg 'sura.' Again,
being brought to trial he bribed some of the judices, and was acquitted
by two votes only, whereon he said that what he had given to one of the
judices was fairly wasted, for it was enough to be acquitted by a single
vote. Such being the character of the man, and being stirred up by
Catilina, he was further corrupted by the vain hopes held out by false
prophets and jugglers, who recited forged verses and predictions,
alleged to be from the Sibylline books, which declared that it was the
law of fate that three Cornelii should be monarchs in Rome, two of whom
had fulfilled their destiny, Cinna[184] and Sulla, and that the dæmon
was come and had brought the monarchy to him the third of the Cornelii,
and he ought by all means to accept it, and not to spoil the critical
opportunity by delay like Catilina.
XVIII. Accordingly Lentulus designed nothing small or trivial, but he
determined to kill all the senators, and as many of the rest of the
citizens as he could, and to burn the city, and spare nobody except the
children of Pompeius, whom they intended to seize and keep in their
power as securities for coming to terms with Pompeius, for already there
was strong and sure report of his returning to Rome from his great
expedition. A night had been fixed for the attempt, one of the
Saturnalia,[185] and they took and hid in the house of Cethegus swords
and tow and brimstone. They also appointed a hundred men, and assigned
by lot as many parts of Rome to each, in order that by means of many
incendiaries the city might be in a blaze in a short time on all
sides.[186] Others were to stop up the water conduits and to kill those
who attempted to get water. While this was going on, there happened to
be at Rome two ambassadors of the Allobroges,[187] a nation which
especially at that time was in a bad condition and oppressed by the
supremacy of Rome. The partizans of Lentulus, considering them suitable
persons for stiring up Gaul to revolt, made them privy to the
conspiracy. They gave these men letters to their Senate and letters to
Catilina, promising liberty to the Senate, and urging Catilina to free
the slaves and to march upon Rome. They also sent with them to Catilina
one Titus[188] of Croton to carry the letters. But inasmuch as the
conspirators were unsteady men, who for the most part met one another
over wine and in company with women, and Cicero followed up their
designs with labour and sober consideration and unusual prudence, and
had many men out of their body to keep watch and to help him in tracking
out their doings, and as he had secret conversation with many of those
who were considered to be in the conspiracy and whom he trusted, he
became acquainted with their communication with the strangers, and
laying an ambuscade by night he seized the man of Croton and the
letters, with the secret assistance of the Allobroges.
XIX. At daybreak[189] Cicero, assembling the Senate at the temple of
Concord, read the letters and examined the informers. Silanus Junius
also said that some persons had heard Cethegus say, that three consuls
and four prætors were going to be killed. Piso, a man of consular rank,
gave evidence to the same effect. Caius Sulpicius, one of the prætors,
being sent to the house of Cethegus, found there many missiles and arms,
and a great quantity of swords and knives newly sharpened. At length the
Senate having by a vote promised a pardon to the man of Croton on
condition of his giving information, Lentulus being convicted abdicated
his office, for he happened to be prætor, and laying down his robe with
the purple hem before the Senate assumed a dress suitable to the
occasion. Lentulus and his associates were delivered up to the prætors
to be kept in custody, but without chains. It was now evening, and the
people in crowds were waiting about the temple, when Cicero came forth
and told the circumstance to the citizens, by whom he was conducted to
the house of a neighbouring friend, for his own house was occupied by
the women who were celebrating the mysterious rites to a goddess whom
the Romans called Bona,[190] and the Greeks call Gynæceia. A sacrifice
is made to the goddess annually in the house of the consul by his wife
or his mother in the presence of the Vestal Virgins. Cicero, going into
the house, deliberated with a very few persons what he should do with
the men: for he had some scruples about inflicting the extreme
punishment and that which was due to such great crimes; and he hesitated
about it both from the humanity of his disposition, and because he
feared that he might seem to be too much elated with his power and to be
handling severely men who were of the highest rank and had powerful
friends in the State; and if he treated them leniently, he dreaded
danger from them. For he considered that they would not be well content
if they were punished short of death, but would break forth in all
extravagance of audacity and add fresh indignation to their old
villainy; and that he should be judged a coward and a weak man,
especially as the many had by no means a good opinion of his courage.
XX. While Cicero was thus doubting, there was a sign to the women who
were sacrificing: for though the fire seemed to have gone out, the altar
sent forth from the ashes and burnt bark a large and brilliant
blaze.[191] This alarmed the women, except the sacred virgins, who urged
Terentia, the wife of Cicero, to go with all speed to her husband and
tell him to take in hand what he had resolved on behalf of his country,
for the goddess was displaying a great light to lead him to safety and
honour. Terentia, who generally was not a woman of a mild temper nor
naturally without courage, but an ambitious woman, and as Cicero himself
says,[192] more ready to share in his political perplexities than to
communicate to him her domestic matters, reported this to her husband
and stimulated him against the conspirators: in like manner too his
brother Quintus and Publius Nigidius, one of his philosophical
companions, whose advice he used in the most and chiefest of his
political measures. On the following day[193] there was a discussion in
the Senate about the punishment of the conspirators, when Silanus, who
was first asked his opinion, said that they ought to be taken to prison
and suffer the extreme punishment: and all who spoke in succession
acceded to this opinion, till it came to the turn of Caius Cæsar, who
was afterwards Dictator. Cæsar, who was then a young man and in the very
beginning of his rise to power, and already in his policy and his hopes
had entered on that road by which he changed the state of Rome into a
monarchy, though he eluded the penetration of the rest, caused great
suspicion to Cicero, without however giving him any hold for complete
proof; but there were some heard to say that he came near being caught
and yet had escaped from Cicero. However, some say that Cicero purposely
overlooked and neglected the information against Cæsar through fear of
his friends and his power, for it was plain to every man, that the
conspirators would rather become an appendage[194] to Cæsar's acquittal,
than Cæsar would become an appendage to their punishment.
XXI. When, then, it came to Cæsar's[195] turn to deliver his opinion, he
rose and expressed it against putting the men to death, but he proposed
to confiscate their property and remove them to the cities of Italy of
which Cicero might approve, and there keep them confined till Catilina
was defeated. The proposal was merciful and the speaker most eloquent,
and Cicero added to it no small weight, for when Cicero rose[196] he
handled the matter both ways, partly arguing in favour of the first
opinion and partly in favour of Cæsar's; and all his friends thinking
that Cæsar's opinion was for the advantage of Cicero, for he would be
subject to less blame if he did not condemn the men to death, chose the
second opinion rather, so that even Silanus himself changed and made his
explanation, saying that neither had he delivered his opinion for death,
for that the extreme punishment to a Roman senator was the prison. After
the opinion was given, Catulus Lutatius was the first to oppose it; and
he was followed by Cato, who in his speech vehemently urged suspicion
against Cæsar, and so filled the Senate with passion and resolution that
they passed a vote of death against the men. With respect to the
confiscation of their property Cæsar made opposition, for he did not
think it fair that they should reject the merciful part of his
proposition and adopt the most severe part. As many of them made violent
resistance, he invoked the tribunes, who however paid no attention to
the call, but Cicero himself gave way and remitted that part of the vote
which was for confiscation.