A.U.C 685.--COSS. L. CAECILIUS METELLUS, Q. MARCIIS REX.--Catiline is
Praetor.
686.--C. CALPURNIUS PISO, M. ACILIUS GLABRIO.--Catiline Governor of
Africa.
687.--L. VOLCATIUS TULLUS, M. AEMILIUS LEPIDUS.--Deputies from Africa
accuse Catiline of extortion, through the agency of Clodius. He is
obliged to desist from standing for the consulship, and forms the
project of the first conspiracy. See Sall. Cat., c. 18.
688.--L. MANLIUS TORQUATUS, L. AURELIUS COTTA.--_Jan_. 1: Catiline's
project of the first conspiracy becomes known, and he defers the
execution of it to the 5th of February, when he makes an unsuccessful
attempt to execute it. _July_ 17: He is acquitted of extortion, and
begins to canvass for the consulship for the year 690.
689.--L. JULIUS CAESAR, C. MARCIUS FIGULUS THERMUS.--_June_ 1:
Catiline convokes the chiefs of the second conspiracy. He is
disappointed in his views on the consulship.
690--M. TULLIUS CICERO, C. ANTONIUS HYBRIDA.--_Oct_. 19: Cicero lays
the affair of the conspiracy before the senate, who decree plenary
powers to the consuls for defending the state. _Oct_. 21: Silanus and
Muraena are elected consuls for the next year, Catiline, who was a
candidate, being rejected. _Oct_. 22: Catiline is accused under the
Plautian Law _de vi_. Sall. Cat., c. 31. _Oct_. 24: Manlius takes up
arms in Etruria. _Nov_. 6: Catiline assembles the chief conspirators,
by the agency of Porcius Laeca Sall. Cat., c. 27. _Nov_. 7: Vargunteius
and Cornelius undertake to assassinate Cicero. Sall. Cat., c. 28.
_Nov_. 8: Catiline appears in the senate; Cicero delivers his first
Oration against him; he threatens to extinguish the flame raised
around him in a general destruction, and quits Rome. Sall. Cat., c.
31. _Nov_. 9: Cicero delivers his second Oration against Catiline,
before an assembly of the people, convoked by order of the senate.
_Nov_. 20, _or thereabouts_: Catiline and Manlius are declared public
enemies. Soon after this the conspirators attempt to secure the
support of the Allobrogian deputies. _Dec_. 3: About two o'clock in
the morning the Allobroges are apprehended. Toward evening Cicero
delivers his third Oration against Catiline, before the people. _Dec_.
5. Cicero's fourth Oration against Catiline, before the senate. Soon
after, the conspirators are condemned to death, and great honors are
decreed by the senate to Cicero. 691.--D. JUNIUS SILANUS, L. LICINIUS
MURAENA--_Jan_. 5: Battle of Pistoria, and death of Catiline.
* * * * *
The narrative of Sallust terminates with the account of the battle of
Pistoria. There are a few other particulars connected with the history
of the conspiracy, which, for the sake of the English reader, it may
not be improper to add.
When the victory was gained, Antonius caused Catiline's head to be cut
off, and sent it to Rome by the messengers who carried the news.
Antonius himself was honored, by a public decree, with the title of
_Imperator_, although he had done little to merit the distinction, and
although the number of slain, which was three thousand, was less than
that for which the title was generally given. See Dio Cass. xxxvii.,
40, 41.
The remains of Catiline's army, after the death of their leader,
continued to make efforts to raise another insurrection. In August,
eight months after the battle, a party, under the command of Lucius
Sergius, perhaps a relative or freedman of Catiline, still offered
resistance to the forces of the government in Etruria. _Reliquiae
conjuratorum, cum L. Sergio, tumultuantur in Hetruria_. Fragm. Act.
Diurn. The responsibility of watching these marauders was left to the
proconsul Metellus Celer. After some petty encounters, in which the
insurgents were generally worsted, Sergius, having collected his force
at the foot of the Alps, attempted to penetrate into the country of
the Allobroges, expecting to find them ready to take up arms; but
Metellus, learning his intention, pre-occupied the passes, and then
surrounded and destroyed him and his followers.
At Rome, in the mean time, great honors were paid to Cicero. A
thanksgiving of thirty days was decreed in his name, an honor which
had previously been granted to none but military men, and which was
granted to him, to use his own words, because _he had delivered the
city from fire, the citizens from slaughter, and Italy from war_. "If
my thanksgiving," he also observes, "be compared with those of others,
there will be found this difference, that theirs were granted them for
having managed the interests of the republic successfully, but that
mine was decreed to me for having preserved the republic from ruin."
See Cic. Orat. iii., in Cat., c. 6. Pro Sylla, c. 30. In Pison. c. 3.
Philipp. xiv., 8. Quintus Catulus, then _princeps senatus_, and Marcus
Roma parentem,
Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit.
Juv. Sat., viii. 244.
Of the inferior conspirators, who did not follow Sergius, and who were
apprehended at Rome, or in other parts of Italy, after the death of
the leaders in the plot, some were put to death, chiefly on the
testimony of Lucius Vettius, one of their number, who turned informer
against the rest. But many whom he accused were acquitted; others,
supposed to be guilty, were allowed to escape.