Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0095/00950.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 39KB | 579 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00950}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Plutarch's Lives
Part I}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Plutarch}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{cicero
himself
catiline
rome
time
having
senate
upon
city
sylla}
$Date{c75}
$Log{}
Title:       Plutarch's Lives
Book:        Cicero
Author:      Plutarch
Date:        c75
Translation: Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough

Part I

     It is generally said, that Helvia, the mother of Cicero, was both well
born and lived a fair life; but of his father nothing is reported but in
extremes. For whilst some would have him the son of a fuller, and educated in
that trade, others carry back the origin of his family to Tullus Attius, an
illustrious king of the Volscians, who waged war not without honor against the
Romans. However, he who first of that house was surnamed Cicero seems to have
been a person worthy to be remembered; since those who succeeded him not only
did not reject, but were fond of the name, though vulgarly made a matter of
reproach. For the Latins call a vetch Cicer, and a nick or dent at the tip of
his nose, which resembled the opening in a vetch, gave him the surname of
Cicero.

     Cicero, whose story I am writing, is said to have replied with spirit to
some of his friends, who recommended him to lay aside or change the name when
he first stood for office and engaged in politics, that he would make it his
endeavor to render the name of Cicero more glorious than that of the Scauri
and Catuli. And when he was quaestor in Sicily, and was making an offering of
silver plate to the gods, and had inscribed his two names, Marcus and Tullius,
instead of the third he jestingly told the artificer to engrave the figure of
a vetch by them. Thus much is told us about his name.

     Of his birth it is reported, that his mother was delivered without pain
or labor, on the third of the new Calends, ^1 the same day on which now the
magistrates of Rome pray and sacrifice for the emperor. It is said, also, that
a vision appeared to his nurse, and foretold the child she then suckled should
afterwards become a great benefit to the Roman States. To such presages, which
might in general be thought mere fancies and idle talk, he himself erelong
gave the credit of true prophecies. For as soon as he was of an age to begin
to have lessons, he became so distinguished for his talent, and got such a
name and reputation amongst the boys, that their fathers would often visit the
school, that they might see young Cicero, and might be able to say that they
themselves had witnessed the quickness and readiness in learning for which he
was renowned. And the more rude among them used to be angry with their
children, to see them, as they walked together, receiving Cicero with respect
into the middle place. And being, as Plato would have the scholar-like and
philosophical temper, eager for every kind of learning, and indisposed to no
description of knowledge or instruction, he showed, however, a more peculiar
propensity to poetry; and there is a poem now extant, made by him when a boy,
in tetrameter verse, called Pontius Glaucus. And afterwards, when he applied
himself more curiously to these accomplishments, he had the name of being not
only the best orator, but also the best poet of Rome. And the glory of his
rhetoric still remains, notwithstanding the many new modes in speaking since
his time; but his verses are forgotten and out of all repute, so many
ingenious poets having followed him.

[Footnote 1: The third of January.]

     Leaving his juvenile studies, he became an auditor of Philo the Academic,
whom the Romans, above all the other scholars of Clitomachus, admired for his
eloquence and loved for his character. He also sought the company of the
Mucii, who were eminent statesmen and leaders in the senate, and acquired from
them a knowledge of the laws. For some short time he served in arms under
Sylla, in the Marsian war. But perceiving the commonwealth running into
factions, and from faction all things tending to an absolute monarchy, he
betook himself to a retired and contemplative life, and conversing with the
learned Greeks, devoted himself to study, till Sylla had obtained the
government, and the commonwealth was in some kind of settlement.

     At this time, Chrysogonus, Sylla's emancipated slave, having laid an
information about an estate belonging to one who was said to have been put to
death by proscription, had bought it himself for two thousand drachmas. And
when Roscius, the son and heir of the dead, complained, and demonstrated the
estate to be worth two hundred and fifty talents, Sylla took it angrily to
have his actions questioned, and preferred a process against Roscius for the
murder of his father, Chrysogonus managing the evidence. None of the advocates
durst assist him, but fearing the cruelty of Sylla, avoided the cause. The
young man, being thus deserted, came for refuge to Cicero. Cicero's friends
encouraged him, saying he was not likely ever to have a fairer and more
honorable introduction to public life; he therefore undertook the defence,
carried the cause, and got much renown for it.

     But fearing Sylla, he travelled into Greece, and gave it out that he did
so for the benefit of his health. And indeed he was lean and meagre, and had
such a weakness in his stomach, that he could take nothing but a spare and
thin diet, and that not till late in the evening. His voice was loud and good,
but so harsh and unmanaged that in vehemence and heat of speaking he always
raised it to so high a tone, that there seemed to be reason to fear about his
health.

     When he came to Athens, he was a hearer of Antiochus of Ascalon, with
whose fluency and elegance of diction he was much taken, although he did not
approve of his innovations in doctrine. For Antiochus had now fallen off from
the New Academy, as they call it, and forsaken the sect of Carneades, whether
that he was moved by the argument of manifestness ^2 and the senses, or, as
some say, had been led by feelings of rivalry and opposition to the followers
of Clitomachus and Philo to change his opinions, and in most things to embrace
the doctrine of the Stoics. But Cicero rather affected and adhered to the
doctrines of the New Academy; and purposed with himself, if he should be
disappointed of any employment in the commonwealth, to retire hither from
pleading and political affairs, and to pass his life with quiet in the study
of philosophy.

[Footnote 2: According to a proposed correction, "by the manifestness of the
senses." But the enargeia, or manifestness of things seen and felt, seems to
be the recognized name of the argument against the sceptical views of the New
Academy as to the possibility of certain knowledge. See Cicero's Academics,
II. 6.]

     But after he had received the news of Sylla's death, and his body,
strengthened again by exercise, was come to a vigorous habit, his voice
managed and rendered sweet and full to the ear and pretty well brought into
keeping with his general constitution, his friends at Rome earnestly
soliciting him by letters, and Antiochus also urging him to return to public
affairs, he again prepared for use his orator's instrument of rhetoric, and
summoned into action his political faculties, diligently exercising himself in
declamations, and attending the most celebrated rhetoricians of the time. He
sailed from Athens for Asia and Rhodes. Amongst the Asia masters, he conversed
with Xenocles of Adramyttium, Dionysius of Magnesia, and Menippus of Caria; at
Rhodes, he studied oratory with Apollonius, the son of Molon, and philosophy
with Posidonius. Apollonius, we are told, not understanding Latin, requested
Cicero to declaim in Greek. He complied willingly, thinking that his faults
would thus be better pointed out to him. And after he finished, all his other
hearers were astonished, and contended who should praise him most, but
Apollonius, who had shown no signs of excitement whilst he was hearing him, so
also now, when it was over, sate musing for some considerable time, without
any remark. And when Cicero was discomposed at this, he said, "You have my
praise and admiration, Cicero, and Greece my pity and commiseration, since
those arts and that eloquence which are the only glories that remain to her,
will now be transferred by you to Rome."

     And now when Cicero, full of expectation, was again bent upon political
affairs, a certain oracle blunted the edge of his inclination; for consulting
the god of Delphi how he should attain most glory, the Pythoness answered, by
making his own genius and not the opinion of the people the guide of his life;
and therefore at first he passed his time in Rome cautiously, and was very
backward in pretending to public offices, so that he was at that time in
little esteem, and had got the names, so readily given by low and ignorant
people in Rome, of Greek and Scholar. But when his own desire of fame and the
eagerness of his father and relations had made him take in earnest to
pleading, he made no slow or gentle advance to the first place, but shone out
in full lustre at once, and far surpassed all the advocates of the bar. At
first, it is said, he, as well as Demosthenes, was defective in his delivery,
and on that account paid much attention to the instructions, sometimes of
Roscious the comedian, and sometimes of Aesop the tragedian. They tell of this
Aesop, that whilst he was representing on the theatre Atreus deliberating the
revenge of Thyestes, he was so transported beyond himself in the heat of
action, that he struck with his sceptre one of the servants, who was running
across the stage, so violently, that he laid him dead upon the place. And such
afterwards was Cicero's delivery, that it did not a little contribute to
render his eloquence persuasive. He used to ridicule loud speakers, saying
that they shouted because they could not speak, like lame men who get on
horseback because they cannot walk. And his readiness and address in sarcasm,
and generally in witty savings, was thought to suit a pleader very well, and
to be highly attractive, but his using it to excess offended many, and gave
him the repute of ill nature.

     He was appointed quaestor in a great scarcity of corn, and had Sicily for
his province, where, though at first he displeaded many, by compelling them to
send their provisions to Rome, yet after they had had experience of his care,
justice, and clemency, they honored him more than ever they did any of their
governors before. It happened, also, that some young Romans of good and noble
families, charged with neglect of discipline and misconduct in military
service, were brought before the praetor in Sicily. Cicero undertook their
defence, which he conducted admirably, and got them acquitted. So returning to
Rome with a great opinion of himself for these things, a ludicrous incident
befell him, as he tells us himself. Meeting an eminent citizen in Campania,
whom he accounted his friend, he asked him what the Romans said and thought of
his actions, as if the whole city had been filled with the glory of what he
had done. His friend asked him in reply, "Where is it you have been, Cicero?"
This for the time utterly mortified and cast him down, to perceive that the
report of his actions had sunk into the city of Rome as into an immense ocean,
without any visible effect or result in reputation. And afterwards considering
with himself that the glory he contended for was an infinite thing, and that
there was no fixed end nor measure in its pursuit, he abated much of his
ambitious thoughts. Nevertheless, he was always excessively pleased with his
own praise, and continued to the very last to be passionately fond of glory;
which often interfered with the prosecution of his wisest resolutions.

     On beginning to apply himself more resolutely to public business, he
remarked it as an unreasonable and absurd thing that artificers, using vessels
and instruments inanimate, should know the name, place, and use of every one
of them, and yet the statesman, whose instruments for carrying out public
measures are men, should be negligent and careless in the knowledge of
persons. And so he not only acquainted himself with the names, but also knew
the particular place where every one of the more eminent citizens dwelt, what
lands he possessed, the friends he made use of, and those that were of his
neighborhood, and when he travelled on any road in Italy, he could readily
name and show the estates and seats of his friends and acquaintances. Having
so small an estate, though a sufficient competency for his own expenses, it
was much wondered at that he took neither fees nor gifts from his clients, and
more especially, that he did not do so when he undertook the prosecution of
Verres. This Verres, who had been praetor of Sicily, and stood charged by the
Sicilians of many evil practices during his government there, Cicero succeeded
in getting condemned, not by speaking, but in a manner by holding his tongue.
For the praetors, favoring Verres, had deferred the trial by several
adjournments to the last day, in which it was evident there could not be
sufficient time for the advocates to be heard, and the cause brought to an
issue. Cicero, therefore, came forward, and said there was no need of
speeches; and after producing and examining witnesses, he acquired the judges
to proceed to sentence. However, many witty sayings are on record, as having
been used by Cicero on the occasion. When a man named Caecilius, one of the
freed slaves, who was said to be given to Jewish practices, would have put by
the Sicilians, and undertaken the prosecution of Verres himself, Cicero asked,
"What has a Jew to do with swine?" verres being the Roman word for boar. And
when Verres began to reproach Cicero with effeminate living, "You ought,"
replied he, "to use this language at home, to your sons;" Verres having a son
who had fallen into disgraceful courses. Hortensius the orator, not daring
directly to undertake the defence of Verres, was yet persuaded to appear for
him at the laying on of the fine, and received an ivory sphinx for his reward;
and when Cicero, in some passage of his speech, obliquely reflected on him,
and Hortensius told him he was not skilful in solving riddles, "No," said
Cicero, "and yet you have the Sphinx in your house!"

     Verres was thus convicted; though Cicero, who set the fine at
seventy-five myriads, ^3 lay under the suspicion of being corrupted by bribery
to lessen the sum. But the Sicilians, in testimony of their gratitude, came
and brought him all sorts of presents from the island, when he was aedile; of
which he made no private profit himself, but used their generosity only to
reduce the public price of provisions.

[Footnote 3: Seventy-five then thousands, i.e. 750,000 drachmas; Plutarch most
likely counting the drachma as equivalent to the denarius. But the sum does
not agree with the figures given by Cicero's own orations, and must be
regarded as quite uncertain.]

     He had a very pleasant seat at Arpi, ^4 he had also a farm near Naples,
and another about Pompeii, but neither of any great value. The portion of his
wife, Terentia, amounted to ten myriads, and he had a bequest valued at nine
myriads of denarii; upon these he lived in a liberal but temperate style, with
the learned Greeks and Romans that were his familiars. He rarely, if at any
time, sat down to meat till sunset, and that not so much on account of
business, as for his health and the weakness of his stomach. He was otherwise
in the care of his body nice and delicate, appointing himself, for example, a
set number of walks and rubbings. And after this manner managing the habit of
his body, he brought it in time to be healthful, and capable of supporting
many great fatigues and trials. His father's house he made over to his
brother, living himself near the Palatine hill, that he might not give the
trouble of long journeys to those that made suit to him. And, indeed, there
were not fewer daily appearing at his door, to do their court to him, than
there were that came to Crassus for his riches, or to Pompey for his power
amongst the soldiers, these being at that time the two men of the greatest
repute and influence in Rome. Nay, even Pompey himself used to pay court to
Cicero, and Cicero's public actions did much to establish Pompey's authority
and reputation in the state.

[Footnote 4: Plutarch calls it Arpi, which is far from Rome, in Apulia, but it
is, of course, Arpinum, Cicero's native place.]

     Numerous distinguished competitors stood with him for the praetor's
office; but he was chosen before them all, and managed the decision of causes
with justice and integrity. It is related that Licinius Macer, a man himself
of great power in the city, and supported also by the assistance of Crassus,
was accused before him of extortion, and that, in confidence on his own
interest and the diligence of his friends, whilst the judges were debating
about the sentence, he went to his house, where hastily trimming his hair and
putting on a clean gown, as already acquitted, he was setting off again to the
Forum; but at his hall door meeting Crassus, who told him that he was
condemned by all the votes, he went in again, threw himself upon his bed, and
died immediately. This verdict was considered very creditable to Cicero, as
showing his careful management of the courts of justice. On another occasion,
Vatinius, a man of rude manners and often insolent in court to the
magistrates, who had large swellings on his neck, came before his tribunal and
made some request, and on Cicero's desiring further time to consider it, told
him that he himself would have made no question about it, had he been praetor.
Cicero, turning quickly upon him, answered, "But I, you see, have not the neck
that you have." ^5

[Footnote 5: The strong, thick neck was both in Greek and Latin the sign of
the pushing, unscrupulous man, who would take no refusal and stick at no doubt
or difficulty. So in the life of Marius.]

     When there were but two or three days remaining in his office, Manilius
was brought before him, and charged with peculation. Manilius had the good
opinion and favor of the common people, and was thought to be prosecuted only
for Pompey's sake, whose particular friend he was. And therefore, when he
asked a space of time before his trial, and Cicero allowed him but one day,
and that the next only, the common people grew highly offended, because it had
been the custom of the praetors to allow ten days at least to the accused: and
the tribunes of the people having called him before the people, and accused
him, he, desiring to be heard, said, that as he had always treated the accused
with equity and humanity, as far as the law allowed, so he thought it hard to
deny the same to Manilius, and that the studiously appointed that day of which
alone, as praetor, he was master, and that it was not the part of those that
were desirous to help him, to cast the judgment of his cause upon another
praetor. These things being said made a wonderful change in the people, and,
commending him much for it, they desired that he himself would undertake the
defence of Manilius; which he willingly consented to, and that principally for
the sake of Pompey, who has absent. And, accordingly, taking his place before
the people again, he delivered a bold invective upon the oligarchical party
and on those who were jealous of Pompey.

     Yet he was preferred to the consulship no less by the nobles than the
common people, for the good of the city; and both parties jointly assisted his
promotion, upon the following reasons. The change of government made by Sylla,
which at first seemed a senseless one, by time and usage had now come to be
considered by the people no unsatisfactory settlement. But there were some
that endeavored to alter and subvert the whole present state of affairs, not
from any good motives, but for their own private gain; and Pompey being at
this time employed in the wars with the kings of Pontus and Armenia, there was
no sufficient force at Rome to suppress any attempts at a revolution. These
people had for their head a man of bold, daring, and restless character,
Lucius Catiline, who was accused, besides other great offences, of deflouring
his virgin daughter, and killing his own brother; for which latter crime,
fearing to be prosecuted at law, he persuaded Sylla to set him down, as though
he were yet alive, amongst those that were to be put to death by proscription.
This man the profligate citizens choosing for their captain, gave faith to one
another, amongst other pledges, by sacrificing a man and eating of his flesh;
and a great part of the young men of the city were corrupted by him, he
providing for every one pleasures, drink, and women, and profusely supplying
the expense of these debauches. Etruria, moreover, had all been excited to
revolt, as well as a great part of Gaul within the Alps. But Rome itself was
in the most dangerous inclination to change, on account of the unequal
distribution of wealth and property, those of highest rank and greatest spirit
having impoverished themselves by shows, entertainments, ambition of offices,
and sumptuous buildings, and the riches of the city having thus fallen into
the hands of mean and low-born persons. So that there wanted but a slight
impetus to set all in motion, it being in the power of every daring man to
overturn a sickly commonwealth.

     Catiline, however, being desirous of procuring a strong position to carry
out his designs, stood for the consulship, and had great hopes of success,
thinking he should be appointed, with Caius Antonius as his colleague, who was
a man fit to lead neither in a good cause nor in a bad one, but might be a
valuable accession to another's power. These things the greatest part of the
good and honest citizens apprehending, put Cicero upon standing for the
consulship; whom the people readily receiving, Catiline was put by, so that he
and Caius Antonius were chosen, although amongst the competitors he was the
only man descended from a father of the equestrian, and not of the senatorial
order.

     Though the designs of Catiline were not yet publicly known, yet
considerable preliminary troubles immediately followed upon the consulship.
For, on the one side, those who were disqualified by the laws of Sylla from
holding any public offices, being neither inconsiderable in power nor in
number, came forward as candidates and caressed the people for them; speaking
many things truly and justly against the tyranny of Sylla, only that they
disturbed the government at an improper and unseasonable time; on the other
hand, the tribunes of the people proposed laws to the same purpose,
constituting a commission of ten persons, with unlimited powers, in whom as
supreme governors should be vested the right of selling the public lands of
Italy and Syria and Pompey's new conquests, of judging and banishing whom they
pleased, of planting colonies, of taking moneys out of the treasury, and of
levying and paying what soldiers should be thought needful. And several of the
nobility favored this law, but especially Caius Antonius, Cicero's colleague,
in hopes of being one of the ten. But what gave the greatest fear to the
nobles was, that he was thought privy to the conspiracy of Catiline, and not
to dislike it, because of his great debts.

     Cicero, endeavoring in the first place to provide a remedy against this
danger, procured a decree assigning to him the province of Macedonia, he
himself declining that of Gaul, which was offered to him. And this piece of
favor so completely won over Antonius, that he was ready to second and respond
to, like a hired player, whatever Cicero said for the good of the country. And
now, having made his colleague thus tame and tractable, he could with greater
courage attack the conspirators. And, therefore, in the senate, making an
oration against the law of the ten commissioners, he so confounded those who
proposed it, that they had nothing to reply. And when they again endeavored,
and, having prepared things beforehand, had called the consuls before the
assembly of the people, Cicero, fearing nothing, went first out, and commanded
the senate to follow him, and not only succeeded in throwing out the law, but
so entirely overpowered the tribunes by his oratory, that they abandoned all
thought of their other projects.

     For Cicero, it may be said, was the one man above all others, who made
the Romans feel how great a charm eloquence lends to what is good, and how
invincible justice is, if it be well spoken; and that it is necessary for him
who would dexterously govern a commonwealth, in action, always to prefer that
which is honest before that which is popular, and in speaking, to free the
right and useful measure from every thing that may occasion offence. An
incident occurred in the theatre, during his consulship, which showed what his
speaking could do. For whereas formerly the knights of Rome were mingled in
the theatre with the common people, and took their places amongst them as it
happened, Marcus Otho, when he was praetor, was the first who distinguished
them from the other citizens, and appointed them a proper seat, which they
still enjoy as their special place in the theatre. This the common people took
as an indignity done to them, and, therefore, when Otho appeared in the
theatre, they hissed him; the knights, on the contrary, received him with loud
clapping. The people repeated and increased their hissing; the knights
continued their clapping. Upon this, turning upon one another, they broke out
into insulting words, so that the theatre was in great disorder. Cicero, being
informed of it, came himself to the theatre, and summoning the people into the
temple of Bellona, he so effectually chid and chastised them for it, that,
again returning into the theatre, they received Otho with loud applause,
contending with the knights who should give him the greatest demonstrations of
honor and respect.

     The conspirators with Catiline, at first cowed and disheartened, began
presently to take courage again. And assembling themselves together, they
exhorted one another boldly to undertake the design before Pompey's return,
who, as it was said, was now on his march with his forces for Rome. But the
old soldiers of Sylla were Catiline's chief stimulus to action. They had been
disbanded all about Italy, but the greatest number and the fiercest of them
lay scattered among the cities of Etruria, entertaining themselves with dreams
of new plunder and rapine amongst the hoarded riches of Italy. These, having
for their leader Manlius, who had served with distinction in the wars under
Sylla, joined themselves to Catiline, and came to Rome to assist him with
their suffrages at the election. For he again pretended to the consulship,
having resolved to kill Cicero in a tumult at the elections. Also, the divine
powers seemed to give intimation of the coming troubles, by earthquakes,
thunderbolts, and strange appearances. Nor was human evidence wanting, certain
enough in itself, though not sufficient for the conviction of the noble and
powerful Catiline. Therefore Cicero, deferring the day of election, summoned
Catiline into the senate, and questioned him as to the charges made against
him. Catiline, believing there were many in the senate desirous of change, and
to give a specimen of himself to the conspirators present returned an
audacious answer, "What harm," said he, "when I see two bodies, the one lean
and consumptive with a head, the other great and strong without one, if I put
a head to that body which wants one?" This covert representation of the senate
and the people excited yet greater apprehensions in Cicero. He put on armor,
and was attended from his house by the noble citizens in a body; and a number
of the young men went with him into the Plain. Here, designedly letting his
tunic slip partly off from his shoulder, he showed his armor underneath, and
discovered his danger to the spectators; who, being much moved at it, gathered
round about him for his defence. At length, Catiline was by a general suffrage
gain put by, and Silanus and Murena chosen consuls.

     Not long after this, Catiline's soldiers got together in a body in
Etruria, and began to form themselves into companies, the day appointed for
the design being near at the hand. About midnight, some of the principal and
most powerful citizens of Rome, Marcus Crassus, Marcus Marcellus, and Scipio
Mettellus went to Cicero's house, where, knocking at the gate, and calling up
the porter, they commanded him to awake Cicero, and tell him they were there.
The business was this: Crassus' porter after supper had delivered to him
letters brought by an unknown person. Some of them were directed to others,
but one to Crassus, without a name; this only Crassus read, which informed him
that there was a great slaughter intended by Catiline, and advised him to
leave the city. The others he did not open, but went with them immediately by
Cicero, being affrighted at the danger, and to free himself of the suspicion
he lay under for his familiarity with Catiline. Cicero, considering the
matter, summoned the senate at break of day. The letters he brought with him,
and delivered them to those to whom they were directed, commanding them to
read them publicly; they all alike contained an account of the conspiracy. And
when Quintus Arrius, a man of praetorian dignity, recounted to them, how
soldiers were collecting in companies in Etruria, and Manlius stated to be in
motion with a large force, hovering about those cities, in expectation of
intelligence from Rome, the senate made a decree, to place all in the hands of
the consuls, who should undertake the conduct of every thing, and do their
best to save the state. ^6 This was not a common thing, but only done by the
senate in case of imminent danger.

[Footnote 6: Dent operam consules ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat," the
usual form for suspending other authority, and arming the consuls with
discretionary power; much the same as placing the town in a state of siege.]

     After Cicero had received this power, he committed all affairs outside to
Quintus Metellus, but the management of the city he kept in his own hands.
Such a numerous attendance guarded him every day when he went abroad, that the
greatest part of the marketplace ^7 was filled with his train when he entered
it. Catiline, impatient of further delay, resolved himself to break forth and
go to Manlius, but he commanded Marcius and Cethegus to take their swords, and
go early in the morning to Cicero's gates, as if only intending to salute him,
and then to fall upon him and slay him. This a noble lady, Fulvia, coming by
night, discovered to Cicero, bidding him beware of Cethegus and Marcius. They
came by break of day, and being denied entrance, made an outcry and
disturbance at the gates, which excited all the more suspicion. But Cicero,
going forth, summoned the senate into the temple of Jupiter Stator, which
stands at the end of the Sacred Street, going up to the Palatine. And when
Catiline with others of his party also came, as intending to make his defence,
none of the senators would sit by him, but all of them left the bench where he
had placed himself. And when he began to speak, they interrupted him with
outcries. At length Cicero, standing up, commanded him to leave the city, for
since one governed the commonwealth with words, the other with arms, it was
necessary there should be a wall betwixt them. Catiline, therefore,
immediately left the town, with three hundred armed men; and assuming, as if
he had been a magistrate, the rods, axes and military ensigns, he went to
Manlius, and having got together a body o near twenty thousand men, with these
he marched to the several cities, endeavoring to persuade or force them to
revolt. So it being now come to open war, Antonius was sent forth to fight
him.

[Footnote 7: The Forum.]

     The remainder of those in the city whom he had corrupted, Cornelius
Lentulus kept together and encouraged. He had the surname Sura, and was a man
of a noble family, but a dissolute liver, who for his debauchery was formerly
turned out of the senate, and was now holding the office of praetor for the
second time, as the custom is with those who desire to regain the dignity of
senator. It is said that he got the surname Sura upon this occasion; being
quaestor in the time of Sylla, he had lavished away and consumed a great
quantity of the public moneys, at which Sylla being provoked, called him to
give an account in the senate; he appeared with great coolness and contempt,
and said he had no account to give, but they might take this, holding up the
calf of his leg, as boys do at ball, when they have missed. Upon which he was
surnamed Sura, sura being the Roman word for the calf of the leg. Being at
another time prosecuted at law, and having bribed some of the judges, he
escaped only by two votes, and complained of the needless expense he had gone
to in paying for a second, as one would have sufficed to acquit him. This man,
such in his won nature, and now inflamed by Catiline, false prophet and
fortune-tellers had also corrupted with vain hopes, quoting to him fictitious
verses and oracles, and proving from the Sibylline prophecies that there were
three of the name Cornelius designed by fate to be monarchs of Rome; two of
whom, Cinna and Sylla, had already fulfilled the decree, and that divine
fortune was now advancing with the gift of monarchy for the remaining third
Cornelius; and that therefore he ought by all means to accept it, and not lose
opportunity by delay, as Catiline had done.

     Lentulus, therefore, designed no mean or trivial matter, for he had
resolved to kill the whole senate, and as many other citizens as he could, to
fire the city, and spare nobody, except only Pompey's children, intending to
seize and keep them as pledges of his reconciliation with Pompey. For there
was then common and strong report that Pompey was on his way homeward from his
great expedition. The night appointed for the design was one of the
Saturnalia; swords, flax and sulphur they carried and hid in the house of
Cethegus; and providing one hundred men, and dividing the city into as many
parts, they had allotted to every one singly his proper place, so that in a
moment many kindling the fire, the city might be in a flame all together.
Others were appointed to stop up the aqueducts, and to kill those who should
endeavor to carry water to put it out. Whilst these plans were preparing, it
happened there were two ambassadors from the Allobroges staying in Rome; a
nation at that time in a distressed condition, and very uneasy under the Roman
government. These Lentulus and his party judging useful instruments to move
and seduce Gaul to revolt, admitted into the conspiracy, and they gave them
letters to their own magistrates, and letters to Catiline; in those they
promised liberty, in these they exhorted Catiline to set all slaves free, and
to bring them along with him to Rome. They sent also to accompany them to
Catiline, one Titus, a native of Croton, who was to carry those letters to
him.

     These counsels of inconsidering men, who conversed together over wine and
with women, Cicero watched with sober industry and forethought, and with most
admirable sagacity, having several emissaries abroad, who observed and traced
with him all that was done, and keeping also a secret correspondence with many
who pretended to join the conspiracy. He thus knew all the discourse which
passed betwixt them and the strangers; and lying in wait for them by night, he
took the Crotonian with his letters, the ambassadors of the Allobroges acting
secretly in concert with him.

     By break of day, he summoned the senate into the temple of Concord, where
he read the letters and examined the informers. Junius Silanus further stated,
that several persons had heard Cethegus say, that three consuls and four
praetors were to be slain; Piso, also, a person of consular dignity testified
other matters of the like nature; and Caius Sulpicius, one of the praetors,
being sent to Cethegus' house, found there a quantity of darts and of armor,
and a still greater number of swords and daggers, all recently whetted. At
length, the senate decreeing indemnity to the Crotonian upon his confession of
the whole matter, Lentulus was convicted, abjured his office (for he was then
praetor), and put off his robe edged with purple in the senate, changing it
for another garment more agreeable to his present circumstances. He,
thereupon, with the rest of his confederates present, was committed to the
charge of the praetors in free custody.

     It being evening, and the common people in crowds expecting without,
Cicero went forth to them, and told them what was done, and then, attended by
them, went to the house of a friend and near neighbor; for his own was taken
up by the women, who were celebrating with secret rites the feast of the
goddess whom the Romans call the Good, and the Greeks, the Women's goddess.
For a sacrifice is annually performed to her in the consul's house, either by
his wife or mother, in the presence of the vestal virgins. And having got into
his friend's house privately, a few only being present, he began to deliberate
how he should treat these men. The severest, and the only punishment fit for
such heinous crimes, he was somewhat shy and fearful of inflicting, as well
from the clemency of his nature, as also lest he should be thought to exercise
his authority too insolently, and to treat too harshly men of the noblest
birth and most powerful friendships in the city; and yet, if he should use
them more mildly, he had a dreadful prospect of danger from them. For there
was no likelihood, if they suffered less than death, they would be reconciled,
but rather, adding new rage to their former wickedness, they would rush into
every kind of audacity, while he himself, whose character for courage already
did not stand very high with the multitude, would be thought guilty of the
greatest cowardice and want of manliness.