The Good Book

by A. C. Grayling

Chapter 70

  1. In addition to Rome itself being in an unsettled and dangerous state, there was trouble beyond the city,

  2. For at that time the region of Etruria had been encouraged to revolt, as well as a large part of Cisalpine Gaul.

  3. Wishing for a platform to carry out his designs, Catiline stood for the consulship, and had great hopes of success,

  4. Thinking that his fellow-consul would be Caius Antonius, a man fit to lead neither in a good nor a bad cause, but who might be a useful deputy.

  5. To prevent Catiline, the honest portion of the citizenry persuaded Cicero to stand in the election; and Cicero won, alongside Caius Antonius;

  6. And Cicero was the only one of the candidates descended from the equestrian rather than the senatorial order.

  7. Though Catiline’s designs were not yet publicly known, Cicero’s consulship faced many difficulties from the start, chief among them the following.

  8. Those disqualified by Sylla’s laws from holding office were considerable both in power and number, and they came forward to oppose the laws.

  9. They had right on their side, but were acting at an inopportune time because the state was in turmoil.

  10. The tribunes of the people were also pressing for change.

  11. They wished to institute a commission of ten persons with wide powers, including the right to sell public lands in Italy, Syria and Pompey’s new conquests;

  12. To judge and banish whomever they pleased; to found colonies; to use public money; and to levy soldiers.

  13. Several of the nobility favoured this law also, among them Cicero’s consular colleague Caius Antonius, who hoped to be one of the Ten.

  14. But what worried most nobles was that Antonius was thought to be in league with Catiline,

  15. Whose plans he supported because they would free him from his great debts.

  16. But Cicero ensured Antonius’ support by assigning to him the province of Macedonia, he himself declining that of Gaul.

  17. Antonius was thereafter ready to support whatever Cicero did.

  18. Now Cicero could attack the conspirators with greater courage.

  19. In the senate he argued against the proposed commission of ten, and the senate voted against it.

  20. And when the commission’s proponents tried again by summoning the consuls before the people’s assembly, Cicero not only secured its rejection there too,

  21. But so overpowered the tribunes by his oratory, that they abandoned all thought of their other projects.

  22. For Cicero was the one man above all others whose eloquence made Romans feel the invincibility of justice,

  23. And by the power of his advocacy he freed the right and useful from everything that could cause offence.

  24. An incident occurred in the theatre during Cicero’s consulship which showed what his oratory could achieve.

  25. Whereas formerly the knights of Rome mingled in the theatre with commoners, the praetor Marcus Otho appointed them their own section in the theatre.

  26. The commoners took this as an insult, so when Otho appeared in the theatre they hissed him; the knights, on the contrary, applauded him.

  27. The people increased their hissing, the knights their clapping; then the two sections turned on one another, hurling insults, and reduced the theatre to uproar.

  28. Cicero was called, and so effectually chided everyone for their behaviour that the crowd now applauded Otho,

  29. The people contending with the knights who should give him the greatest demonstrations of honour and respect.

  Chapter 71

  1. Catiline and his co-conspirators, at first disheartened, soon took courage again.

  2. In secret meetings they exhorted one another to capture the government before Pompey’s army returned from the eastern wars.

  3. The veterans of Sylla’s army were Catiline’s chief stimulus to action.

  4. They had been disbanded and dispersed around Italy,

  5. But the greatest number and the fiercest of them lived in the cities of Etruria, where they were dissatisfied and restless.

  6. These, under the leadership of one Manlius, who had served with distinction in the wars under Sylla, joined themselves to Catiline,

  7. And they came to Rome to assist him with their votes at the consular election, he having resolved to stand again for that office,

  8. While also having resolved to assassinate Cicero in the tumult of the hustings.

  9. Cicero, suspecting these plans, deferred the day of election and summoned Catiline to the senate, there questioning him about the charges made against him.

  10. Catiline believed that there were many in the senate with views similar to his own,

  11. And in order to get their support by showing them his mettle, he gave an audacious answer:

  12. ‘What harm,’ said he, ‘when I see two bodies, the one lean and consumptive with a head,

  13. ‘The other great and strong without one, if I put a head to the body that lacks one?’

  14. This representation of the senate and the people excited yet greater apprehensions in Cicero.

  15. He put on armour, and was attended from his house by many citizens, bent on protecting him.

  16. Letting his tunic slip partly from his shoulders,

  17. He showed his armour underneath, thus showing his danger to the spectators;

  18. Who, being much moved by it, gathered round to defend him; and Catiline again lost the vote for the consulship.

  19. After this Catiline’s soldiers in Etruria began to form themselves into companies, the day appointed for the revolution being near.

  20. Late one night Cicero was woken by a group of the principal citizens of Rome,

  21. Among them Marcus Crassus, Marcus Marcellus and Scipio Metellus.

  22. Crassus had that night been secretly brought a bundle of letters by an unknown person. They were directed to various senators,

  23. And one of them was for Crassus himself. It did not have a sender’s name.

  24. He read it, and found that it advised him to leave the city because a great slaughter was intended by Catiline.

  25. He did not open the other letters, but took them immediately to Cicero,

  26. Being apprehensive of the danger, and to free himself of any suspicion of leaguing with Catiline.

  27. Cicero summoned the senate to meet at dawn. He brought the letters with him, and delivered them to their addressees,

  28. To be read out loud; they all alike contained an account of the conspiracy.

  29. And when Quintus Arrius, a man of praetorian dignity, reported how soldiers were collecting in companies in Etruria,

  30. And that Manlius was in motion with a large force near those cities,

  31. Waiting for orders from Rome, the senate made a decree granting exceptional powers to the consuls, to do their best to save the state.

  32. After Cicero had received this power, he committed all affairs outside Rome to Quintus Metellus, but kept the management of the city in his own hands.

  33. Such a large number of people guarded him every day that the marketplace was filled with his followers when he entered it.

  Chapter 72

  1. Catiline, impatient of further delay, resolved to leave Rome and go to Manlius,

  2. But he commanded Marcius and Cethegus to take their swords,

  3. And go early in the morning to Cicero’s gates, as if to greet him, but there to slay him.

  4. Cicero was however warned of this plan. Cethegus and Marcius came at dawn,

  5. But being denied entrance they made an outcry at the gates, which excited yet more suspicion.

  6. Cicero summoned the senate, and when Catiline arrived with his followers, intending to make his defence,

  7. None of the senators would sit near him, but all of them left the bench where he placed himself;

  8. And when Catiline began to speak, they heckled him.

  9. Then Cicero stood up and commanded
him to leave the city,

  10. On the grounds that since he wished to govern the commonwealth with words and the other with arms,

  11. It was necessary there should be a wall between them.

  Chapter 73

  1. Catiline immediately left Rome with three hundred armed men;

  2. And assuming, as if he were a magistrate, the rods, axes and military ensigns, he went to Manlius,

  3. And having collected a body of twenty thousand men, he marched to various cities, trying to raise revolt.

  4. Now that it had come to open civil war, Antonius was sent with troops to fight him.

  5. The remainder of Catiline’s conspirators still in Rome were kept together and encouraged by Cornelius Lentulus.

  6. Though of noble family, Lentulus was a dissolute person, who for his debauchery had been turned out of the senate,

  7. And was now holding the office of praetor for the second time,

  8. As the custom is with those seeking to regain the dignity of senator.

  9. This man, bad in his own nature and now inflamed by Catiline,

  10. Resolved to murder all the senators, and as many other citizens as he could,

  11. And to set the city on fire, sparing nobody except Pompey’s children,

  12. Intending to keep them as pledges so that he could reconcile with Pompey, who was still at the eastern wars.

  13. The night appointed for this design fell during a festival.

  14. Swords, flax and sulphur were hidden in the house of Cethegus;

  15. A hundred men were detailed to start fires in different quarters of the city at the same moment, so that everything would be in flames together.

  16. Others were appointed to block the aqueducts, and to kill those who tried to carry water to the fires.

  17. While these plans were in preparation, it happened that there were two ambassadors from the Allobroges staying in Rome;

  18. A nation at that time in a distressed condition, and uneasy under the Roman government.

  19. Lentulus and his party judged these men useful instruments to move Gaul to revolt,

  20. So they admitted them to the conspiracy and gave them letters to their own leaders, and letters to Catiline.

  21. In the former they promised liberty, in the latter they exhorted Catiline to set all slaves free, and bring them to Rome.

  22. They sent a man called Titus, a native of Croton, to accompany the ambassadors and carry the letters to Catiline.

  23. Cicero followed the plotting of the conspirators closely, having spies in place to observe all that was done and said,

  24. And keeping a secret correspondence with many who pretended to join the conspiracy, including these ambassadors of the Allobroges.

  25. He thus knew all the discourse which passed between them and the strangers;

  26. And, lying in wait for them by night, he arrested Titus the Crotonian with his letters.

  27. The next morning he summoned the senate, where he read the letters aloud and examined the informers.

  28. Junius Silanus witnessed that Cethegus said that three consuls and four praetors were to be slain. Piso testified other matters of the like nature;

  29. Caius Sulpicius, one of the praetors, was sent to Cethegus’ house and found a cache of darts and of armour,

  30. And a still greater number of swords and daggers, all newly sharpened.

  31. The senate decreed indemnity to Titus the Crotonian in return for his confession.

  32. Lentulus was convicted, abjured his praetorial office and put off his senatorial robe edged with purple.

  33. He and the other conspirators were then committed to the custody of the praetors.

  Chapter 74

  1. After giving details of the conspiracy and arrests to the crowds waiting outside,

  2. Cicero withdrew to consider what punishment the conspirators should suffer.

  3. He was reluctant to inflict the death penalty, partly from clemency,

  4. But also in case he should be thought too strict in executing men of the noblest birth and most powerful friendships in the city;

  5. And yet, if he treated them mildly, there could only be further danger from them.

  6. For there was no likelihood, if they escaped death, that they would be reconciled,

  7. But rather, adding new rage to their former wickedness, they would rush into every kind of audacity.

  8. Cicero was also worried that as he had a reputation among the people for mildness,

  9. They might easily think him timid and unmanly if he did not rigorously apply the law.

  10. The next day in the senate Silanus argued that the conspirators should suffer the utmost penalty.

  11. Everyone agreed one after another until it came to Julius Caesar’s turn.

  12. He was then only a young man, at the outset of his career,

  13. But he had already set himself on the course which led to Rome becoming a monarchy.

  14. No one else foresaw this except Cicero, who had some inkling of Caesar’s ambitions and capacities.

  15. But quite a few suspected that Caesar was sympathetic to Catiline’s views,

  16. And some of them believed that Cicero voluntarily overlooked the evidence against him for fear of his friends and power;

  17. For it was evident to everybody that if Caesar was accused with the conspirators,

  18. They were more likely to be saved with him than he to be punished with them.

  19. So when it was Caesar’s turn to speak, he opposed execution,

  20. Suggesting instead that the conspirators’ estates be confiscated,

  21. And their persons confined in such cities in Italy as Cicero should approve.

  22. To this sentence, as it was moderate, and delivered by a powerful speaker,

  23. Cicero himself gave due weight when he stood up to speak.

  24. He said that both proposals had merit, and left the matter so in the balance,

  25. That Silanus now changed his mind and withdrew his motion for the death sentence.

  26. The first man to reject Caesar’s motion was Catulus Lutatius.

  27. Cato followed, and so vehemently urged in his speech the strong suspicion against Caesar himself of involvement with Catiline,

  28. And so filled the senate with anger and resolution,

  29. That a decree was passed for the immediate execution of the conspirators.

  30. But Caesar opposed the confiscation of their goods,

  31. Not thinking it fair that those who rejected the mildest part of his sentence should avail themselves of the severest.

  32. And when many insisted upon it, he appealed to the tribunes, but they would do nothing;

  33. Till Cicero himself yielded, and remitted that part of the sentence.

  Chapter 75

  1. Cicero then went to where the conspirators were being kept by the praetors,

  2. And took them one by one to the prison, where they were each strangled in turn.

  3. As he escorted them through the forum he was surrounded by large, anxious crowds,

  4. Who silently and fearfully watched the proceedings.

  5. But that evening, when he returned from the forum to his own house,

  6. The citizens received him as he passed with acclamations and applause,

  7. Saluting him as the saviour and founder of his country.

  8. A bright light shone through the streets from the lamps and torches set up at the doors,

  9. And the women showed lights from the tops of houses to honour Cicero,

  10. And to see him returning home with a splendid train of the leading citizens;

  11. Amongst whom were many who had conducted great wars, celebrated Triumphs,

  12. And added to the possessions of the Roman empire, both by sea and land.

  13. These, as they passed along with him, acknowledged to one another,

  14. That though the Roman people were indebted to several officers and commanders
of that age for riches, spoils and power,

  15. To Cicero alone they owed the safety and security of all these, for delivering them from such a great and imminent danger.

  16. For though it might seem no wonderful thing to prevent a conspiracy and punish the conspirators,

  17. Yet to defeat the greatest of all conspiracies with so little disturbance and commotion was very extraordinary.

  18. For the greater part of those who had flocked to Catiline, as soon as they heard the fate of his fellow conspirators, abandoned him,

  19. And he himself, with his remaining forces, was killed in battle with the army led by Antonius.

  Chapter 76

  1. And yet there were still some who were ready to speak ill of Cicero, and to seek revenge for his actions;

  2. And they had for their leaders some of the magistrates of the following year,

  3. Including Julius Caesar, who was one of the praetors, and Metellus and Bestia, the tribunes.

  4. These men, beginning their period of office some days before Cicero’s consulate expired, would not permit him to make a speech to the people.

  5. But it was an advantage for Cicero that Cato was at that time one of the tribunes.

  6. For he, being equal in power to the rest and of greater reputation, could oppose their designs.

  7. In an oration to the people Cato so highly extolled Cicero’s consulate that the greatest honours were decreed him,

  8. And Cicero was publicly declared the Father of his Country, the first man to have this title bestowed on him.

  9. At this time, therefore, Cicero’s authority was very great in the city.

  10. But he offended many and invited envy, not by any evil action, but because he was always praising himself.

  11. He would talk endlessly of his triumph over Catiline and Lentulus,

  12. And he filled his writings with his exalted part in their downfall, to such excess as to render his writings irksome,

  13. Though as prose they were exceptionally beautiful.

  14. He was also much given to sharp raillery against opponents and mocking them,

  15. Which in judicial pleading might be allowable as rhetoric;

  16. But he excited much ill-feeling by his readiness to attack anyone for the sake of a jest.

  17. This manner, and his proneness to self-praise, clung to him like a disease.