Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C.
IN describing the conspiracy of Catiline we lie under one grave disadvantage.
Atticus was by Cicero's side throughout this period, and no letters passed between them; and so the detail of events, as they appeared from day to day, is wanting.
We cannot, as in each subsequent crisis of Cicero's life, reconstruct an absolutely trustworthy picture of his plans, his hopes, and his fears.
We cannot say positively what Cicero knew or believed about Catiline at the moment, but only what the consul chose to announce to the world.
Our main authority is the collection of four speeches which Cicero delivered to the Senate or the people during the last two months of his consulship.
The accounts of the later writers, Appian, Plutarch, and Dio Cassius, are probably founded to some extent on Cicero's own story as told in the lost treatise on his consulship.
Besides these we possess the monograph of Sallust on the Catilinarian conspiracy.
This as the work of a contemporary and a Cæsarian is of especial value.
We have the satisfaction of finding that the writer on the Cæsarian side gives substantially the same account of the conspirators and their plans as that which we gather from Cicero's own speeches.
In presence of this agreement we may feel pretty confident that we have a story trustworthy and correct in its main outlines.
Lucius Sergius Catilina was a member of an ancient patrician family which had been famous in the early days of the Republic, but which had long fallen into obscurity.
None of its members had attained the consulship during the last two hundred years, and the name of the Sergii is scarcely mentioned in the history of the period when Rome was conquering and ruling the world.
During the Civil War Catiline had been a partisan of Sulla and had taken an active part in the bloody work of the Proscription.
His brother was one of the victims, and a dark story ran that the infamy which Lepidus earned in later years had been anticipated in the first Proscription, and that Catiline was himself responsible for the insertion of his kinsman's name in the list. [1]
Since then he had risen through the various magistracies till he attained the government of Africa as pro-prætor.
After his return he was accused of extortion on evidence which Cicero, though he thought of accepting a brief for the defence, evidently believed to be overwhelming. [2]
He was acquitted by the jury, but according to Quintus Cicero [3] the verdict cost him a ruinous sum in bribes.
At any rate we find him immediately afterwards overwhelmed with debt, and ready for desperate methods of extrication.
He had by this time completely deserted his old party and was among the most violent members of the opposition.
The hopes which the democrats had of useful service from him are attested by Cæsar's action when in 64 B.C. he brought to trial the assassins of Sulla's Proscription.
Everyone knew that Catiline had been a ring-leader amongst these; but Cæsar, who throughout his life let by-gones be by-gones whenever he had any present purpose to serve, screened him from punishment.
In private life Catiline was known to be both dissolute and unscrupulous.
He had many of the qualities necessary for a revolutionary chief — a powerful frame, a fearless temper, great capacity for endurance, a ready tongue, and a faculty of adapting himself to his company and winning familiarity with good and bad alike.
At the same time he was hopelessly deficient, as the event showed, in the most essential qualifications of a leader, the cool head, the keen eye for the real forces to be dealt with, and the power of co-ordinating means to ends.
We have seen that in the years of Pompey's absence the democratic party under its recognised leaders Cæsar and Crassus was engaged in fruitless attempts to establish itself as a power independent both of the Senate and of Pompey.
This was the object of the attempt of Crassus, as censor, on Egypt in 65 B.C. and of the Agrarian Law of Rullus in 63 B.C.
It must be supposed that Cæsar and his associates counted on the political shortsightedness of both Pompey and the Senate to frustrate any cordial action between the two until the new power should have grown too strong to be successfully resisted.
A consummation closely resembling this actually resulted some years later when Cæsar established himself in Gaul, so that the project must be deemed not wholly chimerical, if only the first step could be safely taken.
This first step was however prevented on both occasions, by Catulus and by Cicero.
In the meantime the democrats had striven hard to gain possession of the consulship.
Catiline and Antonius were supported by all the efforts of the party against Cicero in 64 B.C. and Catiline again at the next year's elections.
An active and unscrupulous man like Catiline, once possessed of the consulship, would have been able to help forward the long-cherished schemes of the party, and if at the same time he could have found means to shake off the burden of his debts and to provide for himself in the future, he might easily have been induced to confine his operations within the limits prescribed by his more sober coadjutors.
Crassus and Cæsar could have kept Catiline quiet by flinging him a rich province to worry, just as Cicero converted Catiline's associate Caius Antonius by the gift of Macedonia.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
The frustration of these plans brought to light the weak point in the position of the democrats.
They had within their ranks men who could not afford to wait, to whom the want of immediate success meant absolute ruin; these could not be withheld from attempts which in their failure brought discredit on the democratic party, but which, if they had succeeded, would have destroyed that party altogether and profited no one but Pompey.
At the head of this desperate class was Catiline himself, and around him were other men of high family whom reckless luxury and extravagance had brought to the verge of bankruptcy and ruin.
If these men could see their way clear to a political revolution, they might hope to restore their fortunes in a general scramble for the good things of the government; but, if they were debarred from this chance, they were resolved to fall back on counsels of despair, and, as Catiline afterwards put it, "to extinguish the fire which would consume them by bringing down the roof-tree on the top of it." [4]
The evil precedents of Marius and of Sulla appealed with fatal seductiveness to these ruined aristocrats.
A civil war, a massacre, a proscription, a confiscation appeared things possible and hopeful.
They could point to men who in the late troubles had suddenly emerged from poverty to enormous wealth and from obscurity to domination. [5]
Their power of judgment was impaired, partly by the dazzling contrast of these hopes with their present embarrassments, partly by the deluding atmosphere of secret cabals in which the vapourings and daydreams of one hour are apt to become the fixed ideas of the next, and above all perhaps by the impatience of weakness which, when once men have begun to conspire, makes them feel that suspense is intolerable and that something, no matter what, must be done.
To eyes so blinded the occasion seemed not unfavourable.
The noble conspirators, though their fortunes were hopelessly undermined, still kept up the show of wealth and profusion, and could command the services of armed slaves, of clients and of retainers.
Rome was full as Sallust tells us [6] of fugitive rascals from all the world; the remnant of the sufferers by the last revolution likewise lingered on there in hopeless poverty.
These would be ready enough for deeds of bloodshed; and the mass of the populace crowded together in a great city without industry, pauperised by doles of State corn, puffed up with the conceit that they were the masters of the world and yet painfully conscious that they gained little either in comfort or in dignity by their pre-eminence, would, it was thought, welcome a disturbance in which they might hope to gain, while at the worst they had nothing to lose.
In the country towns of Italy the conspirators though they might number in their ranks some Italians of good position [7] who had been drawn into the vortex of fashionable life in the capital, would find little favour with the rank and file of the citizens, who were sounder and more industrious than the masses in Rome itself; but they counted that the country-folk would be slow to move, and that they would have time to strike the great blow before a sufficient force could be raised against them.
On the other hand Sulla had stored up for them an ample supply of revolutionaries in the very men whom he had intended to be the guardians of his government.
The veterans [8] of his Asiatic army were richly rewarded from the spoils of the conquered party, and were planted out as colonists over Italy: it was supposed that their interests had been effectually bound up with the maintenance of Sulla's ordinances.
But these professional soldiers seem not to have made good farmers.
Some of them had sold their holdings and gone to swell the pauper population of Rome, others remained, having squandered their donatives and involved themselves in debt, and these naturally looked for a fresh call to civil war as the best means of restoring their fortunes.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
The frustration of these plans brought to light the weak point in the position of the democrats.
They had within their ranks men who could not afford to wait, to whom the want of immediate success meant absolute ruin; these could not be withheld from attempts which in their failure brought discredit on the democratic party, but which, if they had succeeded, would have destroyed that party altogether and profited no one but Pompey.
At the head of this desperate class was Catiline himself, and around him were other men of high family whom reckless luxury and extravagance had brought to the verge of bankruptcy and ruin.
If these men could see their way clear to a political revolution, they might hope to restore their fortunes in a general scramble for the good things of the government; but, if they were debarred from this chance, they were resolved to fall back on counsels of despair, and, as Catiline afterwards put it, "to extinguish the fire which would consume them by bringing down the roof-tree on the top of it." [4]
The evil precedents of Marius and of Sulla appealed with fatal seductiveness to these ruined aristocrats.
A civil war, a massacre, a proscription, a confiscation appeared things possible and hopeful.
They could point to men who in the late troubles had suddenly emerged from poverty to enormous wealth and from obscurity to domination. [5]
Their power of judgment was impaired, partly by the dazzling contrast of these hopes with their present embarrassments, partly by the deluding atmosphere of secret cabals in which the vapourings and daydreams of one hour are apt to become the fixed ideas of the next, and above all perhaps by the impatience of weakness which, when once men have begun to conspire, makes them feel that suspense is intolerable and that something, no matter what, must be done.
To eyes so blinded the occasion seemed not unfavourable.
The noble conspirators, though their fortunes were hopelessly undermined, still kept up the show of wealth and profusion, and could command the services of armed slaves, of clients and of retainers.
Rome was full as Sallust tells us [6] of fugitive rascals from all the world; the remnant of the sufferers by the last revolution likewise lingered on there in hopeless poverty.
These would be ready enough for deeds of bloodshed; and the mass of the populace crowded together in a great city without industry, pauperised by doles of State corn, puffed up with the conceit that they were the masters of the world and yet painfully conscious that they gained little either in comfort or in dignity by their pre-eminence, would, it was thought, welcome a disturbance in which they might hope to gain, while at the worst they had nothing to lose.
In the country towns of Italy the conspirators though they might number in their ranks some Italians of good position [7] who had been drawn into the vortex of fashionable life in the capital, would find little favour with the rank and file of the citizens, who were sounder and more industrious than the masses in Rome itself; but they counted that the country-folk would be slow to move, and that they would have time to strike the great blow before a sufficient force could be raised against them.
On the other hand Sulla had stored up for them an ample supply of revolutionaries in the very men whom he had intended to be the guardians of his government.
The veterans [8] of his Asiatic army were richly rewarded from the spoils of the conquered party, and were planted out as colonists over Italy: it was supposed that their interests had been effectually bound up with the maintenance of Sulla's ordinances.
But these professional soldiers seem not to have made good farmers.
Some of them had sold their holdings and gone to swell the pauper population of Rome, others remained, having squandered their donatives and involved themselves in debt, and these naturally looked for a fresh call to civil war as the best means of restoring their fortunes.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
While these resources lay ready to the hand of the conspirators, the forces at the disposal of the government were invitingly weak.
There was no garrison and no tolerable police force in the city of Rome; the officers and public slaves who attended the magistrates might be overpowered by a resolute gang of assassins, especially if their attention could be distracted by the alarm of fire in various parts of the city.
The only efficient army of the State was far away with Pompey in Asia, and all the troops available were a few cohorts in Cisalpine Gaul and the scanty retinue of two commanders, Lucius Lucullus and Marcius Rex, who were waiting for their triumphs outside the city gates.
On these considerations the schemes of this party within a party were based.
A military force was to be raised in Upper Italy which was to advance as quickly as might be on the city; its approach was to be the signal for fire-raising within the walls, which would, it was hoped, give the opportunity for a sudden assault.
Catiline was to seize the government with the same title of consul, which Marius and Cinna had borne, there was to be a general abolition of debt and recall of condemned criminals, and the old story of massacre and confiscation was to be renewed.
It will now be clear how widely the plans of Catiline differed from those of Cæsar.
The revolution projected by the great leaders of the democratic party was an elaborate and far-reaching scheme.
It recognised the fact that Rome was no longer the chief strategical point, and that the first requisite was a base of operations in the provinces.
A remote country such as Spain or Egypt would be the best fitted for the silent equipment of an armed force which might eventually co-operate with partisans at home.
To train an army for civil war and generals fit to command it must needs occupy, if not so long a stretch of time as Cæsar afterwards employed in the same task in Gaul, at least several years of hard fighting with enemies who were to be sought on the frontiers of the Empire.
In the meantime the rival interests in Rome were to be alarmed as little as possible; the Senate and Pompey were to be left to counteract each other by their mutual jealousies, and the Roman Knights were to be kept quiet by being allowed to see Crassus, the greatest of all the moneyed men, at the head of the movement.
Viewed as a plan of revolution, the defect in this scheme lay not in the general lines on which it was framed, but in the great difficulty of getting it launched.
Catiline's plan on the other hand presented a fatal facility in its initial stage, but it led up necessarily to a result the very contrary of that which Cæsar hoped to accomplish.
Its first effect was to produce a cordial union between the Senate and the equestrian order.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
While these resources lay ready to the hand of the conspirators, the forces at the disposal of the government were invitingly weak.
There was no garrison and no tolerable police force in the city of Rome; the officers and public slaves who attended the magistrates might be overpowered by a resolute gang of assassins, especially if their attention could be distracted by the alarm of fire in various parts of the city.
The only efficient army of the State was far away with Pompey in Asia, and all the troops available were a few cohorts in Cisalpine Gaul and the scanty retinue of two commanders, Lucius Lucullus and Marcius Rex, who were waiting for their triumphs outside the city gates.
On these considerations the schemes of this party within a party were based.
A military force was to be raised in Upper Italy which was to advance as quickly as might be on the city; its approach was to be the signal for fire-raising within the walls, which would, it was hoped, give the opportunity for a sudden assault.
Catiline was to seize the government with the same title of consul, which Marius and Cinna had borne, there was to be a general abolition of debt and recall of condemned criminals, and the old story of massacre and confiscation was to be renewed.
It will now be clear how widely the plans of Catiline differed from those of Cæsar.
The revolution projected by the great leaders of the democratic party was an elaborate and far-reaching scheme.
It recognised the fact that Rome was no longer the chief strategical point, and that the first requisite was a base of operations in the provinces.
A remote country such as Spain or Egypt would be the best fitted for the silent equipment of an armed force which might eventually co-operate with partisans at home.
To train an army for civil war and generals fit to command it must needs occupy, if not so long a stretch of time as Cæsar afterwards employed in the same task in Gaul, at least several years of hard fighting with enemies who were to be sought on the frontiers of the Empire.
In the meantime the rival interests in Rome were to be alarmed as little as possible; the Senate and Pompey were to be left to counteract each other by their mutual jealousies, and the Roman Knights were to be kept quiet by being allowed to see Crassus, the greatest of all the moneyed men, at the head of the movement.
Viewed as a plan of revolution, the defect in this scheme lay not in the general lines on which it was framed, but in the great difficulty of getting it launched.
Catiline's plan on the other hand presented a fatal facility in its initial stage, but it led up necessarily to a result the very contrary of that which Cæsar hoped to accomplish.
Its first effect was to produce a cordial union between the Senate and the equestrian order.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
Now one of two things must happen: either these two united would be strong enough to deal with Catiline — this of course was the actual result, — or else the senatorial government would collapse and Catiline would be able to carry out his full programme and establish in Rome a revolutionary government of the same bloody type as that of Marius and Cinna.
The conspirators forgot that in one essential point their situation differed from that of which Cinna had taken advantage.
The revolutionary movement of 87 B.C. had been possible because Sulla and his army were engaged with Mithridates.
It took Sulla three years to dispose of his great enemy, and until this was done, happen what might in Italy, he could not stir.
A three years' respite was thus allowed to the new government, and it was only by its own folly that it did not use the time in building up a military and political power against which Sulla would have found it hard to contend.
But what chance was there of a similar respite for Catiline?
Mithridates was already driven from Asia and Pompey was ready to set sail immediately.
A massacre in Rome would have brought the Nobles thronging to his camp; he would have returned with his veteran army; his name would have rallied all Italy to his standard, and the hasty levies of the insurgents, led by men not one of whom had ever commanded an army in the field, would have been swept like chaff before him. [10]
The difference between Cæsar and Catiline reminds one of the choice placed before the peasant of the Scottish legend, who found himself in the presence of a magic sword and horn, and whose fate was to depend on whether he first drew the sword or first blew the horn.
Cæsar avoided the challenge to Pompey until he had provided himself with a weapon.
The fate of Catiline, even had his first effort succeeded, would have been that of the peasant in the tale, who was torn in pieces by the spirits whom his blast evoked —
"Woe to the fool that ever he was born,
That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
Now one of two things must happen: either these two united would be strong enough to deal with Catiline — this of course was the actual result, — or else the senatorial government would collapse and Catiline would be able to carry out his full programme and establish in Rome a revolutionary government of the same bloody type as that of Marius and Cinna.
The conspirators forgot that in one essential point their situation differed from that of which Cinna had taken advantage.
The revolutionary movement of 87 B.C. had been possible because Sulla and his army were engaged with Mithridates.
It took Sulla three years to dispose of his great enemy, and until this was done, happen what might in Italy, he could not stir.
A three years' respite was thus allowed to the new government, and it was only by its own folly that it did not use the time in building up a military and political power against which Sulla would have found it hard to contend.
But what chance was there of a similar respite for Catiline?
Mithridates was already driven from Asia and Pompey was ready to set sail immediately.
A massacre in Rome would have brought the Nobles thronging to his camp; he would have returned with his veteran army; his name would have rallied all Italy to his standard, and the hasty levies of the insurgents, led by men not one of whom had ever commanded an army in the field, would have been swept like chaff before him. [10]
The difference between Cæsar and Catiline reminds one of the choice placed before the peasant of the Scottish legend, who found himself in the presence of a magic sword and horn, and whose fate was to depend on whether he first drew the sword or first blew the horn.
Cæsar avoided the challenge to Pompey until he had provided himself with a weapon.
The fate of Catiline, even had his first effort succeeded, would have been that of the peasant in the tale, who was torn in pieces by the spirits whom his blast evoked —
"Woe to the fool that ever he was born,
That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
It is obvious that Crassus, however willing he may have been to use Catiline as a tool in his designs against his rival Pompey, can have had no sympathy with his schemes of national bankruptcy, and we may be sure that Cæsar was no less averse to a movement which would have united the Senate and Pompey, the constitutional and the military power, once for all firmly together, and would have postponed indefinitely the chances of revolution.
Both Crassus and Cæsar got wind of the plot which was formed inside the ranks of their party.
They did their best at first to gain for Catiline an official position which would have enabled him to dispense with actual armed rebellion; when this failed and it was manifest that the conspirators would proceed with their further designs, Cæsar [11] and Crassus both warned Cicero of the danger and gave him such information as they possessed about the plot.
The subsequent utterances of both may be cited in evidence of the reality of the conspiracy and the imminence of the danger.
When Cæsar fourteen years later wrote of the "ultimum Senatus Consultum" that the State had never had recourse to it saving when "the city was almost in flames and the audacity of malefactors was striking terror into the hearts of all men," [12] he must have been understood by all Rome to refer to Catiline.
Crassus is still more explicit.
A year after Catiline's death he declared in the Senate: [13] "I owe it to Cicero that I am a senator, that I am a citizen, that I am a free man, that I draw the breath of life; whensoever I look on my wife, on my home, or on my country, I behold a blessing for which I am indebted to him."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
It is obvious that Crassus, however willing he may have been to use Catiline as a tool in his designs against his rival Pompey, can have had no sympathy with his schemes of national bankruptcy, and we may be sure that Cæsar was no less averse to a movement which would have united the Senate and Pompey, the constitutional and the military power, once for all firmly together, and would have postponed indefinitely the chances of revolution.
Both Crassus and Cæsar got wind of the plot which was formed inside the ranks of their party.
They did their best at first to gain for Catiline an official position which would have enabled him to dispense with actual armed rebellion; when this failed and it was manifest that the conspirators would proceed with their further designs, Cæsar [11] and Crassus both warned Cicero of the danger and gave him such information as they possessed about the plot.
The subsequent utterances of both may be cited in evidence of the reality of the conspiracy and the imminence of the danger.
When Cæsar fourteen years later wrote of the "ultimum Senatus Consultum" that the State had never had recourse to it saving when "the city was almost in flames and the audacity of malefactors was striking terror into the hearts of all men," [12] he must have been understood by all Rome to refer to Catiline.
Crassus is still more explicit.
A year after Catiline's death he declared in the Senate: [13] "I owe it to Cicero that I am a senator, that I am a citizen, that I am a free man, that I draw the breath of life; whensoever I look on my wife, on my home, or on my country, I behold a blessing for which I am indebted to him."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
The consular elections were unusually late that year.
The polling was fixed for the 20th of October, and Manlius, a veteran centurion of Sulla's army and a confederate of Catiline, was said to have come to Rome with a gang of his associates, intending to organise a riot on the election day. [14]
In view of this danger Cicero assembled the Senate on the 19th, and obtained a decree postponing the election till the 28th in order to give time for further inquiries.
Next day (October 20th) he publicly questioned Catiline in the Senate [15] with regard to seditious and inflammatory words which he was reported to have used in addressing the people.
Catiline showed a bold front: he replied "that there were two bodies in the State, the one weak with a feeble head, the other strong without a head; to this he would take good care that a head should be supplied."
Cicero thought that the challenge should be taken up at once, but he could not on this occasion carry the Senate with him.
The resolutions passed were mild and colourless, and Catiline strode forth from the Senate-house triumphant.
On the 21st [16] of October the consul laid fresh information before the House.
He told the senators that he had reason to know that the revolutionary party had lost patience, that an armed insurrection under the leadership of Manlius was impending in Etruria, and that the 27th of October was fixed for the outbreak.
Next day (the 22d) the statement of the consul was taken into consideration and the Senate resolved to proclaim that a state of civil war had begun, [17] thus recognising in the consul the power to use extreme measures of resistance, which were permissible only when the commonwealth was in danger.
This "Extreme Decree," as it was termed, was expressed in the words, "Let the consuls see to it that the State takes no harm."
Under this modest form the magistrate was commissioned to exercise, though always on his own responsibility, whatever force he might deem necessary for the salvation of the Republic.
Within the city the plans of the conspirators had not yet developed into overt acts which Cicero could visit with immediate punishment; but levies were ordered throughout Italy, and the consul Antonius and the prætor Metellus Celer were directed to take the field against the insurgents.
Manlius appeared in arms, just as Cicero had announced, on the 27th of October at Fæsulæ in Etruria.
The consular elections were held in Rome on the 28th of October.
Catiline had hoped for the opportunity of a riot in which the consul might be assassinated.
Cicero warned the senators beforehand and many of them retired from Rome for the day. [18]
He himself appeared as returning officer on the Campus Martius, guarded by a strong body of friends, and the gleam of a corselet which could be seen between the folds of the consul's civic gown proclaimed his danger to the world.
The popular feeling was deeply stirred; Catiline saw that an attack on that day would be hopeless, and kept quiet.
The voters gave their voices against him, and Silanus and Murena were elected consuls.
Three days later, on the 1st of November, an attempt to surprise the stronghold of Præneste was frustrated by the vigilance of Cicero, who had received intelligence from his spies, and who gave orders that the town should be carefuIly garrisoned and guarded. [19]
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
The consular elections were unusually late that year.
The polling was fixed for the 20th of October, and Manlius, a veteran centurion of Sulla's army and a confederate of Catiline, was said to have come to Rome with a gang of his associates, intending to organise a riot on the election day. [14]
In view of this danger Cicero assembled the Senate on the 19th, and obtained a decree postponing the election till the 28th in order to give time for further inquiries.
Next day (October 20th) he publicly questioned Catiline in the Senate [15] with regard to seditious and inflammatory words which he was reported to have used in addressing the people.
Catiline showed a bold front: he replied "that there were two bodies in the State, the one weak with a feeble head, the other strong without a head; to this he would take good care that a head should be supplied."
Cicero thought that the challenge should be taken up at once, but he could not on this occasion carry the Senate with him.
The resolutions passed were mild and colourless, and Catiline strode forth from the Senate-house triumphant.
On the 21st [16] of October the consul laid fresh information before the House.
He told the senators that he had reason to know that the revolutionary party had lost patience, that an armed insurrection under the leadership of Manlius was impending in Etruria, and that the 27th of October was fixed for the outbreak.
Next day (the 22d) the statement of the consul was taken into consideration and the Senate resolved to proclaim that a state of civil war had begun, [17] thus recognising in the consul the power to use extreme measures of resistance, which were permissible only when the commonwealth was in danger.
This "Extreme Decree," as it was termed, was expressed in the words, "Let the consuls see to it that the State takes no harm."
Under this modest form the magistrate was commissioned to exercise, though always on his own responsibility, whatever force he might deem necessary for the salvation of the Republic.
Within the city the plans of the conspirators had not yet developed into overt acts which Cicero could visit with immediate punishment; but levies were ordered throughout Italy, and the consul Antonius and the prætor Metellus Celer were directed to take the field against the insurgents.
Manlius appeared in arms, just as Cicero had announced, on the 27th of October at Fæsulæ in Etruria.
The consular elections were held in Rome on the 28th of October.
Catiline had hoped for the opportunity of a riot in which the consul might be assassinated.
Cicero warned the senators beforehand and many of them retired from Rome for the day. [18]
He himself appeared as returning officer on the Campus Martius, guarded by a strong body of friends, and the gleam of a corselet which could be seen between the folds of the consul's civic gown proclaimed his danger to the world.
The popular feeling was deeply stirred; Catiline saw that an attack on that day would be hopeless, and kept quiet.
The voters gave their voices against him, and Silanus and Murena were elected consuls.
Three days later, on the 1st of November, an attempt to surprise the stronghold of Præneste was frustrated by the vigilance of Cicero, who had received intelligence from his spies, and who gave orders that the town should be carefuIly garrisoned and guarded. [19]
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
Though the forces of his confederates were actually in the field and Catiline had arranged shortly to put himself at their head, he thought proper to occupy the intervening days with a clumsy display of innocence, offering himself to the custody of one magistrate after another, and finally taking up his quarters with Marcus Marcellus, whom he begged to keep watch over his movements. [20]
Cicero tells us [21] that down to the time when Catiline actually joined the rebels in Etruria — "there are men in this House, who either do not see what is hanging over us, or seeing it pretend not to see, who have nourished the hopes of Catiline by the mildness of their proposals, and have given strength to the new-born conspiracy by refusing to believe in it; and there are many outside, not only of the bad but of the simple, who have followed their lead, and who, if I had taken extreme measures against Catiline, would have called my action cruel and tyrannical."
Something like a dramatic exposure of the childish pretences of Catiline was desired by the consul, and for this his adversary soon gave him an occasion.
On the evening of the 6th of November a meeting of the conspirators was held at which it was agreed that Catiline should forthwith set out from Rome and take command of the troops raised by Manlius, leaving the other chiefs of the conspiracy to continue their operations in the city.
He would fain have Cicero disposed of before his departure, and two of his associates, Cornelius and Vargunteius, promised to procure him this satisfaction.
They were on sufficiently friendly terms with the consul to be able to make their way into his house as morning callers, and they arranged to take advantage of this opportunity to murder him the first thing next day.
Cicero, however, was well served by his spies.
Next morning the murderers found the door barred against them, and a number of the principal senators assembled to witness the discomfiture of the men whose presence verified what Cicero had announced beforehand as to their names and their purpose.
Next night the conspirators met again and decided that, notwithstanding the failure of the assassination, Catiline's departure could no longer be delayed.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
Though the forces of his confederates were actually in the field and Catiline had arranged shortly to put himself at their head, he thought proper to occupy the intervening days with a clumsy display of innocence, offering himself to the custody of one magistrate after another, and finally taking up his quarters with Marcus Marcellus, whom he begged to keep watch over his movements. [20]
Cicero tells us [21] that down to the time when Catiline actually joined the rebels in Etruria — "there are men in this House, who either do not see what is hanging over us, or seeing it pretend not to see, who have nourished the hopes of Catiline by the mildness of their proposals, and have given strength to the new-born conspiracy by refusing to believe in it; and there are many outside, not only of the bad but of the simple, who have followed their lead, and who, if I had taken extreme measures against Catiline, would have called my action cruel and tyrannical."
Something like a dramatic exposure of the childish pretences of Catiline was desired by the consul, and for this his adversary soon gave him an occasion.
On the evening of the 6th of November a meeting of the conspirators was held at which it was agreed that Catiline should forthwith set out from Rome and take command of the troops raised by Manlius, leaving the other chiefs of the conspiracy to continue their operations in the city.
He would fain have Cicero disposed of before his departure, and two of his associates, Cornelius and Vargunteius, promised to procure him this satisfaction.
They were on sufficiently friendly terms with the consul to be able to make their way into his house as morning callers, and they arranged to take advantage of this opportunity to murder him the first thing next day.
Cicero, however, was well served by his spies.
Next morning the murderers found the door barred against them, and a number of the principal senators assembled to witness the discomfiture of the men whose presence verified what Cicero had announced beforehand as to their names and their purpose.
Next night the conspirators met again and decided that, notwithstanding the failure of the assassination, Catiline's departure could no longer be delayed.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
On the following morning (Nov. 8th) Cicero summoned the Senate to the temple of Jupiter Stator on the Palatine.
Catiline himself, who was resolved not to throw off the mask until the very last moment, had the audacity to be present.
This was Cicero's opportunity.
He knew that Catiline was about to join the insurgents, and he wished to emphasise this his first act of overt rebellion.
He wished likewise to have the correctness of his own information publicly attested, and to avoid the supposition that Catiline's hypocritical protestations had duped the consul, and that his escape from Rome was a success scored against the government.
He therefore turned upon him in the tremendous invective which has been preserved to us under the title of the First Catilinarian Oration.
The opening words—"Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?"—are perhaps more universally known than any other sentence from an ancient author, and the whole speech well merits its fame as a masterpiece of passionate and defiant eloquence.
Throughout, Cicero assumes the tone of one who has complete command of the situation.
He mocks at Catiline's affectation of innocence, he reveals all his actions and projects before his face, charges him with all that had occurred at the secret meetings of the conspirators during the last two nights, and explains to him where his comrades are to meet him on the road, how the silver eagle which is to serve as their standard has gone on before, and how Manlius awaits his arrival.
As consul, Cicero has ample evidence and ample precedent for ordering him to execution on the spot, but it does not suit his convenience to do so.
"I will have you put to death, Catiline," he says, [22] "but it shall be later on, when it will be impossible to find anyone so vile, anyone so abandoned, anyone so like yourself, as to deny that I am justified in the act."
"So long as there is anyone left to plead for you, you shall live; and you shall live, as you live now, hemmed in by my guards — many and trusty they are — so that you cannot stir a finger against the State: the eyes and ears of many, when you least suspect it, shall in the future as in the past spy out your ways and keep watch on your actions."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
On the following morning (Nov. 8th) Cicero summoned the Senate to the temple of Jupiter Stator on the Palatine.
Catiline himself, who was resolved not to throw off the mask until the very last moment, had the audacity to be present.
This was Cicero's opportunity.
He knew that Catiline was about to join the insurgents, and he wished to emphasise this his first act of overt rebellion.
He wished likewise to have the correctness of his own information publicly attested, and to avoid the supposition that Catiline's hypocritical protestations had duped the consul, and that his escape from Rome was a success scored against the government.
He therefore turned upon him in the tremendous invective which has been preserved to us under the title of the First Catilinarian Oration.
The opening words—"Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?"—are perhaps more universally known than any other sentence from an ancient author, and the whole speech well merits its fame as a masterpiece of passionate and defiant eloquence.
Throughout, Cicero assumes the tone of one who has complete command of the situation.
He mocks at Catiline's affectation of innocence, he reveals all his actions and projects before his face, charges him with all that had occurred at the secret meetings of the conspirators during the last two nights, and explains to him where his comrades are to meet him on the road, how the silver eagle which is to serve as their standard has gone on before, and how Manlius awaits his arrival.
As consul, Cicero has ample evidence and ample precedent for ordering him to execution on the spot, but it does not suit his convenience to do so.
"I will have you put to death, Catiline," he says, [22] "but it shall be later on, when it will be impossible to find anyone so vile, anyone so abandoned, anyone so like yourself, as to deny that I am justified in the act."
"So long as there is anyone left to plead for you, you shall live; and you shall live, as you live now, hemmed in by my guards — many and trusty they are — so that you cannot stir a finger against the State: the eyes and ears of many, when you least suspect it, shall in the future as in the past spy out your ways and keep watch on your actions."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
If Catiline wishes to keep up the farce for a few hours longer and to represent himself as an innocent man driven friendless into exile by the threats of the consul, Cicero will humour him so far.
"Go," he says, [23] "I order you; go into banishment, if that is what you want me to say."
"And if," he continues, [24] "you wish to blast the name of me, whom you are pleased to call your enemy, withdraw in very truth into some distant land."
"I shall scarcely be able to survive the ill-fame which will attach to me, if you allow yourself to be driven from the country by the command of the consul."
"But if you wish to be the instrument of my praise and my reputation, then set forth with all your crew of reprobates, betake yourself to Manlius, summon all criminals to your standard, sever yourself from every honest man, declare war against your country, glory in the act of impiety, that it may be clear that you have not been thrust forth among strangers, but that you have sought the company of your fellows."
"You will go at last," he adds, [25] "well I know it, to that camp whither your unbridled and insane desires have long been summoning you."
"It is no painful task that I impose upon you but an inexpressible pleasure."
"For this mad adventure it is, that nature has fashioned you, that choice has trained you, that fortune has spared you."
"You never loved peace, nor even war unless it were war as a pirate."
"You have found for yourself a gang of ruffians, recruited from among broken men, whom not only all luck but all hope has deserted."
"In the midst of such a crew how you will take your joy, how you will triumph in delight, how you will revel in satisfaction, when in the whole circle of your associates you never hear the voice of one honest man, nor see one honest man's face."
That night Catiline left the city for Etruria.
Next day (Nov. 9th) Cicero addressed a speech (the Second Catilinarian Oration) to the Roman People, in which he announced the departure of Catiline, and laid before them the whole situation.
He exults in the thought that he is now permitted to fight with the traitor in the daylight.
"For this one leader of this intestine war, I have beaten him beyond a doubt."
"No longer will his dagger play against my breast."
"I have done with the perils which I have had to face on the Campus and in the Forum and in the Senate-house and even within the walls of my own home."
"He has lost his vantage ground now that he is driven from the city."
"We shall wage a fair war with none to hinder us against a declared enemy."
"Unquestionably we have ruined the man and triumphed over him, now that we have drawn him from his secret ambush into open piracy." [26]
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
If Catiline wishes to keep up the farce for a few hours longer and to represent himself as an innocent man driven friendless into exile by the threats of the consul, Cicero will humour him so far.
"Go," he says, [23] "I order you; go into banishment, if that is what you want me to say."
"And if," he continues, [24] "you wish to blast the name of me, whom you are pleased to call your enemy, withdraw in very truth into some distant land."
"I shall scarcely be able to survive the ill-fame which will attach to me, if you allow yourself to be driven from the country by the command of the consul."
"But if you wish to be the instrument of my praise and my reputation, then set forth with all your crew of reprobates, betake yourself to Manlius, summon all criminals to your standard, sever yourself from every honest man, declare war against your country, glory in the act of impiety, that it may be clear that you have not been thrust forth among strangers, but that you have sought the company of your fellows."
"You will go at last," he adds, [25] "well I know it, to that camp whither your unbridled and insane desires have long been summoning you."
"It is no painful task that I impose upon you but an inexpressible pleasure."
"For this mad adventure it is, that nature has fashioned you, that choice has trained you, that fortune has spared you."
"You never loved peace, nor even war unless it were war as a pirate."
"You have found for yourself a gang of ruffians, recruited from among broken men, whom not only all luck but all hope has deserted."
"In the midst of such a crew how you will take your joy, how you will triumph in delight, how you will revel in satisfaction, when in the whole circle of your associates you never hear the voice of one honest man, nor see one honest man's face."
That night Catiline left the city for Etruria.
Next day (Nov. 9th) Cicero addressed a speech (the Second Catilinarian Oration) to the Roman People, in which he announced the departure of Catiline, and laid before them the whole situation.
He exults in the thought that he is now permitted to fight with the traitor in the daylight.
"For this one leader of this intestine war, I have beaten him beyond a doubt."
"No longer will his dagger play against my breast."
"I have done with the perils which I have had to face on the Campus and in the Forum and in the Senate-house and even within the walls of my own home."
"He has lost his vantage ground now that he is driven from the city."
"We shall wage a fair war with none to hinder us against a declared enemy."
"Unquestionably we have ruined the man and triumphed over him, now that we have drawn him from his secret ambush into open piracy." [26]
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: CICERO AND THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY
Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
Cicero answers to the people, as he had already done to the Senate, the criticisms which he fears will be made on his policy in allowing the rebel captain to put himself at the head of his forces.
He protests that though he would have been justified in killing him, yet that his execution would have been useless to the commonwealth.
Catiline's associates would have declared his innocence, would have made a martyr of him, and would have used the outcry against the consul in order to carry out Catiline's schemes more effectively.
Now that he has set himself in arms against the State, no one can any longer pretend to disbelieve in his conspiracy, and so not only he but his accomplices whom he leaves behind can be safely dealt with.
To these last Cicero addresses significant words of warning.
"They are conscious," he says, [27] "that all the resolutions of their council of the night before last have been reported to me."
"I exposed them all yesterday in the Senate."
"Catiline took fright and departed."
"What are they waiting for?"
"Nay, but they are much mistaken if they think that my lenity is going to last for ever."
". . One boon I will still grant them; let them go forth, let them start on their journey, let them not suffer their Catiline to pine with grief for want of them."
"I will show them the road: he has gone along the Aurelian Way; if they will but make haste, they may catch him up towards evening. . . ."
"One word more; either go they shall, or keep quiet; or else if they remain in the city and do not mend their ways let them look to receive their deserts."
Further on [28] he returns to the same theme — "If my mildness heretofore has seemed to anyone to argue want of vigour, I would reply that it has been waiting till this which lay concealed should spring to light."
"For the future I can no longer forget that this is my native land, that I am the consul of all these Romans, that it is with them that I have to live or for them that I have to die."
"There is no guard set upon the gates, no ambush upon the road."
"If anyone wishes to go forth, he can use his own discretion."
"But if anyone dares to stir a finger in the city, if I take him, I will not say in any accomplished act, but in any attempt or effort against the nation, then I say that I will make him feel that in this city there are consuls who will not sleep, there are magistrates who will do their duty, there is a Senate which will stand firm, there are forces in arms, there is a prison which our ancestors established to be the scene of vengeance for heinous and red-handed crime."
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson
CHAPTER V.
CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C., continued ...
Cicero answers to the people, as he had already done to the Senate, the criticisms which he fears will be made on his policy in allowing the rebel captain to put himself at the head of his forces.
He protests that though he would have been justified in killing him, yet that his execution would have been useless to the commonwealth.
Catiline's associates would have declared his innocence, would have made a martyr of him, and would have used the outcry against the consul in order to carry out Catiline's schemes more effectively.
Now that he has set himself in arms against the State, no one can any longer pretend to disbelieve in his conspiracy, and so not only he but his accomplices whom he leaves behind can be safely dealt with.
To these last Cicero addresses significant words of warning.
"They are conscious," he says, [27] "that all the resolutions of their council of the night before last have been reported to me."
"I exposed them all yesterday in the Senate."
"Catiline took fright and departed."
"What are they waiting for?"
"Nay, but they are much mistaken if they think that my lenity is going to last for ever."
". . One boon I will still grant them; let them go forth, let them start on their journey, let them not suffer their Catiline to pine with grief for want of them."
"I will show them the road: he has gone along the Aurelian Way; if they will but make haste, they may catch him up towards evening. . . ."
"One word more; either go they shall, or keep quiet; or else if they remain in the city and do not mend their ways let them look to receive their deserts."
Further on [28] he returns to the same theme — "If my mildness heretofore has seemed to anyone to argue want of vigour, I would reply that it has been waiting till this which lay concealed should spring to light."
"For the future I can no longer forget that this is my native land, that I am the consul of all these Romans, that it is with them that I have to live or for them that I have to die."
"There is no guard set upon the gates, no ambush upon the road."
"If anyone wishes to go forth, he can use his own discretion."
"But if anyone dares to stir a finger in the city, if I take him, I will not say in any accomplished act, but in any attempt or effort against the nation, then I say that I will make him feel that in this city there are consuls who will not sleep, there are magistrates who will do their duty, there is a Senate which will stand firm, there are forces in arms, there is a prison which our ancestors established to be the scene of vengeance for heinous and red-handed crime."
TO BE CONTINUED ...