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In birth and beauty, in her husband and her children, she was extremely fortunate ; she was skilled in Greek and Roman literature ; she could sing, play, and dance, with greater elegance than became a woman of virtue, and possessed many other accomplishments that tend to excite the passions. But nothing was ever less valued by her than honor or chastity. Whether she was more prodigal of her money or her reputation, it would have been difficult to decide. Her desires were so ardent that she oftener made advances to the other sex than waited for solicitation. She had frequently, before this period, forfeited her word, for sworn debts, been privy to murder, and hurried into the utmost excesses by her extravagance and poverty. But her abilities were by no means despicable ; she could compose verses, jest, and join in conversation either modest, tender, or licentious. In a word, she was distinguished by much refinement of wit, and much grace of expression.
Catiline, having made these arrangements, still canvassed for the consulship for the following year; hoping that, if he should be elected, he would easily manage Antonius according to his pleasure. Nor did he, in the mean time, remain inactive, but devised schemes, in every possible way, against Cicero, who, however, did not want skill or policy to guard against them. For, at the very beginning of his consulship, he had, by making many promises through Fulvia, prevailed on Quintus Curius, whom I have already mentioned, to give him secret information of Catiline's proceedings. He had also persuaded his colleague, Antonius, by an arrangement respecting their provinces, to entertain no sentiment of disaffection toward the state ; and he kept around him, though without ostentation, a guard of his friends and dependents.
When the day of the comitia came, and neither Catiline's efforts for the consulship, nor the plots which he had laid for the consuls in the Campus Martius, were attended with success, he determined to proceed to war, and resort to the utmost extremities, since what he had attempted secretly had ended in confusion and disgrace.
He accordingly dispatched Caius Manlius to Faesulae, and
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the adjacent parts of Etruria ; one Septimius, of Camerinum, into the Picenian territory ; Caius Julius into Apulia ; and others to various places, wherever he thought each would be most serviceable. He himself, in the mean time, was making many simultaneous efforts at Rome ; he laid plots for the con sul ; he arranged schemes for burning the city ; he occupied suitable posts with armed men ; he went constantly armed him self, and ordered his followers to do the same ; he exhorted them to be always on their guard and prepared for action ; he was active and vigilant by day and by night, and was exhausted neither by sleeplessness nor by toil. At last, however, when none of his numerous projects succeeded, he again, with the aid of Marcus Porcius Laeca, convoked the leaders of the conspiracy in the dead of night, when, after many complaints of their apathy, he informed them that he had sent forward Manlius to that body of men whom he had prepared to take up arms ; and others of the confederates into other eligible places, to make a commencement of hostilities ; and that he himself was eager to set out to the army, if he could but first cut off Cicero, who was the chief obstruction to his measures.
While, therefore, the rest were in alarm and hesitation, Caius Cornelius, a Roman knight, who offered his services, and Lucius Vargunteius, a senator, in company with him, agreed to go with an armed force, on that very night, and with but little delay, to the house of Cicero, under pretense of paying their respects to him, and to kill him unawares, and unprepared for defense, in his own residence. But Curius, when he heard of the imminent danger that threatened the consul, immediately gave him notice, by the agency of Fulvia, of the treachery which was contemplated. The assassins, in consequence, were refused admission, and found that they had undertaken such an attempt only to be disappointed.
In the mean time, Manlius was in Etruria, stirring up the populace, who, both from poverty, and from resentment for their injuries (for, under the tyranny of Sylla, they had lost their lands and other property), were eager for a revolution. He also attached to himself all sorts of marauders, who were numerous in those parts, and some of Sylla's colonists, whose dissipation and extravagance had exhausted their enormous plunder.
When these proceedings were reported to Cicero, he, being alarmed at the twofold danger, since he could no longer secure
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the city against treachery by his private efforts, nor could gain satisfactory intelligence of the magnitude or intentions of the army of Manlius, laid the matter, which was already a subject of discussion among the people, before the senate. The senate, accordingly, as is usual in any perilous emergency, decreed that THE CONSULS SHOULD MAKE IT THEIR CAEE THAT THE COMMONWEALTH SHOULD RECEIVE NO INJURY. This is the greatest power which, according to the practice at Rome, is granted by the senate to the magistrate, and which authorizes him to raise troops ; to make war ; to assume unlimited control over the allies and the citizens ; to take the chief command and jurisdiction at home and in the field ; rights which, without an order of the people, the consul is not permitted to exercise.
A few days afterward, Lucius Saenius, a senator, read to the senate a letter, which, he said, he had received from Faesulae, and in which it was stated that Caius Manlius, with a large force, had taken the field by the 27th of October. Others at the same time, as is not uncommon in such a crisis, spread reports of omens and prodigies ; others of meetings being held, of arms being transported, and of insurrections of the slaves at Capua and Apulia. In consequence of these rumors, Quintus Marcius Rex was dispatched, by a decree of the senate, to Faesulae, and Quintus Metellus Creticus into Apulia and the parts adjacent ; both which officers, with the title of com manders, were waiting near the city, having been prevented from entering in triumph, by the malice of a cabal, whose cus tom it was to ask a price for everything, whether honorable or infamous. The pretors, too, Quintus Pompeius Rufus and Quintus Metellus Celer, were sent off, the one to Capua, the other to Picenum, and power was given them to levy a force proportioned to the exigency and the danger. The senate also decreed, that if any one should give information of the con spiracy which had been formed against the state, his reward should be, if a slave, his freedom and a hundred sestertia ; if a freeman, a complete pardon and two hundred sestertia. They further appointed that the schools of gladiators should be dis tributed in Capua and other municipal towns, according to the capacity of each; and that, at Rome, watches should be posted throughout the city, of which the inferior magistrates should have the charge.
By such proceedings as these the citizens were struck with
alarm, and the appearance of the city was changed. In place vOl. v. — 11
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of that extreme gayety and dissipation to which long tran quillity had given rise, a sudden gloom spread over all classes ; they became anxious and agitated ; they felt secure neither in any place, nor with any person ; they were not at war, yet enjoyed no peace ; each measured the public danger by his own fear. The women, also, to whom, from the extent of the empire, the dread of war was new, gave way to lamentation, raised supplicating hands to heaven, mourned over their infants, made constant inquiries, trembled at everything, and, forgetting their pride and their pleasures, felt nothing but alarm for them selves and their country.
Yet the unrelenting spirit of Catiline persisted in the same purposes, notwithstanding the precautions that were adopted against him, and though he himself was accused by Lucius Paullua under the Plautian law. At last, with a view to dis semble, and under pretense of clearing his character, as if he had been provoked by some attack, he went into the senate house. It was then that Marcus Tullius, the consul, whether alarmed at his presence, or fired with indignation against him, delivered that splendid speech, so beneficial to the public, which he afterward wrote and published. [See following selection. ]
When Cicero sat down, Catiline being prepared to pretend ignorance of the whole matter, entreated, with downcast looks and suppliant voice, that "the Conscript Fathers would not too hastily believe anything against him " ; saying " that he was sprung from such a family, and had so ordered his life from his youth, as to have every happiness in prospect ; and that they were not to suppose that he, a patrician, whose services to the Roman people, as well as those of his ancestors, had been so numerous, should want to ruin the state, when Marcus Tullius, a mere adopted citizen of Rome, was eager to preserve it. " When he was proceeding to add other invectives, they all raised an outcry against him, and called him an enemy and a traitor. Being thus exasperated, " Since I am encompassed by enemies," he exclaimed, " and driven to desperation, I will extinguish the flame kindled around me in a general ruin. "
He then hurried from the senate to his own house ; and then, after much reflection with himself, thinking that, as his plots against the consul had been unsuccessful, and as he knew the city to be secured from fire by the watch, his best course would be to augment his army, and make provision for the war before the legions could be raised, he set out in the dead of
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night, and with a few attendants, to the camp of Manlius. But he left in charge to Lentulus and Cethegus, and others of whose prompt determination he was assured, to strengthen the inter ests of their party in every possible way, to forward the plots against the consul, and to make arrangements for a massacre, for firing the city, and for other destructive operations of war ; promising that he himself would shortly advance on the city with a large army.
Catiline himself, having stayed a few days with Caius Fla- minius Flamma in the neighborhood of Arretium, while he was supplying the adjacent parts, already excited to insurrec tion, with arms, marched with his fasces, and other ensigns of authority, to join Manlius in his camp.
When this was known at Rome, the senate declared Catiline and Manlius enemies to the state, and fixed a day as to the rest of their force, before which they might lay down their arms with impunity, except such as had been convicted of capital offenses. They also decreed that the consuls should hold a levy ; that Antonius, with an army, should hasten in pursuit of Catiline ; and that Cicero should protect the city.
At this period the empire of Rome appears to me to have been in an extremely deplorable condition ; for though every nation, from the rising to the setting of the sun, lay in subjec tion to her arms, and though peace and prosperity, which man kind think the greatest blessings, were hers in abundance, there yet were found, among her citizens, men who were bent with obstinate determination to plunge themselves and their country into ruin ; for, notwithstanding the two decrees of the senate, not one individual, out of so vast a number, was induced by the offer of reward to give information of the conspiracy ; nor was there a single deserter from the camp of Catiline. So strong a spirit of disaffection had, like a pestilence, pervaded the minds of most of the citizens.
Nor was this disaffected spirit confined to those who were actually concerned in the conspiracy ; for the whole of the com mon people, from a desire of change, favored the projects of Catiline. This they seemed to do in accordance with their gen eral character ; for, in every state, they that are poor envy those of a better class, and endeavor to exalt the factious ; they dis like the established condition of things, and long for something new ; they are discontented with their own circumstances, and desire a general alteration ; they can support themselves amid
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tumult and sedition, without anxiety, since poverty does not easily suffer loss.
As for the populace of the city, they had become disaffected from various causes. In the first place, such as everywhere took the lead in crime and profligacy, with others who had squandered their fortunes in dissipation, and, in a word, all whom vice and villainy had driven from their homes, had flocked to Rome as a general receptacle of impurity. In the next place, many, who thought of the success of Sylla, when they had seen some raised from common soldiers into senators, and others so enriched as to live in regal luxury and pomp, hoped, each for himself, similar results from victory, if they should once take up arms. In addition to this, the youth, who, in the country, had earned a scanty livelihood by manual labor, tempted by public and private largesses, had preferred idleness in the city to unwelcome toil in the field. To these, and all others of similar character, public disorders would furnish sub sistence. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that men in dis tress, of dissolute principles and extravagant expectations, should have consulted the interest of the state no further than as it was subservient to their own. Besides, those whose parents, by the victory of Sylla, had been proscribed, whose property had been confiscated, and whose civil rights had been curtailed, looked forward to the event of a war with precisely the same feelings.
All those, too, who were of any party opposed to that of the senate, were desirous rather that the state should be embroiled, than that they themselves should be out of power. This was an evil which, after many years, had returned upon the com munity to the extent to which it now prevailed.
Much about the same time there were commotions in Hither and Further Gaul, in the Picenian and Bruttian territories, and in Apulia. For those whom Catiline had previously sent to those parts had begun, without consideration, and seemingly with madness, to attempt everything at once; and by noc turnal meetings, by removing armor and weapons from place to place, and by hurrying and confusing everything, had created more alarm than danger. Of these, Quintus Metellus Celer, the pretor, having brought several to trial, under the decree of the senate, had thrown them into prison, as had also Caius Muraena in Further Gaul, who governed that province in quality of legate.
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But at Rome, in the mean time, Lentulus, with the other leaders of the conspiracy, having secured what they thought a large force, had arranged, that as soon as Catiline should reach the neighborhood of Faesulae, Lucius Bestia, a tribune of the people, having called an assembly, should complain of the proceedings of Cicero, and lay the odium of this most oppressive war on the excellent consul ; and that the rest of the conspirators, taking this as a signal, should, on the follow ing night, proceed to execute their respective parts.
These parts are said to have been thus distributed. Statilius and Gabinius, with a large force, were to set on fire twelve places of the city, convenient for their purpose, at the same time ; in order that, during the consequent tumult, an easier access might be obtained to the consul, and to the others whose destruction was intended ; Cethegus was to beset the gate of Cicero, and attack him personally with violence ; others were to single out other victims ; while the sons of certain families, mostly of the nobility, were to kill their fathers ; and, when all were in consternation at the massacre and conflagration, they were to sally forth to join Catiline.
While they were thus forming and settling their plans, Cethegus was incessantly complaining of the want of spirit in his associates ; observing, that they wasted excellent opportuni ties through hesitation and delay ; that, in such an enterprise, there was need, not of deliberation, but of action ; and that he himself, if a few would support him, would storm the senate house while the others remained inactive. Being naturally bold, sanguine, and prompt to act, he thought that success depended on rapidity of execution.
The Allobroges, according to the directions of Cicero, pro cured interviews, by means of Gabinius, with the other con spirators ; and from Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, and Cassius they demanded an oath, which they might carry under seal to their countrymen, who otherwise would hardly join in so im portant an affair. To this the others consented without suspi cion ; but Cassius promised them soon to visit their country, and, indeed, left the city a little before the deputies.
In order that the Allobroges, before they reached home, might confirm their agreement with Catiline, by giving and receiving pledges of faith, Lentulus sent with them one Titus Volturcius, a native of Crotona, he himself giving Volturcius a letter for Catiline, of which the following is a copy : —
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" Who I am, you will learn from the person whom I have sent to you. Reflect seriously in how desperate a situation you are placed, and remember that you are a man. Consider what your views demand, and seek aid from all, even" the lowest. " In addition, he gave him this verbal message : Since he was declared an enemy by the senate, for what reason should he reject the assistance of slaves ? That, in the city, everything which he had directed was arranged ; and that he should not delay to make nearer approaches to it. "
Matters having proceeded thus far, and a night being ap pointed for the departure of the deputies, Cicero, being by them made acquainted with everything, directed the pretors, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, and Caius Pomtinus, to arrest the retinue of the Allobroges, by lying in wait for them on the Milvian Bridge ; he gave them a full explanation of the object with which they were sent, and left them to manage the rest as occasion might require. Being military men, they placed a force, as had been directed, without disturbance, and secretly invested the bridge ; when the deputies, with Volturcius, came to the place, and a shout was raised from each side of the bridge, the Gauls, at once comprehending the matter, sur rendered themselves immediately to the pretors. Volturcius, at first, encouraging his companions, defended himself against numbers with his sword ; but afterward, being unsupported by the Allobroges, he began earnestly to beg Pomtinus, to whom he was known, to save his life, and at last, terrified and despair ing of safety, he surrendered himself to the pretors as uncon ditionally as to foreign enemies.
The affair being thus concluded, a full account of it was immediately transmitted to the consul by messengers. Great anxiety, and great joy, affected him at the same moment. He rejoiced that, by the discovery of the conspiracy, the state was freed from danger ; but he was doubtful how he ought to act, when citizens of such eminence were detected in treason so atrocious. He saw that their punishment would be a weight upon himself, and their escape the destruction of the Common wealth. Having, however, formed his resolution, he ordered Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius, and one Quintus Ccepa- rius of Terracina, who was preparing to go to Apulia to raise the slaves, to be summoned before him. The others came with out delay ; but Cœparius, having left his house a little before, and heard of the discovery of the conspiracy, had fled from
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the city. The consul himself conducted Lentulus, as he was pretor, holding him by the hand, and ordered the others to be brought into the Temple of Concord, under a guard. Here he assembled the senate, and in a very full attendance of that body introduced Volturcius with the deputies. Hither also he ordered Valerius Flaccus, the pretor, to bring the box with the letters which he had taken from the deputies.
Volturcius, being questioned concerning his journey, con cerning his letter, and lastly, what object he had had in view, and from what motives he had acted, at first began to prevari cate, and to pretend ignorance of the conspiracy ; but at length, when he was told to speak on the security of the public faith, he disclosed every circumstance as it had really occurred, stat ing that he had been admitted as an associate, a few days before, by Gabinius and Cœparius ; that he knew no more than the deputies, only that he used to hear from Gabinius, that Publius Autronius, Servius Sylla, Lucius Vargunteius, and many others, were engaged in the conspiracy. The Gauls made a similar confession, and charged Lentulus, who began to affect ignorance, not only with the letter to Catiline, but with remarks which he was in the habit of making, " that the sovereignty of Rome, by the Sibylline books, was predestined to three Cornelii ; that Cinna and Sylla had ruled already ; and that he himself was the third, whose fate it would be to govern the city ; and that this, too, was the twentieth year since the Capitol was burned, — a year which the augurs, from certain omens, had often said would be stained with the blood of civil war. "
The letter then being read, the senate, when all had pre viously acknowledged their seals, decreed that Lentulus, being deprived of his office, should, as well as the rest, be placed in private custody. Lentulus, accordingly, was given in charge to Publius Lentulus Spinther, who was then aedile ; Cethegus, to Quintus Cornificius ; Statilius, to Caius Caesar ; Gabinius, to Marcus Crassus ; and Cœparius, who had just before been arrested in his flight, to Cneius Terentius, a senator.
While these occurrences were passing in the senate, and while rewards were being voted, an approbation of their evi dence, to the Allobrogian deputies and to Titus Volturcius, the freedmen and some of the other dependents of Lentulus were urging the artisans and slaves, in various directions throughout the city, to attempt his rescue ; some, too, applied to the ring leaders of the mob, who were always ready to disturb the state
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for pay. Cethegus, at the same time, was soliciting, through his agents, his slaves and freedmen, men trained to deeds of audacity, to collect themselves into an armed body, and force a way into his place of confinement.
The consul, when he heard that these things were in agita tion, having distributed armed bodies of men, as the circum stances and occasion demanded, called a meeting of the senate, and desired to know " what they wished to be done concerning those who had been committed to custody. " A full senate, how ever, had but a short time before declared them traitors to their country. On this occasion, Decimus Junius Silanus, who, as consul elect, was first asked his opinion, moved that capital punishment should be inflicted, not only on those who were in confinement, but also on Lucius Cassius, Publius Furius, Pub- lius Umbrenus, and Quintus Annius, if they should be appre hended ; but afterward, being influenced by the speech of Caius Caesar, he said that he would go over to the opinion of Tiberius Nero, who had proposed that the guards should be increased, and that the senate should deliberate further on the matter.
[The speeches of Caesar for lenity, and of Cato for death, are here given, with the characters of the two men. ]
When the senate, as I have stated, had gone over to the opinion of Cato, the consul, thinking it best not to wait till night, which was coming on, lest any new attempts should be made during the interval, ordered the triumvirs to make such preparations as the execution of the conspirators required. He himself, having posted the necessary guards, conducted Lentu- lus to the prison ; and the same office was performed for the rest by the pretors.
There is a place in the prison, which is called the Tullian dungeon, and which, after a slight ascent to the left, is sunk about twelve feet underground. Walls secure it on every side, and over it is a vaulted roof connected with stone arches ; but its appearance is disgusting and horrible, by reason of the filth, darkness, and stench. When Lentulus had been let down into this place, certain men, to whom orders had been given, strangled him with a cord. Thus this patrician, who was of the illus trious family of the Cornelii, and who filled the office of consul at Rome, met with an end suited to his character and conduct. On Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius, and Cœparius, punishment was inflicted in a similar manner.
During these proceedings at Rome, Catiline, out of the
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entire force which he himself had brought with him, and that which Manlius had previously collected, formed two legions, filling up the cohorts as far as his number would allow ; and afterward, as any volunteers, or recruits from his confederates, arrived in his camp, he distributed them equally throughout the cohorts, and thus filled up his legions, in a short time, with their regular number of men, though at first he had not more than two thousand. But, of his whole army, only about a fourth part had the proper weapons of soldiers ; the rest, as chance had equipped them, carried darts, spears, or sharpened stakes.
As Antonius approached with his army, Catiline directed his march over the hills, encamping, at one time, in the direction of Rome, at another in that of Gaul. He gave the enemy no opportunity of fighting, yet hoped himself shortly to find one, if his accomplices at Rome should succeed in their object. Slaves, meanwhile, of whom vast numbers had at first flocked to him, he continued to reject, not only as depending on the strength of the conspiracy, but as thinking it impolitic to appear to share the cause of citizens with runagates.
When it was reported in his camp, however, that the con spiracy had been discovered at Rome, and that Lentulus, Cethegus, and the rest whom I have named had been put to death, most of those whom the hope of plunder, or the love of change, had led to join in the war, fell away. The remainder Catiline conducted, over rugged mountains, and by forced marches, into the neighborhood of Pistoria, with a view to escape covertly, by crossroads, into Gaul.
But Quintus Metellus Celer, with a force of three legions, had, at that time, his station in Picenum, who suspected that Catiline, from the difficulties of his position, would adopt pre cisely the course which we have just described. When, therefore, he had learned his route from some deserters, he immediately broke up his camp, and took his post at the very foot of the hills, at the point where Catiline's descent would be, in his hurried march into Gaul. Nor was Antonius far distant, as he was pursuing, though with a large army, yet through plainer ground, and with fewer hindrances, the enemy in retreat.
Catiline, when he saw that he was surrounded by mountains and by hostile forces, that his schemes in the city had been unsuccessful, and that there was no hope either of escape or of succor, thinking it best, in such circumstances, to try the fortune
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of a battle, resolved upon engaging, as speedily as possible, with Antonius.
He ordered the signal for battle to be sounded, and led down his troops, in regular order, to the level ground. Having then sent away the horses of all the cavalry, in order to increase the men's courage by making their danger equal, he himself, on foot, drew up his troops suitably to their numbers and the nature of the ground. As a plain stretched between the moun tains on the left, with a rugged rock on the right, he placed eight cohorts in front, and stationed the rest of his force, in close order, in the rear. From among these he removed all the ablest cen turions, the veterans, and the stoutest of the common soldiers that were regularly armed, into the foremost ranks. He ordered Caius Manlius to take the command of the right, and a certain officer of Faesulae on the left; while he himself, with his freedmen and the colonists, took his station by the eagle, which Caius Marius was said to have had in his army in the Cimbrian war.
On the other side, Caius Antonius, who, being lame, was unable to be present in the engagement, gave the command of the army to Marcus Petreius, his lieutenant general. Petreius ranged the cohorts of veterans, which he had raised to meet the present insurrection, in front, and behind them the rest of his force in lines. Then, riding round among his troops, and addressing his men by name, he encouraged them, and bade them remember that they were to fight against unarmed marauders, in defense of their country, their children, their temples, and their homes. Being a military man, and having served with great reputation, for more than thirty years, as tribune, prefect, lieutenant, or pretor, he knew most of the soldiers and their honorable actions, and, by calling these to their remembrance, roused the spirits of the men.
When he had made a complete survey, he gave the signal with the trumpet, and ordered the cohorts to advance slowly. The army of the enemy followed his example ; and when they approached so near that the action could be commenced by the light-armed troops, both sides, with a loud shout, rushed together in a furious charge. They threw aside their missiles, and fought only with their swords. The veterans, calling to mind their deeds of old, engaged fiercely in the closest combat. The enemy made an obstinate resistance ; and both sides con tended with the utmost fury. Catiline, during this time, was
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exerting himself with his light troops in the front, sustaining such as were pressed, substituting fresh men for the wounded, attending to every exigency, charging in person, wounding many an enemy, and performing at once the duties of a valiant soldier and a skillful general.
When Petreius, contrary to his expectation, found Catiline attacking him with such impetuosity, he led his pretorian cohort against the center of the enemy, among whom, being thus thrown into confusion, and offering but partial resistance, he made great slaughter, and ordered, at the same time, an assault on both flanks. Manlius and the Faesulan, sword in hand, were among the first that fell ; and Catiline, when he saw his army routed, and himself left with but few supporters, remembering his birth and former dignity, rushed into the thickest of the enemy, where he was slain, fighting to the last.
When the battle was over, it was plainly seen what bold ness, and what energy of spirit, had prevailed throughout the army of Catiline ; for, almost everywhere, every soldier, after yielding up his breath, covered with his corpse the spot which he had occupied when alive. A few, indeed, whom the preto rian cohort had dispersed, had fallen somewhat differently, but all with wounds in front. Catiline himself was found, far in advance of his men, among the dead bodies of the enemy ; he was not quite breathless, and still expressed in his countenance the fierceness of spirit which he had shown during his life. Of his whole army, neither in the battle nor in flight, was any freeborn citizen made prisoner, for they had spared their own lives no more than those of the enemy.
Nor did the army of the Roman people obtain a joyful or bloodless victory ; for all their bravest men were either killed in the battle, or left the field severely wounded.
Of many who went from the camp to view the ground, or plunder the slain, some, in turning over the bodies of the enemy, discovered a friend, others an acquaintance, others a relative ; some, too, recognized their enemies. Thus, gladness and sorrow, grief and joy, were variously felt throughout the whole army.
172 CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY.
CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY.
[Marcus Tuixrcs Cicero, the greatest of Roman orators and perhaps the second of all time, was born b. c. 106, of the nobility. Trained for the bar, his first important case obliged him to go into exile for fear of the dictator Sulla. Returning after Sulla's death, he became the leader of the bar and high in politi cal life ; rose to be consul, B. C. 63, and gained great credit for suppressing Catiline's conspiracy. Later, he was again exiled for taking sides against the tribune Clodius, and again recalled in a storm of popular enthusiasm. He sided with Pompey against Caesar, but made peace with the latter after Pharsalia. After the murder of Caesar, Cicero sided with Octavius, and thundered against Antony, who on his coalition with Octavius demanded Cicero's life as the price of the junction ; Octavius consented, and Cicero was assassinated by an officer whose life he had once saved at the bar. His orations, his letters saved and pub lished by his freedman Tiro, and his varied disquisitions keep his fame unfail ingly bright. ]
When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us ? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now? Do not the mighty guards placed on the Palatine Hill — do not the watches posted throughout the city — does not the alarm of the people, and the union of all good men — does not the precaution taken of assembling the senate in this most defensible place — do not the looks and countenances of this venerable body here present, have any effect upon you ? Do you not feel that your plans are detected ? Do you not see that your conspiracy is already arrested and rendered powerless by the knowledge which every one here possesses of it? What is there that you did last night, what the night before — where is it that you were — who was there that you summoned to meet you — what design was there which was adopted by you, with which you think that any one of us is unacquainted?
Shame on the age and on its principles ! The senate is aware of these things ; the consul sees them ; and yet this man lives. Lives I ay, he comes even into the senate. He takes a part in the public deliberations ; he is watching and marking down and checking off for slaughter every individual among us. And we, gallant men that we are, think that we are doing our duty to the republic if we keep out of the way of his frenzied attacks.
You ought, O Catiline, long ago to have been led to execu tion by command of the consul. That destruction which you
CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY. 173
have been long plotting against us ought to have already fallen on your own head.
What ? Did not that most illustrious man, Publius Scipio, the Pontifex Maximus, in his capacity of a private citizen, put to death Tiberius Gracchus, though but slightly undermining the constitution ? And shall we, who are the consuls, tolerate Catiline, openly desirous to destroy the whole world with fire and slaughter? For I pass over older instances, such as how Caius Servilius Ahala with his own hand slew Spurius Maelius when plotting a revolution in the state. There was — there was once such virtue in this republic, that brave men would repress mischievous citizens with severer chastisement than the most bitter enemy. For we have a resolution of the senate, a formidable and authoritative decree against you, O Catiline ; the wisdom of the republic is not at fault, nor the dignity of this senatorial body. We, we alone — I say it openly — we, the consuls, are wanting in our duty.
The senate once passed a decree that Lucius Opimius, the consul, should take care that the republic suffered no injury. Not one night elapsed. There was put to death, on some mere suspicion of disaffection, Caius Gracchus, a man whose family had borne the most unblemished reputation for many genera tions. There was slain Marcus Fulvius, a man of consular rank, and all his children. By a like decree of the senate the safety of the republic was intrusted to Caius Marius and Lucius Valerius, the consuls. Did not the vengeance of the republic, did not execution overtake Lucius Saturninus, a tribune of the people, and Caius Servilius, the pretor, without the delay of one single day? But we, for these twenty days, have been allowing the edge of the senate's authority to grow blunt, as it were. For we are in possession of a similar decree of the sen ate, but we keep it locked up in its parchment — buried, I may say, in the sheath ; and according to this decree you ought, O Catiline, to be put to death this instant. You live — and you live, not to lay aside, but to persist in your audacity.
I wish, O conscript fathers, to be merciful ;
appear negligent amid such danger to the state ; but I do now accuse myself of remissness and culpable inactivity. A camp is pitched in Italy, at the entrance of Etruria, in hostility to the republic ; the number of the enemy increases every day ; and yet the general of that camp, the leader of those enemies, we see within the walls — ay, and even in the senate — plan
I wish not to
174 CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY.
ning every day some internal injury to the republic. If, O Catiline, I should now order you to be arrested, to be put to death, I should, I suppose, have to fear lest all good men should say that I had acted tardily, rather than that any one should affirm that I acted cruelly. But yet this, which ought to have been done long since, I have good reason for not doing as yet ; I will put you to death, then, when there shall be not one per son possible to be found so wicked, so abandoned, so like your self, as not to allow that it has been rightly done. As long as one person exists who can dare to defend you, you shall live ; but you shall live as you do now, surrounded by my many and trusty guards, so that you shall not be able to stir one finger against the republic : many eyes and ears shall still observe and watch you, as they have hitherto done, though you shall not perceive them.
For what is there, O Catiline, that you can still expect, if night is not able to veil your nefarious meetings in darkness, and if private houses cannot conceal the voice of your conspir acy within their walls — if everything is seen and displayed ? Change your mind : trust me : forget the slaughter and con flagration you are meditating. You are hemmed in on all sides ; all your plans are clearer than the day to us ; let me remind you of them. Do you recollect that on the 21st of October I said in the senate, that on a certain day, which was to be the 27th of October, C. Manlius, the satellite and servant of your audacity, would be in arms? Was I mistaken, Catiline, not only in so important, so atrocious, so incredible a fact, but, what is much more remarkable, in the very day ? I said also in the senate that you had fixed the massacre of the nobles for the 28th of October, when many chief men of the senate had left Rome, not so much for the sake of saving themselves as of checking your designs. Can you deny that on that very day you were so hemmed in by my guards and my vigilance, that you were unable to stir one finger against the republic ; when you said that you would be content with the flight of the rest, and the slaughter of us who remained ? What ? when you made sure that you would be able to seize Praeneste on the first of November by a nocturnal attack, did you not find that that colony was fortified by my order, by my garrison, by my watch fulness and care? You do nothing, you plan nothing, think of nothing which I not only do not hear, but which I do not see and know every particular of.
CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY. 175
Listen while I speak of the night before. You shall now see that I watch far more actively for the safety than you do for the destruction of the republic. I say that you came the night before (I will say nothing obscurely) into the Scythe- dealers' street, to the house of Marcus Lecca ; that many of your accomplices in the same insanity and wickedness came there too. Do you dare to deny it ? Why are you silent ? I
see here in the senate
O ye immortal Gods, where on earth are we ? in what city are we living ? what constitution is ours ? There are here — here in our body, O conscript fathers, in this the most holy and dignified assembly of the whole world, men who meditate my death, and the death of all of us, and the destruction of this city, and of the whole world. I, the consul, see them ;
them their opinion about the republic, and I do not yet attack, even by words, those who ought to be put to death by the sword. You were, then, O Catiline, at Lecca's that night ; you divided Italy into sections ; you settled where every one was to go ; you fixed whom you were to leave at Rome, whom you were to take with you ; you portioned out the divisions of the city for conflagration ; you undertook that you yourself would at once leave the city, and said that there was then only this to delay you, that I was still alive. Two Roman knights were found to deliver you from this anxiety, and to promise that very night, before daybreak, to slay me in my bed. All this I knew almost before your meeting had broken up. I strength ened and fortified my house with a stronger guard ;
admittance, when they came, to those whom you sent in the morning to salute me, and of whom I had foretold to many eminent men that they would come to me at that time.
As, then, this is the case, O Catiline, continue as you have begun. Leave the city at last : the gates are open ; depart. That Manlian camp of yours has been waiting too long for you as its general. And lead forth with you all your friends, or at least as many as you can ; purge the city of your presence ; you will deliver me from a great fear, when there is a wall between me and you. Among us you can dwell no longer — I will not bear it, I will not permit it, I will not tolerate it. Great thanks are due to the immortal gods, and to this very Jupiter Stator, in whose temple we are, the most ancient protector of this city, that we have already so often escaped so foul, so hor
willprove itifyou do denyit; for I some men who were there with you.
I ask
I refused
176 CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY.
rible, and so deadly an enemy to the republic. But the safety of the commonwealth must not be too often allowed to be risked on one man. As long as you, O Catiline, plotted against me while I was the consul elect, I defended myself not with a public guard, but by my own private diligence. When, in the next consular comitia, you wished to slay me when I was actually consul, and your competitors also, in the Campus Martius, I checked your nefarious attempt by the assistance and resources of my own friends, without exciting any dis turbance publicly. In short, as often as you attacked me, I by myself opposed you, and that, too, though I saw that my ruin was connected with great disaster to the republic. But now you are openly attacking the entire republic.
You are summoning to destruction and devastation the tem ples of the immortal gods, the houses of the city, the lives of all the citizens ; in short, all Italy. Wherefore, since I do not yet venture to do that which is the best thing, and which be longs to my office and to the discipline of our ancestors, I will do that which is more merciful if we regard its rigor, and more expedient for the state. For if I order you to be put to death, the rest of the conspirators will still remain in the republic ; as have long been exhorting you, you depart, your companions, these worthless dregs of the republic, will be drawn off from the city too. What the matter, Catiline Do you hesitate to do that when order you which you were already doing of your own accord? The consul orders an enemy to depart from the city. Do you ask me, Are you to go into banishment do not order but, you consult me, advise it.
For what there, Catiline, that can now afford you any pleasure in this city for there no one in it, except that band of profligate conspirators of yours, who does not fear you —no one who does not hate you. What brand of domestic baseness not stamped upon your life? What disgraceful circumstance wanting to your infamy in your private affairs From what licentiousness have your eyes, from what atrocity have your hands, from what iniquity has your whole body ever abstained Is there one youth, when you have once entangled him in the temptations of your corruption, to whom you have not held out sword for audacious crime, or torch for licen tious wickedness?
What? when lately by the death of your former wife you
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CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY. 177
had made your house empty and ready for a new bridal, did you not even add another incredible wickedness to this wicked ness? But I pass that over, and willingly allow it to be buried in silence, that so horrible a crime may not be seen to have existed in this city and not to have been chastised. I pass over the ruin of your fortune, which you know is hanging over
Can the light of this life, O Catiline, can the breath of this atmosphere be pleasant to you, when you know that there is not one man of those here present who is ignorant that you, on the last day of the year, when Lepidus and Tullus were con suls, stood in the assembly armed ; that you had prepared your hand for the slaughter of the consuls and chief men of the state, and that no reason or fear of yours hindered your crime and madness, but the fortune of the republic ? And I say no more of these things, for they are not unknown to every one. How often have you endeavored to slay me, both as consul elect and as actual consul ? how many shots of yours, so aimed that they seemed impossible to be escaped, have I avoided by some slight stooping aside, and some dodging, as it were, of my body ? You attempt nothing, you execute nothing, you devise nothing that can be kept hid from me at the proper time ; and yet you do not cease to attempt and to contrive. How often already has that dagger of yours been wrested from your hands ? how often has it slipped through them by some chance, and dropped down? and yet you cannot any longer do without it ; and to what sacred mysteries it is consecrated and devoted by you I know not, that you think it necessary to plunge it in the body of the consul.
But now, what is that life of yours that you are leading ? For I will speak to you not so as to seem influenced by the hatred I ought to feel, but by pity, nothing of which is due to you. You came a little while ago into the senate : in so numerous an assembly, who of so many friends and connections of yours saluted you? If this in the memory of man never happened to any one else, are you waiting for insults by word of mouth, when you are overwhelmed by the most irresistible condemnation of silence ? Is it nothing that at your arrival all those seats were vacated ? that all the men of consular rank,
TOl. v. — 12
you against the ides of the very next month ;
things which relate not to the infamy of your private vices, not to your domestic difficulties and baseness, but to the welfare of the republic and to the lives and safety of us all.
I come to those
178 CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY.
who had often been marked out by you for slaughter, the very moment you sat down, left that part of the benches bare and vacant ? With what feelings do you think you ought to bear this ? On my honor, if my slaves feared me as all your fellow- citizens fear you, I should think I must leave my house. Do not you think you should leave the city ? If I saw that I was even undeservedly so suspected and hated by my fellow-citizens, I would rather flee from their sight than be gazed at by the hostile eyes of every one. And do you, who, from the con sciousness of your wickedness, know that the hatred of all men is just and has been long due to you, hesitate to avoid the sight and presence of those men whose minds and senses you offend ? If your parents feared and hated you, and if you could by no means pacify them, you would, I think, depart somewhere out of their sight. Now, your country, which is the common par ent of all of us, hates and fears you, and has no other opinion of you than that you are meditating parricide in her case ; and will you neither feel awe of her authority, nor deference for her judgment, nor fear of her power ?
And she, O Catiline, thus pleads with you, and after a manner silently speaks to you : There has now for many years been no crime committed but by you ; no atrocity has taken place without you ; you alone unpunished and unques tioned have murdered the citizens, have harassed and plundered the allies ; you alone have had power not only to neglect all laws and investigations, but to overthrow and break through them. Your former actions, though they ought not to have been borne, yet I did bear as well as I could ; but now that I should be wholly occupied with fear of you alone, that at every sound I should dread Catiline, that no design should seem possible to be entertained against me which does not proceed from your wickedness, this is no longer endurable. Depart, then, and deliver me from this fear ; that, if it be a just one, I may not be destroyed ; if an imaginary one, that at least I may at last cease to fear.
If, as I have said, your country were thus to address you, ought she not to obtain her request, even if she were not able to enforce it? What shall I say of your having given your self into custody ? what of your having said, for the sake of avoiding suspicion, that you were willing to dwell in the house of Marcus Lepidus ? And when you were not received by him, you dared even to come to me, and begged me to keep you in
CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY. 179
my house ; and when you had received answer from me that I could not possibly be safe in the same house with you, when I considered myself in great danger as long as we were in the same city, you came to Quintus Metellus, the pretor, and being rejected by him, you passed on to your associate, that most excellent man, Marcus Marcellus, who would be, I suppose you thought, most diligent in guarding you, most sagacious in sus pecting you, and most bold in punishing you ; but how far can we think that man ought to be from bonds and imprisonment who has already judged himself deserving of being given into custody ?
Since, then, this is the case, do you hesitate, O Catiline, if you cannot remain here with tranquillity, to depart to some distant land, and to trust your life, saved from just and de served punishment, to flight and solitude ? Make a motion, say you, to the senate (for that is what you demand), and if this body votes that you ought to go into banishment, you say that you will obey. I will not make such a motion, — it is contrary to my principles, — and yet I will let you see what these men think of you. Begone from the city, O Catiline, deliver the republic from fear ; depart into banishment, if that is the word you are waiting for. What now, O Catiline ? Do you not perceive, do you not see the silence of these men ? they permit it, they say nothing ; why wait you for the au thority of their words, when you see their wishes in their silence ?
But had I said the same to this excellent young man, Publius Sextius, or to that brave man, Marcus Marcellus, before this time the senate would deservedly have laid violent hands on me, consul though I be, in this very temple. But as to you, Catiline, while they are quiet they approve, while
they permit me to speak they vote, while they are silent they are loud and eloquent. And not they alone, whose authority forsooth is dear to you, though their lives are unimportant, but the Roman knights too, those most honorable and excellent men, and the other virtuous citizens who are now surrounding the senate, whose numbers you could see, whose desires you could know, and whose voices you a few minutes ago could hear — ay, whose very hands and weapons I have for some time been scarcely able to keep off from you ; but those, too, I will easily bring to attend you to the gates if you leave these places you have been long desiring to lay waste.
■
180 CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY.
And yet, why am I speaking ? that anything may change your purpose ? that you may ever amend your life ? that you may meditate flight or think of voluntary banishment ? I wish the gods may give you such a mind ; though I see, if alarmed at my words you bring your mind to go into banishment, what a storm of unpopularity hangs over me, if not at present, while the memory of your wickedness is fresh, at all events hereafter. But it is worth while to incur that, as long as that is but a private misfortune of my own, and is unconnected with the dangers of the republic. But we cannot expect that you should be concerned at your own vices, that you should fear the penalties of the laws, or that you should yield to the neces sities of the republic, for you are not, O Catiline, one whom either shame can recall from infamy, or fear from danger, or reason from madness.
Wherefore, as I have said before, go forth, and if you wish to make me, your enemy as you call me, unpopular, go straight into banishment. I shall scarcely be able to endure all that will be said if you do so ;
my load of unpopularity if you do go into banishment at the command of the consul ; but if you wish to serve my credit and reputation, go forth with your ill-omened band of profligates ; betake yourself to Manlius, rouse up the abandoned citizens, separate yourself from the good ones, wage war against your country, exult in your impious banditti, so that you may not seem to have been driven out by me and gone to strangers, but to have gone invited to your own friends.
I shall scarcely be able to support
Though why should I invite you, by whom I know men have been already sent on to wait in arms for you at the forum Aurelium ; who I know has fixed and agreed with Manlius upon a settled day ; by whom I know that that silver eagle, which I trust will be ruinous and fatal to you and to all your friends, and to which there was set up in your house a shrine as it were of your crimes, has been already sent forward ? Need I fear that you can long do without that which you used to worship when going out to murder, and from whose altars you have often transferred your impious hand to the slaughter of citizens ?
You will go at last where your unbridled and mad desire has been long hurrying you. And this causes you no grief, but an incredible pleasure. Nature has formed you, desire has trained you, fortune has preserved you for this insanity. Not
CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY. 181
only did you never desire quiet, but you never even desired any war but a criminal one ; you have collected a band of profligates and worthless men, abandoned not only by all for tune but even by hope.
Then what happiness will you enjoy ! with what delight will you exult ! in what pleasure will you revel ! when in so numerous a body of friends, you neither hear nor see one good man. All the toils you have gone through have always pointed to this sort of life ; your lying on the ground not merely to lie in wait to gratify your unclean desires, but even to accom plish crimes ; your vigilance, not only when plotting against the sleep of husbands, but also against the goods of your mur dered victims, have all been preparations for this. Now you have an opportunity of displaying your splendid endurance of hunger, of cold, of want of everything ; by which in a short time you will find yourself worn out. All this I effected when I procured your rejection from the consulship, that you should be reduced to make attempts on your country as an exile, in stead of being able to distress it as consul, and that that which
had been wickedly undertaken by you should be called piracy rather than war.
Now that I may remove and avert, O conscript fathers, any in the least reasonable complaint from myself, listen, I beseech you, carefully to what I say, and lay it up in your inmost hearts and minds. In truth, if my country, which is far dearer to me than my life"— if all Italy — if the whole republic were to address me, Marcus Tullius, what are you doing ? will you permit that man to depart whom you have ascertained to be an enemy ? whom you see ready to become the general of the war ? whom you know to be expected in the camp of the enemy as their chief, the author of all this wickedness, the head of the conspiracy, the instigator of the slaves and abandoned citizens, so that he shall seem not driven out of the city by you, but let loose by you against the city ? Will you not order him
to be thrown into prison, to be hurried off to execution, to be put to death with the most prompt severity? What hinders you ? Is it the customs of our ancestors ? But even private men have often in this republic slain mischievous citizens. Is it the laws which have been passed about the punishment of Roman citizens? But in this city those who have rebelled against the republic have never had the rights of citizens. Do you fear odium with posterity ? You are showing fine grati
182 CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY.
tude to the Roman people which has raised you, a man known only by your own actions, of no ancestral renown, through all the degrees of honor at so early an age to the very highest office, if from fear of unpopularity or of any danger you neglect the safety of your fellow-citizens. But if you have a fear of unpopularity, is that arising from the imputation of vigor and boldness, or that arising from that of inactivity and indecision most to be feared? When Italy is laid waste by war, when cities are attacked and houses in flames, do you not think that you will be then consumed by a perfect conflagration of hatred? "
To this holy address of the republic, and to the feelings of those men who entertain the same opinion, I will make this short answer : If, O conscript fathers, I thought it best that Catiline should be punished with death, I would not have given the space of one hour to this gladiator to live in. If, forsooth, those excellent men and most illustrious cities not only did not pollute themselves, but even glorified themselves by the blood of Saturninus, and the Gracchi, and Flaccus, and many others of old time, surely I had no cause to fear lest for slaying this parricidal murderer of the citizens any unpopular ity should accrue to me with posterity. And if it did threaten me to ever so great a degree, yet I have always been of the disposition to think unpopularity earned by virtue and glory, not unpopularity.
Though there are some men in this body who either do not see what threatens, or dissemble what they do see ; who have fed the hope of Catiline by mild sentiments, and have strength ened the rising conspiracy by not believing it ; influenced by whose authority many, and they not wicked, but only igno rant, if I punished him would say that I had acted cruelly and tyrannically. But I know that if he arrives at the camp of Manlius, to which he is going, there will be no one so stupid as not to see that there has been a conspiracy, no one so hard ened as not to confess it. But if this man alone were put to death, I know that this disease of the republic would be only checked for a while, not eradicated forever. But if he ban ishes himself, and takes with him all his friends, and collects at one point all the ruined men from every quarter, then not only will this full-grown plague of the republic be extinguished and eradicated, but also the root and seed of all future evils.
We have now for a long time, O conscript fathers, lived
CICERO'S SPEECH ON CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY. 188
among these dangers and machinations of conspiracy ; but somehow or other, the ripeness of all wickedness, and of this long-standing madness and audacity, has come to a head at the time of my consulship. But if this man alone is removed from this piratical crew, we may appear, perhaps, for a short time relieved from fear and anxiety, but the danger will settle down and lie hid in the veins and bowels of the republic. As it often happens that men afflicted with a severe disease, when they are tortured with heat and fever, if they drink cold water, seem at first to be relieved, but afterward suffer more and more severely ; so this disease which is in the republic, if relieved by the pun ishment of this man, will only get worse and worse, as the rest will be still alive.
Wherefore, O conscript fathers, let the worthless begone — let them separate themselves from the good — let them collect in one place — let them, as I have often said before, be separated from us by a wall ; let them cease to plot against the consul in his own house — to surround the tribunal of the city pretor — to besiege the senate house with swords — to prepare brands and torches to burn the city ; let it, in short, be written on the brow of every citizen, what are his sentiments about the repub lic. I promise you this, O conscript fathers, that there shall be so much diligence in us the consuls, so much authority in you, so much virtue in the Roman knights, so much unanimity in all good men, that you shall see everything made plain and manifest by the departure of Catiline — everything checked and punished.
With these omens, O Catiline, begone to your impious and nefarious war, to the great safety of the republic, to your own misfortune and injury, and to the destruction of those who have joined themselves to you in every wickedness and atrocity. Then do you, O Jupiter, who were consecrated by Romulus with the same auspices as this city, whom we rightly call the stay of this city and empire, repel this man and his companions from your altars and from the other temples — from the houses and walls of the city — from the lives and fortunes of all the citizens ; and overwhelm all the enemies of good men, the foes of the republic, the robbers of Italy, men bound together by a treaty and infamous alliance of crimes, dead and alive, with eternal punishments.
184
THE DYING GLADIATOR.
THE DYING GLADIATOR. By LORD BYRON.
The seal is set. — Now welcome, thou dread power ! Nameless, yet this omnipotent, which here
Walk'st in the shadow of the midnight hour With a deep awe, yet all distinct from fear ; Thy haunts are ever where the dead walls rear
Their ivy mantles, and the solemn scene Derives from thee a sense so deep and clear
That we become a part of what has been, And grow unto the spot, all-seeing but unseen.
And here the buzz of eager nations ran,
In murmured pity or loud-roared applause,
As man was slaughtered by his fellow-man.
And wherefore slaughtered ? wherefore, but because Such were the bloody Circus' genial laws,
And the imperial pleasure. — Wherefore not ? What matters where we fall to fill the maws
Of worms — on battle plains or listed spot ? Both are but theaters where the chief actors rot.
I see before me the Gladiator lie :
He leans upon his hand ; his manly brow
Consents to death, but conquers agony,
And his drooped head sinks gradually low ;
And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow
From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,
Like the first of a thunder-shower, — and now
The arena swims around him — he is gone,
Ere ceased the inhuman shout that hailed the wretch who
He heard but he heeded not — his eyes Were with his heart, and that was far away
He recked not of the life he lost, nor prize, But where his rude hut by the Danube lay, There were his young barbarians all at play,
There was their Dacian mother he, their sire, Butchered to make a Roman holiday
All this gushed with his blood. — Shall he expire, And unavenged Arise, ye Goths, and glut your ire
?
!
;
;
;
it,
CJESAR'S FIRST INVASION OF BRITAIN. 185
CESAR'S FIRST INVASION OF BRITAIN.
(The " Commentaries. ")
[Caius Julius Cesak, founder of the Roman monarchy, was born b. c. 100 and murdered b. c. 44. He was of an important family; engaged in politics with a profligacy and unscrupulousness equal to those of any other politician of his time, but with more humanity and generosity than most, and more sagacity and executive ability than any others ; became a great military leader, and on his rival Fompey inducing the senate to remove him from the command, refused obedience, invaded Italy, overthrew the Republic, and made himself dictator (b. c. 49). After crushing all resistance, he was made perpetual dictator early in b. c 44, — king in all but name ; this aroused the friends of popular freedom to take his life, which was done in March of the same year. His literary repute rests on his " Commentaries," a report of his campaigns in Gaul, Germany, and
Britain. ]
Though but a small part of the summer now remained, Caesar resolved to pass over into Britain, having certain intelligence that in all his wars with the Gauls the enemies of the Common wealth had ever received assistance from thence. . . .
Meanwhile the Britons having notice of his design by the merchants that resorted to their island, ambassadors from many of their states came to Caesar, with an offer of hostages, and submission to the authority of the people of Rome. To these he gave a favorable audience, and, exhorting them to continue in the same mind, sent them back into their own country. Along with them he dispatched Comius, whom he had consti tuted king of the Atrebatians — a man in whose virtue, wisdom, and fidelity he greatly confided, and whose authority in the island was very considerable. To him he gave it in charge to visit as many states as he could, and persuade them to enter into an alliance with the Romans, letting them know at the same time that Caesar designed as soon as possible to come over in person to their island.
Having got together about eighty transports, which he thought would be sufficient for the carrying over two legions, he distributed the galleys he had over and above to the questor, lieutenants, and officers of the cavalry. There were, in addi tion, eighteen transports detained by contrary winds at a port about eight miles off, which he appointed to carry over the cavalry.
Things being in this manner settled, and the winds springing up fair, he weighed anchor about one in the morning, ordering
186 CESAR'S FIRST INVASION OF BRITAIN.
the cavalry to embark at the other port and follow him. But, as these orders were executed but slowly, he himself about ten in the morning reached the coast of Britain, where he saw all the cliffs covered with the enemy's forces. The nature of the place was such that, the sea being bounded by steep mountains, the enemy might easily launch their javelins on us from above. Not thinking this, therefore, a convenient landing place, he resolved to lie by till three in the afternoon, and wait the arrival of the rest of his fleet. Meanwhile, having called the lieutenants and military tribunes together, he informed them of what he had learned from Volusenus, instructed them in the part they were to act, and particularly exhorted them to do everything with readiness, and at a signal given, agreeable to the rules of military discipline, which in sea affairs especially required expedition and dispatch, because of all others the most changeable and uncertain. Having dismissed them, and finding both the wind and tide favorable, he made the signal for weigh ing anchor, and after sailing about eight miles further, stopped over against a plain and open shore.