Lucius Seneca - Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 2)

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Accordingly, he despatched C. Manlius to Fæsulæ and the adjacent parts of Etruria, one Septimius of Camertes to the territory of Picenum, and C. Julius into Apulia; others too he sent to different places, just as he thought it subservient to his purpose. Meanwhile he was making several efforts at Rome at once; laying fresh snares against the life of the consul; contriving to set fire to the city, placing armed men in convenient posts: he himself was constantly armed, and ordered his followers to be so too; 18was ever pressing them to be on their guard, and prepared for action; day and night he was in a hurry; lived without sleep; and was nevertheless indefatigable under all his toils. At last, perceiving that his numerous efforts were unsuccessful, he employed M. Porcius Læcca to summon together the principal conspirators once more in the dead of night; and after having complained grievously of their inactivity, he informed them that he had sent Manlius to command a body of men, which he had prepared to take up arms; that he had likewise despatched others to different places to begin the war; and that he himself longed earnestly to go to the army, if he could but first destroy Cicero, for that he greatly obstructed all his measures.

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Now, when all the rest remained fearful and irresolute, C. Cornelius, a Roman knight, and L. Vargunteius, a senator, offered their services: they agreed to go that very night to Cicero’s house, with a few armed men, under pretence of making him a visit, and to assassinate him by surprise. Curius, as soon as he learned what danger threatened the consul, despatched Fulvia to acquaint him with the plot; so that when they came entrance was denied them, and their black attempt frustrated.

Meanwhile Manlius was exciting the people in Eturia to take arms; who, both from their poverty and their resentment of the injuries done them under Sylla’s usurpation, when they were deprived of their lands and all they had, were of themselves desirous of innovations. He likewise engaged robbers of all kinds, who were very numerous in that country, with some of Sylla’s old soldiers too, who by their intemperance and extravagance had squandered away all their former acquisitions.

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Cicero, on hearing of these transactions, was struck with so threatening an evil; and not being able any longer to defend the city against the plots of the conspirators by his own private management, nor being apprized of the strength or views of Manlius’s army, laid the matter before the senate, which already had been the subject of public conversation. Whereon the senate, as was usual in cases of extreme danger, passed a decree “that the consuls should take care the state suffered no detriment;” by which they were empowered (such is the policy of the Roman government) to raise forces, make war, exercise an unlimited jurisdiction over the citizens and allies, and to bear sovereign command both in the city and in the field; none of which things fall under their authority without a special ordinance of the people.

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A few days after, L. Sænius, a senator, read a letter in the senate, which he said was brought him from Fæsulæ; acquainting him that C. Manlius had taken arms about the latter end of October, with a numerous body of men. To this some added, as is usual on such occasions, accounts of omens and prodigies; others related that unusual cabals were held, arms carried to different places, and that the slaves were arming in Capua and Apulia. Whereon, by a decree of the senate, Q. Marcius Rex was sent Fæsulæ, and Q. Metellus Creticus to Apulia and the adjacent parts; both these officers had been commanders of armies, and were waiting without the city for the honour of a triumph, which was refused them by the malice of a few, whose custom it was to make sale of every thing, honourable and infamous. The prætors, too, Q. Pompeius Rufus and Q. Metellus Celer, 19were sent, the one to Capua, the other to Picenum; and power was given them to raise forces, according to the exigency of the times and the degree of danger. Besides, the senate decreed, that if any one would make any discovery concerning the conspiracy against the state, he should have, if a slave, his liberty and a hundred thousand sesterces; 20if a freeman, his pardon and two hundred thousand. It was likewise decreed, that bands of gladiators 21should be sent to Capua and the other municipal towns, according to the strength of each; and that guards should be posted at Rome, in every quarter, under the command of the inferior magistrates.

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With all these things the city was deeply affected, and assumed a new face; from the highest jollity and riot, such as spring from a lasting peace, sorrow of a sudden appeared on every countenance. There was nothing but universal hurry and confusion; no place was thought secure; no person fit to be trusted; they neither enjoyed peace nor were at war; every one measured the public danger by their private fears. The women, too, full of apprehensions of war, which the great power of the state had formerly secured them against, gave themselves up to sorrow and lamentation; raised their suppliant hands to heaven; bewailed their tender children; were eager for news; alarmed at every thing; and laying aside their pride and pleasures, became anxious for themselves and their country. Yet the cruel spirit of Catiline persisted in the same desperate pursuit, notwithstanding the preparations that were made to defeat his measures, and though he himself stood arraigned by L. Paulus, on the Plautian law: nay, he even came to the senate-house, the better to dissemble his design; as if, provoked by injurious representations, he only came to clear his character. As soon as he appeared the consul Cicero, either fearing some bad effects from his presence, or fired with indignation, made that powerful and impressive speech, so useful to the state, which he afterward reduced to writing, and gave to the public. 22As soon as he had sat down Catiline, resolved to deny every article, with downcast looks and suppliant voice, begged of the fathers not to believe too hastily what was alleged against him; 23that such was his birth, and such had been his conduct from his youth, that he had reason to hope for a very favourable impression from the public; and it was not to be imagined that one of the patrician order, whose ancestors, as well as himself, had done so many services to the Roman people, should want to overturn the government, while Cicero, a stranger, and late inhabitant of Rome, was so zealous to defend it. As he was going on with his invectives against the consul, the senate, raising a general outcry, called him traitor and parricide: on which, abandoning himself to fury and despair,—“Since, then,” said he, “I am circumvented and driven headlong by my enemies, I will quench the flame raised about me by the common ruin.”

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With these words, he rushed out of the assembly and went home; where, reflecting much with himself, and considering that his designs against the consul had proved unsuccessful, and that it was impossible to set fire to the city, by reason of the guards that were placed every where, he judged it most advisable to reinforce his army, and to make all necessary preparations for war before the legions were raised; and accordingly set out in the dead of night for Manlius’s camp, with a few attendants. Before his departure, however, he gave instructions to Lentulus and Cethegus, and those of his associates whom he knew to be most daring and resolute, to strengthen the party by all possible means; to despatch the consul as soon as they could; to have every thing in readiness for the intended massacre, the firing of the city, and the other feats of war; promising that he himself would in a short time come to the city at the head of a great army. 24