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

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During these transactions at Rome, C. Manlius sent deputies to Q. Marcius Rex, with orders to accost him in the following manner:—

“We call gods and men to witness, O general, that we have neither taken up arms against our country, nor with a view to injure any particular person, but to defend ourselves from oppression, wretched and needy as we are, through the violence and cruelty of usurers; most of us deprived of our habitations, and all of our reputation and fortunes; none of us allowed the protection of the laws, as our forefathers were, nor so much as the liberty of our persons, when nothing else is left us: such has been the cruelty of the usurers and prætors. 25Your ancestors, out of compassion to the people of Rome, have often relieved their wants by their decrees; and but lately, in our own times, on account of the great pressure of debts, they have obliged the creditors to compound, and that with the approbation of every worthy man. The people have often taken arms, and separated from the senate, prompted either by a passion for power, or the insolence of their magistrates. As for us, we neither desire power nor riches, which are the sources of all the wars and contests among men: liberty is our aim; that liberty which no brave man will lose but with his life. Wherefore we conjure you and the senate to espouse the interests of your wretched fellow-citizens, to restore to us the protection of the laws, torn from us by the iniquity of the prætors; and not reduce us to the fatal necessity of studying to perish in such a manner as amply to avenge our blood on those who have oppressed us.”

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To this Q. Marcius replied, “That if they had any petition to present to the senate, they must forthwith quit their arms and repair to Rome as suppliants; that such had been the clemency and compassion of the senate and people of Rome on all occasions, that no one had ever applied to them in vain for relief.”

Now Catiline, in his way to the camp, sent letters to several persons of consular dignity, and indeed to every one of distinguished merit, representing, “That being beset with false accusations, and unable to resist the faction of his enemies, he submitted to his fortune, and was going a voluntary exile to Marseilles; not that he was conscious of the horrid treason he was charged with, but out of regard to the tranquillity of the state, and to prevent any disturbances that might arise from his opposition.”

But a letter of a quite different kind was read in the senate by Q. Catulus, which he declared he had received from Catiline; a copy of which here follows:

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“L. Catiline to Q. Catulus, health.

“Your great friendship to me, which I have so often proved when in my greatest dangers, inspires me with confidence to apply to you on this occasion; for which reason I shall not offer you any defence of my present measures: as I am conscious of no guilt, I shall only make a declaration of my innocence, for the truth of which I appeal to the gods.

“Being provoked by injuries and false accusations, deprived of the rewards of my services, and disappointed of the dignity I sued for, I have, according to my usual practice, undertaken the cause of the oppressed; not that I am urged to this by my debts, for my estate is sufficient to discharge what I owe on my account; and Orestilla would (such is her generosity) clear all my engagements on account of others out of her own fortune and that of her daughters: but seeing men of no merit raised to the highest honours of the state, and myself set aside on groundless jealousies, I have on this account taken such measures for preserving the small remains of my dignity as my present situation will sufficiently justify. I should have said more to you, but I am just now informed that violent measures are taken against me; I therefore conclude with recommending Orestilla to your protection; beseeching you, by the regard you have for your own children, to defend her from injuries. Adieu.”

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Having staid a few days with C. Flaminius in the territory of Reate, till he had furnished that neighbourhood, which had before been gained over to his party, with arms, he proceeded with the fasces and the other ensigns of consular authority to Manlius’s camp. When this was known at Rome the senate declared Catiline and Manlius enemies to the state, with pardon to such of their followers as should quit their arms by a certain day, those only excepted who were under sentence for capital crimes. They likewise decreed that the consuls should levy forces; that C. Antonius should pursue Catiline with all expedition, and Cicero stay to defend the city. 26The Roman state, at this juncture, appears to me to have been in a condition extremely deplorable; since, though all nations, from the rising to the setting sun, were reduced to its obedience; though peace and prosperity, the greatest blessings of life in the estimation of men, reigned at home, there were yet some of her citizens desperately bent on their own ruin and that of the commonwealth: for, notwithstanding, the two decrees of the senate, not a man was found among the numerous followers of Catiline to accept the reward and discover the conspiracy; not a single person to desert his camp: so strong a spirit of disaffection had, like a pestilence, taken possession of their minds.

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Nor were the conspirators and their accomplices the only disaffected persons; the whole body of the populace, from their passion for a revolution, approved Catiline’s designs; nor in this did they act contrary to their usual character: for in all states, those that are poor envy the possessions of the great; extol the extravagant; hate what they have been long accustomed to; long for changes; and, from a dislike to their own condition, endeavour to throw every thing into confusion: in times of public disorder and discord they find their subsistence without any trouble; since poverty is always attended with this advantage, that it has nothing to lose. But the Roman populace were become extremely degenerate, from several causes; chiefly because all who were remarkable for wickedness and violence; such as had squandered their fortunes in riot and extravagance; in a word, all they who were forced from their native country for their crimes flocked to Rome from all quarters, as a common resort. Many again were continually reflecting on Sylla’s success; through which they had seen some common soldiers raised to the dignity of senators, and others so enriched, that in pomp and splendour they lived like kings; and every one hoped, in case of a civil war, to gain the victory, and the same advantages from it. Besides, the young men in the provinces, who were accustomed to earn a scanty subsistence by their labour, being drawn to Rome by the allurements of public and private largesses, preferred the ease of the city to their hard labour in the fields: these, with all others of the like character, found their support in the calamities of the state. So that it is not to be wondered at that such men as these, oppressed with poverty, of dissolute lives and extravagant views, should consult the interests of the state just as far as they were subservient to their own. They, too, whose parents had been proscribed, whose estates were confiscated, and who had been deprived of the privileges of citizens under the tyranny of Sylla, had the same expectations from a war as the others had. Moreover, all they who were of any party different from that of the senate wished rather to see the state embroiled than themselves without power: a mighty evil! which, after having lain dormant for many years, had again revived in the city.