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

“Who I am you will learn from him whom I have sent you. Consider your great danger, and remember you are a man: recollect what you situation requires: seek assistance from all, even the lowest.”

Besides, he gave him verbal instructions to expostulate with Catiline, “how he could reject the assistance of the slaves, when he was declared a public enemy by the senate:” to acquaint him likewise, “that all preparations were made in Rome according to his directions; and that he himself must not delay to advance.”

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Cicero, on the night fixed for the departure of the deputies, from whom he had learned all, ordered the prætors, V. Flaccus, and C. Pomptinus, to lie in wait for the Allobroges at the Milvian bridge, and to secure them. He acquainted them at the same time with the reason of thus employing them, and left them to act as they should see occasion. According to orders, they posted their guards quietly, and silently beset the bridge. When the deputies and Volturcius arrived, a shout was set up on both sides, and the Gauls, soon understanding their design, immediately surrendered themselves to the prætors. Volturcius at first, encouraging his companions, defended himself with his sword against the numbers who surrounded him; but seeing himself forsaken by the deputies, he began earnestly to beseech Pomptinus, as his acquaintance, to spare his life. At last, full of dread and despair, he surrendered himself to the prætors, as if they had been foreign enemies.

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Immediately on this messengers were despatched with an account of it to Cicero, who was seized at once with great joy and anxiety. He was glad to see the state rescued from ruin, by a full discovery of the conspiracy; but what perplexed him was the difficulty of knowing how to proceed against citizens of such eminence, convicted of such horrible treason. To punish them, he thought, would create him many enemies, and to let them pass unpunished would ruin the state; for which reason, arming his mind with resolution, he ordered Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, and Gabinius to be summoned before him; as likewise Cæparius of Terracina, who was on the point of marching to Apulia to raise the slaves. The others came immediately; but Cæparius, having gone from home a little before, and learned that all was discovered, had fled from the city. The consul took Lentulus, who was then prætor, by the hand, and conducted him to the senate, which he had assembled in the Temple of Concord, whither he ordered the rest to be brought under guard. Volturcius and the deputies were introduced into a very full assembly, and Flaccus was ordered to bring the packet of letters which he had received from them.

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Volturcius, being questioned about his journey, the packet of letters, and lastly, what his design was, and from what motives he acted, made, at first, ridiculous pretences, affecting to know nothing of the conspiracy. But being promised his pardon, on the security of the public faith, he discovered every thing; and told them, that a few days before Gabinius and Cæparius had drawn him in for an associate; that he knew no more than the deputies did; only he used to hear Gabinius say that P. Autronius, Ser. Sulla, L. Vargunteius, with many more, were engaged in the conspiracy. The Gauls gave the same account; they likewise convicted Lentulus (who pretended ignorance of the whole matter) not only by his letters, but by his common discourse, “that, according to the Sibylline oracles, three of the Cornelian family should be sovereigns of Rome; that Sylla and Cinna had been so already; and he himself was now the third, appointed by the Fates to be master of the city: besides, that the present was the twentieth year from the burning of the capitol, 30which the augurs, from several prodigies, had often foretold would produce a civil war and much bloodshed.” On this the letters were read, and the criminals having acknowledged their several seals, the senate decreed that Lentulus should lay down his office, and, together with the rest, be kept in custody. Accordingly, Lentulus was delivered to P. Lentulus Spinther, who was then ædile; Cethegus to Q. Cornificius; Statilius to C. Cæsar; Gabinius to M. Crassus; and Cæparius (who was taken in his flight, and brought back immediately before) to Cn. Terentius, a senator.

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Meanwhile the populace, which at first, from their passion for a revolution, were too fond of a civil war, on discovery of the conspiracy, changed their sentiments; cursed the designs of Catiline; extolled Cicero to the skies; 31and, like people rescued from bondage, gave themselves up to mirth and jollity: for though they expected more advantage than loss by the ordinary events of the war, yet they looked on the firing of the city as an inhuman, barbarous attempt, and extremely distressful to themselves, whose whole substance consisted in what supported them from day to day, and what they daily wore.

The day after one L. Tarquinius was brought before the senate, who was going to join Catiline, as was reported, and apprehended by the way. This man, offering to give a particular account of the conspiracy, on the security of the public faith for his pardon, was ordered by the consul to declare what he knew. He then gave the senate almost the same account Volturcius had done; of the design to fire the city; of the intended massacre of the best citizens; and of the march of the army to Rome; adding, that he was sent by Crassus to tell Catiline not to be discouraged by the apprehending of Lentulus, Cethegus, and others of the conspirators, but to make the greater haste to the city to rescue them from danger, and revive the ardour of the rest.

When Tarquinius named Crassus, a man of high quality, great riches, and vast credit in the state, they all called out that he was a false witness, and desired that it might be debated. Some thought it quite incredible; others, though they believed the charge to be true, yet thought that a person of so great influence ought at such a juncture rather to be courted than exasperated: besides, most of the senators were under private obligations to Crassus. Accordingly, it was agreed in a full senate, at the motion of Cicero, that Tarquinius’s evidence appeared to be false; that he should be ordered to prison, and confined till he discovered by whose advice he had framed so impudent a falsehood. Some there were at that time who thought that this evidence was a contrivance of P. Autronius, that Crassus, by being involved in the same danger with the rest of the conspirators, might protect them by his power. Others said that Tarquinius was urged to it by Cicero, to prevent Crassus from embroiling the state, by undertaking to protect villains, as was his custom. I heard Crassus indeed himself affirm that this contumely was fixed on him by Cicero.

Yet, at the same time, Q. Catulus and C. Piso were not able to prevail on Cicero, either by interest, importunity, or any offers whatever, to have C. Cæsar falsely accused by the Allobroges, or any other evidence: for both these great men were inveterate enemies to him; Piso, because Cæsar had obtained judgment against him for bribery, in sentencing to death a man beyond the Po unjustly; Catulus was fired with resentment, because Cæsar, though but a young man, in their competition for the office of high-priest, 32had carried it against him in his old age, after having enjoyed the highest honours of the state. Now this they thought was a favourable opportunity to bring him under suspicion: for by his great liberality to private persons, and great largesses to the people, he had contracted vast debts. But not being able to persuade the consul to so black a crime, they themselves, by going about from man to man, and charging Cæsar with many instances of guilt, which they pretended to have heard from Volturcius and the Allobroges, brought great odium on him, insomuch that certain Roman knights who were posted about the Temple of Concord as a guard to the senate, whether struck with the greatness of the danger, or, animated by a nobler principle, to testify their zeal for the public, threatened him as he came out of the house with their drawn swords.