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

“Romans of the highest quality have conspired to destroy their country, and are endeavouring to engage the Gauls, the sworn enemies of the Roman name, to join them. The commander of the enemy is hovering over us with an army, and yet at this very juncture you delay and hesitate how to proceed against such of the conspirators as are seized within your walls. Would you extend your compassion towards them? Be it so; they are young men only, and have offended through ambition: send them away armed too; what would be the consequence of this gentleness and mercy? Why this; when they got arms in their hands, it would prove your utter ruin.

“Our situation is indeed dangerous; but you are not afraid: yes, you are very much; only from effeminacy and want of spirit, you are in suspense, every one waiting the motions of another; trusting perhaps to the immortal gods, who have often saved this commonwealth in the greatest dangers. But assistance is not obtained from the gods by idle vows and supplications, like those of women; it is by vigilance, activity, and wise counsels that all undertakings succeed. If you resign yourselves to sloth and idleness, it will be in vain to implore the assistance of the gods; you will only provoke them to anger, and they will make you feel your unworthiness.

“In the days of our ancestors, T. Manlius Torquatus, in a war with the Gauls, ordered his son to be put to death for having engaged the enemy without orders; and thus a young man of great hopes was punished for too much bravery. And do you demur about the doom of the most barbarous parricides?

“Their present offence, perhaps, is unsuitable to their former character: show a tender regard then for the dignity of Lentulus, if you find that he himself ever showed any for his own chastity, for his honour, for gods and men; pardon Cethegus, in consideration of his youth, if this is not the second time of his making war on his country: for what need I mention Gabinius, Statilius, Cæparius? who, if they had possessed the least degree of reflection, would never have embarked in such wicked designs against the state.

“Finally, Conscript Fathers, were there any room for a wrong step on this occasion, I should suffer you to be corrected by the consequences, since you disregard my reasonings. But we are surrounded on all sides: Catiline is hovering over our heads with an army; we have enemies within the walls, and in the very heart of the city. No preparations can be made, no measures taken, without their knowledge: hence the greater reason for despatch.

“My opinion then is this: that since by a detestable combination of profligate citizens the state is brought into the greatest danger; since they are convicted, by the evidence of Volturcius, and the deputies of the Allobroges, and their own confession, to have entered into a conspiracy for destroying their fellow-citizens and native country, by slaughter, conflagration, and other unheard-of cruelties; they be put to death, according to the ancient usage, as being condemned by their own mouths.”

Table of Contents

When Cato had done speaking, all of consular dignity, and the greatest part of the senate, indeed, applauded his opinion; extolled his resolution; and reproached one another with pusillanimity. Cato was looked on as a great and illustrious patriot; and a decree passed conformable to his proposal.

Now, as I have read and heard much of the glorious achievements of the Roman people, in war and peace, both by sea and land, I was very desirous to discover the cause to which they were principally owing. I knew that they had often, with a handful of men, engaged mighty armies: I was not ignorant, that with small forces they had carried on war against powerful princes; that they had often supported themselves under the severe buffetings of adverse fortune; that the Greeks surpassed them in eloquence, and the Gauls in military glory. And having duly weighed every cause, I was convinced that all was owing to the great virtue of some particular persons; hence it was that poverty triumphed over riches, and a handful of men prevailed over great numbers. Nay, after Rome became depraved by luxury and sloth, the commonwealth still supported herself by her native strength, under the ambition and intrigues of her magistrates and generals; even when, like a superannuated matron, she did not produce, for a long time, any citizen of distinguished merit.

Two, however, I myself remember, Cato and Cæsar, both men of great abilities, but different characters; whom, as so fair an opportunity presents itself, I would not omit to notice; but shall endeavour, in the best manner I am able, to display the temper and manners of each. 37

As to their extraction, years, and eloquence, they were nearly equal. Both of them had the same greatness of mind, both the same degree of glory, but in different ways: Cæsar was celebrated for his great bounty and generosity: Cato for his unsullied integrity: the former became renowned by his humanity and compassion; an austere severity heightened the dignity of the latter. Cæsar acquired glory by a liberal, compassionate, and forgiving temper; as did Cato by never bestowing any thing. In the one the miserable found a sanctuary; in the other the guilty met with certain destruction. Cæsar was admired for an easy, yielding temper; Cato for his immoveable firmness. Cæsar, in a word, had formed himself for a laborious, active life; was intent on promoting the interest of his friends, to the neglect of his own; and refused to grant nothing that was worth accepting: what he desired for himself was, to have sovereign command, to be at the head of armies, and engaged in new wars, in order to display his military talents. As for Cato, his only study was moderation, regular conduct, and, above all, rigorous severity. He did not vie with the wealthy in riches, nor in turbulence with the factious; but, taking a nobler aim, he contended in valour with the brave; in modesty with the modest; in integrity with the upright; and was more desirous to be virtuous than to appear so: so that the less he courted fame the more it followed him.

Table of Contents

When the senate had agreed to Cato’s proposal, as I have already related, the consul thought it most expedient to put the sentence in execution immediately, lest any new attempt should be made in the night, which was just at hand; and accordingly ordered the triumvirs to get every thing in readiness for it. He himself, after posting the guards, conducted Lentulus to prison, as the prætors did the rest.

There is a place in the prison, after a small descent to the left, called the Tullian dungeon, sunk about twelve feet under ground, secured on all sides with strong walls, and above with an arch of stone; a dark, noisome solitude, frightful to behold. Lentulus, being thrust down into this place, was presently strangled by the executioners appointed for that purpose. Such was the death of this noble patrician, who had borne the office of consul, and was descended from the most illustrious family of the Cornelii; a death due to his life and crimes. Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius, and Cæparius were executed in the same manner.

Table of Contents

During these transactions at Rome, Catiline, out of all the forces which he had carried with him, and those under the command of Manlius, formed two legions; filled up the several cohorts according to the number of his men; then distributing equally among them all the volunteers, with those who were sent him by his associates, he soon saw his legions complete; 38though he had at first but two thousand men. But of these only a fourth part were completely armed; the rest were furnished with whatever chance threw in their way; some had darts, some spears, and others sharp stakes.