Colleen McCullough - 4. Caesar's Women

What Cicero hadn't counted on was the full degree of doubt in the Senate's mind as to Catilina's masterminding what certainly did appear to be a brewing insurrection. Skepticism he expected, but not outright opposition, yet outright opposition was what he got when he produced and read his letters. He had thought that bringing Crassus into the story would procure a senatus consultant de re publica defendenda the decree proclaiming martial law but the House denied him. "You should have retained the letters unbroken until this body assembled," said Cato harshly. He was now a tribune of the plebs elect, and entitled to speak. "But I opened them in front of unimpeachable witnesses!" "No matter," said Catulus. "You usurped the Senate's prerogative." Through all of it Catilina had sat with exactly the right series of emotions reflected on face and in eyes indignation, calm, innocence, mild exasperation, incredulity. Tried beyond endurance, Cicero turned to face him. Lucius Sergius Catilina, will you admit that you are the prime mover in these events?" he asked, voice ringing round the rafters. "No, Marcus Tullius Cicero, I will not." "Is there no man present who will support me?" the senior consul demanded, looking from Crassus to Caesar, Catulus to Cato. "I suggest," said Crassus after a considerable silence, that this House request the senior consul to further investigate all sides of this matter. It would not be surprising if Etruria revolted, I will give you that, Marcus Tullius. But when even your colleague in the consulship says the whole thing is a practical joke and then announces that he's going back to Cumae tomorrow, how can you expect the rest of us to fly into a panic?'' And so it was left. Cicero must find further evidence. It was Quintus Curius who got the letters to Marcus Crassus," said Fulvia Nobilioris early the following morning, "but he will not testify for you. He's too afraid." "Have you and he talked?" "Yes." "Then can you give me any names, Fulvia?" "I can only tell you the names of Quintus Curius's friends." "Who are?" "Lucius Cassius, as you know. Gaius Cornelius and Lucius Vargunteius, who were expelled from the Senate with my Curius." Her words suddenly linked up with a fact buried at the back of Cicero's mind. "Is the praetor Lentulus Sura a friend?" he asked, remembering that man's abuse of him at the elections. Yes, Lentulus Sura had been one of the seventy odd men expelled by the censors Poplicola and Clodianus! Even though he had been consul. But Fulvia knew nothing about Lentulus Sura. "Though," she said, "I have seen the younger Cethegus Gaius Cethegus? with Lucius Cassius from time to time. And Lucius Statilius and the Gabinius nicknamed Capito too. They are not close friends, mind you, so it's hard to say if they're in on the plot." And what of the uprising in Etruria?'' "I only know that Quintus Curius says it will happen." "Quintus Curius says it will happen," Cicero repeated to Terentia when she returned from seeing Fulvia Nobilioris off the premises. "Catilina is too clever for Rome, my dear. Have you ever in your life known a Roman who could keep a secret? Yet every way I turn, I'm baffled. How I wish I came from noble stock! If my name was Licinius or Fabius or Caecilius, Rome would be under martial law right now, and Catilina would be a public enemy. But because my name is Tullius and I hail from Arpinum Marius country, that! nothing I say carries any weight." "Conceded," said Terentia. Which provoked a rueful glance from Cicero, but no comment. A moment later he slapped his hands upon his thighs and said, "Well, then I just have to keep on trying!" "You've sent enough men to Etruria to sniff something out." "One would think. But the letters indicate that rebellion isn't concentrated in the towns, that the towns are to be taken over from bases outside in the country." "The letters also indicate a shortage of armaments." "True. When Pompeius Magnus was consul and insisted there must be stocks of armaments north of Rome, many of us didn't like the idea. I admit that his arsenals are as hard to get into as Nola, but if the towns revolt well..." "The towns haven't revolted so far. They're too afraid." "They're full of Etrurians, and Etrurians hate Rome." "This revolt is the work of Sulla's veterans." "Who don't live in the towns." "Precisely." "So shall I try again in the Senate?" "Yes, husband. You have nothing to lose, so try again."

Which he did a day later, the twenty first day of October. His meeting was thinly attended, yet one more indication what Rome's senators thought of the senior consul an ambitious New Man out to make much from very little and find himself a cause serious enough to produce several speeches worth publishing for posterity. Cato, Crassus, Catulus, Caesar and Lucullus were there, but much of the space of the three tiers on either side of the floor was unoccupied. However, Catilina was flaunting himself, solidly hedged around by men who thought well of him, deemed him persecuted. Lucius Cassius, Publius Sulla the Dictator's nephew, his crony Autronius, Quintus Annius Chilo, both the sons of dead Cethegus, the two Sulla brothers who were not of the Dictator's clan but well connected nonetheless, the witty tribune of the plebs elect Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, and Marcus Porcius Laeca. Are they all in on it? asked Cicero of himself. Am I looking at the new order in Rome? If so, I don't think much of it. All these men are villains. He drew a deep breath and began.... "I am tired of saying a mouthful like senatus consultum de re publica defendenda," he announced an hour of well chosen words later, "so I am going to coin a new name for the Senate's ultimate decree, the only decree the Senate can issue as binding on all Comitia, government bodies, institutions and citizens. I am going to call it the Senatus Consultum Ultimum. And, Conscript Fathers, I want you to issue a Senatus Consultum Ultimum." "Against me, Marcus Tullius?" Catilina asked, smiling. "Against revolution, Lucius Sergius." But you have proven neither point, Marcus Tullius. Give us proof, not words!" It was going to fail again. "Perhaps, Marcus Tullius, we would be more prepared to take credence of rebellion in Etruria if you would cease this personal attack on Lucius Sergius," said Catulus. Your accusations against him have absolutely no basis in fact, and that in turn casts huge shadows of doubt on any unusual state of unrest northwest of the Tiber. Etruria is old hat, and Lucius Sergius clearly a scapegoat. No, Marcus Tullius, we will not believe a word of it without far more concrete evidence than pretty speeches." "I have the concrete evidence!" boomed a voice from the door, and in walked the ex praetor Quintus Arrius. Knees sagging, Cicero sat down abruptly on his ivory chair of office and gaped at Arrius, disheveled from the road and still clad in riding gear. The House was murmuring and beginning to look at Catilina, who sat amid his friends seeming stunned. "Come up on the dais, Quintus Arrius, and tell us." "There is revolution in Etruria," said Arrius simply. "I have seen it for myself. Sulla's veterans are all off their farms and busy training volunteers, mostly men who have lost their homes or properties in these hard times. I found their camp some miles out of Faesulae." How many men under arms, Arrius?'' asked Caesar. "About two thousand." That produced a sigh of relief, but faces soon fell again when Arrius went on to explain that there were similar camps at Arretium, Volaterrae and Saturnia, and that there was every chance Clusium also was involved. "And what of me, Quintus Arrius?" asked Catilina loudly. "Am I their leader, though I sit here in Rome?" "Their leader, as far as I can gather, Lucius Sergius, is a man called Gaius Manlius, who was one of Sulla's centurions. I did not hear your name, nor have I any evidence to incriminate you." Whereupon the men around Catilina began to cheer, and the rest of the House to look relieved. Swallowing his chagrin, the senior consul thanked Quintus Arrius and asked the House again to issue its Senatus Consultum Ultimum, permit him and his government to move against rebellious troops in Etruria. "I will see a division," he said. "All those who approve the issuance of a Senatus Consultum Ultimum to deal with rebellion in Etruria please pass to my right. All those opposed, please pass to my left." Everyone passed to the right, including Catilina and all his supporters, Catilina with a look which said, Now do your worst, you Arpinate upstart! "However," said the praetor Lentulus Sura after everyone had returned to his place, "troop concentrations do not necessarily mean an uprising is seriously intended, at least for the time being. Did you hear a date of any kind, Quintus Arrius five days before the Kalends of November, for instance, that being the date in those famous letters sent to Marcus Crassus?" "I heard no date," said Arrius. "I ask," Lentulus Sura went on, "because the Treasury is not in a position at the moment to find large sums of money for massive recruitment campaigns. May I suggest, Marcus Tullius, that for the present moment you exercise your er 'Senatus Consultum Ultimum' in a restrained way?'' The faces staring at him approved, so much was easy to see; Cicero therefore contented himself with a measure expelling every professional gladiator from Rome. What, Marcus Tullius, no directive to issue arms to all this city's citizens registered to bear them in times of emergency?" asked Catilina sweetly. "No, Lucius Sergius, I do not intend to order that until I have proven you and yours public enemies!" snapped Cicero. Why should I hand weapons to anyone I think will end in turning those weapons against all loyal citizens?'' "This person is pernicious!" cried Catilina, hands stretched out. He has not one iota of proof, yet still he persists in a malicious persecution of me!" But Catulus was remembering how he and Hortensius had felt the year before, when they had conspired to exclude Catilina from the chair in which they had virtually installed Cicero as the preferable alternative. Was it possible that Catilina was the prime mover? Gaius Manlius was his client. So was one of the other revolutionaries, Publius Furius. Perhaps it might be wise to discover whether Minucius, Publicius and Aulus Fulvius were also clients of his. After all, none of those who sat around Catilina was a pillar of rectitude! Lucius Cassius was a fat fool, and as for Publius Sulla and Publius Autronius hadn't they been stripped of office as consuls before they could take office? And had there not been a wild rumor at the time that they were planning to assassinate Lucius Cotta and Torquatus, their replacements? Catulus decided to open his mouth. "Leave Marcus Tullius alone, Lucius Sergius!" he commanded wearily. "We may be obliged to put up with a little private war between the pair of you, but we need not put up with a privatus trying to tell the legally elected senior consul how to implement his er 'Senatus Consultum Ultimum.' I happen to agree with Marcus Tullius. From now on the troop concentrations in Etruria will be monitored closely. Therefore no one in this city needs to be issued arms at the moment." "You're getting there, Cicero," said Caesar as the House disbanded. "Catulus is having second thoughts about Catilina." "And what about you?" "Oh, I think he's a genuine bad man. That's why I asked Quintus Arrius to do a little investigating in Etruria." "You put Arrius up to it?" "Well, you weren't managing, were you? I picked Arrius because he soldiered with Sulla, and Sulla's veterans love him dearly. There are few faces from Rome's upper echelons capable of lulling suspicion in those discontented veteran farmers, but Arrius's face is one of them," said Caesar. "Then I am obliged to you." Think nothing of it. Like all my kind, I am reluctant to abandon a fellow patrician, but I'm not a fool, Cicero. I want no part of insurrection, nor can I afford to be identified with a fellow patrician who does. My star is still rising. A pity that Catilina's has set, but it has set. Therefore Catilina is a spent force in Roman politics." Caesar shrugged. "I can have no truck with spent forces. The same might be said for many of us, from Crassus to Catulus. As you now observe." I have men stationed in Etruria. If the uprising does take place five days before the Kalends, Rome will know within a day."