to get place and power by the forms of law, even if his methods were violent and unscrupulous.

His Second Attempt.--Again in 65 Catiline's candidacy 26 was defeated by prosecution for misgovernment. In 64 he was actively supported by the more radical democrats, the influence of Caesar and Crassus being secretly but no less effectively exerted for him. Besides Catiline and Cicero there were five candidates. Of these the most promising was Gaius Antonius Hybrida, who in character and antecedents strongly resembled Catiline. To him Catiline attached himself, and both resolved to leave untried no means of canvassing, lawful or unlawful, to defeat Cicero of the other candidates they had no fears. Catiline found friends to assist him with their money and credit in the purchase of votes, and at the expense of other friends shows of gladiators were promised the people in his name. Finally, in June, Catiline called together his 27 trusted adherents and laid before them his plans and the means of executing them. To the ambitious he promised high positions in the state, to the bankrupt complete or partial relief by legislation, to all alike the rich spoil of an unscrupulous administration and the plunder of the provinces. All was conditioned of course upon his success in the election of the following month; and so, after ratifying their engagements with the most fearful oaths (it is said that they pledged each other in wine mixed with human blood), they separated to work, each in his own way, for the election of Catiline and Antony.

Cicero's Chances.-While Catiline was indulging in the 28 most confident hopes, the prospects of Cicero were by no means bright. He could count certainly upon the support of the knights only-the order to which his own family belonged. The nobles despised him as a homo novus, hated him for his attacks upon them in his speeches against Verres and for the Manilian law, and feared that in the future he might work in the interests of the democrats, and further the ambitious designs of Pompey.

The Result. A fortunate accident-providence, he would 29 have called it-turned the tide in his favor. Q. Curius, one of Catiline's penniless adventurers, began suddenly to set a day for the fulfilment of his long-standing promises to his mistress Fulvia: gold, jewels, everything should be hersafter the election. She told her friends of her expectations, of course with due exaggeration. The vaguest and most extravagant rumors spread through the city. The terrors of the Sullan revolution were revived in the minds of all who owned property, valued peace, and cared for their lives. The threatened danger broke the pride of the nobles, and they cast their votes for Cicero as the most conservative democrat among the candidates. He was elected at the head of the list with Antony second and Catiline in the minority by a few centuries only. For the first and last time had a homo novus been elected consul at the earliest age permitted by the laws.

HIS CONSULSHIP

His Official Duties. Mr. Trollope has called attention 30 to the little that we know of the administrative work done by the great Roman officers of state: 'Though we can picture to ourselves a Cicero before the judges or addressing the people from the rostra, or uttering his opinions in the senate, we know nothing of him as he sat in his office and did his consular work. We cannot but suppose that there must have been an office and many clerks. There must have been heavy daily work. The whole operation of government was under the consul's charge, and to Cicero, with a Catiline on his hands, this must have been unusually heavy.' In spite of his 31 official duties Cicero continued his practice in the courts. He has given us a list of twelve speeches, consulares he calls them, delivered this year, four of which are contained in this volume. He entered upon office on the 1st of January, 63. The winter and spring were occupied with contentions about the agrarian

law of Rullus, the trial of Rabirius for the death of Saturninus, the proposal to restore to their rights the children of those whom Sulla had proscribed, Caesar's intrigues to secure the office of pontifex maximus, Cicero's law to check bribery, and above all the rivalry of the candidates for the consulship of 62. One of these candidates was Catiline.

Catiline's Third Attempt.-Discouraged and disheartened 32 as Catiline was by his second failure, he could not give up and turn back. He had staked his all and his friends' all upon the consulship: he would make one more effort to secure the prize if that failed there was nothing left him but ruin or civil war. He had already exhausted all means countenanced or employed by the Romans in their party struggles. One last resort remained, and so without openly renouncing the support of the democrats he strove to attach to himself a personal following, not a 'party,' of the bankrupt and the ruined. There was no lack of material to work upon. There 33 were the dissipated youth, those who had no possessions, the spendthrifts and criminals of all kinds, the veterans of Sulla who after quickly squandering their ill-gotten riches longed for new booty, the great mass of those who had been driven from house and home by the military colonies, and finallythe most dangerous element-the mob of the capital, always thirsting for pillage and blood. What hopes Catiline held up before these new supporters, cannot be definitely determined; the designs of anarchists are not usually very precise and well defined. He undoubtedly promised a cancellation of debts (novae tabulae), and the spoils of office with hints at the proscription of the rich-just as he had promised in 64, but on a larger scale. The threats of fire, pillage, outrage and murder that we read of must have been the idle mou things of his followers, or thrown back upon this time from the、vents of the following summer and fall.

The Election of 63.-Cicero, who had kept accurately 34 informed of Catiline's designs, fully appreciated the critical

condition of the state. As Catiline had turned from the democrats to the anarchists, so Cicero turned to the conservatives. He tried to win the confidence of the senators, to open their eyes to the threatened danger, to arouse their energies in behalf of the republic which he believed could be saved by the senate alone. To convince them of his disinterestedness he had declined a province in advance of the lots. The rich one, Macedonia, which afterwards fell to him, he turned over to his doubtful colleague Antony as a bribe to win him from his connection with Catiline, or at least to secure his neutrality. The less desirable one he caused to be given to a stanch conservative, Quintus Metellus Celer. He bribed Fulvia, and 35 through her Curius, to keep him informed of Catiline's plots. To counteract his election intrigues he proposed and carried through a law in reference to bribery, adding to the number of acts that were declared illegal, and increasing the severity of the penalties. He looked to his personal safety by forming a body-guard of friends and clients, who also served him as a secret police. Finally, in July, when news reached him of a secret meeting of a particularly atrocious character, he called the senate together the day before the election, and laid the danger before them. The senate determined to discuss the condition of the state the next day instead of holding the election. This was done, and when Cicero had acquainted them with all that he knew, he challenged Catiline to reply to his charges. Nothing daunted, Catiline replied 36 in an exultant and defiant speech, for which, says Cicero, he ought not to have been allowed to leave the house alive. The senate, however, took no decisive steps, the election was no longer deferred, and Catiline left the senate house with an air of triumph. Fortunately the revelations of Cicero were noised about, and had more effect upon the better classes of citizens than upon the senate, and his conduct upon the day of the election increased their dread of violence. He appeared at the voting place wearing but half-concealed beneath his

official toga a glittering cuirass, and surrounded by a numerous body-guard. The expected attack was not made, but the people, duly impressed with a sense of the consul's danger, rejected Catiline for the last time, and elected Lucius Licinius Murena and Decimus Junius Silanus.

The Conspiracy of Catiline. It is at this point that 37 what is known as the conspiracy of Catiline really begins.. However radical, however revolutionary his designs had been previous to his defeat, he had aimed at overthrowing the existing government only, not at subverting the very order of the state itself. Now, however, his plans were changed. In despair he set about the utter destruction of the republic which he could no longer hope to rule. He collected stores of arms in various convenient places in and out of Rome. He sent money, raised upon his own and his friends' credit, to his trusted lieutenant Gaius Manlius at Faesulae in Etruria. Three armies of Sulla's veterans and other dis-38 affected persons were to assemble in Etruria, Apulia and Picenum. Outbreaks of slaves, mostly gladiators, were arranged for. He counted also upon the aid of Piso in Spain and Antony in Rome, but both failed him. On the 27th of October Manlius was to raise the standard of rebellion at Faesulae; on the 28th Catiline himself was to put to the sword the leading men at Rome. But Cicero had contrived to keep informed of all these plans, and on the 21st of October he laid before the senate all the information he had gained. For the moment the senate awakened from its lethargy. It passed 39 the resolution always reserved for the gravest crises, VIDEANT CONSULES NE QUID RES PUBLICA DETRIMENTI CAPIAT, equivalent, says Caesar, to calling the Roman people to arms. A few days later came the news that Manlius had done his part— desperate men of all sorts were gathering around him ready for open war. The senate sent the proconsuls Q. Marcius Rex and Q. Metellus (Creticus) to Etruria and Apulia, and the praetors Q. Pomponius Rufus and Q. Metellus Celer to