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These accumstances w they had secured having been fully detailed by Cean ʼn us that tratan teivered in the forum, a strong reaction took place among the populace, who al now joined in execrating Catiline and demanding vengeance, in the wal-inded conviction, that although they munt have dentet peut fan not or even from civil war, yet the general catarration, when bad always firmed a leading feature in the schemes of the inspirans, must have brought rain upon the humblest mechanics as wel as upon the wealthiest of the aristocracy. On the other hand, a vigorous efort was made by the clients of Lentals to excite the dregs of the multitude to attempt his rescue. The danger appearing imminent, the senate was caled seether on the nomes (32) of December, the day so frequently referred to by Cicero in aber times with triumphant pride, and the question was put, What was their pleasure with regard to those who were now in custody? After an animated debate, of which the leading arguments are strongly and pointedly expressed in the two celebrated orations assigned by Sallust to Cæsar and to Cato, a decree was passed, that the last punishment should be inflicted according to ancient usage upon the convicted traitors. Thereupon the consul led away Lentulus to the subterranean prison on the slope of the capitol, and the others were conducted thither by the prætors. On the self-same night, the high-born patrician Lentulus, a member of the noble Cornelia gens, was strangled in that loathsome dungeon by the common executioner, and the rest of his associates shared his fate.

While these things were going on at Rome, Catiline had gradually collected a force amounting to two legions, although not above one-fourth part of the whole, or about 5,000 men, were fully equipped, the rest being armed with pikes, clubs, and other rude weapons which chance presented. On the approach of Antonius, Catiline, fearing to encounter regular troops with this motley crowd, threw himself into the mountains, and, by constantly shifting his ground and moving rapidly in different directions, contrived to avoid a collision, while at the same time he exercised and disciplined his followers, whose numbers daily increased, although he now refused to enrol slaves, multitudes of whom flocked to his banner, deeming that it might prove injurious to his prospects were he to identify their interests with what he termed the cause of Roman freedom. But when the news arrived of the disclosures that had taken place in the city, of the complete suppression of the plot, and of the execution of the leading conspirators, many who had joined his standard, from the love of excitement and the hope of plunder, gradually slunk away. Those who remained firm he led into the territory of Pistoria, with the design of crossing the Apennines and taking refuge in Gaul. But this movement was anticipated by the vigilance of Metellus Celer, who guarded Picenum with three legions, and had marched straight to the foot of the hills that he might intercept the insurgents on their descent.

Catiline, therefore, at the beginning of the year 62, finding that escape was cut off in front, while Antonius was pressing on his rear, turned fiercely on his pursuers and determined as a last resource to hazard an engagement, trusting that, if successful, all Etruria would be thrown open for the maintenance of

his soldiers, and that he would be able to keep his ground in the disaffected districts until some diversion in his favor should be made in the metropolis. The battle, in which the legions of the republic were commanded by M. Petreius, in consequence of the real or pretended illness of the proconsul Antonius, was obstinate and bloody. The rebels fought with the fury of despair, and long kept at bay the veterans by whom they were assailed. Catiline, in this his last field, nobly discharged the duties of a skilful general and a gallant soldier; his eye and his hand were everywhere; he brought up columns to support those who were most hotly pressed; withdrew the wounded and the weary, and supplied their place with the sound and fresh; flew from rank to rank encouraging the combatants, and strove by repeated feats of daring valor to turn the fortune of the day. But, at length, perceiving that all was lost, he charged headlong where the foes were thickest, and fell sword in hand fighting with resolute courage, worthy of a better cause and a better man. His body was found, after the struggle was over, far in advance of his own ranks in the midst of a heap of his enemies; he was yet breathing, and his features in the agonies of death still wore their habitual expression of reckless daring. His adherents, to the number of 3000, imitated the example of their leader. Each perished at his post, and not one freeborn citizen was taken alive either in the fight or in the pursuit. The victory cost the consular army dear, for all the bravest were slain or grievously wounded.

Although we possess only a one-sided history of this famous conspiracy; although much that has been recorded seems so marvellous and incredible, that many have regarded the whole narrative as little better than a fabric of misrepresentation and falsehood, built up by violent political animosity, and resting on a very slender basis of truth; although it cannot be denied that some of the particulars, set down by Dion Cassius (xxxvi. 30) and alluded to by others (e. g. Sall. Cat. 32), of the revolting rites by which the compact between the associates was ratified, are evidently vulgar exaggerations; although little reliance can be placed on the self-panegyrics of Cicero, who would studiously seek to magnify the danger in order to enhance the merits of his own exertions; yet, upon a careful and dispassionate investigation, we shall discover no reasonable ground for entertaining any doubts with regard to the general accuracy of the facts as presented to us by Sallust, whose account is throughout clear and consistent, and is corroborated in all the most important details by the information transmitted from other sources. Nor, upon a close examination into the circumstances of the individuals concerned, of the times, and of the state of public feeling and public morals, shall we have much difficulty in forming a distinct idea of the character of Catiline himself, of the motives by which he was stimulated, and of the calculations by which he was encouraged to anticipate success.

Trained in the wars of Sulla, he was made familiar from his earliest youth with civil strife, acquired an indifference to human suffering, and imbibed an utter contempt for the constitutional forms and government of his country, which had been so freely neglected or violated by his patron. The wealth quickly acquired was recklessly squandered in the indulgence of coarse sensuality; and, although his shattered fortunes may have been to a certain extent repaired by a wealthy marriage, and by the plunder of a province, yet the relief was but temporary; his pleasures were too costly; a considerable portion of his ill-gotten gains would be expended in bribing the different juries who pronounced his innocence, and his necessities soon became pressing. The remorse too produced by his frightful vices and crimes-remorse which was betrayed by the haggard cheek, the bloodshot eye, the wild glance, and the unsteady step, so graphically depicted by the historian-must have given rise to a frame of mind which would eagerly desire to escape from reflection and

seek relief in fierce excitement. On the other hand, the consciousness of those great mental and physical powers, from which even his most bitter enemies could not withhold a tribute of admiration, combined with the extensive popularity which he had acquired among the young by his agreeable address, varied accomplishments, and unwearied zeal in ministering to their pleasures, must have tended to augment his natural self-confidence, to foster his pride, and to stimulate his ambition. How soon the idea of destroying the liberties of his country may have entered his thoughts it is impossible to discover, but we can readily believe that the career of Sulla was ever present to his imagination, that his grand aim was to become what the dictator had been, and that, provided this end was accomplished, he felt little scrupulous about the means employed. And, in truth, when he looked abroad, the moment seemed most propitious for the advancement of a man of daring and powerful intellect uncontrolled by principle. The leading statesmen were divided into factions which eyed each other with the bitter jealousy engendered during the convulsions in which they had played an active part some twenty years before. The younger nobility, as a class, were thoroughly demoralized, for the most part bankrupts in fortune as well as in fame, eager for any change which might relieve them from their embarrassments, while it held out the promise of unrestrained license. The rabble were restless and discontented, filled with envy and hatred against the rich and powerful, ever ready to follow at the bidding of any seditious demagogue. Thus, at home, the dominant party in the senate, and the equites or capitalists alone felt a deep interest in the stability of the government. Moreover, a wide-spread feeling of disaffection extended over the whole of Italy. Many of the veterans of Sulla, accustomed to riotous living and profuse expenditure, had already squandered their hoards, and looked forward with anxiety to the renewal of those scenes of blood which they had found by experience so profitable; while the multitude whose estates had been confiscated, whose relations had been proscribed, and who themselves were suffering under civil disabilities in consequence of their connection with those who had thus perished, were eagerly watching for any movement which might give them a chance of becoming oppressors, robbers, and murderers in their turn.

Never was the executive weaker. The senate and magistrates were wasting their energies in petty disputes, indifferent to the great interests of the commonwealth; Pompey, at the head of all the best troops of the republic, was prosecuting a long-protracted and doubtful war in the East; there was no army in Italy, where all was hushed in a treacherous calm. If then, Catiline, surrounded as he was by a large body of retainers all devotedly attached to his person and detached from society at large by the crimes which he had suggested or promoted, had succeeded in striking his first great blow, had he assassinated the consuls and the most able of the senators, the chances were, that the waverers among the higher ranks would have at once espoused his cause, that the populace would have been intimidated or gained over, and that thousands of ruined and desperate men would have rushed from all quarters to his support, enabling him to bid defiance to any force which could have been brought to bear upon the city until the return of Pompey from the East. But Pompey might never return, or might not return victorious, or, at all events, a long period must elapse, and ample time would be given for negotiations or resistance. Such were the probabilities which led on Catiline to hazard all upon one great throw ;-but the fortune of Rome prevailed, the gambler was ruined, and the state saved. (Sall. Catilin.; Dion. Cass. xxxvi. 27, xxxvii. 10, 29-42; Liv. Epit. 101, 102; Cic. in Catilin. i. ii. iii. iv., pro Sulla, pro Murena, 25, 26, in Pison. 2, pro Flacc. 40, pro Planc. 37, ad Att. i. 19, ii. 1, xii. 21, xvi. 14, ad Fam. i. 9; Sueton. Jul. 14; Plut. Cic. 10-22, Cat. Min. 23.)

FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE.

ANALYSIS.

This oration is distributed into three parts:

1. In the introduction the orator expresses his astonishment at the bold appearance of Catiline in the senate, and reminds him with what severity he ought long before to have been treated, as similar cases were dealt with in earlier periods of the state. He at the same time gives the reasons, for which he has not already put Catiline to death. (Chaps. 1, 2.)

2. The main proposition is a summons to Catiline to leave the city, to go either into exile or into the camp of Mallius (ch. 3); for

(a) His shameful conspiracy is known to all, his private life stained by crimes of every kind, and his public life has to such a degree excited the abhorrence of the senate, the citizens, and the whole country, that it by an emphatic silence, as it were, demands the removal of Catiline, although the consul by allowing him to go unpunished will bring upon himself the greatest odium. (Chaps. 3-9, § 23.)

(b) It must be agreeable to Catiline himself to leave Rome and withdraw to the camp of Mallius, whither he has already sent forward his troops, finding as he does, consistently with his character, his greatest delight in making war upon his country, and in the society of similar disturbers of the public peace. (Ch. 9, § 24, to ch. 10.) And,

(c) Such a withdrawal of Catiline will be more advantageous to the state than would be his execution, as in the former case his fellow-conspirators will follow him, and thus the seeds of disorder be extirpated. This last consideration the orator adds especially as a justification of his course of proceeding. (Chaps. 11-13, § 32.)

3. In conclusion, Cicero promises to the senate the co-operation of all orders in suppressing the remnants of the conspiracy, after the removal of Catiline and his associates; and, again bidding Catiline with his adherents to leave Rome, he supplicates Jupiter Stator to protect and save the Roman state. (Ch. 13, 32-end.)

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CH. I.—1. Quousque tandem. The abruptness of the language 9 and the interrogative form here strongly express the indignation of the orator at seeing Catiline, contrary to all expectation, present in the senate, as though innocent of all treasonable designs against his country. Comp. Sall. B. C. 31.-Tandem expresses impatience and adds force to the interrogation. It may often be rendered "pray," "I pray" So Sall. Cat. 20: Quæ quousque tandem patiemini? See Zumpt, § 287.-Abutëre misapply, i. e. by making use of it to confirm, not correct your audacity. Of the form in re for ris, see Z. § 166.

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2. Nostra. Not of Cicero or the consuls only out of the senate also.-Etiam (et jam). Sometimes the notion of time prevails, and it "still," as here, "How long-still ?"-Furor. Benecke notices

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the energy imparted by the personification of furor and audacia. Furere is often used of instigators of sedition. Quid est aliud furere, nisi non cognoscere homines, non cognoscere leges, non senatum, non civitatem? Cic. in Pison. 20, 47.-Eludet. Properly a gladiatorial term of avoiding a thrust by the rapid motion of the body; hence figuratively to deceive, baffle, and here with the notion of derision and contempt, derived from the bearing of the victor, to mock, insult over. -Nos is bracketed by Orelli as doubtful, defended by Klotz, omitted by Madvig. See pro Milone, 12, 32.

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3. Quem ad finem. This phrase should not be used to signify purpose or aim, but as equivalent to quousque or quamdiu. So Verr. 5, 29, 75: piratam vivum tenuisti. Quem ad finem? Dum cum imperio fuisti. Of the three interrogatives here used, quousque puts the more general question, with reference to time and degree; quamdiu and quem ad finem, the more special, the former in regard to time only, the latter in regard to degree only. Schultz.-Jactabit lenter se efferet. The notion is derived from the proud gesture of one who tosses his head contemptuously, walks with a conceited swing, &c. Muretus calls attention to the frequency of the letter a in this passage, as giving fuller tone and stateliness to the discourse, and contrasts it with cupio P. C. me esse clementem, ch. 2, 4.-Nihilne. For the figure repetitio here used, see Arnold, P. C. 263; Z. 821; and for nihil instead of non, see Z. 677.

4. Palatii. The Palatine hill, which overhung the Forum on the south. At an earlier date it was the residence of the kings, and, before the time of Augustus, of distinguished Romans. Cicero, Antony, Scaurus, and Catiline himself had houses on it. Augustus built upon it a splendid mansion, and succeeding emperors made it their residence, so that palatium came to signify any royal residence, and hence the English word palace. In dangerous times a guard was set upon it, as upon its possession depended the possession of the city. Comp. Sall. Cat. 49: Nonnulli equites Romani—præsidii causa cum telis erant circum adem Concordia.-Vigilia. See Sall. Cat. 30: itemque decrevere, uti—Romæ per totam urbem vigiliæ haberentur, iisque minores magistratus præessent. Under the republic, on special occasions, the triumviri capitales, ædiles or tribuni plebis, who are meant by "minores magistratus" in the passage of Sallust, were charged with providing a watch for the city. Cf. Liv. 39, 14. The triumviri nocturni appointed a watch to guard against fires. Augustus concentrated these offices in one head of police, the præfectus urbi and a special præfectus vigilum.

5. Timor populi. Compare Sallust's description of this alarm, Cat. 31 repente omnis tristitia invasit .... suo quisque metu pericula metiri, &c.; and pro Murena, ch. 26.-Bonorum omnium. Boni, as often, used of the patriotic, conservative, order and quiet