Catilinae Coniuratio

By such proceedings as these the citizens were struck with alarm, and the appearance of the city was changed. In place of that extreme gayety and dissipation,[*](XXXI. Dissipation] Lascivia. "Devotion to public amusements and gayety. The word is used in the same sense as in Lucretius, v. 1398: Tum caput atquc humeros plexis redimire coronis.Floribus et foliis, lascivia læta monebat. Then sportive gayety promtped them to deck their heads and shoulders with garlands of flowers and leaves." Bernouf.) to which long tranquillity[*](Long tranquillity] Diuturna quies. "Since the victory of Sylla to the time of which Sallust is speaking, that is, for about twenty years, there had been a complete cessation from civil discord and disturbance." Bernouf.) had given rise, a sudden gloom spread over all classes; they became anxious and agitated; they felt secure neither in any place, nor with any person; they were not at war, yet enjoyed no peace; each measured the public danger by his own fear. The women, also, to whom, from the extent of the empire, the dread of war was new, gave way to lamentation, raised supplicating hands to heaven, mourned over their

infants, made constant inquiries, trembled at every thing, and, forgetting their pride and their pleasures, felt nothing but alarm for themselves and their country.

Yet the unrelenting spirit of Catiline persisted in the same purposes, notwithstanding the precautions that were adopted against him, and though he himself was accused by Lucius Paullus under the Plautian law.[*](The Plautian law] Lege Plautiâ. "This law was that of M. Plautius Silanus, a tribune of the people, which was directed against such as excited a sedition in the state, or formed plots against the life of any individual." Cyprianus Popma. See Dr. Smith's Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Antiquities, sub VIS.) At last, with a view to dissemble, and under pretense of clearing his character, as if he had been provoked by some attack, he went into the senatehouse. It was then that Marcus Tullius, the consul, whether alarmed at his presence, or fired with indignation against him, delivered that splendid speech, so beneficial to the republic, which he afterward wrote and published.[*](Which he afterward wrote and published] Quam posteà scriptam edidit. This was the first of Cicero's four Orations against Catiline. The epithet applied to it by Sallust, which I have rendered "splendid," is luculentam; that is, says Gerlach, "luminibus verborum et sententiarum ornatam," distinguished by much brilliancy of words and thoughts. And so say Kritzius, Bernouf, and Dietsch. Cortius, who is followed by Dahl, Langius, and Müller, makes the word equivalent merely to lucid, in the supposition that Sallust intended to bestow on the speech, as on other performances of Cicero, only very cool praise. Luculentus, however, seems certainly to mean something more than lucidus.)

When Cicero sat down, Catiline, being prepared to pretend ignorance of the whole matter, entreated, with downcast looks and suppliant voice, that "the Conscript Fathers would not too hastily believe any thing against him;" saying "that he was sprung from such a family, and had so ordered his life from his youth, as to have every happiness in prospect; and that they were not to suppose that he, a patrician, whose services to the Roman people, as well as those of his ancestors, had been so numerous, should want to ruin the state, when Marcus Tullius, a mere adopted citizen of Rome,[*](A mere adopted citizen of Rome] Inquilinus civis urbis Romæ. "Inquilinus" means properly a lodger, or tenant in the house of another. Cicero was born at Arpinum, and is therefore called by Catiline a citizen of Rome merely by adoption or by sufferance. Appian, in repeating this account (Bell. Civ., ii. 104), says, ) was eager to preserve it." When he was proceeding to add other invectives, they all raised an outcry against him, and called him an enemy and a

traitor.[*](Traitor] Parricidam. See c. 14. "An oppressor or betrayer of his country is justly called a parricide ; for our country is the common parent of all. Cic. ad Attic." Wasse.) Being thus exasperated, " Since I am encompassed by enemies," he exclaimed,[*](Since I am encompassed by enemies, he exclaimed, etc.] " It was not on this day, nor indeed to Cicero, that this answer was made by Catilina. It was a reply to Cato, uttered a few days before the comitia for electing consuls, which were held on the 22d day of October. See Cic. pro Muræne, c. 25. Cicero's speech was delivered on the 8th of November. Sallust is, therefore, in error on this point, as well as Florus and Valerius Maximus, who have followed him." Bernouf. From other accounts we may infer that no reply was made to Cicero by Catiline on this occasion. Plutarch, in his Life of Cicero, says that Catiline, before Cicero rose, seemed desirous to address the senate in defense of his proceedings, but that the senators refused to listen to him. Of any answer to Cicero's speech, on the part of Catiline, he makes no mention. Cicero himself, in his second Oration against Catiline, says that Catiline could not endure his voice, but, when he was ordered to go into exile, "paruit, quievit," obeyed and submitted in silence. And in his Oration, c. 37, he says, " That most audacious of men, Catiline, when he was accused by me in the senate, was dumb.") "and driven to desperation, I will extinguish the flame kindled around me in a general ruin."