THE THIRD ORATION OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST LUCIUS CATILINA. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
THE ARGUMENT.
While Cicero was addressing the preceding speech to the people, a debate was going on in the
senate of which we have no account. In the meanwhile Catiline, after staying a few days on the
road to raise the country as he passed along, where his agents had been previously busy among
the people, proceeded to Manlius's army with the fasces and
all the ensigns of military command displayed before him. Upon this news the senate
immediately declared him and Manlius public enemies; they offered pardon to all his followers
who should return to their duty by a certain day and ordered the consuls to make new levies,
and that Antonius should follow Catiline with his army, and Cicero remain behind to protect
the city.
In the meantime Lentulus, and the other conspirators who remained behind, were proceeding
with their designs. And among other steps, they decided on endeavouring to tamper with some
ambassadors from the Allobroges, The Allobroges occupied the districts
of Dauphiné and Savoy. who were at that moment within the city, as the Allobroges were
supposed not to be very well affected to the Roman power. At first these ambassadors appear to
have willingly given ear to their proposals; but after a while they began to consider the
difficulty of the business proposed to them, and the danger which would ensue to their state
if it failed after they had become implicated in it and accordingly they revealed the business
to Quintus Fabius Sanga, the patron of their city, who communicated it to Cicero.
Cicero desired the ambassadors to continue to listen to the proposals of the conspirators,
till they had become fully acquainted with the extent of the plot, and till they were able to
furnish him with full evidence against the actors in it; and by his suggestion they required
the conspirators to furnish them with credentials to show to their countrymen. This was
thought reasonable by Lentulus and his party, and they accordingly appointed a man named
Vulturcius to accompany them, who was to introduce them to Catiline on their road, in order to
confirm the agreement, and to exchange pledges with him, and Lentulus also furnished them with
a letter to Catiline under his own hand and seal, though not signed. Cicero being privately
informed of all these particulars, concerted with the ambassadors the time and manner of their
leaving Rome by night, and had them arrested on the Mulvian bridge, about a mile from the
city, with these letters and papers in their possession. This was all done, and they brought
as prisoners to Cicero's house early in the morning.
Cicero immediately summoned the senate and at the same time he sent for Lentulus, Cethegus,
and others of the conspirators who were more especially implicated, such as Gabinius and
Statilius, who all came immediately to his house, being ignorant of the discovery that had
taken place. Being informed also that a quantity of arms had been provided by Cethegus for the
purpose of the conspiracy, he orders Caius Sulpicius, one of the praetors, to search his
house, and he did so, and found a great number of swords and daggers ready cleaned and fit for
use.
He then proceeds to meet the senate in the Temple of Concord, with the ambassadors and
conspirators in custody. He relates the whole affair to them, and introduces Vulturcius to be
examined before them. Cicero, by the order of the senate, promises him pardon and reward if he
reveals what he knew. On which he confesses everything; tells them that he had letters from
Lentulus to Catiline to urge him to avail himself of the assistance of the slaves, and to lead
his army with all exposition against Rome in order, when the city had been set on fire, and
the massacre commenced, that he might be able to intercept and destroy those who fled.
Then the ambassadors were examined, who declared that they had received letters to the chief
men of their nation from Lentulus, Cethegus, and Statilius; and that they, and Lucius Cassius
also, begged them to send a body of cavalry into Italy, and that Lentulus assured them, from
the Sibylline books, that he was the third Cornelius who was destined to reign at Rome. Cinna and Sulla had been the two former Cornelii. The letters were
produced and opened. On the sight of them the conspirators respectively acknowledged them to
be theirs, and Lentulus was even so conscience-stricken that he confessed his whole crime.
The senate passed a vote acknowledging the services of Cicero in the most ample terms, and
voted that Lentulus should he deposed from his office of praetor, and, with all the other
conspirators, committed to safe custody. Cicero, after the senate adjourned, proceeded to the
forum and gave an account to the people of everything which had passed, both in regard to the
steps that he had taken to detect the whole conspiracy, and to convict the conspirators and
also of what had taken place in the senate, and of the votes and resolutions which that body
had just passed.
While the prisoners were before the senate he had copies of their examinations and
confessions taken down, and dispersed through Italy and all the provinces. This happened on
the third of December.
You see this day, O Romans, the republic, and all your lives, your goods, your fortunes, your
wives and children, this home of most illustrious empire, thus most fortunate and beautiful
city, by the great love of the immortal gods for you, by my labours and counsels and dangers,
snatched from fire and sword, and almost from the very jaws of fate, and preserved and restored
to you.
And if those days on which we are preserved are not less
pleasant to us, or less illustrious, than those on which we are born, because the joy of being
saved is certain, the good fortune of being born uncertain, and because we are born without
feeling it, but we are preserved with great delight; yes; since we have, by our affection and
by our good report, raised to the immortal gods that Romulus who built this city, he, too, who
has preserved this city, built by him, and embellished as you see it, ought to be held in
terror by you and your posterity; for we have extinguished flames which were almost laid under
and placed around the temples and shrines, and houses and walls of the whole city; we have
turned the edge of swords drawn against the republic, and have turned aside their points from
your throats.
And since all this has been displayed in the
senate, and made manifest, and detected by me, I will now explain it briefly, that you, O
citizens, that are as yet ignorant of it, and are in suspense, may be able to see how great the
danger was, how evident and by what means it was detected and arrested. First of all, since
Catiline, a few days ago, burst out of the city, when he had left behind the companions of his
wickedness, the active leaders of this infamous war, I have continually watched and taken care,
O Romans, of the means by which we might be safe amid such great and such carefully concealed
treachery.
Further, when I drove Catiline out of the city, (for I do not fear the unpopularity of this
expression, when that is more to be feared that I should be blamed because he has departed
alive,) but then when I wished him to be removed, I thought either that the rest of the band of
conspirators would depart with him, or that they who remained would be weak and powerless
without him.
And I, as I saw that those whom I knew to be inflamed with the greatest madness and
wickedness were among us, and had remained at Rome, spent ail my nights and days in taking care
to know and see what they were doing, and what they were contriving that, since what I said
would, from the incredible enormity of the wickedness, make less impression on your ears, I
might so detect the whole business that you might with all your hearts provide for your safety,
when you saw the crime with your own eyes. Therefore, when I found that the ambassadors of the
Allobroges had been tampered with by Publius Lentulus, for the sake of exciting a Transalpine
war and commotion in Gaul, and that they, on their return to Gaul, had been sent with letters
and messages to Catiline on the same road, and that Vulturcius had been added to them as a
companion, and that he too had had letters given him for Catiline, I thought that an
opportunity wits given me of contriving what was most difficult, and which I was always wishing
the immortal gods might grant, that the whole business might be manifestly detected not by me
alone, but by the senate also, and by you.
Therefore, yesterday I summoned Lucius Flaccus and C. Pomtinus, the praetors, brave men and
well-affected to the republic. I explained to them the whole matter, and showed them what I
wished to have done. But they, full of noble and worthy sentiments towards the republic,
without hesitation, and without any delay, undertook the business, and when it was evening,
went secretly to the Mulvian bridge, and there so distributed themselves in the nearest villas,
that the Tiber and the bridge was between them. And they took to the same place, without any
one having the least suspicion of it, many brave men, and I had sent many picked young men of
the prefecture of Reate, whose assistance I constantly employ in the protection of the
republic, armed with swords.
In the meantime, about the end
of the third watch, when the ambassadors of the Allobroges, with a great retinue and Vulturcius
with them, began to come upon the Mulvian bridge, an attack is made upon them; swords are drawn
both by them and by our people; the matter was understood by the praetors alone, but was
unknown to the rest.
Then, by the intervention of Pomtinus and Flaccus, the fight which had begun was put an end
to; all the letters which were in the hands of the whole company are delivered to the praetors
with time seals unbroken; the men themselves are arrested and brought to me at daybreak. And I
immediately summoned that most worthless contriver of all this wickedness, Gabinius, as yet
suspecting nothing; after him, P. Statilius is sent for, and after him Cethegus; but Lentulus
was a long time in coming,—I suppose, because, contrary to his custom, he had been up a long
time the night before, writing letters.
But when those most noble and excellent men of the whole city, who, hearing of the matter,
came in crowds to me in the morning, thought it best for me to open the letters before I
related the matter to the senate, lest, if nothing were found in them, so great a disturbance
might seem to have been caused to the state for nothing, I said I would never so act as shrink
from referring matter of public danger to the public council. In truth if, O Romans, these
things which had been reported to me had not been found in them, yet I did not think I ought,
in such a crisis of the republic, to be afraid of the imputation of over-diligence.
I quickly summoned a full senate, as you saw; and meantime, without any
delay, by the advice of the Allobroges, I sent Caius Sulpicius the praetor, a brave man, to
bring whatever arms he could find in the house of Cethegus, whence he did bring a great number
of swords and daggers.
I introduced Vulturcius without the Gauls. By the command of the senate, I pledged him the
public faith for his safety. I exhorted him fearlessly to tell all he knew. Then, when he had
scarcely recovered himself from his great alarm, he said: that he had messages and letters for
Catiline, from Publius Lentulus, to avail himself of the guard of the slaves, and to come
towards the city with his army as quickly as possible; and that was to be done with the
intention that, when they had set fire to the city on all sides as it had been arranged and
distributed, and had made a great massacre of the citizens, he might be at hand to catch those
who fled, and to join himself to the leaders within the city.
But the Gauls being introduced, said that an oath had been administered to them,
and letters given them by Publius Lentulus, Cethegus, and Statilius, for their nation; and that
they had been enjoined by them, and by Lucius Cassius, to send cavalry into Italy as early as
possible; that infantry should not be wanting; and that Lentulus had assured him, from the
Sibylline oracles and the answers of soothsayers, that he was that third Cornelius to whom the
kingdom and sovereignty over this city was fated to come; that Cinna and Sulla had been before
him; and that he had also said that was the year destined to the destruction of this city and
empire, being the tenth year after the acquittal of the virgins, and the twentieth after the
burning of the Capitol.