22
Cicero’s consulship.
this subject than I should have been, had it not been my
earnest wish to prevent your forming any erroneous opinions
respecting the character of Cicero.
After having gone through the offices of quaestor, aedile,
and praetor, Cicero was unanimously elected consul in his
forty-third year. I will not deny that, at the end of his con-
sulship he felt rather giddy ; but he entered upon it with
great joy and confidence, though under very perilous circum-
stances. The tribunes abused their recently recovered power,
and all kinds of movements were going on, such as the lex
agraria of P. Servilius Rullus, on which occasion Cicero induced
the people to decline great largesses, which it was proposed
to make by a distribution of land7 : one of the most brilliant
achievements of eloquence. Another noble act was, that he
persuaded the sons of the proscribed, many of whom belonged
to the first families, and all of whom had been reduced to
poverty, to renounce their claims, for the sake of maintaining
peace and concord, although they had received promises that
they should be restored to their rights by a motion of the
tribunes. At the beginning of his consulship his attention
was directed towards Catiline. An attempt of the latter to
murder Cicero was discovered, and frustrated by the consul
himself. Respecting the watchful care with which Cicero
observed the proceedings of the conspirators, and discovered
their secrets, without being seen himself, I refer you to Sallust
and to Cicero’s speeches against Catiline. In the end, however,
things went so far, that Cicero thought it necessary to attack
Catiline in the senate. Thereupon Catiline left Rome, which
many thought to be a great advantage gained, and went to
Etruria, where one of his followers had gathered some thousands
of armed men, consisting of exiles, Etruscans, impoverished
colonists, and desperadoes of every kind. The greatest danger,
however arose from the fact, that Catiline’s most influential
accomplices were still at Rome ; among them was the praetor
Lentulus, who had already been consul; but having been
convicted of ambitus, his name had been struck out from the
list of the senators; afterwards he passed through the lower
offices, in order to find his way back into the senate. Cicero
knew him to be an accomplice. With regard to others, such as
Crassus, it was very probable, that they were concerned in the
7 Cicero, in Pison. 2.
CICERO AND THE CATILINARIAN CONSPIRACY. 23
conspiracy, though there was no positive evidence. Caesartoo
was mentioned, but Cicero thought him innocent; and I am
perfectly convinced that it was impossible for a mind like his
to participate in such things. In order to get to the bottom of
the affair, and to obtain such evidence as might make the
crime, according to the Boman law, a delictum manifestum,
Cicero made use of a stratagem. He availed himself of the
presence of some ambassadors from the Allobrogians, who had
been Roman citizens ever since Pompey’s return from the war
against Scrtorius, and whose delegates were now at Rome, in
order to negotiate a loan and improve their condition. These
ambassadors had been drawn into the conspiracy by Catiline,
and were acquainted with the whole plan. Cicero prevailed
upon them to disclose to him the proposals which had been
made to them by the Catilinarians, to obtain letters from the
conspirators and then to deliver them up to him; but for the
sake of appearances, he ordered the praetors, L. Valerius Flaccus
and C. Pomptinus, to arrest them. Those letters were found
among their papers, and the evidence was complete. The
punishment to be inflicted on the conspirators was discussed in
the senate. There is no question that, according to the Roman
law, the conspirators were punishable with death, and the only
thing required to make their execution legal was to prove the
identity of their signatures. The proposal ofD. Junius Silanus
therefore was quite just. Caesar, on the other hand, considered
this step highly dangerous, and as calculated to excite great
exasperation, because it would be necessary to have recourse to
the wholesale executions of former times; he therefore advised
that the conspirators should be distributed in several towns,
and kept in strict custody for life. This would, perhaps, have
been the wisest plan, and does not by any means prove that
Caesar was a member of the conspiracy. If in after-times,
Cicero did ever ask himself the question, whether his mode of
proceeding against the conspirators was really the wisest, and
best for the republic, he cannot have denied to IiimseIfthat,
Independentlyof the unfortunate consequences to his own person,
it would have been better if Cato, honourable as he was, had
not spoken, and that the execution of the conspirators was a
misfortune for the republic.