Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics) (31 page)

Cicero was well provided throughout the conspiracy with spies and informers, and so he was usually one step ahead of Catiline. One of his informers was Fulvia, the mistress of one of the conspirators, Quintus Curius (an ex-senator, expelled in 70). She told him of the meeting at Laeca’s house and the plot to assassinate him, and so on the morning of 7 November Cornelius and Vargunteius found the consul’s house closed to callers and strongly defended.

Cicero immediately called a meeting of the senate, in the temple of Jupiter Stator. (Some modern accounts place this meeting a day later, on 8 November; but it seems most unlikely that Cicero would have waited a day. On 3 December he would have no trouble summoning the senate for an immediate meeting. For further discussion of this point, see second note on
Cat
. 1.1 below, pp. 302–3.) To the surprise of many, no doubt, Catiline attended; but no one would sit near him. Cicero then stood up and denounced him in his
First Catilinarian
(
In Catilinam
I)—a speech aptly described by Sallust (who is not on the whole particularly interested in Cicero) as ‘brilliant, and of service to the state’ (
Cat
. 31.6). (The scene is well imagined in a famous nineteenth-century fresco by Cesare Maccari
in the Palazzo Madama in Rome.) At some point Catiline offered to go into voluntary exile, if the senate would pass a decree to that effect; but Cicero would have none of it. When Cicero had finished, Catiline bravely replied, protesting his innocence and pointing out that he was a patrician whereas Cicero (being from Arpinum) was a mere squatter—a thoroughly Roman line of argument. This defence was not well received, however, and Catiline rushed out of the temple. (This is Sallust’s version; Cicero was to claim in 46
BC
that Catiline said nothing (
Orat
. 129).)

That night he slipped out of Rome—but without taking his followers with him. He left behind letters for several consulars in which he again protested his innocence, and claimed that he had left for exile in Massilia (Marseilles, the refuge of Verres) in order to spare his country a civil war. The road he took, the Via Aurelia, was indeed the road to Massilia, not the one to Faesulae. But on the other hand he had already sent ahead a military force and a consignment of arms to wait for him at Forum Aurelium on the Via Aurelia (
Cat
. 1.24, 2.13), and from there he would be able to cut across to the Via Cassia, and follow it (as in the event he did) through Arretium to Faesulae. In view of this, it is unrealistic to suppose that he had any intention of going into exile, whether permanently, or merely until Murena was convicted and a supplementary consular election announced. Instead, his choice of the Via Aurelia, and the letters he left behind, must have been intended to deceive public opinion, in order to minimize the chances of a force being sent after him.

However, he also sent a ‘very different letter’ (as Sallust says) to Catulus (the ex-consul who had helped him out at his adultery trial in 73). In this letter he stated that he had taken the action that he had taken (which was not spelt out, and could refer to either insurrection or exile) because he had been robbed of office, that he was following his normal custom of championing the oppressed, and that his financial situation was capable of recovery; and he asked Catulus to look after his wife, Aurelia Orestilla. This letter differed from the other ones that he sent in that this one did not unequivocally state that he had gone into exile; hence he cannot have decided firmly on that course of action. The letter is preserved in Sallust’s account (
Cat
. 35); it gives the impression of a man who is proud, impetuous, and doomed. Catulus read it out in the senate.

Next day, 8 November, Cicero addressed the people at a public meeting while the senate were being summoned: this speech is the
Second Catilinarian
(
In Catilinam
II). In it he informs the people of Catiline’s flight and describes the types of people who support the conspiracy—though taking care to exclude his audience themselves from his analysis (Sallust says that initially the entire plebs supported Catiline: see
Cat
. 37.1; 48.1).

A week or so later, news reached Rome that Catiline had arrived in Manlius’ camp. There could now be no further doubt as to his guilt. The senate declared him and Manlius public enemies; Antonius was given the command against them, and Cicero was to defend the city. An amnesty was offered to any of Catiline’s followers who surrendered before a certain date, but no one took up the offer.

It was at this point, in late November, that Sulpicius’ and Cato’s prosecution of Murena for electoral malpractice came to trial. To Sulpicius’ disappointment and annoyance, Cicero undertook the defence, along with Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, and Crassus. Cicero’s argument was that whether or not Murena had broken the
lex Tullia
—and he of course argued that he had not—Murena ought to be acquitted because of the threat from Catiline. He and Antonius were due to step down in a month’s time, and it was absolutely necessary that there should be another two consuls ready to take over from them. Moreover, Murena was a military man whereas Sulpicius was a jurist, and in the current emergency it was the soldier who was needed. This argument persuaded the jury and Murena was unanimously acquitted. Afterwards Cicero published his speech,
Pro Murena
, one of his most entertaining and brilliant defences.

Shortly after the trial was over, Cicero, by an extraordinary stroke of good fortune, was given the chance to acquire the evidence that he needed to prove the guilt of Catiline’s leading associates in the city. The Allobroges, a tribe from Narbonese Gaul who were suffering from exploitation and debt, had sent envoys to Rome to put their case before the senate, but the senate had rejected their appeal. Shortly afterwards, the envoys were approached by a freedman called Publius Umbrenus, who was acting on the instructions of the most senior of Catiline’s followers, the patrician Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura—the former consul of 71, who had been expelled from the senate in 70 (along with Antonius and Curius), and was now praetor. Umbrenus told the envoys that if they supported the conspiracy, they would get what they wanted. They were then introduced to a conspirator of equestrian rank, Publius Gabinius Capito, and were told the names of others who were in the plot. After debating among themselves what to do, the envoys decided to report what they had learned to their tribe’s patron, Quintus Fabius Sanga (who was presumably the person who had put their case before the senate); and he went straight to Cicero. Seeing this as an opportunity to acquire incriminating evidence, and well aware of the propaganda value of the Catilinarians being caught conspiring with Rome’s traditional enemy, the Gauls, he told Fabius to direct the Allobroges to ask the ringleaders for written statements which they could show to their people. Three of the conspirators complied: Lentulus, a patrician senator Gaius Cornelius Cethegus, and
another
eques
, Lucius Statilius. A fourth conspirator, Lucius Cassius Longinus, a praetor with Cicero in 66 and one of the unsuccessful candidates for the consulship of 63, suspected a trap and replied that since he was going to Gaul anyway he need not put anything in writing—then promptly left Rome. The plan that was agreed was that the envoys would leave Rome by the Mulvian Bridge, just outside Rome to the north (on the road leading to the Via Cassia); they would be escorted as far as Faesulae by Titus Volturcius, a native of Cortona in Etruria; and then, after a meeting with Catiline, they would complete their journey to Gaul on their own. In addition to the statements which the Gauls were to take with them, Volturcius would take a personal letter from Lentulus to be delivered to Catiline, saying that Catiline ought to enlist slaves—something that he had always refused to do, since his rising was not a slave revolt and it would be highly damaging to his cause if it were perceived as being one, or could be represented as one. (The purpose of this letter must have been to give Catiline a means of assuring himself that Volturcius was not a spy, since Volturcius had joined the conspiracy only after Catiline’s departure from Rome. One scholar has suspected that the letter was in fact a plant by Cicero; but Lentulus would later acknowledge in the senate that the handwriting was his.)

The envoys duly informed Cicero of the plan that had been arranged. He then ordered two of the praetors, Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Gaius Pomptinus, both military men, to place an ambush at the Mulvian Bridge on the appointed night, that of 2 December. In the early hours of the 3rd, the envoys and Volturcius walked into the trap. The envoys immediately surrendered. Volturcius made some resistance and then he too surrendered. The praetors took them, together with the incriminating letters, to Cicero.

Armed with this evidence (still kept sealed), Cicero gave orders that five of the conspirators—Lentulus, Cethegus, and Statilius, who had given letters to the envoys, together with Gabinius, whom the envoys would be able to identify, and a further conspirator, Marcus Caeparius of Tarracina—should be brought to him at once. The first four were fetched (they would not have known of the ambush at the Mulvian Bridge), and at the same time a cache of arms was removed from Cethegus’ house. Caeparius, however, had heard of the discovery of the plot and had left for Apulia, where he was intending to instigate a slave revolt among the shepherds (evidently Metellus Creticus had been successful in putting down the earlier rising there). (We know nothing about Caeparius or what the evidence was which justified Cicero in ordering his arrest; perhaps he was named in the letters given to the envoys, and Cicero knew this.)

Cicero meanwhile had called a meeting of the senate in the temple of
Concord, and had given orders for the building to be surrounded by an armed guard. Out of regard for Lentulus’ status as a praetor and fellow magistrate, he led him into the building by the hand; the other three conspirators followed under guard, and the meeting began. Volturcius was questioned first. Initially he denied all knowledge of the conspiracy; but when he had been promised immunity from prosecution in return for his evidence, he revealed what he knew, and named, besides the five conspirators whose arrest had been ordered, Autronius (the consul-elect of 65 who had been convicted of malpractice), Servius Cornelius Sulla (a senator and distant relation of the dictator Sulla), Vargunteius (one of the men who had attempted to assassinate Cicero on the morning of 7 November), and many others. Next, the envoys told their story, which corroborated Volturcius’ evidence but may not have added much to it—although they did mention Cassius, who had declined to give them a letter and then fled. After this, the three conspirators whose letters had been captured were made to acknowledge their seals, and the letters were opened and read out. The contents were found to be sufficiently incriminating, and the men admitted their guilt; Gabinius also admitted his guilt, though he had written no letter. Lentulus was denounced by his brother-in-law, Lucius Julius Caesar, the consul of 64.

At the end of the meeting, the senate passed a decree. Cicero was thanked in the most generous terms for having saved Rome from extreme danger; the two praetors who carried out the ambush were thanked; and Antonius was thanked for having severed his connection with the conspirators (this must have been well meant, but inevitably sounds damning). Lentulus was to resign his office, and each of the five men whose arrest Cicero had ordered was to be placed in the custody of a senator: Lentulus was taken by the aedile Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther (the future consul of 57), Cethegus by an ex-praetor Quintus Cornificius, Statilius by Caesar, Gabinius by Crassus, and Caeparius (who appears to have been brought back to Rome at the end of the day) by Gnaeus Terentius. A further four conspirators—Cassius, Umbrenus, and two others, a Sullan colonist from Faesulae called Publius Furius, and a senator, Quintus Annius Chilo—were also to be placed in custody as soon as they were captured. (It is strange that only four people fell into this category, and not, for instance, Cicero’s two would-be assassins, Cornelius and Vargunteius; the senate must have decided only to proceed against those against whom the evidence was unimpeachable). Finally, a thanksgiving was to be offered to the gods in Cicero’s name—the first time such a thing had ever been done in honour of a civilian. In addition (not part of the decree), Catulus hailed Cicero as the father of his country, and Lucius Gellius Poplicola (the consul of 72 and censor of 70, whose good judgement
in expelling Lentulus from the senate had just been dramatically confirmed) declared that in his view Cicero deserved the civic crown (a decoration normally awarded only to soldiers who had saved a citizen’s life in battle). The senate certainly made amends for its failure to heed Cicero’s warnings about Catiline earlier in the year.

By the time the meeting ended, it was evening. Cicero walked out of the temple, stepped a few paces forward into the forum, and there gave the people a full account of everything that had taken place. This speech, the
Third Catilinarian
(
In Catilinam
III), caused a complete turn-around in public opinion. Until now, the urban plebs had supported Catiline. Now, thanks largely to Cicero’s revelation of Catiline’s plans for burning parts of the city, the people cursed him and lauded Cicero to the skies. Sallust says they reacted as if they had been freed from slavery (
Cat
. 48.1–2).

The next day, 4 December, an informer, Lucius Tarquinius, gave information in the senate incriminating Crassus, but was disbelieved and imprisoned. It is certainly inconceivable that a man of Crassus’ wealth, and an ally of the equestrian financiers, should have supported a movement for the cancellation of debts, and in any case Crassus had earlier demonstrated his loyalty by giving Cicero the letters which had been delivered to his house. Later Crassus suspected that Cicero was behind the allegation; but this is unlikely since Cicero refused to accept a false allegation made against Caesar by Catulus (whom Caesar had recently defeated in the election for
pontifex maximus
) and Gaius Calpurnius Piso (the consul of 67). The meeting also voted rewards for Volturcius and the envoys of the Allobroges. Finally, the nine conspirators whose cases were discussed the day before were declared to have acted against the interests of the state (like their earlier declaration that Catiline and Manlius were public enemies, this was a formulaic expression of disapproval, but one without generally accepted constitutional significance). While the senate was meeting, the followers of Lentulus attempted to gather a force together to set him free, and Cethegus urged his own followers to do the same for him.