A Smaller History of Rome Part 16

[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin of Mithridates.]

CHAPTER x.x.x.

THIRD OR GREAT MITHRIDATIC WAR. B.C. 74-61.

When Sulla returned to Italy after the First Mithridatic War, he left L.

Murena, with two legions, to hold the command in Asia. Murena, who was eager for some opportunity of earning the honor of a triumph, pretending that Mithridates had not yet evacuated the whole of Cappadocia, not only marched into that country, but even crossed the Halys, and laid waste the plains of Pontus itself (B.C. 83). To this flagrant breach of the treaty so lately concluded the Roman general was in great measure instigated by Archelaus, who, finding himself regarded with suspicion by Mithridates, had consulted his safety by flight, and was received with the utmost honors by the Romans. Mithridates, who was wholly unprepared to renew the contest with Rome, offered no opposition to the progress of Murena; but finding that general disregard his remonstrances, he sent to Rome to complain of his aggression. When, in the following spring (B.C.

82), he saw Murena preparing to renew his hostile incursions, he at once determined to oppose him by force, and a.s.sembled a large army, with which he met the Roman general on the banks of the Halys. The action that ensued terminated in the complete victory of the king, and Murena, with difficultly, effected his retreat into Phrygia, leaving Cappadocia at the mercy of Mithridates, who quickly overran the whole province.

Shortly afterward A. Gabinius arrived in Asia, bringing peremptory orders from Sulla to Murena to desist from hostilities, whereupon Mithridates once more consented to evacuate Cappadocia. Thus ended what is commonly called the Second Mithridatic War.

Notwithstanding the interposition of Sulla, Mithridates was well aware that the peace between him and Rome was in fact only suspension of hostilities, and that the haughty Republic would never suffer the ma.s.sacre of her citizens in Asia to remain ultimately unpunished. Hence all his efforts were directed toward the formation of an army capable of contending, not only in numbers, but in discipline, with those of Rome; and with this view he armed his barbarian troops after the Roman fashion, and endeavored to train them up in that discipline of which he had so strongly felt the effect in the preceding contest. In these attempts he was doubtless a.s.sisted by the refugees of the Marian party, who had accompanied Fimbria into Asia, and on the defeat of that general by Sulla had taken refuge with the King of Pontus. At their instigation, also, Mithridates sent an emba.s.sy to Sertorius, who was still maintaining his ground in Spain, and concluded an alliance with him against their common enemies. But it was the death of Nicomedes III., king of Bithynia, at the beginning of B.C. 74, that brought matters to a crisis, and became the immediate occasion of the war which both parties had long felt to be inevitable. That monarch left his dominions by will to the Roman people, and Bithynia was accordingly declared a Roman province; but Mithridates a.s.serted that the late king had left a legitimate son by his wife Nysa, whose pretensions he immediately prepared to support by his arms.

The forces with which Mithridates was now prepared to take the field were such as might inspire him with no unreasonable confidence of victory. He had a.s.sembled an army of 120,000 foot-soldiers, armed and disciplined in the Roman manner, and 16,000 horse, besides a hundred scythed chariots. His fleet, also, was so far superior to any that the Romans could oppose to him as to give him the almost undisputed command of the sea. These preparations, however, appear to have delayed him so long that the season was far advanced before he was able to take the field, and both the Roman Consuls, L. Licinius Lucullus and M. Aurelius Cotta, had arrived in Asia. Neither of them, however, was able to oppose his first irruption. He traversed almost the whole of Bithynia without encountering any resistance; and when at length Cotta ventured to give him battle under the walls of Chalcedon, his army and fleet were totally defeated. Mithridates now proceeded to lay siege to Cyzicus both by sea and land. But Lucullus, who had advanced from Phrygia to the relief of Cotta, and followed Mithridates to Cyzicus, took possession of an advantageous position near the camp of the king, where he almost entirely cut him off from receiving supplies by land, while the storms of the winter prevented him from depending on those by sea. Hence it was not long before famine began to make itself felt in the camp of Mithridates, and all his a.s.saults upon the city having been foiled by the courage and resolution of the besieged, he was at length compelled (early in the year B.C. 73) to abandon the enterprise and raise the siege. In his retreat he was repeatedly attacked by the Roman general, and suffered very heavy loss at the pa.s.sage of the aesepus and Granicus.

By the close of the year the great army with which he had commenced the war was annihilated, and he was not only compelled to retire within his own dominions, but was without the means of opposing the advance of Lucullus into the heart of Pontus itself. But he now again set to work with indefatigable activity to raise a fresh army; and while he left the whole of the sea-coast of Pontus open to the invaders, he established himself in the interior at Cabira. Here he was again defeated by Lucullus; and despairing of opposing the farther progress of the Romans, he fled into Armenia to claim the protection and a.s.sistance of his son-in-law Tigranes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin of Tigranes.]

Tigranes was at this moment the most powerful monarch of Asia, but he appears to have been unwilling to engage openly in war with Rome; and on this account, while he received the fugitive monarch in a friendly manner, he refused to admit him to his presence, and showed no disposition to attempt his restoration. But the arrogance of the Romans brought about a change in his policy; and Tigranes, offended at the haughty conduct of Appius Claudius, whom Lucullus had sent to demand the surrender of Mithridates, not only refused this request, but determined at once to prepare for war.

While Lucullus was waiting for the return of Claudius, he devoted his attention to the settlement of the affairs of Asia, which was suffering severely from the oppressions of the farmers of the public taxes. By various judicious regulations he put a stop to their exactions, and earned the grat.i.tude of the cities of Asia; but at the same time he brought upon himself the enmity of the Equites, who were the farmers of the revenue. They were loud against him in their complaints at Rome, and by their continued clamors undoubtedly prepared the way for his ultimate recall.

Meanwhile community of interests between Mithridates and Tigranes had led to a complete reconciliation between them, and the Pontic king, who had spent a year and eight months in the dominions of his son-in-law without being admitted to a personal interview, was now made to partic.i.p.ate in all the councils of Tigranes, and appointed to levy an army to unite in the war. But it was in vain that in the ensuing campaign (B.C. 69) he urged upon his son-in-law the lessons of his own experience, and advised him to shun a regular action with Lucullus: Tigranes, confident in the mult.i.tude of his forces, gave battle at Tigranocerta, and was defeated, before Mithridates had been able to join him. But this disaster, so precisely in accordance with the warnings of Mithridates, served to raise the latter so high in the estimation of Tigranes, that from this time forward the whole conduct of the war was intrusted to the direction of the King of Pontus.

In the following summer (B.C. 68) Lucullus crossed the Taurus, penetrated into the heart of Armenia, and again defeated the allied monarchs near the city of Artaxata. But the early severity of the season, and the discontent of his own troops, checked the farther advance of the Roman general, who turned aside into Mesopotamia. Here Mithridates left him to lay siege to the fortress of Nisibis, which was supposed to be impregnable, while he himself took advantage of his absence to invade Pontus at the head of a large army, and endeavor to regain possession of his former dominions. The defense of Pontus was confided to Fabius, one of the lieutenants of Lucullus; but the oppression of the Romans had excited a general spirit of disaffection, and the people crowded around the standard of Mithridates. Fabius was totally defeated, and compelled to shut himself up in the fortress of Cabira. In the following spring (B.C. 67), Triarius, another of the Roman generals, was also defeated with immense loss. The blow was one of the severest which the Roman arms had sustained for a long period: 7000 of their troops fell, among whom were an unprecedented number of officers, and their camp itself was taken.

The advance of Lucullus himself from Mesopotamia prevented Mithridates from following up his advantage, and he withdrew into Lesser Armenia, where he took up a strong position to await the approach of Tigranes.

But the farther proceedings of Lucullus were paralyzed by the mutinous and disaffected spirit of his own soldiers. Their discontents were fostered by P. Clodius, whose turbulent and restless spirit already showed itself in its full force, and were encouraged by reports from Rome, where the demagogues who were favorable to Pompey, or had been gained over by the Equestrian party, were loud in their clamors against Lucullus. They accused him of protracting the war for his own personal objects, either of ambition or avarice; and the soldiery, whose appet.i.te for plunder had been often checked by Lucullus, readily joined in the outcry. Accordingly, on the arrival of Tigranes, the two monarchs found themselves able to overrun almost the whole of Pontus and Cappadocia without opposition.

Such was the state of affairs when ten legates arrived in Asia to reduce Pontus to the form of a Roman province, and they had, in consequence, to report to the Senate that the country supposed to be conquered was again in the hands of the enemy. The adversaries of Lucullus naturally availed themselves of so favorable an occasion, and a decree was pa.s.sed transferring to M. Acilius Glabrio, one of the Consuls for the year, the province of Bithynia, and the command against Mithridates. But Glabrio was wholly incompetent for the task a.s.signed to him. On arriving in Bithynia he made no attempt to a.s.sume the command, but remained within the confines of his province, while he still farther embarra.s.sed the position of Lucullus by issuing proclamations to his soldiers, announcing to them that their general was superseded, and releasing them from their obedience. Before the close of the year (B.C. 67) Lucullus had the mortification of seeing Mithridates established once more in the possession of his hereditary dominions. But it was still more galling to his feelings when, in the spring of the following year (B.C. 66), he was called upon to resign the command to Pompey, who had just brought to a successful termination the war against the pirates.

The Mediterranean Sea had long been swarming with pirates. From the earliest times piracy has more or less prevailed in this sea, which, lying between three continents, and abounding with numerous creeks and islands, presents at the same time both the greatest temptations and the greatest facilities for piratical pursuits. Moreover, in consequence of the Social and Civil wars, and the absence of any fleet to preserve order upon the sea, piracy had reached an alarming height. The pirates possessed fleets in all parts of the Mediterranean, were in the habit of plundering the most wealthy cities on the coasts, and had at length carried their audacity so far as to make descents upon the Appian Road, and carry off Roman magistrates, with their lictors. All communication between Rome and the provinces was cut off, or at least rendered extremely dangerous; the fleets of corn-vessels, upon which Rome to a great extent depended for its subsistence, could not reach the city, and the price of provisions in consequence rose enormously. Such a state of things had become intolerable, and all eyes were now directed to Pompey.

At the beginning of B.C. 67 the Tribune A. Gabinius brought forward a bill which was intended to give Pompey almost absolute authority over the greater part of the Roman world. It proposed that the people should elect a man with consular rank, who should possess unlimited power for three years over the whole of the Mediterranean, a fleet of 200 ships, with as many soldiers and sailors as he thought necessary, and 6000 Attic talents. The bill did not name Pompey, but it was clear who was meant. The aristocracy were in the utmost alarm, and in the Senate Caesar was almost the only person who came forward in its support. Party spirit ran to such a height that the most serious riots ensued. Even Pompey himself was threatened by the Consul, "If you emulate Romulus, you will not escape the end of Romulus." Q. Catulus and Q. Hortensius spoke against the bill with great eloquence, but with no effect. On the day that the bill was pa.s.sed the price of provisions at Rome immediately fell, a fact which showed the immense confidence which all parties placed in the military abilities of Pompey.

Pompey's plans were formed with great skill, and were crowned with complete success. He stationed his lieutenants with different squadrons in various parts of the Mediterranean to prevent the pirates from uniting, and to hunt them out of the various bays and creeks in which they concealed themselves; while, at the same time, he swept the middle of the sea with the main body of his fleet, and chased them eastward. In forty days he drove the pirates out of the western seas, and restored communication between Spain, Africa, and Italy. After then remaining a short time in Italy, he sailed from Brundusium, cleared the seas as he went along, and forced the pirates to the Cilician coast. Here the decisive action was fought; the pirates were defeated, and more than 20,000 prisoners fell into his hands. Those on whom most reliance could be placed were distributed among the small and depopulated cities of Cilicia, and a large number were settled at Soli, which was henceforward called Pompeiopolis. The second part of this campaign occupied only forty-nine days, and the whole war was brought to a conclusion in the course of three months. Pompey remained in Cilicia during the remainder of this year and the beginning of the one following. Meantime the Tribune C. Manilius brought forward a bill (B.C. 66) giving to Pompey the command of the war against Mithridates, with unlimited power over the army and the fleet in the East, and with the rights of a Proconsul in the whole of Asia as far as Armenia. As his Proconsular power already extended over all the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean in virtue of the Gabinian law, this new measure virtually placed almost the whole of the Roman dominions in his hands. But there was no power, however excessive, which the people were not ready to intrust to their favorite hero; and the bill was accordingly pa.s.sed, notwithstanding the opposition of Hortensius, Catulus, and the aristocratical party. Cicero advocated the measure in an oration which has come down to us (_Pro Lege Manilia_), and Caesar likewise supported it with his growing popularity and influence.

On receiving intelligence of this new appointment, Pompey immediately crossed the Taurus, and took the command of the army from Lucullus.

The power of Mithridates had been broken by the previous victories of Lucullus, and the successes which the king had gained lately were only of a temporary nature, mainly owing to the disorganization of the Roman army. In the plan of the campaign Pompey displayed great military skill.

One of his first measures was to secure the alliance of the Parthian king, which not only deprived Mithridates of all hopes of succor from that quarter, but likewise cut him off from all a.s.sistance from the Armenian king Tigranes, who was now obliged to look to the safety of his own dominions. Pompey next stationed his fleet in different squadrons along the coasts of Asia Minor, in order to deprive Mithridates of all communication from the sea, and he then proceeded in person at the head of his land-forces against the king. Thus thrown back upon his own resources, Mithridates sued for peace, but, as Pompey would hear of nothing but unqualified submission, the negotiation was broken off. The king was still at the head of 30,000 foot and 2000 horse; but he knew too well the strength of a Roman army to venture an engagement with these forces, and accordingly withdrew gradually to the frontiers of Armenia. For a long time he succeeded in avoiding a battle, but he was at length surprised by Pompey in Lesser Armenia, as he was marching through a narrow pa.s.s. The battle was soon decided; the king lost the greater number of his troops, and escaped with only a few hors.e.m.e.n to the fortress of Synorium, on the borders of the Greater Armenia. Here he again collected a considerable force; but as Tigranes refused to admit him into his dominions, because he suspected him of fomenting the intrigues of his son against him, Mithridates had no alternative but to take refuge in his own distant dominions in the Cimmerian Bosporus. To reach them he had to march through Colchis, and to fight his way through the wild and barbarous tribes that occupied the country between the Caucasus and the Euxine. He succeeded, however, in this arduous enterprise, and reached the Bosporus in safety in the course of next year. Pompey abandoned at present all thoughts of following the fugitive king, and resolved at once to attack Tigranes, who was now the more formidable of the two monarchs.

On entering Armenia Pompey met with no opposition. He was joined by the young Tigranes, who had revolted against his father, and all the cities submitted to them on their approach. When the Romans drew near to Artaxata, the king, deserted by his army and his court, went out to meet Pompey, and threw himself before him as a suppliant. Pompey received him with kindness, acknowledged him as King of Armenia, and demanded only the payment of 6000 talents. His foreign possessions, however, in Syria, Phoenicia, Cilicia, Galatia, and Cappadocia, which had been conquered by Lucullus, were to belong to the Romans. To his son Tigranes, Sophene and Gordyene were given as an independent kingdom; but as the young prince was discontented with this arrangement, and even ventured to utter threats, Pompey had him arrested, and kept him in chains to grace his triumph.

After thus settling the affairs of Armenia, Pompey proceeded northward in pursuit of Mithridates. But the season was so far advanced that he took up his winter quarters on the banks of the River Cyrus. Early in the spring (B.C. 65) he resumed his march northward, and advanced as far as the River Phasis, but, obtaining here more certain information of the movements of Mithridates, and of the wild and inaccessible nature of the country through which he would have to march in order to reach the king, he retraced his steps, and led his troops into winter quarters at Amisus, on the Euxine. He now reduced Pontus to the form of a Roman province.

In B.C. 64 Pompey marched into Syria, where he deposed Antiochus Asiaticus, and made the country a Roman province. He likewise compelled the neighboring princes, who had established independent kingdoms on the ruins of the Syrian empire, to submit to the Roman dominion. The whole of this year was occupied with the settlement of Syria and the adjacent countries.

Next year (B.C. 63) Pompey advanced farther south, in order to establish the Roman supremacy in Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, and Palestine. The latter country was at this time distracted by a civil war between Hyrca.n.u.s and Aristobulus. Pompey espoused the side of Hyrca.n.u.s, and Aristobulus surrendered himself to Pompey when the latter had advanced near to Jerusalem. But the Jews refused to follow the example of their king, and it was not till after a siege of three months that the city was taken. Pompey entered the Holy of Holies, the first time that any human being, except the high-priest, had penetrated into this sacred spot. He reinstated Hyrca.n.u.s in the high-priesthood, but compelled him to pay an annual tribute to Rome; Aristobulus accompanied him as a prisoner. It was during this war in Palestine that Pompey received intelligence of the death of Mithridates.

During the last two years Mithridates had been making the most extensive preparations for a renewal of the contest. He had conceived the daring project of marching round the north and west coasts of the Euxine, and penetrating even into Italy. With these views, he was busily engaged in a.s.sembling such a fleet and array as would be sufficient for an enterprise of this magnitude; but his proceedings were delayed by a long and painful illness, which incapacitated him for any personal exertion.

At length, however, his preparations were completed, and he found himself at the head of an army of 36,000 men and a considerable fleet.

But during his illness disaffection had made rapid progress among his followers. The full extent of his schemes was probably communicated to few; but enough had transpired to alarm the mult.i.tude, and a formidable conspiracy was organized by Pharnaces, the favorite son of Mithridates.

He was quickly joined both by the whole army and the citizens of Panticapaeum, who unanimously proclaimed him king, and Mithridates saw that no choice remained to him but death or captivity. Hereupon he took poison, which he constantly carried with him; but his const.i.tution had been so long inured to antidotes that it did not produce the desired effect, and he was compelled to call in the a.s.sistance of one of his Gaulish mercenaries to dispatch him with his sword.

Pompey now devoted his attention to the settlement of affairs in Asia.

He confirmed Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, in the possession of the kingdom of Bosporus; Deiotarus, tetrarch of Galatia, was rewarded with an extension of territory; and Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, was restored to his kingdom. After an absence of seven years, Pompey arrived in Italy toward the end of B.C. 62. His arrival had been long looked for by all parties with various feelings of hope and fear. It was felt that at the head of his victorious troops he could easily play the part of Sulla, and become the ruler of the state. Important events had taken place at Rome during the absence of Pompey, of which it is necessary to give an account before following him to the city.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cicero.]

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

INTERNAL HISTORY, FROM THE CONSULSHIP OF POMPEY AND CRa.s.sUS TO THE RETURN OF POMPEY FROM THE EAST.--THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. B.C. 69-61.

Notwithstanding the restoration of the Tribunate and the alteration in the judicial power in Pompey's Consulship, the popular party had received such a severe blow during Sulla's supremacy, that the aristocracy still retained the chief political influence during Pompey's absence in the East. But meantime a new leader of the popular party had been rapidly rising into notice, who was destined not only to crush the aristocracy, but to overthrow the Republic and become the undisputed master of the Roman world.

C. JULIUS CaeSAR, who was descended from an old Patrician family, was six years younger than Pompey, having been born in B.C. 100. He was closely connected with the popular party by the marriage of his aunt Julia with the great Marius, and he himself married, at an early age, Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, the most distinguished of the Marian leaders. Sulla commanded him to divorce his wife, and on his refusal he was included in the list of the proscription. The Vestal virgins and his friends with difficulty obtained his pardon from the Dictator, who observed, when they pleaded his youth and insignificance, "that that boy would some day or another be the ruin of the aristocracy, for that there were many Mariuses in him."

This was the first proof which Caesar gave of the resolution and decision of character which distinguished him throughout life. He went to Asia in B.C. 81, where he served his first campaign under M. Minucius Thermus, and was rewarded, at the siege of Mitylene, with a civic crown for saving the life of a fellow-soldier. On his return to Rome he accused (B.C. 77) Cn. Dolabella of extortion in his province of Macedonia.

Dolabella was acquitted by the senatorial judges; but Caesar gained great reputation by this prosecution, and showed that he possessed powers of oratory which bade fair to place him among the foremost speakers at Rome. To render himself still more perfect in oratory, he went to Rhodes, which was then celebrated for its school of rhetoric, but in his voyage thither he was captured by pirates, with whom the seas of the Mediterranean then swarmed. In this island he was detained by them till he could obtain fifty talents from the neighboring cities for his ransom. Immediately on obtaining his liberty, he manned some Milesian vessels, overpowered the pirates, and conducted them as prisoners to Pergamus, where he shortly afterward crucified them--a punishment he had frequently threatened them with in sport when he was their prisoner. He then repaired to Rhodes, where he studied under Apollonius for a short time, but soon afterward crossed over into Asia, on the outbreak of the Mithridatic war in B.C. 74. Here, although he held no public office, he collected troops on his own authority, and repulsed the commander of the king, and then returned to Rome in the same year, in consequence of having been elected Pontiff during his absence. His affable manners, and, still more, his unbounded liberality, won the hearts of the people.

Caesar obtained the Quaestorship in B.C. 68. In this year he lost his aunt Julia, the widow of Marius, and his own wife Cornelia. He p.r.o.nounced orations over both of them in the forum, in which he took the opportunity of pa.s.sing a panegyric upon the former leaders of the popular party. At the funeral of his aunt he caused the images of Marius to be carried in the procession: they were welcomed with loud acclamations by the people, who were delighted to see their former favorite brought, as it were, into public again.

Caesar warmly supported the Gabinian and Manilian Laws, which bestowed upon Pompey the command against the pirates and Mithridates. These measures, as we have already seen, were opposed by the aristocracy, and widened still farther the breach between them and Pompey. In B.C. 65 Caesar was Curule aedile along with M. Bibulus, and still farther increased his popularity by the splendid games which he exhibited. He now took a step which openly proclaimed him the leader of the Marian party. He caused the statues of Marius and the Cimbrian trophies, which had been all destroyed by Sulla, to be privately restored and placed at night in the Capitol. In the morning the city was in the highest state of excitement; the veterans of Marius cried with joy at beholding his countenance once more, and greeted Caesar with shouts of applause. Q.

Catulus brought the conduct of Caesar before the notice of the Senate, but the popular excitement was so great that they thought it better to let the matter drop.

In Caesar's aedileship the first Catilinarian conspiracy occurred, and from this time his history forms a portion of that of the times. But before pa.s.sing on, the early life of another distinguished man, the greatest of Roman orators, also claims our notice.

M. TULLIUS CICERO was born at Arpinum in B.C. 106, and consequently in the same year as Pompey. His father was of the Equestrian order, and lived upon his hereditary estate near Arpinum, but none of his ancestors had ever held any of the offices of state. Cicero was therefore, according to the Roman phraseology, a New Man (see p. 128)(Fourth paragraph of Chapter XVIII.--Transcriber). He served his first and only campaign in the Social War (B.C. 89), and in the troubled times which followed he gave himself up with indefatigable perseverance to those studies which were essential to his success as a lawyer and orator. When tranquillity was restored by the final discomfiture of the Marian party, he came forward as a pleader at the age of twenty-five. The first of his extant speeches in a civil suit is that for P. Quintius (B.C. 81); the first delivered upon a criminal trial was that in defense of s.e.x.

Roscius of Ameria, who was charged with parricide by Chrysogonus, a freedman of Sulla, supported, as it was understood, by the influence of his patron. In consequence of the failure of his health, Cicero quitted Rome in B.C. 79, and spent two years in study in the philosophical and rhetorical schools of Athens and Asia Minor. On his return to the city he forthwith took his station in the foremost rank of judicial orators, and ere long stood alone in acknowledged pre-eminence; his most formidable rivals--Hortensius, eight years his senior, and C. Aurelius Cotta, who had long been kings of the bar--having been forced, after a short but sharp contest for supremacy, to yield.

Cicero's reputation and popularity already stood so high that he was elected Quaestor (B.C. 76), although, comparatively speaking, a stranger, and certainly unsupported by any powerful family interest. He served in Sicily under s.e.x. Peducaeus, Praetor of Lilybaeum. In B.C. 70 he gained great renown by his impeachment of Verres for his oppression of the Sicilians, whom he had ruled as Praetor of Syracuse for the s.p.a.ce of three years (B.C. 73-71). The most strenuous exertions were made by Verres, backed by some of the most powerful families, to wrest the case out of the hands of Cicero, who, however, defeated the attempt, and having demanded and been allowed 110 days for the purpose of collecting evidence, he instantly set out for Sicily, which he traversed in less than two months, and returned attended by all the necessary witnesses.

Another desperate effort was made by Hortensius, now Consul elect, who was counsel for the defendant, to raise up obstacles which might have the effect of delaying the trial until the commencement of the following year; but here again he was defeated by the prompt.i.tude and decision of his opponent, who opened the case very briefly, proceeded at once to the examination of the witnesses and the production of the depositions and other papers, which, taken together, const.i.tuted a ma.s.s of testimony so decisive that Verres gave up the contest as hopeless, and retired at once into exile without attempting any defense. The full pleadings, however, which were to have been delivered had the trial been permitted to run its ordinary course, were subsequently published by Cicero.

In B.C. 69 Cicero was aedile, and in 66 Praetor. In the latter year he delivered his celebrated address to the people in favor of the Manilian Law. Having now the Consulship in view, and knowing that, as a new man, he must expect the most determined opposition from the n.o.bles, he resolved to throw himself into the arms of the popular party, and to secure the friendship of Pompey, now certainly the most important person in the Republic.

In the following year (B.C. 65) the first conspiracy of Catiline occurred. The circ.u.mstances of the times were favorable to a bold and unprincipled adventurer. A widespread feeling of disaffection extended over the whole of Italy. The veterans of Sulla had already squandered their ill-gotten wealth, and longed for a renewal of those scenes of blood which they had found so profitable. The mult.i.tudes whose estates had been confiscated and whose relations had been proscribed were eagerly watching for any movement which might give them a chance of becoming robbers and murderers in their turn. The younger n.o.bility, as a cla.s.s, were thoroughly demoralized, for the most part bankrupts in fortune as well as in fame, and eager for any change which might relieve them from their embarra.s.sments. The rabble were restless and discontented, filled with envy and hatred against the rich and powerful.

Never was the executive weaker. The Senate and Magistrates were wasting their energies in petty disputes, indifferent to the interests of the Republic. Pompey, at the head of all the best troops of the Republic, was prosecuting a long-protracted war in the East; there was no army in Italy, where all was hushed in a treacherous calm.

Of the profligate n.o.bles at this time none was more profligate than L.

SERGIUS CATILINA. He was the descendant of an ancient patrician family which had sunk into poverty, and he first appears in history as a zealous partisan of Sulla. During the horrors of the proscription he killed his brother-in-law, Q. Caecilius, and is said to have murdered even his own brother. His youth was spent in the open indulgence of every vice, and it was believed that he had made away with his first wife, and afterward with his son, in order that he might marry the profligate Aurelia Orestilla, who objected to the presence of a grown-up step-child. Notwithstanding these crimes, he acquired great popularity among the younger n.o.bles by his agreeable address and his zeal in ministering to their pleasures. He possessed extraordinary powers of mind and body, and all who came in contact with him submitted more or less to the ascendency of his genius. He was Praetor in B.C. 68; was Governor of Africa during the following year; and returned to Rome in B.C. 66, in order to press his suit for the Consulship. The election for B.C. 65 was carried by P. Autronius Paetus and P. Cornelius Sulla, both of whom were soon after convicted of bribery, and their places supplied by their compet.i.tors and accusers, L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus. Catiline, who was desirous of becoming a candidate, had been disqualified in consequence of an impeachment for oppression in his province preferred by P. Clodius Pulcher. Exasperated by their disappointment, Autronius and Catiline formed a project, along with Cn.

Calpurnius Piso, another profligate young n.o.bleman, to murder the new Consuls upon the first of January, when offering up their vows in the Capitol, after which Autronius and Catiline were to seize the fasces, and Piso was to be dispatched with an army to occupy the Spains. This extraordinary design is said to have been frustrated solely by the impatience of Catiline, who gave the signal prematurely before the whole of the armed agents had a.s.sembled.

Encouraged rather than disheartened by a failure which had so nearly proved a triumph, Catiline was soon after left completely unfettered by his acquittal upon trial for extortion, a result secured by the liberal bribes administered to the accuser as well as to the jury. From this time he proceeded more systematically, and enlisted a more numerous body of supporters. In the course of B.C. 64 he had enrolled several Senators in his ranks, among others P. Cornelius Lentulus Sura, who had been Consul in B.C. 71, and C. Cornelius Cethegus, distinguished throughout by his impetuosity and sanguinary violence. He proposed that all debts should be canceled, that the most wealthy citizens should be proscribed, and that all offices of honor and emolument should be divided among his a.s.sociates. He confidently antic.i.p.ated that he should be elected Consul for the next year along with C. Antonius, having formed a coalition with him for the purpose of excluding Cicero. The orator, however, was supported, not only by the Equites and Pompey's friends, but even by the Senate, who, though disliking a New Man, were compelled to give him their support in order to exclude Catiline. The consequence was that Cicero and Antonius were returned, the former nearly unanimously, the latter by a small majority over Catiline. As soon as Cicero entered upon his Consulship he renounced his connection with the popular party, and became a stanch supporter of the aristocracy. He successfully opposed an agrarian law proposed by the Tribune Rullus, and defended C. Rabirius, who was now accused by the Tribune Labienus of having been concerned in the death of Saturninus nearly forty years before. Caesar took an active part in both these proceedings. But the attention of Cicero was mainly directed to Catiline's conspiracy. He gained over his colleague Antonius by resigning to him the province of Macedonia. Meantime he became acquainted with every detail of the plot through Fulvia, the mistress of Q. Curius, one of Catiline's intimate a.s.sociates. Thus informed, Cicero called a meeting of the Senate on the 21st of October, when he openly denounced Catiline, charged him broadly with treason, and a.s.serted that the 28th was the period fixed for the murder of the leading men in the Republic. The Senate thereupon invested the Consuls with dictatorial power. The Comitia for the election of the Consuls was now held.

Catiline, again a candidate, was again rejected. Driven to despair by this fresh disappointment, he resolved at once to bring matters to a crisis. On the night of the 6th of November he summoned a meeting of the ringleaders at the house of M. Porcius Laeca, and made arrangements for an immediate outbreak. Cicero, being immediately informed of what took place, summoned, on the 8th of November, a meeting of the Senate in the Temple of Jupiter Stator, and there delivered the first of his celebrated orations against Catiline. Catiline, who upon his entrance had been avoided by all, and was sitting alone upon a bench from which every one had shrunk, rose to reply, but had scarcely commenced when his words were drowned by the shouts of "enemy" and "parricide" which burst from the whole a.s.sembly, and he rushed forth with threats and curses on his lips. He now resolved to strike some decisive blow before troops could be levied to oppose him, and accordingly, leaving the chief control of affairs at Rome in the hands of Lentulus and Cethegus, he set forth in the dead of night, and proceeded to join Manlius at Faesulae.