Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War Part 6

The senate was _regardless_, and unsuspicious of any danger.

[91] XVII. Lucius Caesar--He was a relation of Julius Caesar; and his sister was the wife of M. Antonius, the orator, and mother of Mark Antony, the triumvir.

[92] Publius Lentulus Sura--He was of the same family with Sylla, that of the Cornelii. He had filled the office of consul, but his conduct had been afterward so profligate, that the censors expelled him from the senate. To enable him to resume his seat, he had obtained, as a qualification, the office of praetor, which he held at the time of the conspiracy. He was called Sura, because, when he had squandered the public money in his quaestorship, and was called to account by Sylla for his dishonesty, he declined to make any defense, but said, "I present you the calf of my leg (_sura_);" alluding to a custom among boys playing at ball, of inflicting a certain number of strokes on the leg of an unsuccessful player. Plutarch, Life of Cicero, c.17.

[93] Publius Autronius--He had been a companion of Cicero in his boyhood, and his colleague in the quaestorship. He was banished in the year after the conspiracy, together with Ca.s.sius, Laeca, Vargunteius, Servius Sylla, and Caius Cornelius, under the Plautian law. _De Brosses_.

[94] Lucius Ca.s.sius Longinus.--He had been a compet.i.tor with Cicero for the consulship. Ascon. Ped., in Cic. Orat. in Tog. Cand. His corpulence was such that Ca.s.sius's fat (_Ca.s.sii adeps_) became proverbial. Cic. Orat. in Catil., iii. 7.

[95] Caius Cethegus--He also was one of the Cornelian family. In the civil wars, says De Brosses, he had first taken the side of Marius, and afterward that of Sylla. Both Cicero (Orat. in Catil., ii.7) and Sall.u.s.t describe him as fiery and rash.

[96] Publius and Servius Sylla--These were nephews of Sylla the dictator. Publius, though present on this occasion, seems not to have joined in the plot, since, when he was afterward accused of having been a conspirator, he was defended by Cicero and acquitted. See Cic.

Orat. pro P. Sylla. He was afterward with Caesar in the battle of Pharsalia. Caes. de B.C., iii. 89.

[97] Lucius Vargunteius--"Of him or his family little is known.

He had been, before this period, accused of bribery, and defended by Hortensius. Cic. pro P. Sylla, c. 2." _Bernouf_.

[98] Quintus Annius--He is thought by De Brosses to have been the same Annius that cut off the head of M. Antonius the orator, and carried it to Marius. Plutarch, Vit. Marii, c. 44.

[99] Marcus Porcius Laeca--He was one of the same _gens_ with the Catones, but of a different family.

[100] Lucius Bestia--Of the Calpurnian _gens_. He escaped death on the discovery of the conspiracy, and was afterward aedile, and candidate for the praetorship, but was driven into exile for bribery.

Being recalled by Caesar, he became candidate for the consulship, but was unsuccessful. _De Brosses_.

[101] Quintus Curius--He was a descendant of M. Curius Dentatus, the opponent of Pyrrhus. He was so notorious as a gamester and a profligate, that he was removed from the senate, A.U.C. 683. See c. 23. As he had been the first to give information of the conspiracy to Cicero, public honors were decreed him, but he was deprived of them by the influence of Caesar, whom he had named as one of the conspirators. Sueton. Caes. 17; Appian. De Bell. Civ., lib. ii.

[102] M. Fulvius n.o.bilior--"He was not put to death, but exiled, A.U.C. 699. Cic. ad Att. iv., 16." _Bernouf_.

[103] Lucius Statilius--of him nothing more is known than is told by Sall.u.s.t.

[104] Publius Gabinius Capito--Cicero, instead of Capito, calls him Cimber. Orat. in Cat., iii. 3. The family was originally from Gabii.

[105] Caius Cornelius--There were two branches of the _gens Cornelia_, one patrician, the other plebeian, from which sprung this conspirator.

[106] Munic.i.p.al towns--_Municipiis_. "The _municipia_ were towns of which the inhabitants were admitted to the rights of Roman citizens, but which were allowed to govern themselves by their own laws, and to choose their own magistrates. See Aul. Gell, xvi. 13; Beaufort, Rep.

Rom., vol. v." _Bernouf_.

[107] Marcus Licinius Cra.s.sus--The same who, with Pompey and Caesar, formed the first triumvirate, and who was afterward killed in his expedition against the Parthians. He had, before the time of the conspiracy, held the offices of praetor and consul.

[108] XVIII. But previously, etc.--Sall.u.s.t here makes a digression, to give an account of a conspiracy that was formed three years before that of Catiline.

[109] Publius Autronius and Publius Sylla--The same who are mentioned in the preceding chapter. They were consuls elect, and some editions have the words _designati consules_, immediately following their names.

[110] Having been tried for bribery under the laws against it --_Legibus ambitus interrogati_. _Bribery at their election_, is the meaning of the word _ambitus_, for _ambire_, as Cortius observes, is _circ.u.meundo favorem et suffragia quaerere_. De Brosses translates the pa.s.sage thus: "Autrone et Sylla, convaincus d'avoir obtenu le consulat par corruption des suffrages, avaient ete punis selon la rigueur de la loi". There were several very severe Roman laws against bribery.

Autronius and Sylla were both excluded from the consulship.

[111] For extortion--_Pecuniarum repetundarum_. Catiline had been praetor in Africa, and, at the expiration of his office, was accused of extortion by Publius Clodius, on the part of the Africans. He escaped by bribing the prosecutor and judges.

[112] To declare himself a candidate within the legitimate number of days--_Prohibitus erat consulatum petere, quod intra legitimos dies profiteri_ (se candidatum, says Cortius, citing Suet. Aug. 4) _nequiverit_. A person could not be a candidate for the consulship, unless he could declare himself free from accusation within a certain number of days before the time of holding the _comitia centuriata_.

That number of days was _trinundinum spatium_, that is, the time occupied by three market-days, _tres nundinae_, with seven days intervening between the first and second, and between the second and third; or _seventeen days_. The _nundinae_ (from _novem_ and _dies_) were held, as it is commonly expressed, every ninth day; whence Cortius and others considered _trinundinum spatium_ to be twenty-seven, or even thirty days; but this way of reckoning was not that of the Romans, who made the last day of _the first ennead_ to be also the first day _of the second_. Concerning the _nundinae_ see Macrob., Sat. i. 16.

"Muller and Longius most erroneously supposed the _trinundinum_ to be about thirty days; for that it embraced only seventeen days has been fully shown by Ernesti. Clav. Cic., sub voce; by Sch.e.l.ler in Lex. Ampl., p. 11, 669; by Nitschius Antiquitt. Romm. i. p. 623: and by Drachenborch (cited by Gerlach) ad Liv. iii. 35." _Kritzius_.

[113] Cneius Piso--Of the Calpurnian gens. Suetonius (Vit. Caes., c. 9) mentions three authors who related that Cra.s.sus and Caesar were both concerned in this plot; and that, if it had succeeded, Cra.s.sus was to have a.s.sumed the dictatorship, and made Caesar his master of the horse.

The conspiracy, as these writers state, failed through the remorse or irresolution of Cra.s.sus.

[114] Catiline and Autronius--After these two names, in Havercamp's and many other editions, follow the words _circiter nonas Decembres_, _i.e._, about the fifth of December.

[115] On the first of January--_Kalendis Januariis_. On this day the consuls were accustomed to enter on their office. The consuls whom they were going to kill, Cotta and Torquatus, were those who had been chosen in the place of Antronius and Sylla.

[116] The two Spains--Hither and Thither Spain. _Hispania Citerior_ and _Ulterior_, as they were called by the Romans.

[117] XIX. Nor were the senate, indeed, unwilling, etc.--See Dio Ca.s.s.

x.x.xvi. 27.

[118] XX. Just above mentioned--In c. 17.

[119] Favorable opportunity--_Opportuna res_. See the latter part of c. 16.

[120] a.s.sert our claims to liberty--_Nosmet ipsi vindicamus in libertatem_.Unless we vindicate ourselves into liberty. See below, "En illa, illa, quam saepe optastis, libertas," etc.

[121] Kings and princes--_Reges tetrarchae_. _Tetrarchs_ were properly those who had the government of the fourth part of the country; but at length, the signification of the word being extended, it was applied to any governors of any country who were possessed of supreme authority, and yet were not acknowledged as kings by the Romans. See Hirt. Bell. Alex. c. 67: "Deiotarus, at that time _tetrarch_ of almost all Gallograecia, a supremacy which the other _tetrarchs_ would not allow to be granted him either by the laws or by custom, but indisputably acknowledged as king of Armenia Minor by the senate," etc. _Dietsch._ "Hesychius has, [Greek: _Tetrarchas, basileis_]. See Isidor., ix. 8; Alex. ab. Alex., ii. 17." _Colerus_.

"Cicero, Phil. II., speaks of Reges Tetrarchas Dynastasque. And Lucan has (vii. 46) Tetrarchae regesque tenent, magnique tyranni." _Wa.s.se._ Horace also says,

--Modo reges atque tetrarchas, Omnia magna loquens.

I have, with Rose, rendered the word _princes_, as being the most eligible term.

[122] Insults--_Repulsas_. Repulses in standing for office.

[123] The course of events, etc.--_Caetera res expediet_.--"Of. Cic.

Ep. Div. xiii. 26: _explicare et expedire negotia_." Gerlach.

[124] Building over seas--See c. 13.

[125] Embossed plate--_Toreumata_. The same as _vasa coelata_, sculptured vases, c. 11. Vessels ornamented in bas-relief; from [Greek: _toreuein_], _sculpere_; see Bentley ad Hor. A. P., 441.

"Perbona toreumata, in his pecula duo," etc. Cic. in Verr. iv. 18.

[126] XXI. What support or encouragement they had, and in what quarters.--_Quid ubique opis aut spei haberent; i.e._ quid opis aut So c. 27, _init._ Quem ubique opportunum credebat, _i.e._, says Cortius, "quem, et ubi _illum_, opportunum credebat".

[127] Abolition of their debts--_Tabulas novas._ Debts were registered on tablets; and, when the debts were paid, the score was effaced, and the tablets were ready to be used _as new._ See Ernesti's Clav. in Cio._sub voce_.

[128] Proscription of the wealthy citizens--_Proscriptionem locupletium._ The practice of proscription was commenced by Sylla, who posted up, in public places of the city, the names of those whom he doomed to death, offering rewards to such as should bring him their heads. Their money and estates he divided among his adherents, and Catiline excited his adherents with hopes of similar plunder.

[129] Another of his ruling pa.s.sion--_Admonebat--alium cupiditatis suae_. Rose renders this pa.s.sage, "Some he put in mind of their poverty, others of their amours." De Brosses renders it, "Il remontre a l'un sa pauvrete, a l'autre son ambition." _Ruling pa.s.sion_, however, seems to be the proper sense of _cupiditatis_; as it is said, in c. 14, "As the pa.s.sions of each, according to his years, appeared excited, he furnished mistresses to some, bought horses and dogs for others", etc.

[130] XXII. They a.s.serted--_Dict.i.tare_. In referring this word to the circulators of the report, I follow Cortius, Gerlach, Kritzius, and Bernouf. Wa.s.se, with less discrimination, refers it to Catiline.

This story of the drinking of human blood is copied by Florus, iv 1, and by Plutarch in his Life of Cicero. Dio Ca.s.sius (lib. x.x.xvii.) says that the conspirators were reported to have killed a child on the occasion.

[131] XXIII. Quintus Curius--the same that is mentioned in c. 17.