CHAPTER V.
THE ORATION.
Quousque tandem abutere— CICERO.
The Senate was assembled in the great temple on the Palatine, built on thespot where Jupiter, thence hailed as Stator, had stayed the tide offlight, and sent the rallied Romans back to a glorious triumph.
A cohort was stationed on the brow of the hill, its spear-heads glancingin the early sunshine.
The Roman knights, wearing their swords openly, and clad in their girdedtunics only, mustered around the steps which led to the colonnade anddoors of the temple, a voluntary guard to the good consul.
A mighty concourse had flowed together from all quarters of the city, andstood in dense masses in all the neighboring streets, and in the area ofthe temple, in hushed and anxious expectation.
The tribunes of the people, awed for once by the imminence of the peril,forgot to be factious.
Within the mighty building, there was dead silence—silence more eloquentthan words.
For, to the wonder of all men, undismayed by detection, unrebuked by thehorror and hate which frowned on him from every brow, Catiline had assumedhis place on the benches of his order.
Not one, even of his most intimate associates, had dared to salute him;not one, even of the conspirators, had dared to recognize the manifesttraitor.
As he assumed his place, the senators next to him had arisen and withdrawnfrom the infamous vicinity, some of them even shaking their gowns, as ifto dissipate the contamination of his contact.
Alone he sat, therefore, with a wide vacant space around him—alone, inthat crowded house—alone, yet proud, unrebuked, undaunted.
The eyes of every man in the vast assembly were riveted in fear, orhatred, or astonishment, on the set features and sullen scowling brow, ofthe arch conspirator.
Thus sat they, thus they gazed for ten minutes’ space, and so deep was theall-absorbing interest, that none observed the Consul, who had arisen tohis feet before the curule chair, until the great volume of his clearsonorous voice rolled over them, like the burst of sudden thunder amid thehush of nature which precedes it.
It was to no set form of words, to no premeditated speech, that he gaveutterance; nor did he in the usual form address the Conscript Fathers.
With his form drawn to its fullest height, his arm outstretched as if itwas about to launch the thunderbolt, he hurled his impassioned indignationagainst the fearless culprit.
"Until how long, O Catiline, wilt thou abuse our patience? Until how long,too, will thy frantic fury baffle us? Unto what extremity will thyunbridled insolence display itself? Do the nocturnal guards upon thePalatine nothing dismay you, nothing the watches through the city, nothingthe terrors of the people, nothing the concourse hitherward of all goodcitizens, nothing this most secure place for the senate’s convocation,nothing the eyes and faces of all these?" And at the words, he waved botharms slowly around, pointing the features and expression of every senator,filled with awe and aversion.
"Dost thou not feel that all thy plots are manifest? Not see that thyconspiracy was grasped irresistibly, so soon as it was known thoroughly toall these? Which of us dost thou imagine ignorant of what thou didst,where thou wert, whom thou didst convoke, what resolution thou didst takelast night, and the night yet preceding? Oh! ye changed Times! Oh, yedegenerate customs! The Senate comprehends these things, the Consul seesthem! Yet this man lives! Lives, did I say? Yea, indeed, comes into theSenate, bears a part in the public councils, marks out with his eyes andselects every one of us for slaughter. But we, strenuous brave men,imagine that we do our duty to the state, so long as we escape the frenzy,the daggers of that villain. Long since it had been right, Catiline, thatthou shouldst have been led to death by the Consul’s mandate—Long sinceshould that doom have been turned upon thyself, which thou hast been solong devising for all of us here present. Do I err, saying this? or didthat most illustrious man, Publius Scipio, pontifex maximus, when in nomagisterial office, take off Tiberius Gracchus, for merely disturbing theestablished order of the state? And shall we, Consuls, endure Catilineaiming to devastate the world with massacre and conflagration? For I omitto state, as too ancient precedents, how Caius Servilius Ahala slew withhis own hand Spurius Melius, when plotting revolution! There was, therewas, of old, that energy of virtue in this commonwealth, that brave menhedged the traitorous citizen about with heavier penalties than the mostdeadly foe! We hold a powerful and weighty decree of the Senate againstthee, O Catiline. Neither the counsel nor the sanction of this order havebeen wanting to the republic. We, we, I say it openly, we Consuls arewanting in our duty.
"The Senate decreed once, that Lucius Opimius, then Consul, should seeTHAT THE REPUBLIC TOOK NO HARM; not one night intervened. Caius Gracchuswas slain on mere suspicions of sedition, the son of a most noble father,most noble grandfather, most noble ancestry. Marcus Fulvius, a consular,was slain with both his children. By a like decree of the Senate, thecharge of the republic was committed to Caius Marius and Lucius Valerius,the Consuls—did the republic’s vengeance delay the death of LuciusSaterninus, a tribune of the people, of Caius Servilius, a prætor, even asingle day? And yet, we Consuls, suffer the edge of this authority to beblunted, until the twentieth day. For we have such a decree of the Senate,but hidden in the scroll which contains it, as a sword undrawn in itsscabbard. By which decree it were right, O Catiline, that thou shouldsthave been slaughtered on the instant. Thou livest; and livest not to layaside, but to confirm and strengthen thine audacity. I desire, O Conscriptfathers, to _be_ merciful; I desire, too, in such jeopardy of therepublic, not to _seem_ culpably neglectful. Yet I condemn myself ofinability, of utter weakness. There is a camp in Italy! hostile to therepublic, in the defiles that open on Etruria! Daily the numbers of thefoe are increasing! And yet the general of that camp, the leader of thatfoe, we see within the walls, aye, even in the Senate, day by day,plotting some intestine blow against the state. Were I to order thee to bearrested, to be slain now, O Catiline, I should have cause, I think, todread the reproaches of _all_ good citizens, for having stricken thee toolate, rather than that of _one_, for having stricken thee too severely.And yet, that which should have been done long ago, I am not yet for acertain reason persuaded to do now. Then—then at length—will I slay thee,when there is not a man so base, so desperately wicked, so like to thee incharacter, but he shall own thy slaying just. So long as there shall beone man, who dares to defend thee, thou shalt live. And thou shalt live,as now thou livest, beset on every side by numerous, and steady guards, sothat thou canst not even stir against the commonwealth. The eyes moreover,and the ears of many, even as heretofore, shall spy thee out at unawares,and mount guard on thee in private.
"For what is there, Catiline, which thou now canst expect more, if neithernight with all its darkness, could conceal thy unholy meetings, nor eventhe most private house contain within its walls the voice of thyconspiracy? If all thy deeds shine forth, burst into public view? Changenow that hideous purpose, take me along as thy adviser, forget thy schemesof massacre, of conflagration. Thou art hemmed in on every side. Thy everycouncil is more clear to me than day; and these thou canst now review withme. Dost thou remember, how I stated in the Senate, on the twelfth daybefore the Calends of November,(1) that Caius Manlius, the satellite andco-minister of thy audacity, would be in arms on a given day, which daywould be the sixth(2) before the Calends of November?—Did I err, Catiline,not in the fact, so great as it was, so atrocious, so incredible, but,what is much more wondrous, in the very day? Again I told thee in theSenate, that thou hadst conspired to slay the first men of the state, onthe fifth(3) day before the Calends of November, when many leading men ofRome quitted the city, not so much to preserve their lives, as to mar thycouncils. Canst thou deny that thou wert hemmed in on that day by myguards, and hindered by my vigilance from stirring thy hand against thestate, when, frustrate by the departure of the rest, thou saidst that ourblood, ours who had remained behind, would satisfy thee? What? When thouwert
so confident of seizing Præneste, by nocturnal escalade, upon thevery(4) Calends of November, didst thou not feel that it was by my orderthat colony was garrisoned, guarded, watched, impregnable?—Thou doestnothing, plottest nothing, thinkest nothing which I shall not—I saynot—hear—but shall not see, shall not conspicuously comprehend.
"Review with me now, the transactions of the night before the last, soshalt thou understand that I watch far more vigilantly for the safety,than thou for the destruction of the state. I say that on that formernight,(5) thou didst go to the street of the Scythemakers, I will speakplainly, to the house of Marcus Læca; that thou didst meet there many ofthy associates in crime and madness. Wilt thou dare to deny it? Why sosilent? If thou deniest, I will prove it. For I see some of those here,here in the Senate, who were with thee. Oh! ye immortal Gods! in whatregion of the earth do we dwell? in what city do we live? of what republicare we citizens? Here! they are here, in the midst of us, ConscriptFathers, here in this council, the most sacred, the most solemn of theuniversal world, who are planning the slaughter of myself, the slaughterof you all, planning the ruin of this city, and therein the ruin of theworld. I the consul, see these men, and ask their opinions on statematters. Nay, those whom it were but justice to slaughter with the sword,I refrain as yet from wounding with a word. Thou wert therefore in thehouse of Læca, on that night, O Catiline. Thou didst allot the districtsof Italy; thou didst determine whither each one of thy followers shouldset forth; thou didst choose whom thou wouldst lead along with thee, whomleave behind; thou didst assign the wards of the city for conflagration;thou didst assert that ere long thou wouldst go forth in person; thousaidst there was but one cause why thou shouldst yet delay a little,namely, that I was alive. Two Roman knights were found, who offeredthemselves to liberate thee from that care, and promised that they wouldbutcher me, that very night, a little before daylight, in my own bed. Ofall these things I was aware, when your assembly was scarce yet broken up.I strengthened my house, and guarded it with an unwonted garrison. Irefused admittance to those whom thou hadst sent to salute me, when theyarrived; even as I had predicted to many eminent men that they wouldarrive, and at that very time.
"Since then these things stand thus, O Catiline, proceed as thou hastbegun; depart when thou wilt from the city; the gates are open; begone;too long already have those camps of Manlius lacked their general. Leadforth, with the morrow, all thy men—if not all, as many at least as thouart able; purify the city of thy presence. Thou wilt discharge me fromgreat terror, so soon as a wall shall be interposed between thee and me.Dwell among us thou canst now no longer. I will not endure, I will notsuffer, I will not permit it! Great thanks must be rendered to theimmortal Gods, and to this Stator Jove, especially, the ancient guardianof this city, that we have escaped so many times already this plague, sofoul, so horrible, so fraught with ruin to the republic. Not often is thehighest weal of a state jeoparded in the person of a single individual. Solong as you plotted against me, merely as Consul elect, O Catiline, Iprotected myself, not by public guards, but by private diligence. When atthe late Comitia, thou wouldst have murdered me, presiding as Consul inthe Field of Mars, with thy competitors, I checked thy nefarious plans, bythe protection and force of my friends, without exciting any publictumult.—In a word, as often as thou hast thrust at me, myself have Iparried the blow, although I perceived clearly, that my fall was conjoinedwith dread calamity to the republic. Now, now, thou dost strike openly atthe whole commonwealth, the dwellings of the city; dost summon the templesof the Immortal Gods, the lives of all citizens, in a word, Italy herself,to havoc and perdition. Wherefore—seeing that as yet, I dare not do whatshould be my first duty, what is the ancient and peculiar usage of thisstate, and in accordance with the discipline of our fathers—I will, atleast, do that which in respect to security is more lenient, in respect tothe common good, more useful. For should I command thee to be slain, thesurviving band of thy conspirators would settle down in the republic; butif—as I have been long exhorting thee, thou wilt go forth, the vast andpestilent contamination of thy comrades will be drained out of the city.What is this, Catiline? Dost hesitate to do that, for my bidding, which ofthine own accord thou wert about doing? The Consul commands the enemy togo forth from the state. Dost thou enquire of me, whether into exile? I donot order, but, if thou wilt have my counsel, I advise it.
"For what is there, O Catiline, that can delight thee any longer in thiscity, in which there is not one man, without thy band of desperadoes, whodoes not fear, not one who does not hate thee?—What brand of domesticturpitude is not burnt in upon thy life? What shame of private bearingclings not to thee, for endless infamy? What scenes of impure lust, whatdeeds of daring crime, what horrible pollution attaches not to thy wholecareer?—To what young man, once entangled in the meshes of thy corruption,hast thou not tendered the torch of licentiousness, or the steel ofmurder? Must I say more? Even of late, when thou hadst rendered thy housevacant for new nuptials, by the death of thy late wife, didst thou notovertop that hideous crime, by a crime more incredible? which I pass over,and permit willingly to rest in silence, lest it be known, that in thisstate, guilt so enormous has existed, and has not been punished. I passover the ruin of thy fortunes, which all men know to be impending on thenext(6) Ides, I proceed to those things which pertain not to the privateinfamy of thy career, not to thy domestic difficulties and baseness, butto the supreme safety of the state, and to the life and welfare of us all.Can the light of this life, the breath of this heaven, be grateful tothee, Catiline, when thou art conscious that not one of these but knowshow thou didst stand armed in the comitium, on the day previous(7) to thecalends of January, when Lepidus and Tullus were the Consuls? That thouhadst mustered a band of assassins to slay the Consuls, and the noblest ofthe citizens? That no relenting of thy heart, no faltering from fear,opposed thy guilt and frenzy, but the wonted good fortune of thecommonwealth? And now I pass from these things, for neither are thesecrimes not known to all, nor have there not been many more recentlycommitted. How many times hast not thou thrust at me while elect, how manytimes when Consul? How many thrusts of thine so nearly aimed, that theyappeared inevitable; have I not shunned by a slight diversion, and, asthey say of gladiators, by the movements of my body? Thou doest nothing,attemptest nothing, plannest nothing, which can escape my knowledge, atthe moment, when I would know it. Yet thou wilt neither cease fromendeavoring nor from plotting. How many times already hath that daggerbeen wrested from thy hand? how many times hath it fallen by chance, andescaped thy grasp? Still thou canst not be deprived of it, more than aninstant’s space!—And yet, I know not with what unhallowed rites it hasbeen consecrated and devoted by thee, that thou shouldst deem it necessaryto flesh it in the body of a Consul.
"Now then, what life is this of thine? For I will now address thee, not sothat I may seem moved by that detestation which I feel toward thee, but bycompassion, no portion of which is thy due. But a moment since, thou didstcome into the Senate, and which one man, from so vast a concourse, fromthine own chosen and familiar friends, saluted thee? If this has befallenno one, within the memory of man, wilt thou await loud contumely,condemned already by the most severe sentence of this silence? Whatwouldst thou have, when all those seats around thee were left vacant onthy coming? When all those Consulars, whom thou so frequently hadstdesignated unto slaughter, as soon as thou didst take thy seat, left allthat portion of the benches bare and vacant? With what spirit, in oneword, can thou deem this endurable? By Hercules! did my slaves so dreadme, as all thy fellow citizens dread thee, I should conceive it time forleaving my own house—dost thou not hold it time to leave this city?—And ifI felt myself without just cause suspected, and odious to my countrymen, Ishould choose rather to be beyond the reach of their vision, than to begazed upon by hostile eyes of all men. Dost thou hesitate, when consciousof thine own crimes thou must acknowledge that the hate of all is just,and due long ago—dost thou, I say, hesitate to avoid the presence and thesight of those whose eyes and sense
s thine aspect every day is wounding?If thine own parents feared and hated thee, and could by no means bereconciled, thou wouldst, I presume, withdraw thyself some-whither beyondthe reach of their eyes—now thy country, which is the common parent of usall, dreads and detests thee, and has passed judgment on thee long ago, asmeditating nothing but her parricide. Wilt thou now neither revere herauthority, nor obey her judgment, nor yet dread her violence? Since thusshe now deals with thee, Catiline, thus speaks to thee in silence.
"’No deed of infamy hath been done in these many years, unless throughthee—no deed of atrocity without thee—to thee alone, the murder of manycitizens, to thee alone the spoliation and oppression of our allies, hathbeen free and unpunished. Thou hast been powerful not only to escape lawsand prosecutions, but openly to break through and overturn them. To thesethings, though indeed intolerable, I have submitted as best I might—but itcan now no longer be endured that I should be in one eternal dread of theeonly—that Catiline, on what alarm soever, alone should be the source ofterror—that no treason against me can be imagined, such as should berevolting to thy desperate criminality. Wherefore begone, and liberate mefrom this terror, so that, if true, I may not be ruined; if false I may atleast shake with fear no longer.’
"If thy country should thus, as I have said, parley with thee, should shenot obtain what she demands, even if she lack force to compel it? Whatmore shall I say, when thou didst offer thyself to go into some privatecustody? What, when to shun suspicion, thou didst profess thy willingnessto take up thy residence under the roof of Manius Lepidus? Refused bywhom, thou hadst audacity to come to me, and request that I would admitthee to my house. And when thou didst receive from me this answer, that Icould not exist within the same house with that man, whose presence eveninside the same city walls, I esteemed vast peril to my life, thou didstthen go to the prætor Quintus Metellus; and, then, repulsed by him, toMarcus Marcellus, thine own comrade, a virtuous man truly, one whom pastdoubt thou didst deem likely to be most vigilant in guarding, most craftyin suspecting, most strenuous in bringing thee to justice. And how farshall that man be believed distant from deserving chains and a dungeon,who judges himself to be worthy of safekeeping?—Since, then, these thingsare so, dost hesitate, O Catiline, since here thou canst not tarry with anequal mind, to depart for some other land, and give that life, rescuedfrom many just and deserved penalties, to solitude and exile? ’Lay thematter,’ thou sayest, ’before the Senate,’ for that it is which thourequirest, ’and if this order shall command thee into banishment, thouwilt obey their bidding.’ I will not lay it before them—for to do so isrepugnant to my character, yet I will so act, that thou shalt clearly seewhat these think of thee. Depart from the city, Catiline! Deliver thestate from terror! begone into banishment, if that be the word for whichthou tarriest!"
Then the great Orator paused once again, not to breathe, though thevehement and uninterrupted torrent of his eloquence, might well haverequired an interval of rest, but to give the confounded listener occasionto note the feelings of the assembled Senate, perfectly in accordance withhis words.
It was but a moment, however, that he paused, and, that ended, again burstout the thunderous weight of his magnificent invective.
"What means this, Catiline? Dost thou note these, dost thou observe theirsilence? They permit my words, they are mute. Why dost thou wait thatconfirmation of their words, which thou seest given already by theirsilence? But had I spoken these same words to that admirable youth PubliusSextius, or to that very valiant man, Marcus Marcellus, I tell thee thatthis very Senate would have, already, in this very temple, laid violenthands on me, the Consul, and that too most justly! But with regard tothee, when quiescent they approve, when passive they decree, when mutethey cry aloud! Nor these alone, whose authority it seems is very dear,whose life most cheap, in your eyes, but all those Roman knights dolikewise, most honorable and most worthy men, and all those other valiantcitizens, who stand about the Senate house, whose dense ranks thou couldstsee, whose zeal thou couldst discover, whose patriotic cries thou couldsthear, but a little while ago; whose hands and weapons I have scarcely, fora long time, restrained from thee, whom I will yet induce to escort theeto the gates of Rome, if thou wilt leave this city, which thou hast soughtso long to devastate and ruin.
"And yet what say I? Can it be hoped that anything should ever bend thee?that thou shouldst ever be reformed? that thou shouldst dream of anyflight? that thou shouldst contemplate any exile? Would, would indeed thatthe immortal Gods might give thee such a purpose! And yet I perceive, ifastounded by my voice thou shouldst bend thy spirit to go into voluntaryexile, how vast a storm of odium would hang over me, if not at thispresent time, when the memory of thy villanies is recent, at least fromthe passions of posterity. But to me it is worth this sacrifice, so thatthe storm burst on my individual head, and be connected with no perils tothe state. But that thou shouldst be moved by thine own vices, that thoushouldst dread the penalties of the law, that thou shouldst yield to theexigences of the republic, this indeed is not to be expected; for thou artnot such an one, O Catiline, that any sense of shame should ever recallthee from infamy, any sense of fear from peril, any glimmering of reasonfrom insanity. Wherefore, as I have said many times already, go forth fromamong us; and if thou wouldst stir up against me, as constantly thousayest, against me thine enemy a storm of enmity and odium, then begonestraightway into exile. Scarcely shall I have power to endure the clamorsof the world, scarcely shall I have power to sustain the burthen of thatodium, if thou wilt but go into voluntary banishment, now, at the consul’sbidding. If, on the contrary, thou wouldst advance my glory and myreputation, then go forth with thy lawless band of ruffians! Betakethyself to Manlius! stir up the desperate citizens to arms! withdrawthyself from all good men! levy war on thy country! exult in unhallowedschemes of robbery and murder, so that thou shalt not pass for one drivenforth by my tyranny into the arms of strangers, but for one joining byinvitation his own friends and comrades. Yet why should I invite thee,when I well know that thy confederates are sent forth already, who nighForum Aurelium shall wait in arms for your arrival? When I well know thatthou hast already a day promised and appointed whereon to join the camp ofManlius? When I well know that the silver eagle hath been preparedalready—the silver eagle which will, I trust, prove ruinous and fatal tothee and all thine host, to which a shrine has been established in thineown house, thy villanies its fitting incense? For how shalt thou endureits absence any longer, thou who wert wont to adore it, setting forth tosacrilege and slaughter, thou who so often hast upraised that impiousright hand of thine from its accursed altars to murder citizens of Rome?
"At length, then, at length, thou must go forth, whither long since thyfrantic and unbridled passions have impelled thee. Nor shall this waragainst thy country vex or afflict thee. Nay, rather shall it bring tothee a strange and unimaginable pleasure, for to this frantic career didnature give thee birth, to this hath thine own inclination trained, tothis, fortune preserved thee—for never hast thou wished—I say not peacefulleisure—but war itself, unless that war were sacrilegious. Thou hast drawntogether from the most infamous of wretches, wretches abandoned not onlyby all fortune, but all hope, a bodyguard of desperadoes! Among these whatpleasure wilt thou not experience, in what bliss not exult, in whatraptures not madly revel, when thou shalt neither see nor hear onevirtuous man in such a concourse of thy comrades? To this, this mode oflife tended all those strenuous toils of thine, which are so widely talkedof—to lie on the bare ground, not lying in wait merely for some occasionof adultery, but for some opportunity of daring crime! To watch throughthe night, not plotting merely against the sleep of betrayed husbands, butagainst the property of murdered victims! Now, then, thou hast a notableoccasion for displaying those illustrious qualities of thine, thatwonderful endurance of hunger, of cold, of destitution, by which ere longthou shalt feel thyself undone, and ruined. This much, however, I didaccomplish, when I defeated thee in the comitia, that thou shouldst strikeat the
republic as an exile, rather than ravage it as a consul; and thatthe warfare, so villanously evoked by thee, should be called rather thestruggle of a base banditti, than the fair strife of warriors.
"Now, Conscript Fathers, that I may solemnly abjure and deprecate the justreproaches of my country, listen, I pray you, earnestly to what I say, andcommit it deeply to your memories and minds. For if my country, who ismuch dearer to me than my life, if all Italy, if the whole commonwealthshould thus expostulate with me, ’What dost thou, Marcus Tullius? Him,whom thou hast proved to be my enemy, whom thou seest the future leader inthe war against me, whom thou knowest even now the expected general in thecamp of my foes—him, the author of every crime, the head of thisconspiracy, the summoner of insurgent slaves, and ruined citizens—him wiltthou suffer to go forth, and in such guise, that he shall not be as onebanished from the walls, but rather as one let loose to war against thecity? Wilt thou not, then, command that he shall be led away to prison,that he shall be hurried off to death, that he shall be visited with thelast torments of the law? What is it, that dissuades thee? Is it thecustom of thine ancestors? Not so—for many times in this republic havemen, even in private stations, inflicted death on traitors!—Is it thelaws, enacted, concerning the punishment of Roman citizens? Not so—fornever, in this city, have rebels against the commonwealth been suffered toretain the rights of Citizens or Romans! Dost thou shrink from the odiumof posterity? If it be so, in truth, thou dost repay great gratitude untothe Roman people, who hath elevated thee, a man known by thine own actionsonly, commended by no ancestral glory, so rapidly, through all the gradesof honor, to this most high authority of consul; if in the fear of anyfuture odium, if in the dread of any present peril, thou dost neglect thesafety of the citizens! Again, if thou dost shrink from enmity, whetherdost deem most terrible, that, purchased by a severe and brave dischargeof duty, or that, by inability and shameful weakness? Or, once more, whenall Italy shall be waste with civil war, when her towns shall bedemolished, her houses blazing to the sky, dost fancy that thy good reportshall not be then consumed in the fierce glare of enmity and odium?’
"To these most solemn appeals of my country, and to the minds of those menwho think in likewise, I will now make brief answer. Could I have judgedit for the best, O Conscript Fathers, that Catiline should have been doneto death, then would I not have granted one hour’s tenure of existence tothat gladiator. For if the first of men, noblest of citizens, were graced,not polluted, by the blood of Saturninus, and the Gracchi, and Flaccus,and many more in olden time, there surely is no cause why I shouldapprehend a burst of future odium for taking off this parricide of therepublic. Yet if such odium did inevitably impend above me, I have everbeen of this mind, that I regard that hatred which is earned by honorableduty not as reproach, but glory! Yet there are some in this assembly, whoeither do not see the perils which are imminent above us, or seeing denytheir eyesight. Some who have nursed the hopes of Catiline by moderatedecrees; and strengthened this conspiracy from its birth until now, bydisbelieving its existence—and many more there are, not of the wickedonly, but of the inexperienced, who, if I should do justice upon this man,would raise a cry that I had dealt with him cruelly, and as a regaltyrant.
"Now I am well assured that, if he once arrive, whither he means to go, atthe camp of Manlius, there will be none so blind as not to see the realityof this conspiracy, none so wicked as to deny it. But on the other hand,were this man slain, alone, I perceive that this ruin of the state mightindeed be repressed for a season, but could not be suppressed forever—while, if he cast himself forth, and lead his comrades with him, andgather to his host all his disbanded desperate outlaws, not only will thisfull grown pestilence of Rome be utterly extinguished and abolished, butthe very seed and germ of all evil will be extirpated for ever.
"For it is a long time, O Conscript Fathers, that we have been dwellingamid the perils and stratagems of this conspiracy. And I know not how itis that the ripeness of all crime, the maturity of ancient guilt andfrenzy, hath burst to light at once during my consulship. But, this Iknow, that if from so vast a horde of assassins and banditti this manalone be taken off, we may perchance be relieved for some brief space,from apprehension and dismay, but the peril itself will strike inward, andsettle down into the veins and vitals of the commonwealth. As oftentimes,men laboring under some dread disease, if, while tossing in feverish heat,they drink cold water, will seem indeed to be relieved for some briefspace, but are thereafter much more seriously and perilously afflicted, sowill this ulcer, which exists in the republic, if relieved by the cuttingoff this man, grow but the more inveterate, the others left alive.Wherefore, O Conscript Fathers, let the wicked withdraw themselves, letthem retire from among the good, let them herd together in one place, letthem, in one word, as often I have said before, be divided from us by thecity wall. Let them cease to plot against the consul in his own house, tostand about the tribunal of the city prætor deterring him from justice, tobeset even the senate house with swords, to prepare blazing brands andfiery arrows for the conflagration of the city. Let it, in one word, beborne as an inscription upon the brow of every citizen, what are hissentiments toward the republic. This I can promise you, O ConscriptFathers, that there shall be such diligence in us consuls, such valor inthe Roman knights, such unanimity in all good citizens, that you shallsee, Catiline once departed, all that is secret exposed, all that is darkbrought to light, all that is dangerous put down, all that is guiltypunished. Under these omens, Catiline, to the eternal welfare of thestate, to thine own ruin and destruction, to the perdition of all thosewho have linked themselves with thee in this league of infamy andparricide, go forth to thine atrocious and sacrilegious warfare! And dothou Jove, who wert consecrated by Romulus under the same auspices withthis city, whom we truly hail as the Stator, and supporter of this city,of this empire, chase forth this man, and this man’s associates, fromthine own altars, and from the shrines of other Gods, from the roofs andhearths of the city, from the lives and fortunes of the citizens, andconsummate the solemn ruin of all enemies of the good, all foes of theircountry, all assassins of Italy, linked in one league of guilt and bond ofinfamy, living or dead, by thine eternal torments."
The dread voice ceased—the terrible oration ended.
And instantly with flushed cheek, and glaring eye, and the foam on hisgnashed teeth, fierce, energetical, undaunted, Catiline sprang to his feetto reply.
But a deep solemn murmur rose on all sides, deepening, swelling into avast overwhelming conclamation—"Down with the Traitor—away with theParricide!"
But unchecked by this awful demonstration of the popular mind, he stillraised his voice to its highest pitch, defying all, both gods and men,till again it was drowned by that appalling torrent of scorn andimprecation.
Then, with a furious gesture, and a yelling voice that rose clear aboveall the din and clamor,
"Since," he exclaimed, "my enemies will drive me headlong to destruction Iwill extinguish the conflagration which consumes me in their universalruin!"
And pursued by the yells, and groans, and curses of that great concourse,and hunted by wilder furies within his own dark soul, the baffled Traitorrushed precipitately homeward.
The Roman Traitor, Vol. 2 Page 5