For what is there, Cataline, that can now give you pleasure in this city? wherein, if we except the profligate crew of your accomplices, there is not a man but dreads and abhors you? Is there a domeftic ftain from which your character is exempted? Have you not rendered yourself infamous by every vice that can brand private life? What fcenes of luft have not your eyes beheld? What guilt has not ftained your hands? What pollution has not defiled your whole body? What youth, entangled by thee in the allurements of debauchery, haft thou not prompted by arms to deeds of violence, or feduced by incentives into the fnares of fenfuality? And lately, when by procuring the death of your former wife, you had made room in your house for another, did you not add to the enormity of that crime, by a new and unparalled measure of guilt? But I pafs over this, and chufe to let it remain in filence, that the memory of fo monftrous a piece of wickedness, or at least of its having been committed with impunity, may not defcend to pofterity. I pass over too the entire ruin of your fortunes, which you are fenfible muft befal you the very next month; and fhall proceed to the mention of fuch particulars as regard not the infamy of your private character, nor the diftreffes and turpitude of your domeftic life; but fuch as concern the very being of the republic, and the lives and fafety of us all. Can the light of life, or the air you breathe, be grateful to you, Cataline; when you are confcious there is not a man here prefent but knows, that on the last of December, in the confulfhip of Lepidus and Tullus, you appeared in the Comitium with a dagger? That you had got together a band of ruffians, to affaflinate the confuls, and the moft confiderable men in Rome? and that this execrable and frantic defign was defeated, not by any awe or remorse in you, but by the prevailing good fortune of the people of Rome. But I pafs over thofe things, as being already well known: there are others of a later date. How many attempts have you made upon my life, fince I was nominated conful, and fince I entered upon the actual execution of that office? How many thrufts of thine, fo well aimed that they feemed unavoidable, have I parried by an artful evasion, and, as they term it, a gentle deflection of body? You attempt, you contrive, you fet on foot nothing, of which I have not timely information,

Yet you ceafe not to concert, and enterprize. How often has that dagger been wrefted out of thy hands? How often, by fome accident, has it dropped before the moment of execution? yet you cannot refolve to lay it afide. How, or with what rites you have confecrated it, is hard to fay, that you think yourself thus obliged to lodge it in the bofom of a conful!

What are we to think of your present fituation and conduct? For I will now addrefs you, not with the deteftation your actions deferve, but with a compaffion to which you have no juft claim. You came fome time ago into the fenate. Did a fingle perfon of this numerous affembly, not excepting your moft intimate relations and friends, deign to falute you? If there be no inftance of this kind in the memory of man, do you expect that I fhould embitter with reproaches, a doom confirmed by the filent deteftation of all present ? Were not the benches where you fit forfaken, as foon as you was obferved to approach them? Did not all the confular fenators, whofe deftruction you have so often plotted, quit immediately the part of the houfe where you thought proper to place yourfelf? How are you able to bear all this treatment? For my own part, were my flaves to discover fuch a dread of me, as your fellow-citizens exprefs of you, I fhould think it neceffary to abandon my own houfe: and do you hesitate about leaving the city? Was I even wrongfully fufpected, and thereby rendered obnoxious to my countrymen, I would fooner withdraw myfelf from public view, than be beheld with looks full of reproach and indignation. And do you, whofe confcience tells you that you are the object of an univerfal, a juft, and a long merited hatred, delay a moment to escape from the locks and prefence of a people, whofe eyes and fenfes can no longer endure you among them? Should your parents dread and hate you, and be obitinate to all your endeavours to appeafe them, you would doubtlefs withdraw fomewhere from their fight. But now your country, the common parent of us all, hates and dreads you, and has long regarded you as a parricide, intent upon the defign of deftroying her. And will you neither refpect her authority, fubmit to her advice, nor stand in awe of her power? Thus does the reafon with you, Cataline; and thus does the, in fome meafure, address you by her filence: not an enormity has happened these many years,

but

but has had thee for its author: not a crime has been perpetrated without thee: the murder of fo many of our citizens, the oppreffion and plunder of our allies, has through thee alone efcaped punishment, and been exercifed with unrefrained violence: thou hast found means not only to trample upon law and juftice, but even to fabvert and deftroy them. Though this paft behaviour of thine was beyond all patience, yet have I borne with it as I could. But now, to be in continual apprehenfion from thee alone; on every alarm to tremble at the name of Cataline; to fee no defigns formed against me that fpeak not thee for their author, is altogether infupportable. Be gone then, and rid me of my prefent terror; that if juft, I may avoid ruin; if groundless, I may at length ceafe to fear.

Should your country, as I faid, addrefs you in these terms, ought the not to find obedience, even fuppofing her unable to compel you to fuch a step? But did you not even offer to become a prifoner? Did you not fay, that, to avoid fufpicion, you would fubmit to be confined in the houfe of M. Lepidus? When he declined receiving you, you had the affurance to come to me, and request you might be fecured at my house. When I likewife told you, that I could never think myself fafe in the fame houfe, when 1 judged it even dan gerous to be in the fame city with you, you applied to Q. Metellus the prætor. Being repulfed here too, you went to the excellent M. Marcellus, your companion; who, no doubt, you imagined would be very watchful in confining you, very quick in difcerning your fecret practices, and very refolute in bringing you to juftice. How justly may we pronounce him worthy of irons and a jail, whofe own confcience condemns him to reftraint? If it be fo then, Cataline, and you cannot fubmit to the thought of dying here, do you hesitate to retire to fome other country, and commit to flight and folitude a life, fo often and fo justly forfeited to thy country? But fay you, put the question to the fenate, (for fo you affect to talk) and if it be their pleafure that I go into banishment, I am ready to obey. I will put no fuch quef fion; it is contrary to my temper: yet will I give you an opportunity of knowing the fentiments of the fenate with regard to you. Leave the city, Cataline; deliver the republic from its fears; go, if you wait only for that word, into banish

ment. Observe now, Cataline; mark the filence and compofure of the affembly. Does a fingle fenator remonftrate, or fo much as offer to speak? Is it needful they fhould confirm by their voice, what they fo exprefsly declare by their filence? But had I addrefled myself in this manner to that excellent youth P. Sextius, or to the brave M. Marcellus, the fenate would ere now have rifen up against me, and laid violent hands upon their conful in this very temple; and justly too. But with regard to you, Cataline, their filence declares their approbation, their acquiefcence amounts to a decree, and by faying nothing they proclaim their confent. Nor is this true of the fenators alone, whofe authority you affect to prize, while you make no account of their lives; but of thefe brave and worthy Roman knights, and other illuftrious citizens, who guard the avenues of the fenate; whofe numbers you might have feen, whofe fentiments you might have known, whofe voices a little while ago you might have heard; and whofe fwords and hands I have for fome time with difficulty retrained from your perion: yet all thefe will I easily engage to attend you to the very gates, if you but confent to leave this city, which you have fo long devoted to deftruction.

But why do I talk, as if your refolation was to be fhaken, or there was any room to hope you would reform! Can we expect you will ever think of flight, or entertain the defign of going into banishment? May the immortal gods infpire you with that refolution! Though I clearly perceive, fhould my threats frighten you into exile, what a ftorm of envy will light upon my own head; if not at prefent, whilst the memory of thy crimes is fresh, yet furely in future times. But I little regard that thought, provided the calamity falls on myself alone, and is not attended with any danger to my country. But to feel the ftings of remorfe, to dread the rigour of the laws, to yield to the exigencies of the ftate, are things not to be expected from thee. Thou, O Cataline, art none of thofe, whom fhame reclaims from difhonourable pursuits, fear from danger, or reafon from madness. Be gone then, as I have already often faid: and if you would fwell the measure of popular odium against me, for being, as you give out, your enemy, depart directly into banifhment. By this ftep you will bring upon me an insupportable load of cenfure;

nor

would not have allowed that gladiator the ufe of one moment's life. For if, in former days, our greatest men, and moft illuftrious citizens, inftead of fullying, have done honour to their memories, by the deftruction of Saturninus, the Gracchi, Flaccus, and many others; there is no ground to fear, that by killing this parricide, any envy would lie upon me with posterity. Yet if the greatest was fure to befal me, it was always my perfuafion, that envy acquired by virtue was really glory, not envy. But there are fome of this very order, who do not either fee the dangers which hang over us, or elfe diffemble what they fee; who, by the foftnefs of their votes, cherith Cataline's hopes, and add strength to the confpiracy by not believing it; whofe authority influences many, not only of the wicked, but the weak; who, if I had punished this man as he deferved, would not have failed to charge me with acting cruelly and tyrannically. Now I am perfuaded, that when he is once gone into Manlius's camp, whither he actually defigns to go, none can be fo filly, as not to fee that there is a plot; none fo wicked, as not to acknowledge it: whereas by taking off him alone, though this peftilence would be fomewhat checked, it could not be fuppreffed: but when he has thrown himself into rebellion, and carried out his friends along with him, and drawn together the profligate and defperate from all parts of the empire, not only this ripened plague of the republic, but the very root and feed of ail our evils, will be extirpated with him at once.

It is now a long time, confcript fathers, that we have trod amidit the dangers and machinations of this confpiracy: but I know not how it comes to pafs, the full maturity of all thofe crimes, and of this long ripening rage and infolence, has now broke cut during the period of my confulfhip. Should he alone be removed from this powerful band of traitors, it may abate, perhaps, our fears and anxieties for a while; but the danger will ftill remain, and continue lurking in the veins and vitals of the republic. For as men, oppreffed with a fevere fit of illnefs, and labouring under the raging heat of a fever, are often at first feemingly relieved by a draught of cold water, but afterwards find the difeafe return upon them with redoubled fury; in like manner, this diftemper which has feized the commonwealth, eafed a litle by the punishment of this traitor, will

from his furviving affociates foon affume new force. Wherefore, confcript fathers, let the wicked retire, let them separate themfelves from the honest, let them rendezvous in one place. In fine, as I have often faid, let a wall be between them and us: let them ceafe to lay fnares for the conful in his own house, to be fet the tribunal of the city prætor, to invest the fenate-house with armed ruffians, and to prepare fire-balls and torches for burning the city: in fhort, let every man's fentiments with regard to the public be infcribed on his forehead. This I engage for and promife, confcript fathers, that by the diligence of the confuls, the weight of your authority, the courage and firmness of the Roman knights, and the unanimity of all the honeft, Cataline being driven from the city, you shall behold all his treafons detected, expofed, crushed, and punished. With these omens, Cataline, of all profperity to the republic, but of deflruction to thyself, and all thofe who have joined themfelves with thee in all kinds of parricide, go thy way then to this impious and abominable war: whilst thou, Jupiter, whofe religion was established with the foundation of this city, whom we truly call Stator, the ftay and prop of this empire, will drive this man and his accomplices from thy altars and temples, from the houses and walls of the city, from the lives and fortunes of us all; and wilt deftroy with eternal punishments, both living and dead, all the haters of good men, the enemies of their country, the plunderers of Italy, now confederated in this deteftable league and partnership of villainy.

Whitworth's Cicero.

§ 6. Oration against Cataline.

THE ARGUMENT.

Cataline, aftonished by the thunder of the laft fpeech, had little to fay for himself in anfwer to it; yet with downcaft looks, and fuppliant voice, he begged of the fathers, not to believe too hastily what was faid against him by an enemy; that his birth and past life offered every thing to him that was hopeful; and it was not to be imagined, that a man of patrician family, whofe ancestors, as well as himfelf, had given many proofs of their affection to the Roman people, fhould want to overturn the government; while Cicero, a fir..nger, and

late

late inhabitant of Rome, was fo zealous to preferve it. But as he was going on to give foul language, the fenate interrupted him by a general outcry, calling him traitor and parricide: upon which, being furious and defperate, he declared again aloud what he had faid before to Cato, that fince he was circumvented and driven headlong by his enemies, he would quench the flame which was raised about him by the common ruin; and fo rushed out of the affembly. As foon as he was come to his houfe, and began to reflect on what had paffed, perceiving it in vain to diffemble any longer, he refolved to enter into action immediately, before the troops of the republic were increased, or any new levies made: fo that after a fhort conference with Lentulus, Cethegus, and the reft, about what had been concerted in the last meeting, having given fresh orders and affurances of his fpeedy return at the head of a ftrong army, he left Rome that very night with a small retinue, to make the best of his way towards Eutruria. He no fooner difappeared, than his friends gave out that he was gone into a voluntary exile at Marfeilles, which was industriously spread through the city the next morning, to raise an odium upon Cicero, for driving an innocent man into banishment, without any previous trial or proof of his guilt. But Cicero was too well informed of his motions, to entertain any doubt about his going to Manlius's camp, and into actual rebellion. He knew that he had fent thither already a great quantity of arms, and all the enfigns of military command, with that filver eagle, which he used to keep with great fuperftition in his houfe, for its having belonged to C. Marius, in his expedition against the Cimbri. But, left the story fhould make an ill impreffion on the city, he called the people together into the forum, to give them an account of what paffed in the fenate the day before, and of Cataline's leaving Rome upon it. And this makes the fubject of the oration now before us.

AT length, Romans, have we driven, discarded, and purfued with the keeneft

reproaches to the very gates of Rome, L. Cataline, intoxicated with fury, breathing mischief, impiously plotting the destruction of his country, and threatening to lay waste this city with fire and fword. He is gone, he is fled, he has efcaped, he has broke away. No longer fhall that monster, that prodigy of mifchief, plot the ruin of this city within her very walls. We have gained a clear conqueft over this chief and ringleader of domestic broils. His threatening dagger is no longer pointed at our breafts, nor fhall we now any more tremble in the field of Mars, the forum, the fenate-house, or within our domeftic walls. In driving him from the city, we have forced his most advantageous post. We fhall now, without oppofition, carry on a just war against an open enemy. We have effectually ruined the man, and gained a glorious victory, by driving him from his fecret plots into open rebellion. But how do you think he is overwhelmed and crushed with regret, at carrying away his dagger unbathed in blood, at leaving the city before he had effected my death, at feeing the weapons prepared for our deftruction wrefted out of his hands: in a word, that Rome is still standing, and her citizens fafe. He is now quite overthrown, Romans, and perceives himself impotent and defpifed, often cafting back his eyes upon this city, which he fees, with regret, refcued from his destructive jaws; and which feems to me to rejoice for having difgorged and rid herself of fo peftilent a citizen.

But if there be any here, who blame me for what I am boafting of, as you all indeed justly may, that I did not rather seize than fend away fo capital an enemy: that is not my fault, citizens, but the fault of the times. Cataline ought long ago to have fuffered the laft punishment; the custom of our ancestors, the difcipline of the empire, and the republic itself required it: but how many would there have been, who would not have believed what I charged him with? How many, who, through weakness, would never have imagined it? how many, who would even have defended him? how many, who, through wickednefs, would have efpoufed his caufe? But had I judged that his death would have put a final period to all your dangers, I would long ago have ordered him to execution, at the hazard not only of public cenfure, but even of my life. But when I faw, that by fentencing him to the

death