The Conspiracy of Catiline

But among these was Sempronia, who had often committed many crimes of masculine audacity. This woman was fortunate enough in her birth and beauty, and moreover in her husband and children; well-read in Greek and Latin literature, able to play the lyre and dance more elegantly than is necessary for an honest woman, and skilled in many other things which are the instruments of luxury. But to her, everything was always dearer than decency and chastity; whether she was less sparing of her money or her reputation, you could not easily discern; her lust was so inflamed that she sought men more often than she was sought by them. But she had often before this betrayed her trust, abjured her debts on oath, been privy to murder; headlong she had gone to ruin through luxury and poverty. Yet her intellect was by no means dull: she could write verses, crack jokes, and use language either modest, tender, or wanton; in short, she possessed much wit and great charm.

When these preparations had been made, Catiline nevertheless sought the consulship for the next year, hoping that, if he were elected, he would easily manage Antonius according to his own will. Meanwhile, he was not quiet, but in every way laid snares for Cicero. Yet Cicero did not lack craft or cunning to guard against them. For from the beginning of his consulship, by promising many things through Fulvia, he had managed to make Q. Curius, whom I mentioned a little before, betray Catiline’s plans to him; in addition to this, he had persuaded his colleague Antonius, by an agreement regarding his province, not to entertain sentiments hostile to the republic; and he secretly kept around him a guard of friends and clients. When the day of the election came, and neither Catiline’s candidacy nor the plots which he had laid for the consuls in the Campus Martius turned out successfully, he determined to make war and to try all extremities, since his secret attempts had ended in difficulty and disgrace.

Therefore, he dispatched Gaius Manlius to Faesulae and that part of Etruria, a certain Septimius of Camerinum to the Picenian territory, and Gaius Julius to Apulia, and besides, others to other places, wherever he believed each would be useful to him. Meanwhile, at Rome, he was attempting many things at once: laying traps for the consuls, preparing fires, occupying advantageous positions with armed men; he himself went about armed, ordered others to do the same, and exhorted them to be always alert and ready; he hurried day and night, kept watch, and was fatigued neither by sleeplessness nor by labor. At last, when nothing succeeded for him though he attempted many things, he again, in the dead of night, summoned the leaders of the conspiracy through Marcus Porcius Laeca, and there, having complained much of their cowardice, he informed them that he had sent Manlius ahead to that multitude which he had prepared to take up arms, and likewise others to other advantageous places to begin the war, and that he himself wished to set out to the army, if only he could first destroy Cicero, who was greatly obstructing his plans.

Therefore, while the rest were terrified and hesitating, Gaius Cornelius, a Roman knight, promised his assistance, and with him Lucius Vargunteius, a senator, determined that very night, a little later, to enter Cicero’s house with armed men as if to pay their respects, and to stab him unexpectedly while off his guard in his own home. When Curius understood how great a danger was threatening the consul, he quickly, through Fulvia, disclosed to Cicero the plot that was being prepared. Thus, excluded from the door, they had undertaken so great an outrage in vain. Meanwhile, Manlius in Etruria was stirring up the populace, who were eager for a revolution because of both poverty and resentment of their wrongs, since under Sulla’s rule they had lost their lands and all their property; and besides, robbers of every kind, of whom there was a great abundance in that region, and some from Sulla’s colonies, whose lust and luxury from their vast plunder had left them nothing.

When these things were reported to Cicero, deeply moved by the double danger, because he could no longer protect the city from plots by his private counsel, nor did he have sufficient information as to how large Manlius’s army was or what its intention was, he referred the matter to the senate, which had already been agitated by popular rumors. Therefore, as is usually done in a critical emergency, the senate decreed that the consuls should take care that the republic suffer no harm. This power, the greatest permitted to a magistrate by the senate according to Roman custom, allows them to raise an army, wage war, control allies and citizens in every way, and have supreme command and jurisdiction at home and in the field; otherwise, without the order of the people, the consul has no right to any of these matters.