Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics) (38 page)

I brought Volturcius into the senate without the Gauls. On the orders of the senate, I gave him immunity from prosecution. Then I encouraged him not to be afraid and to tell us what he knew. When he had more or less recovered from his terror, he said that he had a letter and instructions from Publius Lentulus to Catiline—that Catiline should enlist slaves, and that he and his army should march on Rome as soon as possible. The plan was that, when those in Rome had set fire to every part of the city, in accordance with the directions and dispositions already made, and had massacred an unlimited number of citizens, Catiline would appear on the scene to mop up anyone who had escaped from Rome, and would then join forces with these leaders in the city.

[9] Next the Gauls were brought in. They said that an oath and letters had been given to them by Lentulus, Cethegus, and Statilius
to take back to their people. They had been told by these three and by Lucius Cassius
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to send cavalry to Italy as soon as possible: there was not going to be a shortage of infantry. Lentulus, moreover, had said to them that, according to the Sibylline books and the responses of the soothsayers, he was the third Cornelius who was destined to rule Rome and exercise dominion over it, the first two being Cinna and Sulla.
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He had also said that this year, being the tenth year after the acquittal of the Vestal virgins
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and the twentieth after the burning of the Capitol, was destined to be the year in which this city and empire would be destroyed. [10] The Gauls added that Cethegus had had a difference of opinion with the other conspirators: Lentulus and the others had wanted the massacre and the burning of the city to take place during the Saturnalia,
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but Cethegus had thought that too long to wait.

To cut a long story short, citizens, I ordered the letters allegedly given by each of the men to be produced. First I showed Cethegus his, and he acknowledged his seal. I cut the string and read what was inside. In the letter, which was written in his own hand and addressed to the senate and people of the Allobroges, he undertook to do what he had promised to their envoys, and he requested them to do in return what the envoys had promised to him. Just before this, Cethegus, when asked about the discovery of the swords and daggers at his house, had managed a reply: he said that he had always been a connoisseur of fine weaponry. But now when his letter was read out, he suddenly seemed weakened and crushed by his sense of guilt, and fell silent. Statilius was brought in, and acknowledged both his seal and his handwriting. His letter, saying much the same as the previous one, was read out, and he confessed. Then I showed Lentulus the next letter and asked him whether he recognized the seal. He nodded. ‘It is indeed,’ I told him, ‘a well-known seal, a portrait of your illustrious grandfather,
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who surpassed everyone in his love for his country and for his fellow-citizens: though it cannot speak, this seal surely should have called you back from so terrible a crime.’ [11] His letter, written along the same lines to the senate and people of the Allobroges, was read. I gave him the opportunity of commenting on it; he initially declined. But shortly afterwards, when the evidence had been set out and presented in its entirety, he stood up and asked the Gauls what business they had had with him to cause them to come to his house; and he put the same questions to
Volturcius. They replied briefly and emphatically, telling him through whom
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and how many times they had come to see him, and asking him whether he had not said anything to them on the subject of the Sibylline prophecies. Then, suddenly driven mad by his crime, he showed what a guilty conscience can do. Although he could have denied what they had said, all of a sudden to everyone’s surprise he confessed that it was true.
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Not only did his intelligence and the oratorical skill in which he has always excelled
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fail him, but so too did his unparalleled insolence and wickedness—such was the effect of his being caught red-handed committing his crime.

[12] Volturcius, however, suddenly demanded that the letter which Lentulus had given him for Catiline should be produced and opened. Lentulus was deeply shaken at this, but nevertheless acknowledged both his seal and his handwriting. The letter bore no name, but ran as follows: ‘The person I have sent to you will tell you who I am. Make sure you act like a man, and remember how far you have gone already. See to whatever you need, and make sure you accept the help of anyone that offers it, however lowly.’
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Then Gabinius was brought in and, although at first he tried to brazen it out, in the end he denied none of the Gauls’ allegations.

[13] Let me add, citizens, that although I thought the letters, seals, handwriting, and finally the confession of each person were totally convincing arguments and evidence of their guilt, still more convincing were their pallor, the looks in their eyes, the expressions on their faces, and their silence. So stunned were they, so intently did they stare at the ground, and so furtively did they steal occasional glances at each other that they looked not as if they had been incriminated by others, but as if they had incriminated themselves.

When the evidence had been set out and presented, citizens, I asked the senate what action it wished to be taken in the supreme interest of the state. The leading members then made firm and courageous proposals, which the senate adopted without amendment. The decree which it passed has not yet been written out, so let me tell you from memory, citizens, what was decreed.

[14] First of all, I am thanked in the most generous terms, that thanks to my courage, wisdom, and foresight the country has been saved from the most extreme danger. Secondly, the praetors Lucius Flaccus and Gaius Pomptinus are justly and deservedly praised for the brave and loyal assistance they gave me. Praise is also given to my
valiant colleague
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for excluding the members of this conspiracy both from his own affairs and from affairs of state. They voted too that Publius Lentulus, after resigning his praetorship, should be placed in custody, and that Gaius Cethegus, Lucius Statilius, and Publius Gabinius, who were all present, should likewise be placed in custody. This was also to apply to Lucius Cassius, who had insisted on being given responsibility for the burning of the city; to Marcus Caeparius,
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who was identified as the man chosen to raise the shepherds of Apulia in revolt; to Publius Furius,
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one of the colonists settled by Lucius Sulla at Faesulae; to Quintus Annius Chilo,
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who, together with this man Furius, was constantly engaged in these dealings with the Allobroges; and to Publius Umbrenus,
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a freedman who was shown to have introduced the Gauls to Gabinius. Moreover, citizens, the senate displayed such leniency as to take the view, in spite of the size of the conspiracy and the number of domestic enemies involved, that all that was needed to save the country was the punishment of a mere nine traitors, and that that would be enough to bring the rest to their senses.
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[15] In addition, a thanksgiving has been decreed to the immortal gods in my name for the exceptional favour they have bestowed on us. This is the first time in the history of our city that such an honour has been granted to a civilian, and the wording of the decree runs: ‘because I had saved the city from burning, the citizens from massacre, and Italy from war’. And if you compare this thanksgiving with the other ones that have been decreed in the past, you will find that there is this difference, that the others were given for services towards the state, whereas this one alone was given for saving it.

What needed to be done first has been done and dealt with. Although the senate judged, once the evidence had been revealed and his confession made, that Publius Lentulus had forfeited the rights not only of a praetor but of a citizen, he was nevertheless permitted to resign his office.
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This has the effect of freeing us from any religious scruple in treating him as a private citizen when we come to punish him—although no such scruple prevented the illustrious Gaius Marius from killing the praetor Gaius Glaucia
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without his being named in any decree.

[16] So, citizens, you have captured and are now holding under arrest the criminals who have been at the head of this exceptionally wicked and perilous war. Now that the dangers which threatened our
city have been averted, you would be justified in concluding that all Catiline’s army, all his hopes and resources have collapsed into nothing. When I was driving him out of the city, I foresaw, citizens, that once he was out of the way I would have nothing to fear from the lazy Publius Lentulus, or the obese Lucius Cassius, or the reckless, insane Gaius Cethegus. Out of all of them, he was the only one to be afraid of—and only for so long as he remained inside the city walls. He knew everything; he could get through to anybody. He had the ability and the nerve to accost anyone, to sound them out, to push them to revolt. His mind was predisposed to crime—and in whatever direction his mind went, his tongue and hand would be sure to follow. He had particular people selected and assigned for particular tasks. But when he delegated something, he did not suppose it already done: there was nothing that he did not personally attend to, take in hand, watch over, toil over. He could endure cold, thirst, hunger. [17] He was keen, so bold, so well prepared, so clever, so vigilant in committing crime, and so thorough in depravity that if I had not succeeded in driving him away from his plots inside the city and towards armed rebellion—I give you my real opinion, citizens—then it would have been no easy task for me to remove so great an evil from over your heads. Had I not driven him away, he would not have let us off until the Saturnalia, nor would he have given such advance notice of the date of the country’s doom and destruction, nor would he have let his seal and letter fall into our hands as unmistakable evidence of his guilt. As it is, he has not been here, and as a result things have been so badly bungled that no burglary of a private house has ever been so clearly proved as this terrible conspiracy against the state has been unmistakably detected and stopped. Had Catiline remained in Rome until now, even though I pre-empted and prevented all his plots for as long as he was here, we would have had a fight on our hands, to say the very least. As long as he remained an enemy inside the city, we would never have been able to deliver the state from such awful danger in such peace, such calm, and such silence.

[18] And yet, citizens, the way I have managed everything would seem to suggest that the action that has been taken and the foresight that has been shown derive from the will and wisdom of the immortal gods. We can assume this partly because it hardly seems possible that human thought could have directed such momentous
events, but more particularly because the gods have brought us help and aid during these times in so manifest a form that they have almost been visible to our eyes. To say nothing of the burning torches that have appeared at night in the western sky, to pass over the bolts of lightning and the earthquakes, to say nothing of the other phenomena that have appeared during my consulship so frequently that the immortal gods appeared to be prophesying the events which are now unfolding—all the same, citizens, I must not pass over or leave out what I am about to tell you.

[19] You will recall that during the consulship of Cotta and Torquatus
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various objects on the Capitol were struck by lightning. Images of the gods were toppled, statues of men of olden times were knocked down, the bronze tablets of the laws were melted, and even the founder of this city, Romulus, was struck—you will remember it,
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a gilded statue on the Capitol of an unweaned baby gaping at the udder of a wolf. At that time the soothsayers, summoned from every corner of Etruria,
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predicted murder, arson, the destruction of the laws, internal and civil war, and the fall of Rome and our empire unless the immortal gods were appeased by every possible means, and used their power virtually to alter fate. [20] In response to the soothsayers’ warnings, games were held for ten days, and nothing that could possibly serve to appease the gods was left undone. The soothsayers also ordered a larger image of Jupiter to be erected and positioned on an elevated site facing east, the opposite direction to that in which the previous one had faced. Their hope, they said, was that if the statue which you can now see faced towards the rising of the sun, the forum, and the senate-house, then the plots that had been secretly formed against the city and the empire would be illuminated and made visible to the senate and people of Rome. So the consuls made a contract for the erection of a new statue. But the work proceeded so slowly that the statue was not erected under the last consuls, or in my consulship—until this very day!
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[21] Citizens, which of us here can be so blind to the truth, so impetuous, so deranged as to deny that everything we see, and particularly this city, is controlled by the will and power of the immortal gods? When the soothsayers had given their warning that murder, arson, and the destruction of the state were being plotted, and by citizens too, some people refused to believe that criminality on such a scale was possible—but you found out that wicked citizens
had not merely planned it, but begun to put their plans into action. And surely what happened this morning was so striking that you would have to conclude that Jupiter Best and Greatest was responsible—that at the very moment when the conspirators and the witnesses against them were being led on my orders through the forum to the temple of Concord,
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the statue was set up? Once it had been put into position and turned towards yourselves and the senate, the senate and yourselves then saw all the plots which had been made against the lives of everyone revealed and laid bare.

[22] The conspirators are all the more deserving of hatred and punishment in that they have attempted to cast their detestable, deadly firebrands not just onto your houses and homes, but onto the temples and shrines of the gods. But if I were to claim that it is I who have stopped them, I would be being intolerably presumptuous: it is Jupiter, Jupiter who has stopped them, Jupiter who has saved the Capitol, Jupiter who has saved these temples, Jupiter who has saved the whole city, and Jupiter who has saved each one of you! It is under the guidance of the immortal gods that I have shown the determination and purpose necessary to come upon these conclusive proofs of guilt. Surely the attempt to recruit the Allobroges would never have taken place, surely Lentulus and the other enemies in our midst would never have been so reckless as to entrust matters of such importance to barbarians they did not know, and actually give letters to them, unless the immortal gods had taken away their senses while they were in the act of perpetrating such wickedness? Again, that Gauls, from a country scarcely at peace with us, the only people left who seem to be both able and not unwilling to make war on the Roman people, that they should forgo the prospect of immense power and wealth offered to them without their asking by patricians, and place your safety higher than their own advantage—do you not think that this is the work of the gods, especially when those Gauls did not have to fight us in order to overpower us, but merely to keep silent?