The Good Book (106 page)

14. He became less ambitious as a result, though to the last he was passionately fond of praise and esteem, which often interfered with the prosecution of his wisest resolutions.

15. When he began to apply himself with vigour to public business he resolved to do as workmen did, who know the name and use of all their tools;

16. For the politician, men are the tools; and so he set himself to study those he had to deal with:

17. Their names, estates, friends and character. Travelling anywhere in Italy, he could discourse of all the estates he passed, and their owners.

18. Having only a small estate himself, though it was sufficient for his expenses, it was wondered at that he took neither fees nor gifts from his clients,

19. And more especially that he did not do so when he undertook the prosecution of one Verres,

20. Who stood charged by the Sicilians of many evil practices during his praetorship there.

21. Cicero succeeded in getting Verres condemned, not by speaking, but as it were by holding his tongue.

22. For when the trial came on, the Roman praetors, favouring Verres, deferred proceedings by several adjournments to the last day,

23. When there was insufficient time for the advocates to be heard and the cause decided.

24. Cicero, therefore, came forward, and said there was no need of speeches;

25. And after producing and examining witnesses, he required the judges to proceed to sentence. Verres was thus convicted.

26. The Sicilians, in testimony of their gratitude, brought him presents, when he was aedile;

27. Of which he made no private profit himself, but used their generosity to reduce the public price of provisions.

28. Cicero had a pleasant house at Arpi, and farms near Naples and Pompeii, neither of any great value.

29. He lived in a liberal but temperate style with the learned Greeks and Romans that were his familiar friends.

30. He was careful of his health, having a dietary regime, and daily walks and rubbings.

31. By this means he eventually brought himself to better health, capable of supporting many great fatigues and trials.

32. He gave his father's town house to his brother Quintus, and himself lived near the Palatine Hill, to be easily available for consultation.

33. And indeed, no fewer appeared daily at his door than went to Crassus for his riches,

34. Or Pompey for his influence in military appointments, these then being the two most powerful men in Rome.

35. Even Pompey himself used to pay court to Cicero,

36. And Cicero's public actions did much to establish Pompey's authority and reputation in the state.

 

Chapter 69

  1. Numerous distinguished competitors contested Cicero for the praetor's office,

  2. But he was chosen before them all, and managed the courts with justice and integrity;

  3. And especially won the admiration of the common people for his fair and honest dealing.

  4. Yet when Cicero was appointed to the consulship it was with no less applause from the nobles than from the common people,

  5. Who all agreed it was for the good of the city; and both parties jointly assisted his promotion.

  6. This was because the changes to government made by the dictator Sylla had at first seemed arbitrary,

  7. But by time and usage they had come to be generally accepted; yet there were some who wished to subvert his arrangements,

  8. Not from good motives but for private gain; and because Pompey was away at the wars in Pontus and Armenia, there was insufficient force at Rome to suppress a revolution.

  9. These people had at their head a bold, daring and restless man, Lucius Catiline, a man of noble birth and eminent endowments, but of a vicious and depraved disposition.

10. His delight, from his youth, had been in civil commotions, bloodshed, robbery and sedition; and in such scenes he had spent his early years.

11. Catiline could endure hunger, want of sleep and cold, to an amazing degree.

12. His mind was daring, subtle and versatile, capable of pretending or dissembling whatever he wished.

13. He was covetous of other men's property, and prodigal of his own. He had abundance of eloquence, but little wisdom.

14. His ambition was always pursuing objects extravagant, romantic and unattainable.

15. And since the time of Sylla's dictatorship, he had had a strong desire to seize the government;

16. Nor did he care, provided that he secured power, by what means he did it.

17. His violent temper was daily hurried further into crime by increasing debts, and by his consciousness of guilt.

18. The corrupt morals of the state, too, which extravagance and selfishness, pernicious and contending vices, rendered thoroughly depraved, furnished him with additional incentives to action.

19. This man was chosen by the more unruly citizens as their leader, and a great part of the young men of the city were corrupted by him,

20. He providing everyone with drink and women, and profusely supplying the expense of their debauches.

21. In so populous and corrupt a city it was easy for Catiline to keep about him, like a bodyguard, crowds of these unprincipled and desperate people.

22. For all those profligate characters, who had dissipated their patri­monies by gaming, luxury and sensuality;

23. All who had contracted heavy debts to purchase immunity for their crimes or offences;

24. All assassins or riotous persons from every quarter, convicted or dreading conviction for their evil deeds;

25. All, besides, whom their tongue or their hand maintained by perjury or civil bloodshed;

26. All, in fine, whom wickedness, poverty or a guilty conscience disquieted,

27. Were the associates and intimate friends of Catiline; and with these he planned revolution.

 

Chapter 70

  1. In addition to Rome itself being in an unsettled and dangerous state, there was trouble beyond the city,

  2. For at that time the region of Etruria had been encouraged to revolt, as well as a large part of Cisalpine Gaul.

  3. Wishing for a platform to carry out his designs, Catiline stood for the consulship, and had great hopes of success,

  4. Thinking that his fellow-consul would be Caius Antonius, a man fit to lead neither in a good nor a bad cause, but who might be a useful deputy.

  5. To prevent Catiline, the honest portion of the citizenry persuaded Cicero to stand in the election; and Cicero won, alongside Caius Antonius;

  6. And Cicero was the only one of the candidates descended from the equestrian rather than the senat­orial order.

  7. Though Catiline's designs were not yet publicly known, Cicero's consulship faced many difficulties from the start, chief among them the following.

  8. Those disqualified by Sylla's laws from holding office were considerable both in power and number, and they came forward to oppose the laws.

  9. They had right on their side, but were acting at an inopportune time because the state was in turmoil.

10. The tribunes of the people were also pressing for change.

11. They wished to institute a commission of ten persons with wide powers, including the right to sell public lands in Italy, Syria and Pompey's new conquests;

12. To judge and banish whomever they pleased; to found colonies; to use public money; and to levy soldiers.

13. Several of the nobility favoured this law also, among them Cicero's consular colleague Caius Antonius, who hoped to be one of the Ten.

14. But what worried most nobles was that Antonius was thought to be in league with Catiline,

15. Whose plans he supported because they would free him from his great debts.

16. But Cicero ensured Antonius' support by assigning to him the province of Macedonia, he himself declining that of Gaul.

17. Antonius was thereafter ready to support whatever Cicero did.

18. Now Cicero could attack the conspirators with greater courage.

19. In the senate he argued against the proposed commission of ten, and the senate voted against it.

20. And when the commission's proponents tried again by summoning the consuls before the people's assembly, Cicero not only secured its rejection there too,

21. But so overpowered the tribunes by his oratory, that they abandoned all thought of their other projects.

22. For Cicero was the one man above all others whose eloquence made Romans feel the invincibility of justice,

23. And by the power of his advocacy he freed the right and useful from everything that could cause offence.

24. An incident occurred in the theatre during Cicero's consulship which showed what his oratory could achieve.

25. Whereas formerly the knights of Rome mingled in the theatre with commoners, the praetor Marcus Otho appointed them their own section in the theatre.

26. The commoners took this as an insult, so when Otho appeared in the theatre they hissed him; the knights, on the contrary, applauded him.

27. The people increased their hissing, the knights their clapping; then the two sections turned on one another, hurling insults, and reduced the theatre to uproar.

28. Cicero was called, and so effectually chided everyone for their behaviour that the crowd now applauded Otho,

29. The people contending with the knights who should give him the greatest demonstrations of honour and respect.

 

Chapter 71

  1. Catiline and his co-conspirators, at first disheartened, soon took courage again.

  2. In secret meetings they exhorted one another to capture the government before Pompey's army returned from the eastern wars.

  3. The veterans of Sylla's army were Catiline's chief stimulus to action.

  4. They had been disbanded and dispersed around Italy,

  5. But the greatest number and the fiercest of them lived in the cities of Etruria, where they were dissatisfied and restless.

  6. These, under the leadership of one Manlius, who had served with distinction in the wars under Sylla, joined themselves to Catiline,

  7. And they came to Rome to assist him with their votes at the consular election, he having resolved to stand again for that office,

  8. While also having resolved to assassinate Cicero in the tumult of the hustings.

  9. Cicero, suspecting these plans, deferred the day of election and summoned Catiline to the senate, there questioning him about the charges made against him.

10. Catiline believed that there were many in the senate with views similar to his own,

11. And in order to get their support by showing them his mettle, he gave an audacious answer:

12. ‘What harm,' said he, ‘when I see two bodies, the one lean and consumptive with a head,

13. ‘The other great and strong without one, if I put a head to the body that lacks one?'

14. This representation of the senate and the people excited yet greater apprehensions in Cicero.

15. He put on armour, and was attended from his house by many citizens, bent on protecting him.

16. Letting his tunic slip partly from his shoulders,

17. He showed his armour underneath, thus showing his danger to the spectators;

18. Who, being much moved by it, gathered round to defend him; and Catiline again lost the vote for the consulship.

19. After this Catiline's soldiers in Etruria began to form themselves into companies, the day appointed for the revolution being near.

20. Late one night Cicero was woken by a group of the principal citizens of Rome,

21. Among them Marcus Crassus, Marcus Marcellus and Scipio Metellus.

22. Crassus had that night been secretly brought a bundle of letters by an unknown person. They were directed to various senators,

23. And one of them was for Crassus himself. It did not have a sender's name.

24. He read it, and found that it advised him to leave the city because a great slaughter was intended by Catiline.

25. He did not open the other letters, but took them immediately to Cicero,

26. Being apprehensive of the danger, and to free himself of any suspicion of leaguing with Catiline.

27. Cicero summoned the senate to meet at dawn. He brought the letters with him, and delivered them to their addressees,

28. To be read out loud; they all alike contained an account of the conspiracy.

29. And when Quintus Arrius, a man of praetorian dignity, reported how soldiers were collecting in companies in Etruria,

30. And that Manlius was in motion with a large force near those cities,

31. Waiting for orders from Rome, the senate made a decree granting exceptional powers to the consuls, to do their best to save the state.