Conspiracy of Catiline and The Jurgurthine War | Page 7

a candidate within the legitimate number of days.[112] There
was at that time, too, a young patrician of the most daring spirit, needy
and discontented, named Cneius Piso,[113] whom poverty and vicious
principles instigated to disturb the government. Catiline and
Autronius,[114] having concerted measures with this Piso, prepared to
assassinate the consuls, Lucius Cotta and Lucius Torquatus, in the
Capitol, on the first of January,[115] when they, having seized on the
fasces, were to send Piso with an army to take possession of the two
Spains.[116] But their design being discovered, they postponed the
assassination to the fifth of February; when they meditated the
destruction, not of the consuls only, but of most of the senate. And had
not Catiline, who was in front of the senate-house, been too hasty to
give the singal to his associates, there would that day have been
perpetrated the most atrocious outrage since the city of Rome was
founded. But as the armed conspirators had not yet assembled in
sufficient numbers, the want of force frustrated the design.
XIX. Some time afterward, Piso was sent as quaestor, with Praetorian
authority, into Hither Spain; Crassus promoting the appointment,
because he knew him to be a bitter enemy to Cneius Pompey. Nor were
the senate, indeed, unwilling[117] to grant him the province; for they
wished so infamous a character to be removed from the seat of
government; and many worthy men, at the same time, thought that
there was some security in him against the power of Pompey, which
was then becoming formidable. But this Piso, on his march toward his
province, was murdered by some Spanish cavalry whom he had in his
army. These barbarians, as some say, had been unable to endure his
unjust, haughty, and cruel orders; but others assert that this body of
cavalry, being old and trusty adherents of Pompey, attacked Piso at his
instigation; since the Spaniards, they observed, had never before
committed such an outrage, but had patiently submitted to many severe
commands. This question we shall leave undecided. Of the first
conspiracy enough has been said.
XX. When Catiline saw those, whom I have just above mentioned,[118]
assembled, though he had often discussed many points with them

singly, yet thinking it would be to his purpose to address and exhort
them in a body, retired with them into a private apartment of his house,
where, when all witnesses were withdrawn, he harangued them to the
following effect:
"If your courage and fidelity had not been sufficiently proved by me,
this favorable opportunity[119] would have occurred to no purpose;
mighty hopes, absolute power, would in vain be within our grasp; nor
should I, depending on irresolution or ficklemindedness, pursue
contingencies instead of certainties. But as I have, on many remarkable
occasions, experienced your bravery and attachment to me, I have
ventured to engage in a most important and glorious enterprise. I am
aware, too, that whatever advantages or evils affect you, the same
affect me; and to have the same desires and the same aversions, is
assuredly a firm bond of friendship.
"What I have been meditating you have already heard separately. But
my ardor for action is daily more and more excited, when I consider
what our future condition of life must be, unless we ourselves assert
our claims to liberty.[120] For since the government has fallen under
the power and jurisdiction of a few, kings and princes[121] have
constantly been their tributaries; nations and states have paid them
taxes; but all the rest of us, however brave and worthy, whether noble
or plebeian, have been regarded as a mere mob, without interest or
authority, and subject to those, to whom, if the state were in a sound
condition, we should be a terror. Hence, all influence, power, honor,
and wealth, are in their hands, or where they dispose of them: to us they
have left only insults,[122] dangers, persecutions, and poverty. To such
indignities, O bravest of men, how long will you submit? Is it not better
to die in a glorious attempt, than, after having been the sport of other
men's insolence, to resign a wretched and degraded existence with
ignominy?
"But success (I call gods and men to witness!) is in our own hands. Our
years are fresh, our spirit is unbroken; among our oppressors, on the
contrary, through age and wealth a general debility has been produced.
We have therefore only to make a beginning; the course of events[123]
will accomplish the rest.
"Who in the world, indeed, that has the feelings of a man, can endure
that they should have a superfluity of riches, to squander in building

over seas[124] and leveling mountains, and that means should be
wanting to us even for the necessaries of life; that they should join
together two houses or