Conspiracy of Catiline and The Jurgurthine War | Page 8

more, and that we should not have a hearth to
call our own? They, though they purchase pictures, statues, and
embossed plate; [125] though they pull down now buildings and erect
others, and lavish and abuse their wealth in every possible method; yet
can not, with the utmost efforts of caprice, exhaust it. But for us there is
poverty at home, debts abroad; our present circumstances are bad, our
prospects much worse; and what, in a word, have we left, but a
miserable existence?
"Will you not, then, awake to action? Behold that liberty, that liberty
for which you have so often wished, with wealth, honor, and glory, are
set before your eyes. All these prizes fortune offers to the victorious.
Let the enterprise itself, then, let the opportunity, let your poverty, your
dangers, and the glorious spoils of war, animate you far more than my
words. Use me either as your leader or your fellow-soldier; neither my
heart nor my hand shall be wanting to you. These objects I hope to
effect, in concert with you, in the character of consul; unless, indeed,
my expectation deceives me, and you prefer to be slaves rather than
masters."
XXI. When these men, surrounded with numberless evils, but without
any resources or hopes of good, had heard this address, though they
thought it much for their advantage to disturb the public tranquillity,
yet most of them called on Catiline to state on what terms they were to
engage in the contest; what benefits they were to expect from taking up
arms; and what support and encouragement they had, and in what
quarters. [126] Catiline then promised them the abolition of their
debts;[127] a proscription of the wealthy citizens;[128] offices,
sacerdotal dignities, plunder, and all other gratifications which war, and
the license of conquerors, can afford. He added that Piso was in Hither
Spain, and Publius Sittius Nucerinus with an army in Mauritania, both
of whom were privy to his plans; that Caius Antonius, whom he hoped
to have for a colleague, was canvassing for the consulship, a man with
whom he was intimate, and who was involved in all manner of
embarrassments; and that, in conjunction with him, he himself, when
consul, would commence operations. He, moreover, assailed all the
respectable citizens with reproaches, commended each of his associates

by name, reminded one of his poverty, another of his ruling
passion,[129] several others of their danger or disgrace, and many of
the spoils which they had obtained by the victory of Sylla. When he
saw their spirits sufficiently elevated, he charged them to attend to his
interest at the election of consuls, and dismissed the assembly.
XXII. There were some, at the time, who said that Catiline, having
ended his speech, and wishing to bind his accomplices in guilt by an
oath, handed round among them, in goblets, the blood of a human body
mixed with wine; and that when all, after an imprecation, had tasted of
it, as is usual in sacred rites, he disclosed his design; and they
asserted[130] that he did this, in order that they might be the more
closely attached to one another, by being mutually conscious of such an
atrocity. But some thought that this report, and many others, were
invented by persons who supposed that the odium against Cicero,
which afterward arose, might be lessened by imputing an enormity of
guilt to the conspirators who had suffered death. The evidence which I
have obtained, in support of this charge, is not at all in proportion to its
magnitude.
XXIII. Among those present at this meeting was Quintus Curius,[131]
a man of no mean family, but immersed in vices and crimes, and whom
the censors had ignonimiously expelled from the senate. In this person
there was not less levity than impudence; he could neither keep secret
what he heard, not conceal his own crimes; he was altogether heedless
what he said or what he did. He had long had a criminal intercourse
with Fulvia, a woman of high birth; but growing less acceptable to her,
because, in his reduced circumstances, he had less means of being
liberal, he began, on a sudden, to boast, and to promise her seas and
mountains;[132] threatening her, at times, with the sword, if she were
not submissive to his will; and acting, in his general conduct, with
greater arrogance than ever.[133] Fulvia, having learned the cause of
his extravagant behavior, did not keep such danger to the state a secret;
but, without naming her informant, communicated to several persons
what she had heard and under what circumstances, concerning
Catiline's conspiracy. This intelligence it was that incited the feelings
of the citizens to give the consulship to Marcus Tullius Cicero.[134]
For before this period, most of the nobility were moved with jealousy,