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vidently, as to be clearly feen by the fetate and people of Rome. Accordingly the confuls of that year ordered the statue to be placed in the manner directed: but from the flow progrefs of the work, neíther they, nor their fucceffors, nor I myfelf, could get it finished till that very day.

Can any man after this be fuch an enemy to truth, fo rafh, fo mad, as to deny, that all things which we fee, and above all, that this city is governed by the power and providence of the gods? For when the foothfayers declared, that mafíacres, conflagrations, and the entire ruin of the fate were then devifing; crimes! the taormity of whofe guilt rendered the predition to fome incredible: yet are you now fenfible, that all this has been by wicked citizens not only devised, but even stempted. Can it then be imputed to any thing but the immediate interpofition of the great Jupiter, that this morning, while the confpirators and witnesses were by my order carried through the forum to the temple of Concord, in that very moment the ftatue was fixed in its place? And being fixed, and turned to look upon you and the fenate, both you and the fenate faw all the treasonable designs against the public fafety, clearly detected and expofed. The confpirators, therefore, jukly merited the greater punishment and deteftation, for endeavouring to involve in impious fames, not only your houses and habitations, but the dwellings and temples of the gods themfelves: nor can I, without intolerable vanity and prefumption, lay claim to the merit of having defeated their attempts. It was he, it was Jupiter himfelf, who oppofed them: to him the capitol, to him the temples, to him this city, to him you are all indebted for your prefervation. It was from the immortal gods, Romans, that I derived my refolution and forefight; and by their providence, that I was enabled to make fuch important difcoveries. The attempt to engage the Allobrogians in the confpiracy, and the infatuation of Lentulus and his affociates, in trufting affairs and letters of fach moment to men barbarous and unknown to them, can never furely be accounted for, but by fuppofing the gods to have confounded their understandings. And that the ambaffadors of the Gauls, a nation fo difaffected, and the only one at prefent that feems both able and willing 19 make war upon the Roman people,

fhould flight the hopes of empire and dominion, and the advantageous offers of men of patrician rank, and prefer your fafety to their own intereft, must needs be the effect of a divine interpofition; efpecially when they might have gained their ends, not by fighting, but by holding their tongues.

Wherefore, Romans, fince a thankf giving has been decreed at all the shrines of the gods, celebrate the fame religiously with your wives and children. Many are the proofs of gratitude you have juftly paid to the gods on former occafions, but never furely were more apparently due than at prefent. You have been fnatched from a most cruel and deplorable fate; and that too without flaughter, without blood, without an army, without fighting. In the habit of citizens, and under me your only leader and conductor in the robe of peace, you have obtained the victory. For do but call to mind, Romans, all the civil dif fenfions in which we have been involved; not thofe only you may have heard of, but those too within your own memory and knowledge. L. Sylla deftroyed P. Sulpicius; drove Marius, the guardian of this empire, from Rome; and partly banished, partly flaughtered, a great number of the moft deferving citizens. Cn. Octavius, when conful, expelled his colleague by force of arms, from the city. The forum was filled with carcafes, and flowed with the blood of the citizens. Cinna afterwards, in conjunction with Marius, prevailed: and then it was that the very lights of our country were extinguished by the flaughter of her moft illuftrious men. Sylla avenged this cruel victory; with what maffacre of the citizens, with what calamity to the ftate, it is needless to relate. M. Lepidus had a difference with Q. Catulus, a man of the most diftinguished reputation and merit. The ruin brought upon the former was not fo afflicting to the republic, as that of the rest who perish ed upon the fame occafion. Yet all these diffenfions, Romans, were of fuch a nature, as tended only to a change in the government, not to a total deftruction of the state. It was not the aim of the perfons concerned, to extinguish the commonwealth, but to be leading men in it; they defired not to fee Rome in flames, but to rule in Rome. And yet all these civil differences, none of which tended to the overthrow of the ftate, were fo obftinately kept up, that they never ended in a reconciliation of the par

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ties, but in a maffacre of the citizens. But in this war, a war the fierceft and most implacable ever known, and not to be paralleled in the hiftory of the most barbarous nations; a war in which Lentulus, Cataline, Caffius and Cethegus laid it down as a principle, to confider all as enemies who had any intereft in the well being of the ftate; I have conducted myfelf in such a manner, Romans, as to preferve you all. And though your enemies imagined that no more citizens would remain, than what escaped endless maflacre; nor any more of Rome be left ftanding, than was fnatched from a devouring conflagration; yet have I preferved both city and citizens from harm.

For all these important fervices, Romans, I defire no other reward of my zeal, no other mark of honour, no other monument of praife, but the perpetual remembrance of this day. It is in your breafts alone, that I would have all my triumphs, all my titles of honour, all the monuments of my glory, all the trophies of my renown, recorded and preferved. Lifelefs ftatues, filent teftimonies of fame; in fine, whatever can be compaffed by men of inferior merit, has no charms for me. In your remembrance, Romans, fhall my actions be cherished, from your praises fhall they derive growth and nourishment, and in your annals fhall they ripen and be immortalized nor will this day, I flatter myfelf, ever cease to be propagated, to the fafety of the city, and the honour of my confulfhip: but it fhall eternally remain upon record, that there were two citizens living at the fame time in the republic, the one of whom was terminating the extent of the empire by the bounds of the horizon itself; the other preferving the feat and capital of that empire.

But as the fortune and circumilances of my actions are different from those of your generals abroad, in as much as I muft live with thofe whom I have conquered and fubdued, whereas they leave their enemies either dead or enthralled; it is your part, Romans, to take care, that if the good actions of others are beneficial to them, mine prove not detrimental to me. I have baffled the wicked and bloody purposes formed against you by the most daring offenders; it belongs to you to baffle their attempts against me; though as to myfelf, I have in reality no caufe to fear any thing, fince I fhall be protected by the guard of all honeft men,

whofe friendship I have for ever fecured by the dignity of the republic itself, which will never cease to be my filent defender; and by the power of conscience, which all thofe must needs violate, who fhall at. tempt to injure me. Such too is my fpirit, Romans, that I will never yield to the audacioufnefs of any, but even provoke and attack all the wicked and the profi gate yet if all the rage of our domeftic enemies, when repelled from the people, fhall at laft turn fingly upon me, you will do well to confider, Romans, what effect this may afterwards have upon thofe, who are bound to expose themselves to envy and danger for your fafety. As to myfelf in particular, what have I farther to with for in life, fince both with regard to the honours you confer, and the reputation flowing from virtue, I have already reached the highest point of my ambition. This however I exprefsly engage for, Romans, always to fupport and defend in my private condition, what I have acted in my confulfhip; that if any envy be firred up against me for preferving the ftate, it may hurt the envious, but advance my glory. In short, I fhall fo behave in the republic, as ever to be mindful of my past actions, and shew that what I did was not the effect of chance, but of virtue. Do you, Romans, fince it is now night, repair to your feveral dwellings, and pray to Jupiter, the guardian of this city, and of your lives: and though the danger be now over, keep the fame watch in your houfes as before. I fhall take care to put a speedy period to the neceffity of thefe precautions, and to fecure you for the future in uninterrupted peace. Whitworth's Cicero.

§ S. Oration against Cataline.

THE ARGUMENT.

Though the defign of the confpiracy

was in a great meafure defeated, by the commitment of the most confiderable of thofe concerned in it, yet as they had many fecret favourers and well-wishers within the city, the people were alarmed with the rumor of fresh plots, formed by the flaves and dependants of Lentulus and Cethegus for the refcue of their maflers, which obliged Cicero to reinforce his guards; and for the prevention of all fuch attempts, to put an end to the whole affair, by bringing

the

the question of their punishment, without farther delay, before the fenate; which he accordingly fummoned for that purpose. The debate was of great delicacy and importance; to decide upon the lives of citizens of the first rank. Capital punishments were rare, and ever odious in Rome, whose laws were of all others the leaft fanguinary; banishment, with confifcation of goods, being the ordinary punishment for the greatest crimes. The fenate indeed, as has been faid above, in cafes of fudden and dangerous tumults, claimed the prerogative of punishing the leaders with death, by the authority of their own decrees. But this was looked upon as a stretch of power, and an infringement of the rights of the people, which nothing could excufe but the neceffity of times, and the extremity of danger. For there was an old law of Porcius Læca, a tribune, which granted all criminals capitally condemned, an appeal to the people; and a later one of C. Gracchus, to prohibit the taking away the life of any citizens, without a formal hearing before the people fo that fome fenators, who had concurred in all the previous debates, withdrew themselves from this, to fhew their dislike of what they expected to be the iffue of it, and to have no hand in putting Roman citizens to death by a vote of the fenate. Here then was ground enough for Cicero's enemies to act upon, if extremes methods were purfued: he himself was aware of it, and faw, that the public intereft called for the feverest punishment, his private interest the gentleft: yet he came refolved to facrifice all regards for his own quiet, to the confideration of the public fafety. As foon therefore as he had moved the question, What was to be done with the confpirators? Silanus, the conful elect, being called upon to fpeak the first, advifed, that those who were then in cuftody, with the reft who fhould afterwards be taken, fhould all be put to death. To this all who spoke after him readily af fented, till it came to Julius Cæfar, then prætor elect, who, in an elegant and elaborate fp ech, treated that opinion, not as cruel, fince death, he

faid, was not a punishment, but relief to the miferable, and left no sense either of good or ill beyond it; but as new and illegal, and contrary to the conftitution of the republic: and though the heinoufnefs of the crime would justify any feverity, yet the example was dangerous in a free ... ftate; and the falutary ufe of arbi

trary power in good hands, had been the caufe of fatal mischiefs when it fell into bad; of which he produced feveral inftances, both in other cities and their own; and though no danger could be apprehended from thefe times, or fuch a conful as Cicero; yet in other times, and under another conful, when the fword was once drawn by a decree of the fenate, no man could promife what mifchief it might not do before it was fheathed again: his opinion therefore was, that the estates of the confpirators fhould be confifcated, and their perfons clofely confined in the ftrong towns of Italy; and that it fhould be criminal for any one to move the fenate or the people for any favour towards them. Thefe two contrary opinions being propofed, the next question was, which of them fhould take place: Cæfar's had made a great impreffion on the affembly, and ftaggered even Silanus, who began to excufe and mitigate the feverity of his vote; and Cicero's friends were going forwardly into it, as likely to create the leaft trouble to Cicero himself, for whofe future peace and fafety they began to be folicitous: when Cicero, obferving the inclination of the house, and rifing up to put the queftion, made this fourth fpeech on the fubject of this confpiracy; in which he delivers his fentiments with all the fkill both of the orator and statefman; and while he feems to fhew a perfect neutrality, and to give equal commendation to both the opinions, artfully labours all the while to turn the fcale in favour of Silanus's, which he confidered as a neceffary example of feverity in the prefent circumstances of the repub

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own and your country's danger, but was that repelled, for mine alfo. This proof of your affection is grateful to me in forrow, and pleafing in diftrefs: but by the immortal gods I conjure you! lay it all afide; and without any regard to my fafety, think only of yourselves, and of your families. For fhould the condition of my confulfhip be fuch as to fubject me to all manner of pains, hardships, and fuffer. ings; I will bear them not only refolutely but chearfully, if by my labours I can fecure your dignity and fafety, with that of the people of Rome. Such, confcript fathers, has been the fortune of my confulship, that neither the forum, that centre of all equity, nor the field of Mars, confecrated by confular aufpices, nor the fenate-house, the principal refuge of all nations, nor domestic walls, the common afylum of all men; nor the bed, deftined to repofe; nay, nor even this honourable feat, this chair of ftate, have been free from perils and the fnares of death. Many things have I diffembled, many have I fuffered, many have I yielded to, and many ftruggled with in filence, for your quiet. But if the immortal gods would grant that iffue to my confulfhip, of faving you, confcript fathers, and the people of Rome, from a maffacre; your wives, your children, and the vestal virgins, from the bittereft perfecution; the temples and altars of the gods, with this our fair country, from facrilegious flames; and all Italy from war and defolation; let what fate foever attend me, I will be content with it. For if P. Lentulus, upon the report of foothfayers, thought his name portended the ruin of the state; why fhould not I rejoice, that my confulfhip has been as it were referved by fate for its prefervation.

Wherefore, confcript fathers, think of your own fafety, turn your whole care upon the ftate, fecure yourselves, your wives, your children, your fortunes; guard the lives and dignity of the people of Rome, and ceafe your concern and anxiety for me. For firft, I have reason to hope, that all the gods, the protectors of this city, will reward me according to my deferts. Then, fhould any thing extraordinary happen, I am prepared to die with an even and conftant mind. For death can never be dishonourable to the brave, nor premature to one who has reached the dignity of conful, nor afflicting to the wife. Not that I am so hardened against

all the impreffions of humanity, as to remain indifferent to the grief of a dear and affectionate brother here present, and the tears of all thofe by whom you fee me furrounded. Nor can I forbear to own, that an afflicted wife, a daughter difpirited with fear, an infant fon, whom my country feems to embrace as the pledge of my coufulfhip, and a fon-in-law, whom I behold waiting with anxiety the issue of this day, often recal my thoughts homewards. All these objects affect me, yet in fuch a manner, that I am chiefly concerned for their prefervation and yours, and fcruple not to expofe myself to any hazard, rather than that they and all of us fhould be involved in one general ruin. Wherefore, confcript fathers, apply yourfelves wholly to the safety of the ftate, guard against the storms that threaten us on every fide, and which it will require your utmost circumfpection to avert. It is not a Tiberius Gracchus, caballing for a fecond tribunefhip; nor a Caius Gracchus, ftirring up the people in favour of his Agrarian law; nor a Lucius Saturninus, the murderer of Caius Memmius, who is now in judgment before you, and expofed to the feverity of the law; but traitors, who remained at Rome to fire the city, to maffacre the fenate, and to receive Cataline. Their letters, their feals, their hands; in fhort, their feveral confeffions, are in your cuftody; and clearly convict them of foliciting the Allobrogians, fpiriting up the flaves, and fending for Cataline. The fcheme propofed was, to put all, without exception, to the fword, that not a foul might remain to lament the fate of the commonwealth, and the overthrow of fo mighty an empire.

All this has been proved by witnesses, the criminals themfelves have confeffed, and you have already condemned them by feveral previous acts. First, by returning thanks to me in the most honourable terms, and declaring that by my virtue and vigilance, a confpiracy of defperate men has been laid open. Next, by depofing Lentulus from the prætorship, and commiting him, with the reft of the confpirators, to cuftody. But chiefly, by decreeing a thanfgiving in my name, an honour which was never before conferred upon any man in the gown. Laftly, you yesterday voted ample rewards to the deputies of the Allobrogians, and Titus Vulturcius; all which p.oceedings are of fuch a nature, as plainly

to

to make it appear, that you already without fcruple condemn thofe, whom you have by name ordered into cuftody. But I have refolved, confcript fathers, to propofe to you anew the question both of the fact and punishment, having first premised what I think proper to fay as conful. I have long obferved a fpirit of diforder working in the state, new projects devifing, and pernicious fchemes fet on foot: but never could I imagine, that a confpiracy fo dreadful and deftructive, had entered into the minds of citizens. Now whatever you do, or which ever way your thoughts and roices fhall incline, you must come to a refolution before night. You fee the hei-, nous nature of the crime laid before you; and if you think that but few are concerned in it, you are greatly mistaken. The mifchief is fpread wider than most people imagine, and has not only infected Italy, but crofled the Alps, and, imperceptibly creeping along, feized many provinces. You can never hope to fupprefs it by delay and irrefolution. Whatever courfe you take, you must proceed with vigour and expedition.

There are two opinions now before you; the firft, of D. Silanus, who thinks the projectors of fo deftructive a confpiracy worthy of death; the fecond of C. Cæfar, who, excepting death, is for every other the most rigorous method of punishing. Each, agreeably to his dignity, and the importance of the caufe, is for treating them with the laft feverity. The one thinks, that those who have attempted to deprive us and the Roman people of life, to abolish this empire, and extinguish the very name of Rome, ought not to enjoy a moment's life, or breathe the vital air and hath fhewed withal, that this punishment has often been inflicted by this state on fedious citizens. The other maintains, that death was not defigned by the immortal gods as a punishment, but either as a neceffary law of our nature, or a ceffation of our toils and miferies: fo that the wife never fuffer it unwillingly, the brave often feck it voluntarily: that bonds and imprisonment, especially if perpetual, are contrived for the punishment of deteftable crimes: that therefore the criminals fhould be distributed among the municipal towns. In this propofal, there feems to be fome injustice, if you impose it upon the towns; or fome difficulty, if you only defire it. Yet decree fo, if you think fit. I will endeavour, and I hope I shall be able

to find thofe, who will not think it unsuit, able to their dignity, to comply with whatever you shall judge neceflary for the comwon fafety. He adds a heavy penalty on the municipal towns, if any of the criminals fhould efcape; he invefts them with formidable guards; and, as the enormity of their guilt deserves, forbids, under fevere penalties, all application to the fenate or people, for a mitigation of their punishments. He even deprives them of hope, the only comfort of unhappy mortals. He orders their eftates alfo to be confifcated, and leaves them nothing but life; which, if he had taken away, he would by one momentary pang, have eafed them of much anguith both of mind and body, and all the fufferings due to their crimes. For it was on this account that the ancients invented thofe infernal punishments of the dead; to keep the wicked under fome awe in this life, who without them would have no dread of death itself.

Now, confcript fathers, I fee how much my intereft is concerned in the prefent debate. If you follow the opinion of C. Cæfar, who has always purfued thofe meafures in the ftate, which favour most of popularity; I thall perhaps be lefs expofed to the arrows of public hatred, when he is known for the author and adviser of this vote. But if you fall in with the motion of D. Silanus, I know not what difficulties it may bring me under. However, let the fervice of the commonwealth fuperfede all confiderations of my danger. Cæfar, agreeable to his own dignity, and the merits of his illuftrious ancestors, has by this propofal given us a perpetual pledge of his affection to the state, and fhewed the difference between the affected lenity of bufy declaimers, and a mind truly popular, which feeks nothing but the real good of the people. I obferve that one of thofe, who affects the character of popularity, has abfented himself from this day's debate, that he may not give a vote upon the life of a Roman citizen. Yet but the other day he concurred in fending the criminals to prifon, voted me a thankf giving, and yesterday decreed ample rewards to the informers. Now no one can doubt what his fentiments are on the me rits of the caufe, who votes imprisonment to the accufed, thanks to the difcoverer of the confpiracy, and rewards to the informers. But C. Cæfar urges the Sempronian law, forbidding to put Roman citizens to death. Yet here it ought to be

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