fufficiently discharged our duty to the ftate, if we can but escape his rage and deadly darts. Long fince, O Cataline, ought the conful to have ordered thee for execution; and pointed upon thy own head that ruin thou hast been long meditating against us all. Could that illuftrious citizen Publius Scipio, fovereign pontiff, but invefted with no public magiftracy, kill Tiberius Gracchus for railing fome flight commotions in the commonwealth; and fhall we confuls fuffer Cataline to live, who aims at laying waste the world with fire and fword? I omit, as too remote, the example of Q. Servilius Ahala, who with his own hand flew Spurius Melius, for plotting a revolution in the state. Such, fuch was the virtue of this republic in former times, that her brave fons punifhed more feverely a factious citizen, than the most inveterate public enemy. We have a weighty and vigorous decree of the fenate against you, Cataline: the commonwealth wants not wisdom, nor this houfe authority: but we, the confuls, I fpeak it openly, are wanting in our duty.

A decree once paffed in the fenate, en, joining the conful L. Opimius to take care that the commonwealth received no detriment. The very fame day Caius Gracchus was killed for fome flight fufpicions of treason, though defcended of a father, grandfather, and ancestors, all eminent for their fervices to the state. Marcus Fulvius too, a man of confular dignity, with his children, underwent the fame fate. By a like decree of the fenate, the care of the commonwealth was committed to the confuls C. Marius and L. Valerius. Was a fingle day permitted to pass, before L. Saturninus, tribune of the people, and C. Servilius the prætor, fatisfied by their death the justice of their country. But we, for thefe twenty days, have fuffered the authority of the fenate to languish in our hands. For we too have a like decree, but it refts among our records like a fword in the scabbard; a decree, O Cataline, by which you ought to have fuffered immediate death. Yet ftill you live; nay more, you live, not to lay afide, but to harden yourself in your audacious guilt. I could wifh, confcript fathers, to be merciful; I could wish too not to appear remifs when my country is threatened with danger; but I now begin to reproach myself with negligence and want of courage. A camp is formed in Italy, upon the very borders of Etruria, against the commonwealth. The

2.

enemy increafe daily in number. At the fame time we behold their general and leader within our walls; nay, in the fenatehoufe itself, plotting daily fome inteftine mifchief againft the ftate. Should I order you, Cataline, to be inftantly seized and put to death: I have reason to believe, good men would rather reproach me with flowness than cruelty. But at prefent certain reafons refrain me from this step, which indeed ought to have been taken long ago. Thou shalt then fuffer death, when not a man is to be found, to wicked, fo defperate, so like thyself, as not to own it was done juftly. As long as there is one who dares to defend thee, thou shalt live; and live fo as thou now dost, furrounded by the numerous and powerful guards which I have placed about thee, fo as not to fuffer thee to ftir a foot against the republic; whilst the eyes and ears of many fhall watch thee, as they have hitherto done, when thou little thoughtest of it.

But what is it, Cataline, thou canst now have in view, if neither the obfcurity of night can conceal thy traitorous affemblies, nor the walls of a private house prevent the voice of thy treason from reaching our ears? If all thy projects are dif covered, and burft into public view? Quit then your deteftable purpose, and think no more of maffacres and conflagrations. You are beset on all hands; your most fecret councils are clear as noon-day; as you may eafily gather, from the detail I am now to give you. You may remember that on the nineteenth of October last, I faid publicly in the fenate, that before the twenty-fifth of the fame month, C. Manlius, the confederate and creature of your guilt, would appear in arms. Was Į deceived, Cataline, I fay not as to this enormous, this deteftable, this improbable attempt; but, which is ftill more furpriz ing, as to the very day on which it happened? I faid likewife, in the fenate, that you had fixed the twenty-fixth of the fame month for the mafiacre of our nobles, which induced many citizens of the first rank to retire from Rome, not so much on account of their own preservation, as with a view to baffle your designs. Can you deny, that on that very fame day you was fo befet by my vigilance, and the guards I placed about you, that you found it impoffible to attempt any thing against the itate; though you had given out, after the departure of the reit, that you would

never

nevertheless content yourself with the blood of those who remained? Nay, when on the firft of November, you confidently hoped to furprize Prænefte by night; did you not find that colony fecured by my order, and the guards, officers, and garrifon I had appointed? There is nothing you either think, contrive, or attempt, but what I both hear, fee, and plainly understand.

:

Call to mind only in conjunction with me, the tranfactions of last night. You will foon perceive, that I am much more active in watching over the prefervation, than you in plotting the deftruction of the ftate. I fay then, and fay it openly, that last night you went to the houfe of M. Lecca, in the street called the Gladiators that you was met there by numbers of your affociates in guilt and madness. Dare you deny this? Why are you filent? If you difown the charge, I will prove it: for I fee fome in this very affembly, who were of your confederacy. Immortal gods! what country do we inhabit? what city do we belong to? what government do we live under? Here, here, confcript fathers, within thefe walls, and in this affembly, the most awful and venerable upon earth, there are men who meditate my ruin and yours, the deftruction of this city, and confequently of the world itself. Myfelf, your conful, behold thefe men, and afk their opinions on public affairs; and instead of dooming them to immediate execution, do not fo much as wound them with my tongue. You went then that night, Cataline, to the house of Lecca; you cantoned out all Italy; you appointed the place to which every one was to repair; you fingled out those who were to be left at Rome, and those who were to accompany you in perfon; you marked out the parts of the city destined to conflagration; you declared your purpose of leaving it foon, and faid you only waited a little to fee me taken off. Two Roman knights undertook to ease you of that care, and affaffinate me the fame night in bed before day-break. Scarce was your affembly difmiffed, when I was informed of all this: I ordered an additional guard to attend, to fecure my house from affault; I refused admittance to thofe whom you fent to compliment me in the morning; and declared to many worthy perfons beforehand who they were, and at what time I expected them,

Since then, Cataline, fuch is the state of your affairs, finish what you have begun; quit the city; the gates are open; nobody oppofes your retreat. The troops in Manlius's camp long to put themselves under your command. Carry with you all your confederates; if not all, at least as many as poflible. Purge the city. It will take greatly from my fears, to be divided from you by a wall. You cannot pretend to itay any longer with us: I will not bear, will not fuffer, will not allow of it. Great thanks are due to the immortal gods, and chiefly to thee Jupiter Stator, the ancient protector of this city, for having already fo often preferved us from this dangerous, this deftructive, this peftilent fcourge of his country. The fupreme fafety of the commonwealth ought not to be again and again expofed to danger for the fake of a fingle man. While I was only conful elect, Cataline, I contented myself with guarding against your many plots, not by a public guard, but by my private vigilance. When at the laft election of confuls, you had refolved to affaffinate me, and your competitors in the field of Mars, I defeated your wicked purpose by the aid of my friends, without difturbing the public peace. In a word, as often as you attempted my life, I fingly oppofed your fury; though I well faw, that my death would neceffarily be attended with many fignal calamities to the state. But now you openly ftrike at the very being of the republic. The temples of the immortal gods, the manfions of Rome, the lives of her citizens, and all the provinces of Italy, are doomed to flaughter and devastation. Since therefore I dare not pursue that courfe, which is most agreeable to ancient difcipline, and the genius of the commonwealth, I will follow another, lefs fevere indeed as to the criminal, but more useful in its confequences to the public. For fhould I order you to be immediately put to death, the commonwealth would still harbour in its bofom the other confpirators; but by driving you from the city, I fhall clear Rome at once of the whole baneful tribe of thy accomplices. How, Cataline! Do you hefitate to do at my command, what you was fo lately about to do of your own accord? The conful orders a public ene. my to depart the city. You afk whether this be a real banishment? I fay not exprefsly fo: but was I to advise in the cafe, it is the best courfe you can take.

For

For what is there, Cataline, that can now give you pleasure in this city? wherein, if we except the profligate crew of your accomplices, there is not a man but dreads and abhors you? Is there a domeftic ftain from which your character is exempted? Have you not rendered yourself infamous by every vice that can brand private life? What fcenes of luft have not your eyes beheld? What guilt has not ftained your hands? What pollution has not defiled your whole body? What youth, entangled by thee in the allurements of debauchery, haft thou not prompted by arms to deeds of violence, or feduced by incentives into the fnares of fenfuality? And lately, when by procuring the death of your former wife, you had made room in your houfe for another, did you not add to the enormity of that crime, by a new and unparalled measure of guilt? But I pafs over this, and chufe to let it remain in filence, that the memory of fo monftrous a piece of wickedness, or at least of its having been committed with impunity, may not defcend to pofterity. I pafs over too the entire ruin of your fortunes, which you are fenfible must befal you the very next month; and shall proceed to the mention of fuch particulars as regard not the infamy of your private character, nor the diftreffes and turpitude of your domeftic life; but fuch as concern the very being of the republic, and the lives and fafety of us all. Can the light of life, or the air you breathe, be grateful to you, Cataline; when you are confcious there is not a man here prefent but knows, that on the laft of December, in the confulfhip of Lepidus and Tullus, you appeared in the Comitium with a dagger? That you had got together a band of ruffians, to affaffinate the confuls, and the most confiderable men in Rome? and that this execrable and frantic defign was defeated, not by any awe or remorfe in you, but by the prevailing good fortune of the people of Rome. But I pafs over those things, as being already well known: there are others of a later date. How many attempts have you made upon my life, fince I was nominated conful, and fince I entered upon the actual execution of that office? How many thrufts of thine, fo well aimed that they feemed unavoidable, have I parried by an artful evafion, and, as they term it, a gentle deflection of body? You attempt, you contrive, you fet on foot nothing, of which I have not timely information.

Yet you ceafe not to concert, and enter. prize. How often has that dagger been wrefted out of thy hands? How often, by fome accident, has it dropped before the moment of execution? yet you cannot refolve to lay it afde. How, or with what rites you have confecrated it, is hard to fay, that you think yourself thus obliged to lodge it in the bofom of a conful!

What are we to think of your present fituation and conduct? For I will now address you, not with the deteftation your actions deferve, but with a compaflion to which you have no juft claim. You came fome time ago into the fenate. Did a fingle perfon of this numerous affembly, not excepting your moft intimate relations and friends, deign to falute you? If there be no inftance of this kind in the memory of man, do you expect that I fhould embitter with reproaches, a doom confirmed by the filent deteftation of all present? Were not the benches where you fit forfaken, as foon as you was observed to approach them? Did not all the confular fenators, whofe deftruction you have so often plotted, quit immediately the part of the houfe where you thought proper to place yourself? How are you able to bear all this treatment? For my own part, were my flaves to difcover fuch a dread of me, as your fellow-citizens exprefs of you, I fhould think it neceffary to abandon my own houfe: and do you hesitate about leaving the city? Was I even wrongfully fufpected, and thereby rendered obnoxious to my countrymen, I would fooner withdraw myfelf from public view, than be beheld with looks full of reproach and indignation. And do you, whofe confcience tells you that you are the object of an univerfal, a juft, and a long merited hatred, delay a moment to escape from the looks and prefence of a people, whose eyes and fenfes can no longer endure you among them? Should your parents dread and hate you, and be obftinate to all your endeavours to appease them, you would doubtlefs withdraw fomewhere from their fight. But now your country, the com mon parent of us all, hates and dreads you, and has long regarded you as a parricide. intent upon the defign of deftroying her. And will you neither refpect her authority, fubmit to her advice, nor ftand in awe of her power? Thus does the reafon with you, Cataline; and thus does the, in fome meafure, addrefs you by her filence: not an enormity has happened thefe many years,

but

but has had thee for its author: not a crime has been perpetrated without thee: the murder of fo many of our citizens, the oppreffion and plunder of our allies, has through thee alone efcaped punishment, and been exercised with unrestrained violence: thou hast found means not only to trample upon law and juftice, but even to fubvert and deftroy them. Though this paft behaviour of thine was beyond all patience, yet have I borne with it as I could. But now, to be in continual apprehenfion from thee alone; on every alarm to tremble at the name of Cataline; to fee no defigns formed against me that fpeak not thee for their author, is altogether infupportable. Be gone then, and rid me of my prefent terror; that if juft, I may avoid ruin; if groundless, I may at length ceafe to fear.

Should your country, as I faid, addrefs you in these terms, ought the not to find obedience, even fuppofing her unable to compel you to fuch a step? But did you not even offer to become a prifoner? Did you not fay, that, to avoid fufpicion, you would fubmit to be confined in the house of M. Lepidus? When he declined receiving you, you had the affurance to come to me, and request you might be fecured at my houfe. When I likewife told you, that I could never think myfelf fafe in the fame house, when I judged it even dan gerous to be in the fame city with you, you applied to Q. Metellus the prætor. Being repulfed here too, you went to the excellent M. Marcellus, your companion; who, no doubt, you imagined would be very watchful in confining you, very quick in difcerning your fecret practices, and very refolute in bringing you to juftice. How justly may we pronounce him worthy of irons and a jail, whofe own confcience condemns him to reftraint? If it be fo then, Cataline, and you cannot fubmit to the thought of dying here, do you hefitate to retire to fome other country, and commit to fight and folitude a life, fo often and fo justly forfeited to thy country? But fay you, but the question to the fenate, (for fo you affect to talk) and if it be their pleafure that I go into banishment, I am ready to obey. I will put no fuch queftion; it is contrary to my temper: yet will I give you an opportunity of knowing the fentiments of the fenate with regard to you. Leave the city, Cataline; deiier the republic from its fears; go, if you wait only for that word, into banish

But

ment. Obferve now, Cataline; mark the filence and compofure of the affembly. Does a fingle fenator remonftrate, or fo much as offer to speak? Is it needful they should confirm by their voice, what they fo exprefsly declare by their filence? But had addreffed myself in this manner to that excellent youth P. Sextius, of to the brave M. Marcellus, the fenate would ere now have rifen up against me, and laid violent hands upon their conful in this very temple; and justly too. with regard to you, Cataline, their filence declares their approbation, their acquiefcence amounts to a decree, and by saying nothing they proclaim their confent. Nor is this true of the fegators alone, whose authority you affect to prize, while you make no account of their lives; but of thefe brave and worthy Roman knights, and other illuftrious citizens, who guard the avenues of the fenate; whofe numbers you might have feen, whofe fentiments you might have known, whofe voices a little while ago you might have heard; and whofe fwords and hands I have for fome time with difficulty retrained from your perfon: yet all there will I eafily engage to attend you to the very gates, if you but confent to leave this city, which you have fo long devoted to deftruction.

But why do I talk, as if your refolution was to be fhaken, or there was any room to hope you would reform! Can we expect you will ever think of flight, or enterrain the defign of going into banishment? May the immortal gods infpire you with that refolution! Though I clearly perceive, fhould my threats frighten you into exile, what a form of envy will light upon my own head; if not at prefent, whilft the memory of thy crimes is fresh, yet furely in future times. But I little regard that thought, provided the calamity falls on myfelf alone, and is not attended with any danger to my country. But to feel the ftings of remorse, to dread the rigour of the laws, to yield to the exigencies of the state, are things not to be expected from thee. Thou, O Cataline, art none of thofe, whom shame reclaims from difhonourable purfuits, fear from danger, or reafon from madness. Be gone then, as I have already often faid: and if you would fwell the meafure of popular odium against me, for being, as you give out, your enemy, depart directly into banifhment. By this ftep you will bring upon me an insupportable load of cenfure;

nur

nor fhall I be able to fuftain the weight of the public indignation, shouldst thou, by order of the conful, retire into exile. But if you mean to advance my reputation and glory, march off with your abandoned crew of ruffians; repair to Manlius; rouze every defperate citizen to rebel; separate yourself from the worthy; declare war against your country; triumph in your impious depredations; that it may appear you was not forced by me into a foreign treafon, but voluntarily joined your affociates. But why fhould I urge you to this step, when I know you have already fent forward a body of armed men, to wait you at the Forum Aurelium? When I know you have concerted and fixed a day with Manlius? When I know you have fent off the filver eagle, that domeftic fhrine of your impieties, which I doubt not will bring ruin upon you and your accomplices? Can you abfent yourself longer from an idol to which you had recourfe in every bloody attempt? And from whofe altars that impious right-hand was frequently transferred to the murder of your countrymen ?

Thus will you at length repair, whither your frantic and unbridled rage has long been hurrying you. Nor does this iffue of thy plois give thee pain; but, on the contrary, fills thee with inexpreffible delight. Nature has formed you, inclination trained you, and fate referved you, for this defperate enterprize. You never took delight either in peace or war, unless when they were flagitious and deftructive. You have got together a band of ruffians and profligates, not only utterly abandoned of fortune, but even without hope. With what pleasure will you enjoy your felf? how will you exult? how will you triumph? when amongit fo great a number of your affociates, you fhall neither hear nor fee an honeft man? To attain the enjoyment of fuch a life, have you exercised yourself in all thofe toils, which are emphatically ftiled yours: your lying on the ground, not only in purfuit of lewd amours, but of bold and hardy enterprizes: your treacherous watchfulness, not only to take advantage of the hufband's flumber, but to fpoil the murdered citizen. Here may you exert all that boasted patience of hunger, cold, and want, by which however you will fhortly find yourself undone. So much have I gained by excluding you from the confulfhip, that you can only attack your country as an exile, not opprefs

her as a conful; and your impious treason will be deemed the efforts, not of an enemy, but of a robber.

And now, confcript fathers, that I may obviate and remove a complaint, which my country might with fome appearance of justice urge against me; attend diligently to what I am about to fay, and treafure it up in your minds and hearts. For fhould my country, which is to me much dearer than life, fhould all Italy, should the whole state thus accoft me, What are you about, Marcus Tullius? Will you fuffer a man to efcape out of Rome, whom you have difcovered to be a public enemy? whom you fee ready to enter upon a war against the state? whofe arrival the confpirators wait with impatience, that they may put themselves under his conduct? the prime author of the treafon; the contriver and manager of the revolt; the man who enlifts all the flaves and ruined citizens he can find? will you fuffer him, I fay, to efcape; and appear as one rather fent against the city, than driven from it? will you not order him to be put in irons, to be dragged to execution, and to atone for his guilt by the most rigorous punishment? what reftrains you on this occafion? is it the cuftom of our ancestors? But it is well known in this commonwealth, that even perfons in a private flation have often put peftilent citizens to death. Do the laws relating to the punishment of Roman citizens hold you in awe? Certainly traitors against their country can have no claim to the privileges of citizens. Are you afraid of the reproaches of pofterity? A noble proof indeed, of your gratitude to the Roman people, that you, a new man, who without any recommendation from your ancestors, have been raised by them through all the degrees of honour, to fovereign dig. nity, fhould, for the fake of any danger to yourself, neglect the care of the public fafety. But if cenfure be that whereof you are afraid, think which is to be most apprehended, the cenfure incurred for having acted with firmnefs and courage, or that for having acted with floth and pufillanimity? When Italy fhall be laid defolate with war, her cities plundered, her dwellings on fire; can you then hope to escape the flames of public indignation?

To this molt facred voice of my country, and to all those who blame me after the fame manner, I fhall make this short reply; That if I had thought it the moft advisable to put Cataline to death, I

would