Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics) (60 page)

the laws … relating to the punishment of Roman citizens
: particularly the
lex Sempronia
of 123 or 122
BC
; see first note on
Ver
. 2.5.163 above. The view which Cicero puts forward in the next sentence, that citizens’ rights could be forfeited in certain circumstances, had no legal basis; it is significant that this view, too, is placed within the imaginary speech.

Saturninus, the Gracchi, Flaccus
: see §§3–4 above, with notes.

thronging round the tribunal of the city praetor
: i.e. to secure judgements in legal disputes with creditors. The city praetor in 63 was Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Cicero’s future client. In Sallust (
Cat
. 33.1; 33.5), Manlius is made to complain to Quintus Marcius Rex that the praetor and the moneylenders have not treated his men fairly.

And you, Jupiter … whom we rightly call the ‘Stayer’
: see first note on §11 above. Cicero is again turning towards the statue.

Lucius Catilina
: where Cicero writes simply ‘Catilina’, without
praenomen
(first name), as he does throughout the
First
,
Third
, and
Fourth
Catilinarians
, I translate this as ‘Catiline’, since that is the familiar form of the name in English. But where he dignifies Catiline by the inclusion of his
praenomen
, as here (and at §§3 (twice), 14, and 15, only), I prefer to keep the Roman form of the name, and hope that readers will not object to the inconsistency.

He has gone, departed, cleared off, escaped
: whether to Manlius’ army or, as he himself claimed, into exile was not yet known. Hence the scepticism which Cicero has to counter in this speech.

Tongilius
: otherwise unknown, as are Publicius and Minucius. Presumably they must have been familiar to at least a significant part of Cicero’s audience; no doubt they were well known to the sort of people who frequented the forum.

Quintus Metellus
: see second note on
Cat
. 1.19 above. The reference Cicero has just made to Gaul is to Cisalpine Gaul.

the praetor’s edict
: the edict published by the city praetor at the beginning of each year; it set out how he intended to administer the civil law during his period of office, including the policy he would follow in cases involving debt (cf. note on
Cat
. 1.32 above).

Some of them … sexual impulses
: i.e. he penetrated some and was penetrated by others, the latter activity being much the more disreputable.

the death of their parents
: this might be desired by young men with large debts impatient to receive their inheritance.

no actor
: actors, with rare exceptions, were of very low social standing at Rome, and were thought of as having low moral standards.

one man’s valour
: Pompey had just completed the Third Mithridatic War (73–63), having previously cleared the Mediterranean of pirates (67). Mithridates himself had committed suicide earlier in the year (hence ‘no king capable of making war on the Roman people’).

yesterday
: refers grammatically to Cicero’s summoning of the senate, not to his escape from assassination; therefore this sentence cannot prove that the
First Catilinarian
was delivered on 7 November (though in my view it was; see second note on
Cat
. 1.1 above).

the leading senators … empty and unoccupied
: see third note on
Cat
. 4.3 below.

axes, rods of office
: the
fasces
(see Glossary).

that silver eagle
: see second note on
Cat
. 1.24 above.

Manlius … declared war on the Roman people
: some modern scholars have in fact believed this to be the case; one argument against it is that Manlius’ veteran colonists came to Rome to support Catiline in the election campaign of 63 (
Mur
. 49). It is interesting that Cicero needs to explain to his audience who Manlius was; presumably the general public would have known of the rising in Etruria, but not necessarily the name of the leader (since he was not otherwise a person of any prominence).
The SCU had been passed against Manlius (not Catiline) on 20 October.

within three days
: in the event, Catiline spent some days at Arretium before joining Manlius (Sal.
Cat
. 36.1), and so the news must have taken a week or so to reach Rome.

New books
: the standard term for a general cancellation of debts (the term would normally be translated ‘cancellation of debts’, but a literal translation has to be used here because of the play on words which follows).

the plundering of former times
: i.e. when under Sulla’s confiscations and proscriptions (82–81) property was taken from Sulla’s enemies (including perhaps the ‘poor and needy farmers’ just mentioned) and given to the veterans. This whole passage is savage in its hostility to the Sullan veterans and the Sullan period.

in dishonourable circumstances
: fighting against their country.

the prison
: the state prison, between the temple of Concord and the senate-house, used for executions only. Besides the five conspirators executed on 5 December, Jugurtha and Vercingetorix also met their ends there. The building still exists, although nowadays one enters the lower of the two chambers (the execution chamber or ‘Tullianum’) by a staircase, not a rope—and leaves.

Quintus Metellus
: see second note on
Cat
. 1.19 above.

and it has a prison
: Cicero is referring to execution, not imprisonment (see note on §22 above).

now that all the forces … on land and sea
: a reference to the recent completion of the Third Mithridatic War (see note on §11 above).

the founder of this city
: Romulus.

some days ago
: in fact nearly a month ago.

I spent all my time … they were planning
: not strictly true, since his defence of Murena must have taken up a good deal of his time.

Publius Lentulus
: Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, a patrician and the most distinguished of Catiline’s followers (more so than Catiline himself); his wife Julia was the sister of another patrician, Lucius Julius Caesar, the consul of 64. Lentulus had been praetor in charge of the extortion court in 74, and then consul in 71, but had been expelled from the senate the following year by the censors; to secure his readmission, he had become praetor a second time in 63. At
Cat
. 4.10, Cicero gives an interesting hint that Lentulus had been lavish in his generosity to the Roman people and was viewed as a ‘popular’ politician. No doubt his generosity had placed him heavily in debt, and he was now looking to Catiline for at least a second consulship and a lucrative provincial
governorship; but the remarks attributed to him at §9 imply an even larger ambition.

Titus Volturcius
: G. Forsythe has demonstrated that Volturcius must have been a native of Cortona in Etruria (14 miles south of Arretium), and not of Croton in Bruttium, as Sallust maintains at
Cat
. 44.3 (see
AJP
113 (1992), 407–12).

Lucius Flaccus and Gaius Pomptinus
: Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Gaius Pomptinus, praetors of 63 (like Lentulus). Both were military men (as is implied by the term ‘valiant’). Flaccus, a patrician, had served in Transalpine Gaul, Cilicia, Spain, Crete, and Achaea before becoming city praetor in 63; in 62 he was governor of Asia, being successfully defended on a charge of extortion by Hortensius and Cicero in 59 (Cicero’s defence,
Pro Flacco
, survives). Pomptinus had served under Crassus against Spartacus in 71; he went on to be governor of Transalpine Gaul in 62–59, suppressing a rising of the Allobroges (62–61), and later served under Cicero in Cilicia in 51–50.

from the prefecture of Reate
: a small town in the hills in the Sabine territory 45 miles north-east of Rome; Cicero was a patron of the place. It is interesting to learn that he, like other politicians, had his own gang of armed supporters. Reate was later to become famous for being the birthplace of the emperor Vespasian.

Towards the end of the third watch
: there were four watches of the night, so the time indicated will be between 3.00 and 3.30 a.m.

and their entourage
: the envoys would have been some of the most high-ranking men of their tribe, and no doubt brought a considerable staff with them to Rome.

Cimber Gabinius
: Publius Gabinius Capito; he came from a senatorial family, but he himself was only an
eques
. ‘Cimber’ may have been a nickname (the Cimbri were a German tribe defeated by Marius in 101).

Lucius Statilius
: another
eques
, not known to have had senatorial relatives.

Gaius Cethegus
: Gaius Cornelius Cethegus, a patrician senator. All we know of his life prior to 63 was that he apparently went to Spain in the 70s, intending to assassinate Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius (see fourth note on
Imp
. 46 above), but succeeded only in wounding him.

he had stayed up … writing letters
: ironic; for the length of his letter to Catiline, see §12. Cicero implies that Lentulus was a late riser—a lazy patrician. He specifically mentions his laziness at §16 below.

Gaius Sulpicius
: not otherwise known, but he must have been a military man, like Flaccus and Pomptinus, since he too is described as ‘valiant’. Plutarch adds the detail (an important one, in view of Cethegus’ defence at § 10) that the weapons he discovered were all newly sharpened (
Cic
. 19.2).

Lucius Cassius
: Lucius Cassius Longinus, a praetor (in charge of the treason court) with Cicero in 66 and, like Catiline himself, one of the
unsuccessful candidates for the consulship of 63. Asconius calls him stupid (82 C); but he was intelligent enough not to give the Allobroges a letter.

according to the Sibylline books … Cinna and Sulla
: the three Sibylline books were a collection of ancient prophecies purchased, according to legend, by Rome’s fifth king, Tarquinius Priscus, from the Cumaean Sibyl. They were kept underground in a stone chest in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, but were destroyed in the (accidental) burning of the Capitol in 83; their contents were afterwards reconstructed. Lucius Cornelius Cinna (consul in 87–84) controlled Rome from the death of Marius until his own death in 84; his opponent Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix was consul in 88, dictator (responsible for the proscriptions) in 82–81, and consul again in 80 (see further first note on §24 below).

the acquittal of the Vestal virgins
: we know of two such trials, one, of the Vestal Licinia, for adultery with Crassus, and one, of the Vestal Fabia (a half-sister or cousin of Cicero’s wife Terentia), for adultery with Catiline. On the assumption that these are the trials Cicero is referring to, both trials are conventionally dated to 73. The six Vestal virgins were priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth fire; they were of high social status and enjoyed various privileges, such as reserved seats at the games. The temple of Vesta was a circular building near the south-western corner of the forum, and contained the sacred fire, the Palladium (the sacred guardian-statue of Pallas Athena), and an erect phallus. If a Vestal allowed the fire to go out, this was taken as evidence of her impurity; if convicted, she would be buried alive. Vestals were allowed to retire after thirty years.

during the Saturnalia
: 17–23 December. At this festival, a precursor of the modern Christmas, presents were exchanged, there was much eating and drinking, and slaves were allowed to speak and do as they pleased.

your illustrious grandfather
: Publius Cornelius Lentulus, suffect consul in 162 and
princeps senatus
(leader of the senate) from 125 until after 120. In 121 he was seriously wounded while participating in the suppression of Gaius Gracchus (cf.
Cat
. 4.13).

through whom
: i.e. Umbrenus and Gabinius.

he confessed that it was true
: Cicero does not make it clear exactly what it was that Lentulus confessed to.

the oratorical skill in which he has always excelled
: at
Brut
. 235, however, Cicero tells us that Lentulus delivered his speeches well, but was otherwise an indifferent orator. (In view of the fact that Cicero executed him, it is a little surprising to find Lentulus popping up in the
Brutus
(also at 230); perhaps this shows that Cicero did not view himself as responsible for his death.)

‘The person I have sent to you … however lowly’
: there is little doubt that Cicero quotes the letter accurately; Sallust recasts it and removes two
colloquialisms (
Cat
. 44.5). It would have been obvious to Catiline, from the seal and handwriting, who had sent the letter; and the contents, with the advice to accept the help of slaves, were entirely superfluous. The purpose of the letter must therefore have been to demonstrate to Catiline that Volturcius, whom he had not met, was a genuine conspirator, and not a government infiltrator. An alternative explanation of the letter, that Lentulus was not previously a member of the conspiracy, should be rejected (as by E. J. Phillips,
Historia
, 25 (1976), 446–7).

my valiant colleague
: Antonius. The senate acknowledged that he had been a friend of Catiline, but had put his duty to his country above his duty to his friend.

Marcus Caeparius
: Marcus Caeparius (alternatively Ceparius) of Tarracina (the former Volscian town of Anxur, on the coast 57 miles south of Rome). He had already left for Apulia, but appears to have been brought back to Rome at the end of the day. Nothing is known about him; one wonders how he could have hoped to start a slave rising on his own (particularly in view of the presence of Metellus Creticus in the area), and what he expected to get out of the conspiracy.