Cicero - Anthony Everitt [60]
So far, the Senate had been treating Cicero as something of a joke and the words “I have been informed that,” which opened his constant announcements that the state was in peril, had become a catchphrase. However, the Senators had no choice now but to give him, through the Final Act, the authority he had been asking for. For a few days nothing happened and there was no news. Perhaps the Consul had got his facts wrong. A week or so later, a relieved Cicero was able to announce that, just as predicted, Manlius had risen.
Military countermeasures were taken and troops levied to put down disturbances. An attempt to capture Praeneste, a town only about 20 miles from Rome, was foiled. Catilina, at his best in a crisis, kept his nerve. No direct links had been discovered between him and Manlius and he stayed in town, behaving normally. Seeing that a prosecution was being threatened, Catilina offered to surrender himself into custody, cheekily suggesting that he be kept under arrest at Cicero’s house. The Consul declined the ambiguous honor and Catilina offered to live in the house of the Praetor Metellus Celer. Metellus was married to a promiscuous noblewoman, Clodia, sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, who at the time was one of Cicero’s supporters and joined his bodyguard.
Catilina stayed elsewhere and on the night of November 6 attended an important planning meeting. Evidently morale was low, and he did his best to raise everyone’s spirits. He announced necessary administrative arrangements, but the indispensable Fulvia, briefed by her lover, was on hand to tell Cicero later in the evening what had been discussed.
Cicero’s growing confidence is illustrated by the fact that he waited until November 8, two days later, before summoning the Senate to meet at the temple of Jupiter the Stayer near the Palatine Hill, which was easier to guard than the Senate House. He had extraordinary news to impart and the occasion was all the more dramatic in that Catilina, although he must have known or guessed that his cover was blown, put in an appearance. The Senate’s mood had hardened and few members spoke to him or sat beside him. At the meeting, the Consul addressed Catilina directly:
I am able to report how [on November 6] you came into Scythemakers’ Street (I will be perfectly specific) and entered the house of Marcus Laeca: and many of your accomplices in this lunatic, criminal enterprise joined you there. Do you dare to deny it?… You parceled out the regions of Italy. You decided where you wanted each of your agents to go. You assigned parts of the city to be burned. You confirmed that you yourself would be leaving and added that the only thing that held you back for a little was the fact that I was still alive.
Cicero reported that two of those at the meeting had agreed to go to his house in the early hours, somehow gain entry and murder him in his bed. Forewarned, he had increased his guard and arranged that the men, ostensibly presenting themselves to convey “the morning’s greetings,” were refused admission.
A heated exchange between the two protagonists in the drama followed. According to Sallust, Catilina reacted fiercely to the speech, calling Cicero an “immigrant” and refusing to go into voluntary exile without a trial. Cicero asked the Senators if they wished to banish Catilina. This was an ill-judged intervention. Embarrassed by