The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [308]
6. And Cicero was the only one of the candidates descended from the equestrian rather than the senatorial order.
7. Though Catiline’s designs were not yet publicly known, Cicero’s consulship faced many difficulties from the start, chief among them the following.
8. Those disqualified by Sylla’s laws from holding office were considerable both in power and number, and they came forward to oppose the laws.
9. They had right on their side, but were acting at an inopportune time because the state was in turmoil.
10. The tribunes of the people were also pressing for change.
11. They wished to institute a commission of ten persons with wide powers, including the right to sell public lands in Italy, Syria and Pompey’s new conquests;
12. To judge and banish whomever they pleased; to found colonies; to use public money; and to levy soldiers.
13. Several of the nobility favoured this law also, among them Cicero’s consular colleague Caius Antonius, who hoped to be one of the Ten.
14. But what worried most nobles was that Antonius was thought to be in league with Catiline,
15. Whose plans he supported because they would free him from his great debts.
16. But Cicero ensured Antonius’ support by assigning to him the province of Macedonia, he himself declining that of Gaul.
17. Antonius was thereafter ready to support whatever Cicero did.
18. Now Cicero could attack the conspirators with greater courage.
19. In the senate he argued against the proposed commission of ten, and the senate voted against it.
20. And when the commission’s proponents tried again by summoning the consuls before the people’s assembly, Cicero not only secured its rejection there too,
21. But so overpowered the tribunes by his oratory, that they abandoned all thought of their other projects.
22. For Cicero was the one man above all others whose eloquence made Romans feel the invincibility of justice,
23. And by the power of his advocacy he freed the right and useful from everything that could cause offence.
24. An incident occurred in the theatre during Cicero’s consulship which showed what his oratory could achieve.
25. Whereas formerly the knights of Rome mingled in the theatre with commoners, the praetor Marcus Otho appointed them their own section in the theatre.
26. The commoners took this as an insult, so when Otho appeared in the theatre they hissed him; the knights, on the contrary, applauded him.
27. The people increased their hissing, the knights their clapping; then the two sections turned on one another, hurling insults, and reduced the theatre to uproar.
28. Cicero was called, and so effectually chided everyone for their behaviour that the crowd now applauded Otho,
29. The people contending with the knights who should give him the greatest demonstrations of honour and respect.
Chapter 71
1. Catiline and his co-conspirators, at first disheartened, soon took courage again.
2. In secret meetings they exhorted one another to capture the government before Pompey’s army returned from the eastern wars.
3. The veterans of Sylla’s army were Catiline’s chief stimulus to action.
4. They had been disbanded and dispersed around Italy,
5. But the greatest number and the fiercest of them lived in the cities of Etruria, where they were dissatisfied and restless.
6. These, under the leadership of one Manlius, who had served with distinction in the wars under Sylla, joined themselves to Catiline,
7. And they came to Rome to assist him with their votes at the consular election, he having resolved to stand again for that office,
8. While also having resolved to assassinate Cicero in the tumult of the hustings.
9. Cicero, suspecting these plans, deferred the day of election and summoned Catiline to the senate, there questioning him about the charges made against him.
10. Catiline believed that there were many in the senate with views similar to his own,
11. And in order to get their support by showing them his mettle,