[177] Catiline, by Mr. Beesly. Fortnightly Review, 1865.
[178] Pro Murena, xxv.: "Quem omnino vivum illinc exire non oportuerat." I think we must conclude from this that Cicero had almost expected that his attack upon the conspirators, in his first Catiline oration, would have the effect of causing him to be killed.
[179] Æneid, viii., 668:
"Te, Catilina, minaci Pendentem scopulo."
[180] Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii., xxxiv.
[181] Juvenal, Sat. ii., 27: "Catilina Cethegum!" Could such a one as Catiline answer such a one as Cethegus? Sat. viii., 232: "Arma tamen vos Nocturna et flammas domibus templisque parastis." Catiline, in spite of his noble blood, had endeavored to burn the city. Sat. xiv., 41: "Catilinam quocunque in populo videas." It is hard to find a good man, but it is easy enough to put your hand anywhere on a Catiline.
[182] Val Maximus, lib. v., viii., 5; lib. ix., 1, 9; lib. ix., xi., 3.
[183] Florus, lib. iv.
[184] Mommsen's History of Rome, book v., chap v.
[185] I feel myself constrained here to allude to the treatment given to Catiline by Dean Merivale in his little work on the two Roman Triumvirates. The Dean's sympathies are very near akin to those of Mr. Beesly, but he values too highly his own historical judgment to allow it to run on all fours with Mr. Beesly's sympathies. "The real designs," he says, "of the infamous Catiline and his associates must indeed always remain shrouded in mystery. * * * Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny, and on the whole it would be unreasonable to doubt, that such a conspiracy there really was, and that the very existence of the commonwealth was for a moment seriously imperilled." It would certainly be unreasonable to doubt it. But the Dean, though he calls Catiline infamous, and acknowledges the conspiracy, never- theless give us ample proof of his sympathy with the conspirators, or rather of his strong feeling against Cicero. Speaking of Catiline at a certain moment, he says that he "was not yet hunted down." He speaks of the "upstart Cicero," and plainly shows us that his heart is with the side which had been Cæsar's. Whether conspiracy or no conspiracy, whether with or without wholesale murder and rapine, a single master with a strong hand was the one remedy needed for Rome! The reader must understand that Cicero's one object in public life was to resist that lesson.