[105] Caius Cornelius—There were two branches of the gens Cornelia, one patrician, the other plebeian, from which sprung this conspirator.
[106] Municipal towns—Municipiis. "The municipia were towns of which the inhabitants were admitted to the rights of Roman citizens, but which were allowed to govern themselves by their own laws, and to choose their own magistrates. See Aul. Gell, xvi. 13; Beaufort, Rep. Rom., vol. v." Bernouf.
[107] Marcus Licinius Crassus—The same who, with Pompey and Caesar, formed the first triumvirate, and who was afterward killed in his expedition against the Parthians. He had, before the time of the conspiracy, held the offices of praetor and consul.
[108] XVIII. But previously, etc.—Sallust here makes a digression, to give an account of a conspiracy that was formed three years before that of Catiline.
[109] Publius Autronius and Publius Sylla—The same who are mentioned in the preceding chapter. They were consuls elect, and some editions have the words designati consules, immediately following their names.
[110] Having been tried for bribery under the laws against it —Legibus ambitus interrogati. Bribery at their election, is the meaning of the word ambitus, for ambire, as Cortius observes, is circumeundo favorem et suffragia quaerere. De Brosses translates the passage thus: "Autrone et Sylla, convaincus d'avoir obtenu le consulat par corruption des suffrages, avaient été punis selon la rigueur de la loi". There were several very severe Roman laws against bribery. Autronius and Sylla were both excluded from the consulship.
[111] For extortion—Pecuniarum repetundarum. Catiline had been praetor in Africa, and, at the expiration of his office, was accused of extortion by Publius Clodius, on the part of the Africans. He escaped by bribing the prosecutor and judges.
[112] To declare himself a candidate within the legitimate number of days—Prohibitus erat consulatum petere, quod intra legitimos dies profiteri (se candidatum, says Cortius, citing Suet. Aug. 4) nequiverit. A person could not be a candidate for the consulship, unless he could declare himself free from accusation within a certain number of days before the time of holding the comitia centuriata. That number of days was trinundinum spatium, that is, the time occupied by three market-days, tres nundinae, with seven days intervening between the first and second, and between the second and third; or seventeen days. The nundinae (from novem and dies) were held, as it is commonly expressed, every ninth day; whence Cortius and others considered trinundinum spatium to be twenty-seven, or even thirty days; but this way of reckoning was not that of the Romans, who made the last day of the first ennead to be also the first day of the second. Concerning the nundinae see Macrob., Sat. i. 16. "Muller and Longius most erroneously supposed the trinundinum to be about thirty days; for that it embraced only seventeen days has been fully shown by Ernesti. Clav. Cic., sub voce; by Scheller in Lex. Ampl., p. 11, 669; by Nitschius Antiquitt. Romm. i. p. 623: and by Drachenborch (cited by Gerlach) ad Liv. iii. 35." Kritzius.
[113] Cneius Piso—Of the Calpurnian gens. Suetonius (Vit. Caes., c. 9) mentions three authors who related that Crassus and Caesar were both concerned in this plot; and that, if it had succeeded, Crassus was to have assumed the dictatorship, and made Caesar his master of the horse. The conspiracy, as these writers state, failed through the remorse or irresolution of Crassus.
[114] Catiline and Autronius—After these two names, in Havercamp's and many other editions, follow the words circiter nonas Decembres, i.e., about the fifth of December.