These circumstances, as they had occurred, were then narrated by Cicero in his Third Oration, delivered in the forum. On the nones (5th) of December the Senate was again summoned to determine upon the fate of the conspirators. Cæsar, in an elaborate speech, proposed that they should be kept in confinement in the different towns of Italy, but Cato and Cicero strongly advocated that they should be instantly put to death. Their views were adopted by a majority of the Senate, and a decree passed to that effect. On the same night Lentulus and his associates were strangled by the common executioner in the Tullianum, a loathsome dungeon on the slope of the Capitol.
While these things were going on at Rome, Catiline had collected a force amounting to two legions, although not above one fourth part were fully equipped. When the news of the failure of the plot at Rome reached his camp many deserted. He thereupon attempted to cross the Apennines and take refuge in Cisalpine Gaul, but the passes were strictly guarded by Metellus Celer with three legions. Finding, therefore, that escape was cut off in front, while Antonius was pressing on his rear, Catiline determined, as a last resource, to hazard an engagement. Antonius, in consequence of real or pretended illness, resigned the command to M. Petreius, a skillful soldier. The battle was obstinate and bloody. The rebels fought with the fury of despair; and when Catiline saw that all was lost, he charged headlong into the thickest of the fight and fell sword in hand (B.C. 62).
Cicero had rendered important services to the state, and enjoyed for a time unbounded popularity. Catulus in the Senate and Cato in the forum hailed him as the "Father of his Country;" thanksgivings in his name were voted to the gods; and all Italy joined in testifying enthusiastic admiration and gratitude. Cicero's elation knew no bounds; he fancied that his political influence was now supreme, and looked upon himself as a match even for Pompey. But his splendid achievement contained the germ of his humiliation and downfall. There could be no doubt that the punishment inflicted by the Senate upon Lentulus and his associates was a violation of the fundamental principles of the Roman Constitution, which declared that no citizen could be put to death until sentenced by the whole body of the people assembled in their Comitia, and for this act Cicero, as the presiding magistrate, was held responsible. It was in vain to urge that the Consuls had been armed with dictatorial power; the Senate, in the present instance, assuming to themselves judicial functions which they had no right to exercise, gave orders for the execution of a sentence which they had no right to pronounce. Nor were his enemies long in discovering this vulnerable point. On the last day of the year, when, according to established custom, he ascended the Rostra to give an account to the people of the events of his Consulship, Metellus Celer, one of the new Tribunes, forbade him to speak, exclaiming that the man who had put Roman citizens to death without granting them a hearing was himself unworthy to be heard. But this attack was premature. The audience had not yet forgotten their recent escape; so that, when Cicero swore with a loud voice that "he had saved the Republic and the city from ruin," the crowd with one voice responded that he had sworn truly.
It was rumored that many other eminent men had been privy to Catiline's conspiracy. Among others, the names of Crassus and Cæsar were most frequently mentioned; but the participation of either of these men in such an enterprise seems most improbable. The interests of Crassus were opposed to such an adventure; his vast wealth was employed in a variety of speculations which would have been ruined in a general overthrow, while he had not the energy or ability to seize and retain the helm in the confusion that would have ensued. Of Cæsar's guilt there is no satisfactory evidence, and it is improbable that so keen-sighted a man would have leagued with such a desperate adventurer as Catiline. Cato, in his speech respecting the fate of the conspirators, hinted that Cæsar wished to spare them because he was a partner of their guilt; and in the following year (B.C. 62), when Cæsar was Prætor, L. Vettius, who had been one of Cicero's informers, openly charged him with being a party to the plot. Thereupon Cæsar called upon Cicero to testify that he had of his own accord given the Consul evidence respecting the conspiracy; and so complete was his vindication that Vettius was thrown into prison.
