Part 17 (1/2)
On the 9th, when the flight of Catiline was known, Cicero delivered his second speech, which was addressed to the people in the forum. The Senate proceeded to declare Catiline and Manlius public enemies, and decreed that Antonius should go forth to the war, while Cicero should remain to guard the city. Cicero was now anxious to obtain other evidence, besides that of Fulvia, which would warrant him in apprehending the conspirators within the walls. This was fortunately supplied by the emba.s.sadors of the Allobroges, who were now at Rome, having been sent to seek relief from certain real or alleged grievances.
Their suit, however, had not prospered, and Lentulus, conceiving that their discontent might be made available for his own purposes, opened a negotiation with them and disclosed to them the nature of the plot. But they thought it more prudent to reveal all to Q. Fabius Sanga, the patron of their state, who in his turn acquainted Cicero. By the instructions of the latter the emba.s.sadors affected great zeal in the undertaking, and obtained a written agreement signed by Lentulus, Cethegus, and others. They quitted Rome soon after midnight on the 3d of December, accompanied by one T. Volturcius, who was charged with dispatches for Catiline. The emba.s.sadors were seized, as they were crossing the Mulvian bridge, by two of the Praetors, who had been stationed in ambush to intercept them.
Cicero instantly summoned Lentulus, Cethegus, and the other conspirators to his presence. Lentulus being Praetor, the Consul led him by the hand to the Temple of Concord, where the Senate was already met; the rest of the accused followed closely guarded. Volturcius, finding escape impossible, agreed, upon his own personal safety being insured, to make a full confession. His statements were confirmed by the Allobroges, and the testimony was rendered conclusive by the signatures of the ringleaders, which they were unable to deny. The guilt of Lentulus, Cethegus, and seven others being thus established, Lentulus was forced to abdicate his office, and then, with the rest, was consigned to the charge of certain Senators, who became responsible for their appearance.
These circ.u.mstances, 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. Caesar, 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 pa.s.sed to that effect. On the same night Lentulus and his a.s.sociates 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 pa.s.ses 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 b.l.o.o.d.y. 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 G.o.ds; and all Italy joined in testifying enthusiastic admiration and grat.i.tude. 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 a.s.sociates was a violation of the fundamental principles of the Roman Const.i.tution, which declared that no citizen could be put to death until sentenced by the whole body of the people a.s.sembled 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, a.s.suming 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 p.r.o.nounce. 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 Consuls.h.i.+p, 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 Cra.s.sus and Caesar were most frequently mentioned; but the partic.i.p.ation of either of these men in such an enterprise seems most improbable. The interests of Cra.s.sus 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 Caesar'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 Caesar wished to spare them because he was a partner of their guilt; and in the following year (B.C. 62), when Caesar was Praetor, L. Vettius, who had been one of Cicero's informers, openly charged him with being a party to the plot. Thereupon Caesar 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin of Pompey.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Julius Caesar.]
CHAPTER x.x.xII.
FROM POMPEY'S RETURN FROM THE EAST TO CICERO'S BANISHMENT AND RECALL.
B.C. 62-57.
Pompey, as we have already seen, reached Italy in B.C. 62. It was generally feared that he would seize the supreme power, but he soon calmed these apprehensions by disbanding his army immediately after landing at Brundusium. He did not, however, enter Rome in triumph till the 30th of September, B.C. 61. The triumph lasted two days, and surpa.s.sed in splendor every spectacle that Rome had yet seen. The tablets carried in the procession, on which his victories were emblazoned, declared that he had taken 1000 strong fortresses, 900 towns, and 800 s.h.i.+ps; that he had founded 39 cities; that he had raised the revenue of the Roman people from 59 millions to 85 millions; and that he had brought into the public treasury 20,000 talents. Before his triumphal car walked 324 captive princes.
With this triumph the first and most glorious part of Pompey's life may be said to have ended. Hitherto he had been employed almost exclusively in war; but now he was called upon to play a prominent part in the civil commotions of the Republic--a part for which neither his natural talents nor his previous habits had in the least fitted him. From the death of Sulla to the present time, a period of nearly twenty years, he had been unquestionably the first man in the Roman world, but he did not retain much longer this proud position, and soon discovered that the genius of Caesar had reduced him to a second place in the state. It would seem as if Pompey, on his return to Rome, hardly knew to which party to attach himself. He had been appointed to the command against the pirates and Mithridates in opposition to the aristocracy, and they still regarded him with jealousy and distrust. He could not, therefore, ally himself to them, especially too as some of their most influential leaders, such as M. Cra.s.sus and L. Lucullus, were his personal enemies. At the same time he seems to have been indisposed to unite himself to the popular party, which had risen into importance during his absence in the East, and over which Caesar possessed unbounded influence. But the object which engaged the immediate attention of Pompey was to obtain from the Senate a ratification of his acts in Asia, and an a.s.signment of lands which he had promised to his veterans. In order to secure this object, he had purchased the Consuls.h.i.+p for one of his officers, L. Afranius, who was elected with Q. Metellus for B.C. 60. But L. Afranius was a man of slender ability; and the Senate, glad of an opportunity to put an affront upon a person whom they both feared and hated, resolutely refused to sanction Pompey's measures in Asia. This was the unwisest thing they could have done. If they had known their real interests, they would have yielded to all Pompey's wishes, and have sought by every means to win him over to their side, as a counterpoise to the growing and more dangerous influence of Caesar. But their short-sighted policy threw Pompey into Caesar's arms, and thus sealed the downfall of their party. Pompey was resolved to fulfill the promises he had made to his Asiatic clients and his veteran troops.
Caesar had returned from Spain in the middle of this year. He had been in that province for one year as Propraetor, during which time he displayed that military ability which was soon to be exhibited on a still more conspicuous field. He subdued the mountainous tribes of Lusitania, took the town of Brigantium in the country of the Gallaeci, and gained many other advantages over the enemy. His troops saluted him as Imperator, and the Senate honored him by a public thanksgiving. He now laid claim to a triumph, and at the same time wished to become a candidate for the Consuls.h.i.+p. For the latter purpose his presence in the city was necessary; but, as he could not enter the city without relinquis.h.i.+ng his triumph, he applied to the Senate to be exempted from the usual law, and to become a candidate in his absence. As this was refused, he at once relinquished his triumph, entered the city, and became a candidate for the Consuls.h.i.+p. He was elected without difficulty, but the aristocracy succeeded in a.s.sociating with him in the Consuls.h.i.+p M. Bibulus, who belonged to the opposite party, and who had likewise been his colleague in the aediles.h.i.+p and Praetors.h.i.+p.
Caesar now represented to Pompey the importance of detaching from the aristocracy M. Cra.s.sus, who, by his connections and immense wealth, possessed great political influence. Pompey and Cra.s.sus had for a long time past been deadly enemies, but they were now reconciled, and the three entered into an agreement to divide the power between themselves.
This first Triumvirate, as it is called, was therefore merely a private arrangement between the three most powerful men at Rome, which remained a secret till the proceedings of Caesar in his Consuls.h.i.+p showed that he was supported by a power against which it was in vain for his enemies to struggle.
As soon as Caesar had entered upon his Consuls.h.i.+p he proposed an agrarian law for the division of the rich Campanian land. The execution of the law was to be intrusted to a board of twenty commissioners. The opposition of the aristocratical party was in vain. Porapey and Cra.s.sus spoke in favor of the law; and the former declared that he would bring both sword and buckler against those who used the sword. On the day on which it was put to the vote, Bibulus and the other members of the aristocracy were driven out of the forum by force of arms: the law was carried, the commissioners appointed, and about 20,000 citizens, comprising, of course, a great number of Pompey's veterans, received allotments subsequently. Bibulus, despairing of being able to offer any farther resistance to Caesar, shut himself up in his own house, and did not appear again in public till the expiration of his Consuls.h.i.+p.
Caesar obtained from the people a ratification of all Pompey's acts in Asia, and, to cement their union more closely, gave his only daughter Julia in marriage to Pompey. His next step was to gain over the Equites, who had rendered efficient service to Cicero in his Consuls.h.i.+p, and had hitherto supported the aristocratical party. An excellent opportunity now occurred for accomplis.h.i.+ng this object. In their eagerness to obtain the farming of the public taxes in Asia, the Equites had agreed to pay too large a sum, and accordingly pet.i.tioned the Senate for more favorable terms. This, however, had been opposed by Metellus Celer, Cato, and others of the aristocracy; and Caesar, therefore, now carried a law to relieve the Equites from one third of the sum which they had agreed to pay. Having thus gratified the people, the Equites, and Pompey, he was easily able to obtain for himself the provinces which he wished.
It is not attributing any extraordinary foresight to Caesar to suppose that he already saw that the struggle between the different parties at Rome must eventually be terminated by the sword. The same causes were still in operation which had led to the civil wars between Marius and Sulla; and he was well aware that the aristocracy would not hesitate to call in the a.s.sistance of force if they should ever succeed in detaching Pompey from his interests. It was therefore of the first importance for him to obtain an army which he might attach to himself by victories and rewards. Accordingly, he induced the Tribune Vatinius to propose a bill to the people granting him the provinces of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyric.u.m for five years (B.C. 58-54). Transalpine Gaul was shortly afterward added. Caesar chose the Gallic provinces, as he would thus be able to pa.s.s the winter in Italy and keep up his communication with the city, while the disturbed state of Farther Gaul promised him sufficient materials for engaging in a series of wars in which he might employ an army that would afterward be devoted to his purposes. In addition to these considerations, Caesar was also actuated by the ambition of subduing forever that nation which had once sacked Rome, and which had been, from the earliest times, more or less an object of dread to the Roman state.
The Consuls of the following year (B.C. 58) were L. Calpurnius Piso and A. Gabinius. Piso was Caesar's father-in-law, and Gabinius in his Tribunate had proposed the law conferring upon Pompey the command against the pirates. Caesar saw that it was evident they would support whatever the Triumvirs might wish. Cicero was now threatened with destruction.
In B.C. 62, while the wife of Caesar was celebrating in the house of her husband, then Praetor and Pontifex Maximus, the rites of the Bona Dea, from which all male creatures were excluded, it was discovered that P.
Clodius Pulcher, a profligate n.o.ble, whom we have seen inciting the army of Lucullus to insurrection, had found his way into the mansion disguised in woman's apparel, and, having been detected, had made his escape by the help of a female slave. The matter was laid before the Senate, and by them referred to the members of the Pontifical College, who pa.s.sed a resolution that sacrilege had been committed. Caesar forthwith divorced his wife. Clodius was impeached and brought to trial.
In defense he pleaded an alibi, offering to prove that he was at Interamna at the very time when the crime was said to have been committed; but Cicero came forward as a witness, and swore that he had met and spoken to Clodius in Rome on the day in question. In spite of this decisive testimony, and the evident guilt of the accused, the Judices p.r.o.nounced him innocent by a majority of voices (B.C. 61).
Clodius now vowed deadly vengeance against Cicero. To accomplish his purpose more readily, he determined to become a candidate for the Tribunate, but for this it was necessary, in the first place, that he should be adopted into a plebeian family by means of a special law.