Planters, whom Lucius Sylla had fettled at Fafula; upon Quintus Manlius Chilo, who was joined with the fame Furius, in all Applications made to the Allobroges; against Publius Umbrenus, the Son of a Freed-Man, and who it was proved, firft introduced the Gauls to Gabinius.

Now the Senate, O Romans! proceeded with this Lenity, upon the Suppofition, that the Republic being preserved from fo dangerous a Confpiracy, from fuch Strength, and fuch Numbers of inbred Enemies, by the Punishment of only nine defperate Men, the Minds of others might be cured. And further, my Countrymen, upon my Account a folemn Thanksgiving to the immortal Gods for their remarkable Favours, was decreed: The first Inftance, fince the Building of Rome, of fuch an Honour being done to one who acted without laying afide the Robes of Peace. And their Decree was in the following Terms: Because I had delivered the City from the Flames, the Citizens from Slaughter, and Italy from War. An Honour, my Countrymen, which, if compared with others of the fame Kind, this Difference will be found, that theirs were decreed for their fuccefsfully ferving, mine for

happily

happily faving, the State. That which required our first Cares, was first dispatched and executed. For Publius Lentulus, though upon the Information being proved, and his own Confeffion, the Senate had adjudged him to have forfeited not only the Authority of a Prætor, but the Privileges of a Citizen, divefted himself of his Magiftracy; that we might not entertain the leaft Scruple, in punishing a Roman Magiftrate, in the Person of a private Man, a Point to which the illuftrious C. Marius had no Regard, when he put to Death the Prætor Caius Glaucia 2gainst whom nothing had been expressly decreed.

Now, O Romans! as you have in Custody and Prison the unnatural Leaders of this detestable and dangerous Rebellion, you ought to conclude that all the Forces of Catiline, that all his Strength and Hopes, thefe Dangers of your Country being thus averted, have failed. Indeed, Romans! when I drove him from the City, this I forefaw, that when Catiline was removed, I had no reason to be afraid of the dreaming Lentulus, the corpulent Caffius, nor the furiously rash Cethegus. Catiline, of all VOL. II.

* Or Glaucias.

G

the

the Cabal, was formidable; but no longer than while he remained within the Walls of this City. He knew every thing; he had Access to every Body; he had both Abilities and Boldness to accoft, to tempt, and to follicit; he had a Head turned for any Undertaking, and a Tongue and Hand proper to fupport what his Head projected. For performing certain Enterprizes, he had certain and felected Agents; nor did he ever think that his bare Commands could carry any thing into complete Execution. There was nothing too hard for his Activity, for his Vigilance or Fatigue; Hunger, Thirft, and Cold, he could undergo. Had I not driven a Man fo keen, so ready, fo bold, so crafty, in Treason so vigilant, in defperate Circumftances fo active, from Confpiracy within thefe Walls into Rebellion in the Fields, let me fpeak, O Romans! as I think, it had not been easy to repel fuch a Weight of Woe from falling on your Heads. He would not have fixed the Saturnalia, as the Era of our Deftruction, nor have fo long beforehand determined the very Date of Perdition and Ruin to this State; nor have ordered Matters fo, that when it came to the Pufh, his own Seal and Letters, nay living Witneffes, fhould be feized as Evi

dences

dences of his detected Treafon. Yet in his Abfence, has all this been effected, and in fuch a Manner too, as that never was any domestic Felony fo plainly detected, as this important Confpiracy against the Public has been detected and expofed. But if Catiline had remained in the City till this Day, in fuch a Cafe, though I had ftill prevented and difconcerted all his Plots, yet ftill at last, to speak the leaft, muft we have come to Blows, and while fuch a Bofom Traitor remained within our Walls, never could we have delivered the Government from fuch threatning Dangers, with fo much Peace, fo much Tranquillity, and fo much Quiet.

BUT all thefe Tranfactions, my Country-men, were managed by me in fuch a Manner, that they seemed to be directed by the Will, and conducted by the Wifdom of the Immortal Gods. This we may conjecture, as well from the apparent Impoffibility of fuch amazing Events being brought about by human Forefight, as from their immediate, and almost visible Aid and Affiftance, in the late critical Conjunctures. For to fay nothing of thofe nocturnal Effulgences, which beamed

• The Romans were extremely fuperftitious in observing Omens and Prefages, which were always interpreted by their Priefts and

Auguri,

in the Weft, and the Heavens appearing all in

a Blaze; to pass over the Thundering and Earthquakes, with the other many Prodigies which have happened in our Confulate, which feemed like the Language of the Gods predicting what has now happened, This, O Romans! which I am now to mention, ought neither to be omitted nor poftponed.

SURELY you may remember, that under the Confulate of Cotta and Torquatus, a great Number of Turrets in the Capitol were struck by Lightning; that the Images of the Immortal Gods were likewise overthrown, the Statues of antient Romans overturned, and the brazen Tables of the Laws melted down ; even Romulus, the Founder of this City, was fcorched, that gilded Statue, which you may remember to have seen in the Capitol, representing him an Infant, fucking, and reaching at the Dugs of the She-Wolf. At that Time the Sooth-fayers from all Tuscany were affembled, and declared that Massacres

and

Augurs. Of this the Nobility were fo fenfible, that they kept all the different Offices of the Priesthood in their own Body, even after the Plebeians were admitted to the Confulship. Al thefe Omens were explained so as to answer the Purposes of the Senate.

This Statue is ftill preserved in the modern Capitol at Rome, with the Mark of the Lightning vifible upon it.