audiendum sibi de ambitu putavit, quum bellum jam gerente Catilina omnes me auctore duos consules Kalendis Jan. scirent esse oportere. Innocens et bonus vir et omnibus rebus ornatus bis hoc anno me defendente absolutus est A. Thermus. Quanta rei publicae caussa laetitia populi Romani, quanta gratulatio consecuta est. Semper graves et sapientes judices in rebus judicandis, quid utilitas civitatis, quid communis salus, quid rei publicae tempora poscerent, cogitaverunt. Quum tabella vobis dabitur, judices, non de Flacco dabitur solum: dabitur de ducibus auctoribusque conservandae civitatis; dabitur de omnibus bonis civibus; dabitur de vobismet ipsis; dabitur de liberis vestris, de vita, de patria, de salute communi. Non judicatis in hac caussa de exteris nationibus, non de sociis de vobis ac de vestra re publica judicatis. XL. Quod si provinciarum vos ratio magis movet quam vestra, ego vero non modo non recuso, sed etiam postulo, ut provinciarum auctoritate moveamini. Etenim opponemus Asiae provinciae primum magnam partem ejusdem provinciae, quae pro hujus periculis legatos laudatoresque misit: deinde provinciam Galliam, provinciam Ciliciam, provinciam Hispaniam, provinciam Cretam: Graecis autem Lydis et Phrygibus et Mysis obsistent Massilienses, Rhodii, Lacedaemonii, Athenienses, cuncta Achaia, Thessalia, Boeotia. Septimio et Caelio testibus P. Servilius et Q. Metellus hujus pudoris integritatisque testes repugnabunt. Asiaticae jurisdictioni urbana jurisdictio respondebit. Annui temporis criminationem omnis aetas L. Flacci et perpetua vita defendet. Et si prodesse L. Flacco, judices, debet, quod se tribunum militum, quod quaestorem, quod legatum imperatoribus clarissimis, exercitibus ornatissimis, provinciis gravissimis dignum suis majoribus praestitit; prosit, quod hic, vobis videntibus, in periculis communibus omnium vestrum sua pericula cum meis conjunxit; prosint honestissimorum municipiorum coloniarumque laudationes; prosit etiam senatus populique Romani praeclara et vera laudatio. O nox illa quae paene aeternas huic urbi tenebras attulisti, quum Galli ad bellum, Catilina ad urbem, conjurati ad ferrum et flammam vocabantur; quum ego te, Flacce, caelum noctemque contestans, flens flentem obtestabar; quum tuae fidei optimae et spectatissimae salutem Thermus.] Nothing more is known of in B.c. 63, after which he was governor this A. Thermus. tabella] See Vol. I. Divin. c. 7, and the note. 40. cuncta Achaia,] See c. 26. of Asia for a year (annui temporis).—' O nox illa' the night on which the Praetors Flaccus and Pomptinus seized the legati of the Allobroges with the letters of the conspirators on them. (In Cat. iv. 9.) urbis et civium commendabam. Tu, tu, Flacce, praetor, communis exitii nuntios cepisti: tu inclusam in litteris rei publicae pestem deprehendisti: tu periculorum indicia, tu salutis auxilia ad me et ad senatum attulisti. Quae tibi tum gratiae sunt a me actae, quae a senatu, quae a bonis omnibus! Quis tibi, quis C. Pomptino, fortissimo viro, quemquam bonum putaret umquam, non salutem, verum honorem ullum denegaturum? O Nonae illae Decembres, quae me consule fuistis! quem ego diem vere natalem hujus urbis aut certe salutarem appellare possum. XLI. O nox illa quam iste est dies consecutus, fausta huic urbi! miserum me! metuo, ne funesta nobis ! Qui tum animus L. Flacci? nihil dicam enim de me: qui amor in patriam, quae virtus, quae gravitas exstitit! Sed quid ea commemoro, quae tum quum agebantur uno consensu omnium, una voce populi Romani, uno orbis terrae testimonio in caelum laudibus efferebantur? nunc vereor ne non modo non prosint, verum etiam aliquid obsint. Etenim multo acriorem improborum interdum memoriam esse sentio quam bonorum. Ego te, si quid gravius acciderit, ego te, inquam, Flacce, prodidero; mea dextera illa, mea fides, mea promissa, quum te, si rem publicam conservaremus, omnium bonorum praesidio, quoad viveres, non modo munitum sed etiam ornatum fore pollicebar. Putavi, speravi, etiamsi honos noster vobis vilior fuisset, salutem certe caram futuram. At L. Flaccum quidem, judices, si, quod dii immortales omen avertant, gravis injuria afflixerit, numquam tamen prospexisse vestrae saluti, consuluisse vobis, liberis, conjugibus, fortunis vestris poenitebit. Semper ita sentiet, talem se animum et generis dignitati et pietati suae et patriae debuisse; vos ne poeniteat tali civi non pepercisse, per deos immortales, judices, providete. Quotus enim quisque est qui hanc in re publica sectam sequatur? qui vobis, qui vestri similibus placere cupiat? qui optimi atque amplissimi cujusque hominis atque ordinis auctoritatem magni putet? quum illam viam sibi videant expeditiorem ad honores et ad omnia quae concupiverunt. XLII. Sed cetera sint eorum: sibi habeant potentiam, sibi hono Tu, tu,] A. F.; 'Tu tum' S. T., Baiter. -Nonae Decembres :' the day on which Lentulus and four other conspirators were strangled at Rome. (Introduction to the orations against Catilina.) 41. O nox illa quam iste est dies] He returns to the night on which the Allobroges were arrested. On the following day the conspirators were taken to the senatehouse and confronted with the Allobroges. Flaccus was there with the letters which he had taken. (Sallust, Cat. c. 46.) sectam] Party or sometimes course of life. (Pro C. Rabirio, c. 8, Vol. II.) He means the conservative party, the Optimates, Cicero's party. The words 'illam viam' allude to the designs of the revolutionary party.-' illam viam si sibi,' Baiter: 'illam viam sibi,' S. T. A.; ' quum illam viam sibi,' F.-'vident,' S. A., Baiter; videant,' T. F. res, sibi ceterorum commodorum summas facultates: liceat his, qui haec salva esse voluerunt, ipsis esse salvis. Nolite, judices, existimare eos quibus integrum est, qui nondum ad honores accesserunt, non exspectare hujus exitum judicii. Si L. Flacco tantus amor in bonos omnes, tantum in rem publicam studium calamitati fuerit, quem posthac tam amentem fore putatis qui non illam viam vitae, quam ante praecipitem et lubricam esse ducebat, huic planae et stabili praeponendam esse arbitretur? Quod si talium civium vos, judices, taedet, ostendite: mutabunt sententiam qui poterunt: constituent quid agant quibus integrum est: nos qui jam progressi sumus hunc exitum nostrae temeritatis feremus. Sin hoc animo quam plurimos esse vultis, declarabitis hoc judicio quid sentiatis. Huic, huic misero puero, vestro ac liberorum vestrorum supplici, judices, hoc judicio vivendi praecepta dabitis; cui si patrem conservatis, qualis ipse debeat esse civis praescribetis: sin eripitis, ostendetis bonae rationi et constanti et gravi nullum a vobis fructum esse propositum. Qui vos, quoniam est id aetatis ut sensum jam percipere possit ex maerore patrio, auxilium nondum patri ferre possit, orat ne suum luctum patris lacrimis, patris maerorem suo fletu augeatis: qui etiam me intuetur, me vultu appellat, meam quodammodo flens fidem implorat, ac repetit eam quam ego patri suo quondam pro salute patriae spoponderim dignitatem. Miseremini familiae, judices, miseremini patris, miseremini filii: nomen clarissimum et fortissimum vel generis vel vetustatis vel hominis caussa rei publicae reservate. 42. eos quibus integrum est,] Those who have still the power of choosing what course of life they will follow, as Camerarius rightly explains it. This is a common expression in Cicero. Huic, huic] B. has it only once; and Baiter. id aetatis] Vol. I. Verr. ii. 2. c. 37. The young son of Flaccus is produced or supposed to be produced in order to move the compassion of the Judices. This was what Ser. Galba did on his trial (Pro Murena, c. 28). "Reprehendebat igitur Galbam Rutilius, quod is C. Sulpicii Galli, propinqui sui, Q. pupillum filium ipse pene in humeros suos extulisset, qui patris clarissimi recordatione et memoria fletum populi moveret, et duos filios suos parvos tutelae populi commendasset, ac se, tamquam in procinctu testamentum faceret sine libra atque tabulis, populum Romanum tutorem instituere dixisset illorum orbitati. Itaque quum et invidia et odio populi tum Galba premeretur, his quoque eum tragoediis liberatum ferebat; quod item apud Catonem scriptum esse video, nisi pueris et lacrimis usus esset, poenas eum daturum fuisse " (Cicero, De Or. i. 53). See Pro Sulla, c. 31, and the notes; and Juvenal, vii. 146. Socrates in Plato's Apology (c. 23) tells us what he thought of this way of moving the compassion of the court. The sturdy philosopher treats it with contempt, and will not save his life by such mean artifice. INTRODUCTION. QUUM SENATUI GRATIAS EGIT.-QUUM POPULO GRATIAS EGIT.-DE DOMO SUA. THESE three orations will be better understood by the following historical sketch. The year of Cicero's consulship (B.c. 63) was the most glorious period of his life, as he tells us. He frustrated the designs of a desperate band of conspirators, and saved his country from a bloody revolution. But his services to the State made him many enemies, and his own imprudence and vanity increased the number. The execution of the five conspirators at Rome was an illegal act, for the Senate had no power to put Roman citizens to death; which could only be done by a vote of the Roman people in the Comitia Centuriata. Cicero was not responsible for this illegality, but he was the man who discovered the conspiracy, who urged the Senate to punish, who saw the sentence executed. At the termination of his consulship on the last day of the year, when he ascended the Rostra to give an account to the people, as was usual, of his administration, the tribune Q. Metellus Nepos, instigated, it is said, by the party opposed to the Optimates and chiefly by Caesar, would not allow him to do more than make the usual declaration that he had done nothing contrary to Law. Upon this Cicero declared in the most solemn manner that he had saved his country, and the people responded that he had said no more than the truth (Cicero, To Q. Metellus Celer, Ad Fam. v. 2; Plutarch, Cicero, c. 23; Cicero, Pro Sulla, c. 11, note). Metellus Nepos continued his hostility to Cicero; and he even proposed that Pompeius and his army should be recalled from the east to restore the order, which, as he alleged, Cicero and his party had destroyed. M. Cato, who was then a 'tribunus plebis,' opposed the proposal of Metellus, and he was supported by the Senate. The streets of Rome became the scene of bloody riots, and Metellus, according to some accounts, being deprived of his tribunitian office, made his escape to VOL. III. U Pompeius, who arrived at Rome in the autumn of в.o. 62; and Metellus returned with him. Cicero did not take his province of Gallia Cisalpina after his consulship. He gave it up to Q. Metellus Celer, the brother of Nepos, and one of the Praetors of the year 62; and he stayed at Rome to look after his own interests. About the close of B.C. 62, in which year C. Julius Caesar was Praetor, Caesar's wife Pompeia and other women were celebrating in Caesar's house by night, according to custom, the mysteries of the Bona Dea (Cic. Ad Att. i. 13; Plutarch, Cicero, c. 28). P. Clodius Pulcher, a dissolute young patrician, who was supposed to have an intrigue with Caesar's wife, got into the house during the ceremony disguised as a female lute-player, but he was detected by the women and escaped through the assistance of a girl; or as Plutarch says, he was found in the chamber of a girl through whose help he got into the house (Plutareh, Cicero, c. 28; Caesar, c. 10). This scandalous affair was brought to the cognizance of the Pontifices, who declared it to be a violation of religion, and they ordered the religious ceremonies to be performed again. Caesar put away his wife. The Senate also took cognizance of the matter, and determined that there should be a judicial inquiry. But instead of the guilt of Clodius being the only thing to inquire about, it was made a party affair. A court was formed for the trial of Clodius, and fifty-six judices were named as the jury. Cicero says that the jury were a set of rascals, and were bribed, at least many of them. Thirtyone judices voted for Clodius, who was consequently acquitted (B.C. 61). Cicero was one of the witnesses against Clodius, who attempted to prove that he was not in Rome on the night of the mysteries. But Cicero declared that Clodius was in Rome on that day, and had been with him three hours before the time at which it was charged that he had entered Caesar's house. Cicero was vexed that the judices paid so little regard to his testimony, and after the acquittal he indulged in jokes and sarcasms, which he never could restrain, both against Clodius and the corrupted jury. That party of the Senate to which Cicero had attached himself was the Optimates, as he called them, the men who saw with fear and jealousy the opportunity and the power which the long exercise of military command gave to daring men. At the head of the party opposed to Cicero was Caesar, who though too wise to form such a desperate attempt as Catilina, is suspected of having long had the design of usurping the supreme power. Pompeius had now returned from his eastern wars more powerful than ever, and Cicero, who had always flattered the man, looked to him for protection. But Pompeius, who had done many things in Asia which required the confirmation of |