marks us out to bleed. Yet we,

e

boldly

paffive in our Country's Caufe, think we act like Romans, if we can efcape his frantic Rage.

LONG fince, O Catiline! ought the Conful to have doomed thy Life a Forfeit to thy Country; and to have directed upon thy own Head the Plagues and Pains thou hast been long meditating for ours. Could the noble * Scipio, when Sovereign Pontiff, as a private Roman, kill Tiberius Gracchus for a flight Encroachment upon the Rights of his Country; and fhall we, her Confuls, with perfevering Patience bear with Catiline, whofe Ambition is to defolate a devoted World with Fire and Sword? Not to mention that antiquated Inftance, when Servilius Abala with B 3

e

h

his

* A Reader of any Tafte, requires in a Tranflation, that the Author's Manner as well as Senfe, fhould be preserved. Cafar's Rapidity has hurried him into the frequent Ufe of Dactyles and Peons which Ariftotle, and Cicero himself, in his Conferences upon an Orator, have highly commended. There is, in this Sentence, a ftrong Inftance of this. FUROREM AC TELA

VITEMUS.

f The Priefts, and even the Pontifex Maximus, had no Power in Civil Affairs, though they might be chofen Prætors or Confuls, as this Scipio, Cafar, and feveral Pontiffs were.

See Notes on the Oration for Milo.

h When the City of Rome was afflicted with a great Famine, Sp. Melius, a Roman Knight, the richest Man in the City, bought up great Quantities of Corn throughout all Tuscany and freely diftributed it among the poorer Citizens: This gained

their

1

his own Hand punished with Death Spurius Melius, who meditated an Alteration in the Conftitution. There was, there was a Time when fuch was the Spirit of Rome, that the Refentment of her gallant Sons more feverely crushed the Roman Traitor, than the most inveterate Enemy. Strong and weighty, O Catiline! is the Decree of the Senate we can now produce against you; neither Wifdom is wanting in this State, nor Authority in this Affembly; but we, let me here take Shame to myself, we, the Confuls, are wanting in our Duty.

WHEN

their Affections, and encouraged Melius to aspire to the Sovereign Power. T. Quintius Cincinnatus, being named Dictator, by the Senate, to crush Melius, fent his General of the Horfe 2. Servilius Abala, to fummon him to appear at his Tribunal, to answer the Accufations brought against him. Melius refufing to come, and calling the Mob to his Affiftance, Servilius run him through the Body, and thus ftopped his ambitious Designs. This happened in the Year of Rome 314, which was three hundred and feventy-fix Years before Cicero's Confulfhip.

1 The Roman Confuls had a very small Share of the executive Authority in their Hands; they were obliged on every Occafion, to lay the Affair before the Senate, whofe Orders they were obliged to execute. But on extraordinary Cafes, the Senate made an Act, that the Confuls fhould take Care That the Commonwealth might receive no Injury: By which Words they gave abfolute Power to the Confuls to raise Armies, and do whatever they thought proper for the public Intereft, without having Refource to the Senate's Advice. By this, they were in Effect created Dictators; fo that Cicero had at this Time fufficient Power to feize Catiline and his Accomplices, and try them, without calling a Senate; but he chose not to exert his Authority, to avoid the Odium which might be caft upon him, and for other Reasons, laid down in the Sequel of this Oration.

k

WHEN the Senate once decreed, the Conful, Opimius, fhould take Care that the Commonwealth might receive no Detriment, not a Night paffed before his jealous Justice put to Death Caius Gracchus fufpected of Sedition, though defcended of a Father, a Grandfather, and a Family all eminent for their Services to Rome; and Marcus Fulvius, a Confular, with his Children, underwent the fame Fate. When by a like Decree the Government was put into the Hands of the Confuls, Caius Marius and Lucius Valerius, did one Day intervene before Lucius Saturninus, the Tri

m

This was the Conful, who, when C. Gracchus Tiberius following the Plan laid down by his Brother T. Gracchus, endeavoured to put in Execution the famous Agrarian Law, for an equal Divifion of the Lands, put him to Death.

This Man, though formerly a Conful, joined with C. Gracchus in his Attempt to divide the Lands, and was named one of the three Commiffioners for that Purpose. They went on for fome Time, carrying every thing before them in the Affemblies of the People, in fpite of the Senate, and all the Nobility. But one of the Conful's Lictors being killed by fome of the Attendants of Gracchus, the Senate gave Opimius full Power to do as he thought beft, for the Good of the State. The Conful commanded all the Nobility, with their Clients, to appear in Arms next Morning in the Forum, from whence he marched at their Head to attack Gracchus and Fulvius, who had affembled several Thoufands of the lower Rank on the Aventine Mount: The Affair came to Blows, and Gracchus, Fulvius, and his Sons were flain, with three thousand of their Followers, in the Year of the City 631.

m Thefe two having killed a Senator in a Tumult, were declared Enemies by the Senate, who commanded Marius to bring them to Juftice. The Conful, armed with dictatorial Power,

attacked

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bune of the People, and Caius Servilius, the Prætor, fatisfied by their Blood the Justice of their Country? Yet for these twenty Days have we suffered the Edge of this Affembly's Decifion, keen as it is, to remain unactive in our Hands. For we have a like Decree, but it refts upon our Records, like a Sword in its Scabbard; yet this, O Catiline! is a Decree that ought in Course to have given you up to immediate Death. Yet you live; you live, not to lay afide, but to fwell, your audacious Guilt.

MERCY, Fathers Confcript, is my Delight; but never, in the Hour of Danger to my Country may that that Mercy degenerate into Weakness. Yet even now my Conscience tells me that I have been remifs and negli

gent,

tacked them in the Capitol, and obliged them to surrender, with all their Followers; after which they were stoned to Death by the Mob, before they were brought to a Trial, in the Year 634.

Orig. Mors ac Reipublicæ pæna remorata. Though nothing can be more plain, than the Meaning of Cicero, by thofe Words yet the Variations of Manufcripts, have given rife to numberless Impertinencies of Commentators upon this Paffage.

Hiftories tell us, this Speech was made on the 18th Day after the Decree here mentioned; but the Orator calls it twenty Days in a round Number.

Orig. Aciem Hebefcere. This is a fine Metaphor, taken from a Sword. He immediately after speaks of a Vagina. 4 Orig. Deponendam.

gent. Within Italy, upon the very Borders of Tuscany, a Camp is pitched against the Republic. The Numbers of the Enemy daily increase; but the Captain of that Camp, the Leader of thofe Enemies, we behold within our Walls, nay, amidst this Affembly, daily working up fome home-bred Calamity for Rome. Should I now at this Inftant, Catiline, command thee to be feized, to be dragged to Death, the Cenfure, which I am afraid I have to dread from every good Man, would be, not that I acted with too much Severity, but with too much Slowness. Yet this neceffary Piece of Juftice, though long required, a certain Reafon prevails upon me ftill to delay. Thou shalt fuffer Death, trust me thou fhalt; but at a Time when there cannot be found a Man on Earth so much a Traitor, fo much a Villain, fo much a Catiline, as not to applaud the Juftice of the Stroke. Thou fhalt live, while there breathes a Man, who dares to defend thee; but thou fhalt

Catiline had fent C. Manlius to raise an Army in Tuscany; while he minded their other Defigns in Rome; fuch as murdering Cicero, and firing the City,

Cicero might have done this by the Valerian Law, made by Valerius Poplicola, immediately after the Expulfion of the Kings. For by this Law, it was declared, that any Man might fafely kill a Traitor without a Trial; provided he could afterwards make good his Accufation, and prove the Perfon flain to have been an Enemy to the Commonwealth.