18 But previously to
this period, a small number of persons, among whom was Catiline, had formed a
design against the state; of which affair I shall here give as accurate an
account as I am able.
Under the consulship of Lucius Tullus and Marcus Lepidus, Publius Autronius and
Publius Sylla, having been tried for bribery under the laws against it, had
paid the penalty of the offence. Shortly after Catiline, being brought to trial
for extortion, had been prevented from standing for the consulship, because he
had been unable to declare himself a candidate within the legitimate number of
days. There was at that time, too, a young nobleman of the most daring spirit,
needy and discontented, named Cneius Piso, whom poverty and vicious principles
instigated to disturb the government. Catiline and Autronius, having concerted
measures with this Piso, prepared to assassinate the consuls, Lucius Cotta and
Lucius Torquatus, in the Capitol, on the first of February, when they, having
seized on the fasces, were to send Piso with an army to take possession of the
two Spains.
But their design being discovered, they postponed the assassination to the
fifth of February; when they meditated the destruction, not of the consuls
only, but of most of the senate. And had not Catiline, who was in front of the
senate-house, been too hasty to give the signal to his associates, there would
that day have been perpetrated the most atrocious outrage since the city of Rome was founded. But as
the armed conspirators had not yet assembled in sufficient numbers, the want of
force frustrated the design.
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