22 There were some,
at that time, who said that Catiline, having ended his speech, and wishing to
bind his accomplices in guilt by an oath, handed round among them in goblets,
the blood of a human body mixed with wine; and that when all, after an
imprecation, had tasted of it, as is usual in sacred rites, he disclosed his design;
and they asserted that he did this, in order that they might be the more
closely attached to one another, by being mutually conscious of such an
atrocity. But some thought that this report, and many others, were invented by
persons who supposed that the odium against Cicero, which afterwards arose, might be
lessened by imputing an enormity of guilt to the conspirators who had suffered
death. The evidence which I have obtained, in support of this charge, is not at
all in proportion to its magnitude.
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