Latin
Lines 1.32-1.33
Greek and Roman Historians, The Conspiracy of Catiline 1.32-33
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In his First Speech Against Catiline, delivered on the 8th of November, Cicero claimed that at this meeting he had forecast with complete accuracy that Manlius would take up arms on the 27th of October, that a massacre was planned for the 28th and that Praeneste, a stronghold of Latium, was to be seized on the 1st of November. We do not know how all this information came into Cicero's hands: whether from Arrius; from Fulvia, the mistress of Quintus Curius, one of the conspirators, who kept Cicero posted on the conspirators' plans; or from some other source. It is also possible that this claim in our version of the speech, published some three years later, may have replaced a less detailed version couched in more general terms.
Once the Senatus Consultum Ultimum had been passed Cicero acted with all speed, arranged for forces to secure the capital, and despatched a specially raised levy of troops to strengthen the defenses of Praeneste. A few days later, at the very beginning of November, a senator named Lucius Saenius read to the Senate a letter that he had received from Faesulae telling him that Manlius had taken the field on the 27th as planned. It also contained the news that slaves were in revolt at Capua and in Apulia. To deal with these emergencies two consulares who were awaiting triumphs outside the city, Quintus Marcius Rex, the ex-governor of Cilicia, and Quintus Metellus Creticus, the conqueror of Crete, were instructed to take control at Faesulae and in Apulia respectively. The praetors, Quintus Pompeius Rufus and Quintus Metellus Celer, were given authority to raise troops and entrusted with Capua and Picenum.