# The Conspiracy of Catiline 1.34-36

Greek and Roman Historians, The Conspiracy of Catiline, Lines 1.34-1.36. Latin.

Canonical: https://interlinea.aeterna-institute.org/library/latin/greek-and-roman-historians/the-conspiracy-of-catiline/1.34

Rewards were offered for information about the conspiracy: freedom and one hundred thousand sesterces for slaves and pardon with two hundred thousand sesterces for citizens. This offer did not produce a single traitor to Catiline's cause. Arrangements were made to disperse the gladiators at Capua, while at Rome itself Cicero's precautions created panic and caused the collapse of credit.
Catiline still calmly remained in the city, and even when the young Lucius Aemilius Paulus gave notice of intent to prosecute him for violent crime (de vi) his nerve did not fail him. He offered to place himself in the custody of the consular Manius Lepidus, of Cicero, of Metellus Celer, and finally of a person whose identity is uncertain, but none was willing to receive him and the threatened prosecution came to nothing. Cicero was not yet in a position to prove Catiline's guilt. The Senate had shown itself reluctant to move unless totally convinced of imminent crisis, and the very success of Cicero's counter-measures had made him seem an alarmist. He wisely preferred to wait until he held incontrovertible evidence before he moved.
On the night of the 6th November the leading members of the conspiracy gathered at the house of Marcus Porcius Laeca in the street of the scythemakers. Catiline announced that he had decided to leave Rome and take over command of the rebels outside of the city. He was going himself to join Manlius, and those selected to take command of the various areas to proceed to Etruria, Picenum and Cisalpine Gaul. Others were to remain behind in Rome and arrange for the firing of certain regions of the city and for Cicero's assassination. Gaius Cornelius and Lucius Vargunteius volunteered to call upon him the following morning on the pretext of paying their respects and to kill him in his own home, but Curius instructed Fulvia to warn Cicero, and when the assassins arrived early on the morning of the 7th they found the house strongly guarded against them and abandoned their attmept.

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Greek and Roman Historians, The Conspiracy of Catiline. Text: The Latin Library (thelatinlibrary.com), used with permission. Changes: HTML markup removed and the text divided into reading sections by Interlinea.
License: Used with permission (https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/about.html). Source: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/historians/narrative/catiline.html.