Latin
Lines 1.4-1.5
Greek and Roman Historians, The Conspiracy of Catiline 1.4-5
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In the elections for 63 B. C. Catiline was accepted as a candidate, and Cicero hoped that he would join him in his election campaign. There were five other candidates, of whom Gaius Antonius Hybrida (the uncle of Mark Antony) was believed to be the only serious rival. Catiline and Antonius were said to have been supported by Caesar and Crassus and joined forced in an effort to defeat Cicero, furthering their campaign with extensive bribery. To curb their lavish expenditures a measure was proposed which would increase the penalties for this offense, but the bill was vetoed by a tribune, Quintus Mucius Orestius. Cicero thereupon took advantage of the indignation this veto provoked in the Senate and delivered a speech, In Toga Candida, attacking his two rivals. The Optimates took fright and in default of a more suitable candidate helped Cicero in spite of his drawbacks ---his novitas, novus homo ---his support for Pompey and his equestrian connections ---to win the election as senior consul. Antonius came second and with a narrow lead over Catiline.
Before the year was out Catiline survived another prosecution. at the insistence of the quaestor, Marcus Porcius Cato, men who had profited by the Sullan proscriptions were charged with murder, and the flood of cases swamped the Quaesitio de Scicariis, the murder court, one of the seven established or reconstituted by Sulla. As a result, aediles were forced to assist the praetors in charge and preside over trials for murder. Among these iudices quaesitionis was Caesar, who was closely linked with Pompey, prosecuted Catiline, the defendant was acquitted. As president of the court Caesar was not responsible for the verdict of the jury, but it does show that there existed influential men concerned to preserve Catiline from political extinction.