Catilina's riddle

'Over the years you have taken little notice of my admonishments.

You have shrugged me off and held fast to your reckless course. Fortunately, thanks to the sound foundation laid by our ancestors, the state has withstood your waywardness and has even prospered. Now, however, the issue at stake is not a question of morality, or whether our empire should be even grander and richer than it is. The issue is whether our empire is going to remain our empire or whether we shall lose it to our enemies! In such a crisis, what fool dares to speak to me of clemency and compassion?’

‘For a long time now we have ceased to call things by their proper names. Giving away other people's property is called generosity; seditious ideas are called i

'We are advised to bide our time, to let our passions cool, to wait for a clearer perspective — while staring into the jaws of an abyss! We are urged to adhere to the letter of the law, to await a formal trial, to allow convicted men the option of exile — while the kindling is being stacked up around our houses! Other crimes can be punished after they have been committed, but not this crime. Nip it in the bud, or else it's too late. Let these traitors take over, and you can forget about invoking the law. When a city is captured, its defeated inhabitants lose everything. Everything!

'If you ca

'We may react to this crisis with either strength or weakness. To show weakness would be the most dangerous course, for any mercy you show to Lentulus and the other prisoners is a clear signal to Catilina and his army. The harsher your judgment, the more their courage will be shaken. Show weakness, and like a pack of dogs they will swarm over you and tear you apart. Once that happens, forget about calling upon the gods for help. The gods help those who help themselves!

'Banishment? Imprisonment? What absurd half-measures! These men must be treated exactly as if they had been caught in the act of the offences they contemplated. If you came upon a man setting fire to your house, would you stand back and debate your reaction — or would you strike him down? As for the senator who argues for a lesser punishment — well, perhaps he has less reason to be afraid than the rest of us!'

This was a clear implication that Caesar was somehow co

Cato snapped the letter away from the secretary's hand, held it up, and hurriedly sca

In the midst of a debate over life and death and the future of the Republic, Caesar had received a lascivious love letter from Cato's own half-sister, the wayward Servilia, a pere

In the end, it was Cato, discombobulated though he may have been, who carried the day. The Senate voted to exact the supreme penalty on five of the nine prisoners. These included the two senators, Lentulus and Cethegus; two men of equestrian rank, Lucius Statuius and Publius Gabinius Capito; and a common citizen, Marcus Caeparius.

The senators feared that nightfall might bring an attempt to free the prisoners, and no time was wasted in carrying out the sentence. While praetors went to fetch the others, Cicero himself, flanked by numerous senators and an armed bodyguard, went to fetch Lentulus from the house on the Palatine where he was being kept. The senators formed a moving cordon as Cicero escorted the former consul through the middle of the Forum I was among the crowd, holding my breath, listening to the pounding of my heartbeat, alert for the first signs of a riot, my ears pricked for cries of insurrection. But the crowd was hushed and made only a dull, wordless roar like the surging of the sea. I have never seen a crowd in the Forum so subdued. I looked at the men around me, and on their faces I saw that awe which overcomes men when they witness some terrible spectacle. The solemn ritual of death held them spellbound. I thought again of the theatre, with its strange power to remove men from reality and yet bring them face to face with something vaster than themselves. The Senate of Rome was enacting its will, and there was no power on earth that could stop it.

Eco and Meto were with me. I was content to hang back, but Meto wanted to work his way closer to the procession. Beyond the shields and upraised swords of the bodyguard, through a brief opening in the sea of purple-striped togas, I caught a glimpse of Cicero. One arm was at his side; the other was raised to his chest to clutch the hem of his toga. His chin was held high. His eyes looked straight ahead.

Beside him walked another, older man in senatorial garb, whose posture and expression were exactly the same. Lentulus showed no trace of that irascible sarcasm that had earned him his nickname, nor did he bow his head in shame or tremble with fear. Had I not known which was the consul and which the prisoner, by their bearing alone I could not have told them apart Then Lentulus chanced to turn his face in my direction. I caught a glimpse of his eyes and knew that I saw a man approaching his end.

Close by the Temple of Concord, built into the hard stone of the Capitoline Hill, is the ancient state-prison of Rome. The prison was built in the days when kings ruled the city, as a place to put their enemies. Once Rome became a republic, the prison became a place to keep Rome's conquered foes. Its most famous inhabitant in my lifetime had been King Jugurtha of Numidia; after being dragged through the streets of Rome in chains, he and his two sons were taken to the prison and cast into a lightless, airless pit twelve feet underground, reached only through a hole in its stone roof. There they lingered for six days without food or water before being strangled by their jailers.