utmoft; send out your embassies; take the field yourselves, and excite a general ardor abroad; ever considering how readily Philip would attack us, if he were favoured by any incident like this, if a war had broken out on our borders. And would it not be shameful to want the resolution to bring that distress on him, which, had it been equally in his power, he certainly would have made you feel ?

This too demands your attention, Athenians! that you are now to determine whether it be most expedient to carry the war into his country, or to fight him here. If Olynthus be defended, Macedon will be the feat of war: you may harass his kingdom, and enjoy your own territories free from apprehenfions. But, should that nation be fubdued by Philip, who will oppose his marching hither? will the Thebans? let it not be thought fevere when I affirm, that they will join readily in the invasion. Will the Phocians? a people scarcely able to defend their own country, without your assistance. Will any others? -"But, Sir," cries some one, " he would " make no such attempt." -This would be the greatest of abfurdities; not to execute those threats, when he hath full power, which, now when they appear so idle and extravagant, he yet dares to utter. And I think you are not yet to learn how great would be the difference between our engaging him here and there. Were we to be only thirty days abroad, and to draw all the neceffaries of the camp from our own lands, even were there no enemy to ravage them, the damage would, in my opinion, amount to more than the whole expence of the late war. Add then the prefence of an enemy, and how greatly must the calamity be increased: but, further, add the infamy; and to those who judge rightly, no distress can be more grievous than the scandal of misconduct.

It is incumbent therefore, upon us all, (justly influenced by these considerations) to unite vigorously in the common cause, and repel the danger that threatens this territory. Let the rich exert themselves on this occafion; that, by contributing a small portion of their affluence, they may secure the peaceful poffeffion of the rest. Let those who are of the age for military duty; that, by learning the art of war in Philip's dominions, they may become formidable defenders of their native land. Let our orators, that they may safely fubmit their conduct to the public inspection. For

L. Sergius Cataline was of Patrician extraction, and had fided with Sylla, during the civil wars between him and Marius. Upon the expiration of his prætorship, he was sent to the government of Africa; and after his return, was accused of mal-administration by P. Clodius, under the confulship of M. Emilius Lepidus, and L. Volcatius Tullus. It is commonly believed, that the design of the conspiracy was formed about this time, three years before the oration Cicero here pronounces against it. Cataline, after his return from Africa, had fued for the confulship, but was rejected. The two following years he likewise stood candidate, but still met with the fame fate. It appears that he made a fourth attempt under the confulship of Cicero, who made use of all his credit and authority to exclude him, in which he succeeded to his wish. After the picture Sallust has drawn of Cataline, it were needless to attempt his character here; befides that the four following orations will make the reader sufficiently acquainted with it. This first speech was pronounced in the fenate, convened in the temple of Jupiter Stator, on the eighth of November, in the fix hundred and ninth year of the city, and forty-fourth of Cicero's age. The occafion of it was as follows: Cataline, and the other conspirators, had met together in the house of one Marcus Lecca; where it was resolved, that a general infurrection should be raised through Italy, the different parts of which were affigned to different leaders; that Cataline should put himself at the head of the troops in Etruria; that Rome should be fired in many places at once, and a maffacre begun at the fame time of the whole senate and all their enemies, of whom none were to be spared except the fons of Pompey, who were to be kept as hostages of their peace and reconciliation with their father; that in the confternation

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of the fire and massacre, Cataline should be ready with his Tuscan army to take the benefit of the public confusion, and make himself mafter of the city; where Lentulus in the mean while, as first in dignity, was to prefide in their general councils; Caffius to manage the affair of firing it; Cethegus to direct the massacre. But the vigilance of Cicero being the chief obstacle to all their hopes, Cataline was very desirous to see him taken off before he left Rome; upon which two knights of the company undertook to kill him the next morning in his bed, in an early vifit on pretence of business. They were both of his acquaintance, and used to frequent his house; and knowing his custom of giving free access to all, made no doubt of being readily admitted, as C. Cornelius, one of the two, afterwards confessed. The meeting was no sooner over, than Cicero had information of all that passed in it: for by the intrigues of a woman named Fulvia, he had gained over Curius her gallant, one of the conspirators of fenatorian rank, to fend him a punctual account of all their deliberations. He presently imparted his intelligence to some of the chiefs of the city, who were assembled that evening, as usual, at his house, informing them not only of the design, but naming the men who were to execute it, and the very hour when they would be at his gate: all which fell out exactly as he foretold; for the two knights came before break of day, but had the mortification to find the house well guarded, and all admittance refused to them. Next day Cicero fummoned the senate to the temple of Jupiter in the capitol, where it was not usually held but in times of public alarm. There had been several debates before this on the same fubject of Cataline's treasons, and his design of killing the conful; and a decree had passed at the motion of Cicero, to offer a public reward to the first discoverer of the plot; if a slave, his liberty, and eight hundred pounds; if a citizen, his pardon, and fixteen hundred. Yet Cataline, by a profound dissimulation, and the constant professions of his innocence, still deceived many of all ranks; repre

fenting the whole as the fiction of his enemy Cicero, and offering to give security for his behaviour, and to deliver himself to the custody of any whom the fenate would name; of M. Lepidus, of the prætor Metellus, or of Cicero himself: but none of them would receive him; and Cicero plainly told him, that he should never think himself safe in the fame house, when he was in danger by living in the same city with him. Yet he still kept on the mask, and had the confidence to come to this very meeting in the capitol; which so shocked the whole assembly, that none even of his acquaintance durst venture to falute him; and the consular senators quitted that part of the house in which he fat, and left the whole bench clear to him. Cicero was so provoked by his impudence, that instead of entering upon any business, as he defigned, addressing himself directly to Cataline, he broke out into the present most severe invective against him; and with all the fire and force of an incenfed eloquence, laid open the whole course of his villainies, and the notoriety of his treasons.

HOW far, O Cataline, wilt thou abuse our patience? How long shall thy frantic rage baffle the efforts of justice? To what height meanest thou to carry thy daring insolence? Art thou nothing daunted by the nocturnal watch posted to secure the Palatium? nothing by the city guards? nothing by the consternation of the people? nothing by the union of all the wife and worthy citizens? nothing by the senate's assembling in this place of strength ? nothing by the looks and countenances of all here present? Seest thou not that all thy designs are brought to light? that the senators are thoroughly apprized of thy conspiracy? that they are acquainted with thy last night's practices; with the practices of the night before; with the place of meeting, the company summoned together, and the measures concerted? Alas for our degeneracy! alas for the depravity of the times! the senate is apprized of all this, the consul beholds it; yet the traitor lives. Lives! did I say, he even comes into the senate; he shares in the public deliberations; he marks us out with his eye for destruction. While we, bold in our country's cause, think we have fufficiently fufficiently discharged our duty to the state, if we can but escape his rage and deadly darts. Long since, O Cataline, ought the conful to have ordered thee for execution; and pointed upon thy own head that ruin thou hast been long meditating against us all. Could that illustrious citizen Publius Scipio, fovereign pontiff, but invested with no public magiitracy, kill Tiberius Gracchus for raising some flight commotions in the commonwealth; and shall we confuls suffer Cataline to live, who aims at laying waste the world with fire and sword? I omit, as too remote, the example of Q. Servilius Ahala, who with his own hand flew Spurius Melius, for plotting a revolution in the state. Such, such was the virtue of this republic in former times, that her brave fons punished more severely a factious citizen, than the most inveterate public enemy. We have a weighty and vigorous decree of the fenate against you, Cataline: the commonwealth wants not wisdom, nor this house authority: but we, the confuls, I speak it openly, are wanting in our duty.

A decree once passed in the fenate, enjoining the consul L. Opimius to take care that the commonwealth received no detriment. The very same day Caius Gracchus was killed for fome flight fufpicions of treafon, though defcended of a father, grandfather, and ancestors, all eminent for their services to the state. Marcus Fulvius too, a man of consular dignity, with his children, underwent the fame fate. By a like decree of the fenate, the care of the commonwealth was committed to the confuls C. Marius and L. Valerius. Was a fingle day permitted to pass, before L. Saturninus, tribune of the people, and C. Servilius the prætor, satisfied by their death the justice of their country. But we, for these twenty days, have suffered the authority of the senate to languish in our hands. For we too have a like decree, but it rests among our records like a sword in the scabbard; a decree, O Cataline, by which you ought to have suffered immediate death. Yet still you live; nay more, you live, not to lay aside, but to harden yourself in your audacious guilt. I could with, confcript fathers, to be merciful; I could with too not to appear remiss when my country is threatened with danger; but I now begin to reproach myself with neg. ligence and want of courage. A campis formed in Italy, upon the very borders of Etruria, against the commonwealth. The

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enemy increase daily in number. At the fame time we behold their general and leader within our walls; nay, in the senatehouse itself, plotting daily fome inteftine mischief against the state. Should I order you, Cataline, to be instantly seized and put to death: I have reason to believe, good men would rather reproach me with flowness than cruelty. But at present certain reasons restrain me from this step, which indeed ought to have been taken long ago. Thou shalt then fuffer death, when not a man is to be found, so wicked, fo desperate, so like thyself, as not to own it was done justly. As long as there is one who dares to defend thee, thou shalt live; and live so as thou now dost, furrounded by the numerous and powerful guards which I have placed about thee, so as not to fuffer thee to stir a foot against the republic; whilst the eyes and ears of many shall watch thee, as they have hitherto done, when thou little thoughteft of it.

But what is it, Cataline, thou canst now have in view, if neither the obscurity of night can conceal thy traitorous affemblies, nor the walls of a private house prevent the voice of thy treason from reaching our ears? If all thy projects are difcovered, and burst into public view? Quit then your detestable purpose, and think no more of massacres and conflagrations. You are beset on all hands; your most secret councils are clear as noon-day; as you may easily gather, from the detail I am now to give you. You may remember that on the nineteenth of October last, I faid publicly in the senate, that before the twenty-fifth of the same month, C. Manlius, the confederate and creature of your guilt, would appear in arms. deceived, Cataline, I fay not as to this enormous, this detestable, this improbable attempt; but, which is still more furpriz. ing, as to the very day on which it happened? I said likewise, in the fenate, that you had fixed the twenty-fixth of the same month for the massacre of our nobles, which induced many citizens of the first rank to retire from Rome, not so much on account of their own preservation, as with a view to baffle your designs. Can you deny, that on that very fame day you was so beset by my vigilance, and the guards I placed about you, that you found it impossible to attempt any thing against the state; though you had given out, after the departure of the rest, that you would

Call to mind only in conjunction with me, the transactions of last night. You will foon perceive, that I am much more active in watching over the prefervation, than you in plotting the destruction of the ftate. I say then, and say it openly, that last night you went to the house of M. Lecca, in the street called the Gladiators : that you was met there by numbers of your affociates in guilt and madness. Dare you deny this? Why are you filent ? If you difown the charge, I will prove it: for I fee fome in this very assembly, who were of your confederacy. immortal gods! what country do we inhabit? what city do we belong to? what government do we live under? Here, here, conscript fathers, within there walls, and in this affenably, the most awful and venerable upon earth, there are men who meditate my ruin and yours, the destruction of this city, and confequently of the world itself. Myself, your conful, behold these men, and ask their opinions on public affairs; and instead of dooming them to immediate execution, do not so much as wound them with my tongue. You went then that night, Cataline, to the house of Lecca; you cantoned out all Italy; you appointed the place to which every one was to repair; you fingled out those who were to be left at Rome, and those who were to accompany you in person; you marked out the parts of the city destined to conflagration; you declared your purpose of leaving it foon, and said you only waited a little to fee me taken off. Two Roman knights undertook to ease you of that care, and affaffinate me the fame night in bed before day-break. Scarce was your affembly dismissed, when I was informed of all this: I ordered an additional guard to attend, to secure my house from aflault; I refused admittance to those whom you fent to compliment me in the morning; and declared to many worthy persons beforehand who they were, and at what time I expected them.

Since then, Cataline, such is the state of your affairs, finish what you have begun; quit the city; the gates are open; nobody opposes your retreat. The troops in Manlius's camp long to put themselves under your command. Carry with you all your confederates; if not all, at least as many as poffible. Purge the city. It will take greatly from my fears, to be divided from you by a wall. You cannot pretend to stay any longer with us: I will not bear, will not fuffer, will not allow of it. Great thanks are due to the immortal gods, and chiefly to thee Jupiter Stator, the ancient protector of this city, for having already so often preferved us from this dangerous, this destructive, this peftilent scourge of his country. The fupreme safety of the commonwealth ought not to be again and again exposed to danger for the fake of a fingle man. While I was only conful elect, Cataline, I contented myself with guarding against your many plots, not by a public guard, but by my private vigilance. When at the last election of consuls, you had refolved to affaffinate me, and your competitors in the field of Mars, I defeated your wicked purpose by the aid of my friends, without disturbing the public peace. In a word, as often as you attempted my life, I singly opposed your fury; though I well faw, that my death would necessarily be attended with many fignal calamities to the state. But now you openly strike at the very being of the republic. The temples of the immortal gods, the manfions of Rome, the lives of her citizens, and all the provinces of Italy, are doomed to flaughter and devastation. Since therefore I dare not pursue that course, which is most agreeable to ancient discipline, and the genius of the commonwealth, I will follow another, less fevere indeed as to the criminal, but more useful in its confequences to the public. For should I order you to be immediately put to death, the commonwealth would still harbour in its bosom the other confpirators; but by driving you from the city, I shall clear Rome at once of the whole baneful tribe of thy accomplices. How, Cataline ! Do you hesitate to do at my command, what you was so lately about to do of your own accord? The conful orders a public ene-. my to depart the city. You ask whether this be a real banishment? I fay not expressly so: but was I to advise in the case, it is the best course you can take.

For