Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-07-16

for this conduct and had him tried and that there
were some judges then, as there would be judges
now, who could never get any deeper than the
mere letter Of the law" and that such judges
"were for his condemnation, but that the Roman
people acquitted him, and al once greeted him as
Pater Patrie, title which all subsequent history
has never conferred except on one [other man,
our own Washington"
These statements are certainly sufficiently def
nte and to all readers of the orations and letters
of Cicero they will be as novel as they definite
How strange that Cicero should have written and
delivered an grafton to procure from the Senate a
decree in condemnation of Cethegus and Others"
when " Plubius informs us that these reprobates
were arrested and incontinently executed by the
Consul, "without even an informal trial !" How
singular that Julius Caesar and others are now
found to have been the men who put Cicero on his
trial for this patriotic though slightly informal pro-
ceeding, when all profane history known to the
clients or moderns (outside of CincinnatD repre-
sents Clodius to have been the prime mover in the
prosecution of the great lawyer for his course in
suppressing the revolt of Catiline How wonder
full that Cicero should have been banished for his
alleged violation of the law in putting |" Cethcgus
and others" to death "without due process" when
Publius" tells us that the Roman people acquit-
ted him of the charges brought against him, and
/" at once greeted him as Pater Patrise !" How
many of Ciceros plaintive letters addressed to At
ticus and his familiar friends, from the land of
exile, are swept away as spurious by these new
adings-discovered, we suppose, between the
lines Of some old palimpsest exhumed from the
tumul of the West, which have been heretofore
popularity supposed to contain within their bosom
nothing better than rude remains of the American
aborigines, but which we now begin to suspect are
rich in treasures of lost history relating to the
classic times of the Eternal City
That our readers may judge of the cancellations
made by " Publius" in the events of the life and
times of Cicero" far regards the passages he
cites from the Catilinarian conspiracy, we briefly
reproduce the version of these passages as hereto
fore received among scholars the strength of the
documentary evidence thus far known to the world,
whether as found in the published writings of
Cicero or others.
In the second of his orations against Catiline,
after the conspirator had been allowed to escape
from Rome, Cicero explains that Z" if he had put
Catiline to death he should have drawn upon him
self such odium as would have rendered him un-
able to prosecute Catilines accomplices and extr-
pate the remains Of the conspiracy" That is, he
judged it best to practice wise political prudence
by forbearing even to arrest the rngleader of the
revolt, well known as his evil designs were to the
public authorities And this he did, as he expressly
says in order to stop the mouths of those who, if
he had proceeded at once to take harsh measures
against Catiline before the designs of the plotter
were revealed by overt acts of treason would have
taken occasion to pronounce him TCicero not so
much "diligent Consul as cruel tyrant" In
this Cicero showed his practical sense as states
man.
The colleagues of Catiline who remained behind
in the city, after he had gone forth to the camp
of Manlius, were not idle. Lentulus, Cethegus,
and others were detected in stirring up insurrec-
ton among the slaves and concoctiDg reasonable
alliances with the ambassadors Of the Allobroges,
a fierce people inhabiting the country now known
as Savoy and Dauphiny. Arrested by Cicero they
were not Immediately executed, but were brought
before the Senate and formally tried by that body.
After examination and the production of witnesses
and papers Individually demonstrating their guilt,
they were condemned to death in decree drawn
up by Cato and solemnly passed by the Senate.
The vote was no sooner declared than Cicero re-
solved to carry the sentence into execution "lest
the night which was coming on should produce
some new disturbance" Accordingly he went d.
rectly from the Senate Chamber and ordered the
immediate execution of the culprits. They were
executed on the fifth of December" in the
69Oth year Of Rome and, for years afterwards, the
/" fifth of December remained as significant a
phrase in Roman politics, because denoting this
transaction, as the "second of December now is
in Paris, because marking the coup Fetat of the
present Emperor of the French.
Capital punishments were rare in this age
of the Roman Commonwealth, and their inAic-
ton was hedged about with many guards
The Senate claimed the prerogative, in cases
of sudden and dangerous tumults, of punish
ing the leaders with death, but this prerogative
was regarded with great jealousy by the people;
for there was an old law of Porcus Leca which
Al -