Cneius Piso, a young nobleman of the
bluest blood, joined in the conspiracy. Catiline threw himself into it as
his natural element, and aristocratic tradition said in later years that
Caesar and Crassus were implicated also. Some desperate scheme there
certainly was, but the accounts of it are confused: one authority says
that it failed because Catiline gave the signal prematurely; others that
Caesar was to have given the signal, and did not do it; others that
Crassus's heart failed him; others that the consuls had secret notice
given to them and took precautions. Cicero, who was in Rome at the time,
declares that he never heard of the conspiracy.[3] When evidence is
inconclusive, probability becomes argument. Nothing can be less likely
than that a cautious capitalist of vast wealth like Crassus should have
connected himself with a party of dissolute adventurers. Had Caesar
committed himself, jealously watched as he was by the aristocrats, some
proofs of his complicity would have been forthcoming. The aristocracy
under the empire revenged themselves for their ruin by charging Caesar
with a share in every combination that had been formed against them, from
Sylla's time downwards. Be the truth what it may, nothing came of this
project. Piso went to Spain, where he was killed. The prosecution of
Catiline for his African misgovernment was continued, and, strange to say,
Cicero undertook his defence.
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