[14]
[Sidenote: November, B.C. 64.]
Well might Cicero be alarmed at such a combination; well might he say that
if a generation of such youths lived to manhood there would be a
commonwealth of Catilines. But what was to be thought of the prospects of
a society in which such phenomena were developing themselves? Cicero bade
them all go--follow their chief into the war, and perish in the snow of
the Apennines. But how if they would not go? How if from the soil of Rome,
under the rule of his friends the Senate, fresh crops of such youths would
rise perennially? The Commonwealth needed more drastic medicine than
eloquent exhortations, however true the picture might be.
[Sidenote: November, B.C. 63.]
None of the promising young gentlemen took Cicero's advice. Catiline went
alone and joined Manlius, and had he come on at once he might perhaps have
taken Rome. The army was to support an insurrection, and the insurrection
was to support the army. Catiline waited for a signal from his friends in
the city, and Lentulus, Cethegus, Autronius, and the rest of the leaders
waited for Catiline to arrive. Conspirators never think that they have
taken precautions enough or have gained allies enough; and in endeavoring
to secure fresh support they made a fatal mistake. An embassy of
Allobroges was in the city, a frontier tribe on the borders of the Roman
province in Gaul, who were allies of Rome, though not as yet subjects.
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