Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/64

 56 CICERO. was aftei-wai'ds dictator. He was then but a young man, and only at the outset of his career, but had ah-eady directed his hopes and pohcy to that course by which he afterwards changed the Roman state into a monarchy. Of this others foresaw nothing ; but Cicero had seen reason for strong suspicion, though without obtaining any suffi- cient means of proof And there were some indeed that said that he was very near being discovered, and only just escaped him ; others are of opinion that Cicero volun- tarily overlooked and neglected the evidence against him, for fear of his friends and power ; for it was very evident to everybody, that if Csesar was to be accused with the conspirators, they were more likely to be saved with him, than he to be punished with them. When, therefore, it came to Cassar's turn to give his opinion, he stood up and proposed that the conspirators should not be put to death, but their estates confiscated, and their persons confined in such cities in Italy as Cicero should approve, there to be kept in custody till Catiline was conquered. To this sentence, as it was the most moderate, and he that delivered it a most powerful spe^.ker, Cicero himself gave no small weight, for he stood up and, turning the scale on either side, spoke in favor partly of the former, partly of Caesar's sentence. And all Cicero's friends, judging Csesar's sentence most expedient for Cicero, because he would incur the less blame if the conspirators were not ^^ut to death, chose I'ather the latter ; so that Silanus, also, changing his mind, re- tracted his opinion, and said he had not declared for capi- tal, but only the utmost punishment, which to a Roman senator is imprisonment. The first man who spoke against Ctesar's motion was Catulus Lutatius. Cato fol- lowed, and so vehemently urged in his speech the strong suspicion about Cassar himself, and so filled the senate with anger and resolution, that a decree was passed for the