Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/236

222 III. The Catilinarian Conspiracies.

Political Prosecutions. — By the Gabinian and Manilian laws the democrats had for the time being not only introduced a great constitutional change, but had also set aside the senatorial government in regard to the most important public affairs. During the absence of Pompeius in the East they attempted to follow up their victories. They again had recourse to the old method of using the judicial tribunals for partisan purposes, but without success.

The aristocrats, on the other hand, secured the condemnation of Gaius Licinius Macer, tribune in 73. He was tried in the court for cases of extortion (quaestio repetundarum), over which Cicero, praetor in 66, presided. Manilius was arraigned before the same court, but it was broken up by force on the last of December, 66.

The First Catilinarian Conspiracy. — The resort to open violence indicated the existence of a conspiracy and confirmed the rumors that were spreading. The leader was Lucius Sergius Catilina, a man notorious even in those times for his dissolute character and his horrible villainies, but possessed of ability and personal magnetism. After filling the praetorship, he had governed the province of Africa and wished in 66 to be a candidate for the consulship; but he was excluded by the consul in charge of the election, because he was threatened with an action for extortion. He then conspired with P. Autronius Paetus and probably also with P. Cornelius Sulla, who had been elected consuls for 65, but were convicted of electoral bribery (ambitus). Thereupon their competitors and prosecutors, L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus, were chosen consuls for 65. Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, L. Vargunteius, Gaius Cornelius Cethegus, and a number of others belonged to the conspiracy. They intended to murder the consuls on January 1, proclaim