Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/245

Rh to the skies, and a thanksgiving (supplicatio) was decreed in his honor. Next day the rumor spread that a movement was on foot to free the prisoners by force. On December 5 Cicero consulted the senate as to the fate of those imprisoned; and it was resolved that they, and four others when apprehended, should be executed. Caesar, now praetor elect, made an impressive speech against capital punishment, Cicero another in favor of it; but the tribune elect, M. Cato, through his courage and force decided the issue. The prisoners were forthwith conducted to the Tullianum, and strangled.

Legality of the Execution. — In the times of the Gracchi the oligarchy had introduced, and always stoutly maintained, the constitutional theory that the senate had the authority to confer quasi-dictatorial powers also in the emergencies of party strife and sedition. The senate had exercised this authority in at least two instances (pp. 175, 185), and continued to employ it in spite of the Clodian law of 58 (pp. 289-240). The democrats had usually opposed the theory, but had never been able permanently to set it aside, and Caesar and his followers seem to have admitted its validity. Cicero, accordingly, had by virtue of the extreme and final decree (senatus consultum ultimum) the power to disregard the right of appeal and execute the conspirators. The resolution of December 5 furnished, however, simply moral support to the weak consul and formed a pledge of future assistance.

Suppression of the Insurrection. — Early in 62, Catiline and the rest of his band — about three thousand men — were killed in a battle near Pistoria. In the course of the year various conspirators were prosecuted, and nearly all of them were condemned or went beforehand into exile. Caesar and Crassus, though reported to be accomplices, were not put on trial.