revolution, Lentulus opened negotiations with them, with a view to securing the aid of their countrymen for the conspirators. They took counsel however of their 'patronus' Q. Fabius Sanga, and by his advice revealed the whole affair to Cicero. Acting under his directions they pretended to enter heartily into the schemes of Lentulus, and obtained from him letters written and sealed by himself and his friends, addressed to their nation, stating and confirming by oath the rewards they were to receive for their assistance. A letter was also given them for Catilina, whose camp they were to visit on their way home. With these letters they set out from Rome on the night of December 2, accompanied by T. Volturcius, the agent of Lentulus. Cicero, as previously agreed upon, posted two Praetors with an armed force at the Mulvian Bridge, on the Via Flaminia, a few miles to the north of Rome. They there arrested the whole party, and carried them, with the compromising papers, to the Consul. He at once summoned the chief conspirators to his presence. One, Caeparius, made his escape, though he was eventually recaptured; but Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, and Gabinius came unsuspectingly, and were at once conveyed by Cicero to the presence of the Senate, which he had convoked at the Temple of Concord. There Volturcius, under promise of impunity, made a full disclosure, and the conspirators were further confronted with the evidence of the Allobroges, and their own letters, the authenticity of which they were compelled to acknowledge. Lentulus, who was Praetor at the time, was obliged to abdicate his office, and he and his companions were placed in free custody under the charge of several prominent citizens. Rewards were voted to the informers, and a 'supplicatio' or thanksgiving for the averted danger decreed in honour of Cicero, who after leaving the Senate addressed to the people assembled in the Forum the Third Catilinarian Oration, giving a full account of what had just taken place.

Two days later (December 5) the Senate was once more convened, and Cicero as Consul put to them the formal question, 'what was their advice with respect to the conspirators actually in custody?'

The Consul elect, D. Silanus, who was first asked for his vote, proposed that they should be put to death. The other consulars supported him. When it came to the turn of Caesar, who was praetor elect, he proposed as an alternative that their property should be confiscated, and that they should be imprisoned for life in some of the provincial towns of Italy. These two proposals were before the Senate when Cicero intervened with the Fourth Catilinarian Oration. It does not pronounce a formal sententia, for the Consul, as president, would not himself vote, but places the alternative proposals before the house for their consideration; indicating, however, a preference for that of Silanus. But Caesar's speech had made a great impression, and Silanus announced that he would agree to a motion for a postponement of the decision, which had been suggested as a compromise. The matter was eventually decided by a speech of M. Cato, who was tribune elect. He attacked the conspirators with great vigour, and proposed that they should be summarily put to death more maiorum. His words produced such an effect that his proposal was carried forthwith. Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius and Caeparius were at once conducted to the Tullianum, the prison underneath the slopes of the Capitol, and there strangled[13].

This summary proceeding effectually checked the plans of Catilina. From this moment he received no fresh reinforcements, and his original adherents began to leave him. The retreat of his army into Gaul was blocked by the Praetor Metellus Celer, while M. Petreius, acting as the legate of Antonius, advanced against him from the south. Early in the following year (62) the opposing forces met at Pistoria in Etruria, where Catilina and his followers, after fighting with desperate courage, were defeated and slain to a man.