ion of the fundamental principles of the Roman Constitution,
which declared that no citizen could be put to death until sentenced by
the whole body of the people assembled in their Comitia, and for this
act Cicero, as the presiding magistrate, was held responsible. It was in
vain to urge that the Consuls had been armed with dictatorial power; the
Senate, in the present instance, assuming to themselves judicial
functions which they had no right to exercise, gave orders for the
execution of a sentence which they had no right to pronounce. Nor were
his enemies long in discovering this vulnerable point. On the last day
of the year, when, according to established custom, he ascended the
Rostra to give an account to the people of the events of his Consulship,
Metellus Celer, one of the new Tribunes, forbade him to speak,
exclaiming that the man who had put Roman citizens to death without
granting them a hearing was himself unworthy to be heard. But this
attack was premature. The audience had not yet forgotten their recent
escape; so that, when Cicero swore with a loud voice that "he had saved
the Republic and the city from ruin," the crowd with one voice responded
that he had sworn truly.

It was rumored that many other eminent men had been privy to Catiline's
conspiracy. Among others, the names of Crassus and Caesar were most
frequently mentioned; but the participation of either of these men in
such an enterprise seems most improbable. The interests of Crassus were
opposed to such an adventure; his vast wealth was employed in a variety
of speculations which would have been ruined in a general overthrow,
while he had not the energy or ability to seize and retain the helm in
the confusion that would have ensued. Of Caesar's guilt there is no
satisfactory evidence, and it is improbable that so keen-sighted a man
would have leagued with such a desperate adventurer as Catiline. Cato,
in his speech respecting the fate of the conspirators, hinted that Caesar
wished to spare them because he was a partner of their guilt; and in the
following year (B.C. 62), when Caesar was Praetor, L. Vettius, who had
been one of Cicero's informers, openly charged him with being a party to
the plot. Thereupon Caesar called upon Cicero to testify that he had of
his own accord given the Consul evidence respecting the conspiracy; and
so complete was his vindication that Vettius was thrown into prison.

[Illustration: Coin of Pompey.]

[Illustrat