5.
And, not to detain you, O Romans, we ordered the letters to be brought forward which were
said to have been given them by each of the men. First I showed his seal to Cethegus; he
recognised it: we cut the thread; we read the letter. It was written with his own hand: that
he would do for the senate and people of the Allobroges what he had promised their
ambassadors; and that he begged them also to do what their ambassadors had arranged. Then
Cethegus, who a little before had made answer about the swords and daggers which had been
found in his house, and had said that he had always been fond of fine arms, being stricken
down and dejected at the reading of his letters, convicted by his own conscience, became
suddenly silent. Statilius, being introduced, owned his handwriting and his seal. His letters
were read, of nearly the same tenor: he confessed it. Then I showed Lentulus his letters, and
asked him whether he recognised the seal? He nodded assent. But it is, said I, a well-known
seal;—the likeness of your grandfather, a most illustrious man, who greatly loved
his country and his fellow-citizens; and it even though silent, ought to have called you back
from such wickedness.
[11]
Letters are read of the same tenor to the senate and people of the Allobroges. I offered
him leave, if he wished to say anything of these matters: and at first he declined to speak;
but a little afterwards, when the whole examination had been gone through and concluded, he
rose. He asked the Gauls what he had had to do with them? why they had come to his house? and
he asked Vulturcius too. And when they had answered him briefly and steadily, under whose
guidance they had come to him, and how often; and when they asked him whether he had said
nothing to them about the Sibylline oracles, then he on a sudden, mad with wickedness, showed
how great was the power of conscience; for though he might have denied it, he suddenly,
contrary to every one's expectation confessed it: so not only did his genius and skill in
oratory, for which he was always eminent, but even through the power of his manifest and
detected wickedness, that impudence in which he surpassed all men, and audacity deserted him.
[12]
But Vulturcius on a sudden ordered the letters to be
produced and opened which he said had been given to him for Catiline, by Lentulus. And though
Lentulus was greatly agitated at that, yet he acknowledged his seal and his handwriting; but
the letter was anonymous, and ran thus:—“Who I am you will know from him
whom I have sent to you: take care to behave like a man, and consider to what place you have
proceeded, and provide for what is now necessary for you: take care to associate to yourself
the assistance of every one, even of the powerless.” Then Gabinius being
introduced, when at first he had begun to answer impudently, at last denied nothing of those
things which the Gauls alleged against him.
[13]
And to me,
indeed, O Romans, though the letters, the seals, the handwriting, and the confession of each
individual seemed most certain indications and proofs of wickedness, yet their colour, their
eyes, their countenance, their silence, appeared more certain still; for they stood so
stupefied, they kept their eyes so fixed on the ground, at times looking stealthily at one
another, that they appeared now not so much to be informed against by others as to be
informing against themselves.
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