Conspiracy of Catiline (Sallust)

[Close]

	Conspiracy of Catiline Author: Sallust	Translator: John Selby Watson
11	Sed primo magis ambitio quam avaritia animos hominum exercebat , quod tamen vitium propius virtutem erat . Nam gloriam , honorem , imperium bonus et ignavus aeque sibi exoptant ; sed ille vera via nititur , huic quia bonae artes desunt , dolis atque fallaciis contendit . Avaritia pecuniae studium habet , quam nemo sapiens concupivit : ea quasi venenis malis imbuta corpus animumque virilem effeminat , semper infinita , insatiabilis est , neque copia neque inopia minuitur . Sed postquam L . Sulla armis recepta re publica bonis initiis malos eventus habuit , rapere omnes , omnes trahere , domum alius , alius agros cupere , neque modum neque modestiam victores habere , foeda crudeliaque in civis facinora facere . Huc accedebat , quod L . Sulla exercitum , quem in Asia ductaverat , quo sibi fidum faceret , contra morem maiorum luxuriose nimisque liberaliter habuerat . Loca amoena , voluptaria facile in otio ferocis militum animos molliverant . Ibi primum insuevit exercitus populi Romani amare , potare , signa , tabulas pictas , vasa caelata mirari , ea privatim et publice rapere , delubra spoliare , sacra profanaque omnia polluere . Igitur ii milites , postquam victoriam adepti sunt , nihil reliqui victis fecere . Quippe secundae res sapientium animos fatigant : ne illi corruptis moribus victoriae temperarent .	At first, however, it was ambition, rather than avarice, that influenced the minds of men; a vice which approaches nearer to virtue than the other. For of glory, honor, and power, the worthy is as desirous as the worthless; but the one pursues them by just methods; the other, being destitute of honorable qualities, works with fraud and deceit. But avarice has merely money for its object, which no wise man has ever immoderately desired. It is a vice which, as if imbued with deadly poison, enervates whatever is manly in body or mind. It is always unbounded and insatiable, and is abated neither by abundance nor by want. But after Lucius Sylla, having recovered the government by force of arms, proceeded, after a fair commencement, to a pernicious termination, all became robbers and plunderers; some set their affections on houses, others on lands; his victorious troops knew neither restraint nor moderation, but inflicted on the citizens disgraceful and inhuman outrages. Their rapacity was increased by the circumstance that Sylla, in order to secure the attachment of the forces which he had commanded in Asia, had treated them, contrary to the practice of our ancestors, with extraordinary indulgence, and exemption from discipline; and pleasant and luxurious quarters had easily, during seasons of idleness, enervated the minds of the soldiery. Then the armies of the Roman people first became habituated to licentiousness and intemperance, and began to admire statues, pictures, and sculptured vases; to seize such objects alike in public edifices and private dwellings; to spoil temples; and to cast off respect for every thing, sacred and profane. Such troops, accordingly, when once they obtained the mastery, left nothing to be vanquished. Success unsettles the principles even of the wise, and scarcely would those of debauched habits use victory with moderation.
12	Postquam divitiae honori esse coepere et eas gloria , imperium , potentia sequebatur , hebescere virtus , paupertas probro haberi , innocentia pro malevolentia duci coepit . Igitur ex divitiis iuventutem luxuria atque avaritia cum superbia invasere : rapere , consumere , sua parvi pendere , aliena cupere , pudorem , pudicitiam , divina atque humana promiscua , nihil pensi neque moderati habere . Operae pretium est , cum domos atque villas cognoveris in urbium modum exaedificatas , visere templa deorum , quae nostri maiores , religiosissumi mortales , fecere . Verum illi delubra deorum pietate , domos suas gloria decorabant neque victis quicquam praeter iniuriae licentiam eripiebant . At hi contra , ignavissumi homines , per summum scelus omnia ea sociis adimere , quae fortissumi viri victores reliquerant : proinde quasi iniuriam facere id demum esset imperio uti .	When wealth was once considered an honor, and glory, authority, and power attended on it, virtue lost her influence, poverty was thought a disgrace, and a life of innocence was regarded as a life of ill-nature. From the influence of riches, accordingly, luxury, avarice, and pride prevailed among the youth; they grew at once rapacious and prodigal; they undervalued what was their own, and coveted what was another's; they set at naught modesty and continence; they lost all distinction between sacred and profane, and threw off all consideration and self-restraint. It furnishes much matter for reflection, after viewing our modern mansions and villas extended to the size of cities, to contemplate the temples which our ancestors, a most devout race of men, erected to the gods. But our forefathers adorned the fanes of the deities with devotion, and their homes with their own glory, and took nothing from those whom they conquered but the power of doing harm; their descendants, on the contrary, the basest of mankind, have even wrested from their allies, with the most flagrant injustice, whatever their brave and victorious ancestors had left to their vanquished enemies; as if the only use of power were to inflict injury.
13	Nam quid ea memorem , quae nisi iis , qui videre , nemini credibilia sunt : a privatis compluribus subvorsos montis , maria constrata esse ? Quibus mihi videntur ludibrio fuisse divitiae : quippe , quas honeste habere licebat , abuti per turpitudinem properabant . Sed lubido stupri , ganeae ceterique cultus non minor incesserat : viri muliebria pati , mulieres pudicitiam in propatulo habere ; vescendi causa terra marique omnia exquirere ; dormire prius , quam somni cupido esset ; non famem aut sitim , neque frigus neque lassitudinem opperiri , sed omnia luxu antecapere . Haec iuventutem , ubi familiares opes defecerant , ad facinora incendebant : animus imbutus malis artibus haud facile lubidinibus carebat ; eo profusius omnibus modis quaestui atque sumptui deditus erat .	For why should I mention those displays of extravagance, which can be believed by none but those who have seen them; as that mountains have been leveled, and seas covered with edifices, by many private citizens; men whom I consider to have made a sport of their wealth, since they were impatient to squander disreputably what they might have enjoyed with honor. But the love of irregular gratification, open debauchery, and all kinds of luxury, had spread abroad with no less force. Men forgot their sex; women threw off all the restraints of modesty. To gratify appetite, they sought for every kind of production by land and by sea; they slept before there was any inclination for sleep; they no longer waited to feel hunger, thirst, cold, or fatigue, but anticipated them all by luxurious indulgence. Such propensities drove the youth, when their patrimonies were exhausted, to criminal practices; for their minds, impregnated with evil habits, could not easily abstain from gratifying their passions, and were thus the more inordinately devoted in every way to rapacity and extravagance.
14	In tanta tamque corrupta civitate Catilina , id quod factu facillumum erat , omnium flagitiorum atque facinorum circum se tamquam stipatorum catervas habebat . Nam quicumque inpudicus , adulter , ganeo manu , ventre , pene bona patria laceraverat quique alienum aes grande conflaverat , quo flagitium aut facinus redimeret , praeterea omnes undique parricidae , sacrilegi , convicti iudiciis aut pro factis iudicium timentes , ad hoc , quos manus atque lingua periurio aut sanguine civili alebat , postremo omnes , quos flagitium , egestas , conscius animus exagitabat , ii Catilinae proxumi familiaresque erant . Quod si quis etiam a culpa vacuus in amicitiam eius inciderat , cotidiano usu atque illecebris facile par similisque ceteris efficiebatur . Sed maxume adulescentium familiaritates adpetebat : eorum animi molles etiam et fluxi dolis haud difficulter capiebantur . Nam ut cuiusque studium ex aetate flagrabat , aliis scorta praebere , aliis canes atque equos mercari ; postremo neque sumptui neque modestiae suae parcere , dum illos obnoxios fidosque sibi faceret . Scio fuisse nonnullos , qui ita existumarent : iuventutem , quae domum Catilinae frequentabat , parum honeste pudicitiam habuisse ; sed ex aliis rebus magis , quam quod cuiquam id compertum foret , haec fama valebat .	In so populous and so corrupt a city, Catiline, as it was very easy to do, kept about him, like a body-guard, crowds of the unprincipled and desperate. For all those shameless, libertine, and profligate characters, who had dissipated their patrimonies by gaming, luxury, and sensuality; all who had contracted heavy debts, to purchase immunity for their crimes or offenses; all assassins or sacrilegious persons from every quarter, convicted or dreading conviction for their evil deeds; all, besides, whom their tongue or their hand maintained by perjury or civil bloodshed; all, in fine, whom wickedness, poverty, or a guilty conscience disquieted, were the associates and intimate friends of Catiline. And if any one, as yet of unblemished character, fell into his society, he was presently rendered, by daily intercourse and temptation, similar and equal to the rest. But it was the young whose acquaintance he chiefly courted; as their minds, ductile and unsettled from their age, were easily insnared by his stratagems. For as the passions of each, according to his years, appeared excited, he furnished mistresses to some, bought horses and dogs for others, and spared, in a word, neither his purse nor his character, if he could but make them his devoted and trustworthy supporters. There were some, I know, who thought that the youth, who frequented the house of Catiline, were guilty of crimes against nature; but this report arose rather from other causes than from any evidence of the fact.
15	Iam primum adulescens Catilina multa nefanda stupra fecerat , cum virgine nobili , cum sacerdote Vestae , alia huiusce modi contra ius fasque . Postremo captus amore Aureliae Orestillae , cuius praeter formam nihil umquam bonus laudavit , quod ea nubere illi dubitabat timens privignum adulta aetate , pro certo creditur necato filio vacuam domum scelestis nuptiis fecisse . Quae quidem res mihi in primis videtur causa fuisse facinus maturandi . Namque animus inpurus , dis hominibusque infestus neque vigiliis neque quietibus sedari poterat : ita conscientia mentem excitam vastabat . Igitur color ei exsanguis , foedi oculi , citus modo , modo tardus incessus : prorsus in facie vultuque vecordia inerat .	Catiline, in his youth, had been guilty of many criminal connections, with a virgin of noble birth, with a priestess of Vesta, and of many other offenses of this nature, in defiance alike of law and religion. At last, when he was smitten with a passion for Aurelia Orestilla, in whom no good man, at any time of her life, commended any thing but her beauty, it is confidently believed that because she hesitated to marry him, from the dread of having a grown-up step-son, he cleared the house for their nuptials by putting his son to death. And this crime appears to me to have been the chief cause of hurrying forward the conspiracy. For his guilty mind, at peace with neither gods nor men, found no comfort either waking or sleeping; so effectually did conscience desolate his tortured spirit. His complexion, in consequence, was pale, his eyes haggard, his walk sometimes quick and sometimes slow, and distraction was plainly apparent in every feature and look.
16	Sed iuventutem , quam , ut supra diximus , illexerat , multis modis mala facinora edocebat . Ex illis testis signatoresque falsos commodare ; fidem , fortunas , pericula vilia habere , post , ubi eorum famam atque pudorem attriverat , maiora alia imperabat . Si causa peccandi in praesens minus suppetebat , nihilo minus insontis sicuti sontis circumvenire , iugulare : scilicet , ne per otium torpescerent manus aut animus , gratuito potius malus atque crudelis erat . His amicis sociisque confisus Catilina , simul quod aes alienum per omnis terras ingens erat et quod plerique Sullani milites largius suo usi rapinarum et victoriae veteris memores civile bellum exoptabant , opprimundae rei publicae consilium cepit . In Italia nullus exercitus , Cn . Pompeius in extremis terris bellum gerebat ; ipsi consulatum petenti magna spes , senatus nihil sane intentus : tutae tranquillaeque res omnes , sed ea prorsus opportuna Catilinae .	The young men, whom, as I said before, he had enticed to join him, he initiated, by various methods, in evil practices. From among them he furnished false witnesses, and forgers of signatures; and he taught them all to regard, with equal unconcern, honor, property, and danger. At length, when he had stripped them of all character and shame, he led them to other and greater enormities. If a motive for crime did not readily occur, he incited them, nevertheless, to circumvent and murder inoffensive persons, just as if they had injured him; for, lest their hand or heart should grow torpid for want of employment, he chose to be gratuitously wicked and cruel. Depending on such accomplices and adherents, and knowing that the load of debt was every where great, and that the veterans of Sylla, having spent their money too liberally, and remembering their spoils and former victory, were longing for a civil war, Catiline formed the design of overthrowing the government. There was no army in Italy; Pompey was fighting in a distant part of the world; he himself had great hopes of obtaining the consulship; the senate was wholly off its guard ; every thing was quiet and tranquil; and all these circumstances were exceedingly favorable for Catiline.
17	Igitur circiter Kalendas Iunias L . Caesare et C . Figulo consulibus primo singulos appellare , hortari alios , alios temptare ; opes suas , inparatam rem publicam , magna praemia coniurationis docere . Ubi satis explorata sunt , quae voluit , in unum omnis convocat , quibus maxuma necessitudo et plurumum audaciae inerat . Eo convenere senatorii ordinis P . Lentulus Sura , P . Autronius , L . Cassius Longinus , C . Cethegus , P . et Ser . Sullae Ser . filii , L . Vargunteius , Q . Annius , M . Porcius Laeca , L . Bestia , Q . Curius ; praeterea ex equestri ordine M . Fulvius Nobilior , L . Statilius , P . Gabinius Capito , C . Cornelius ; ad hoc multi ex coloniis et municipiis domi nobiles . Erant praeterea complures paulo occultius consili huiusce participes nobiles , quos magis dominationis spes hortabatur quam inopia aut alia necessitudo . Ceterum iuventus pleraque , sed maxume nobilium , Catilinae inceptis favebat ; quibus in otio vel magnifice vel molliter vivere copia erat , incerta pro certis , bellum quam pacem malebant . Fuere item ea tempestate , qui crederent M . Licinium Crassum non ignarum eius consili fuisse ; quia Cn . Pompeius , invisus ipsi , magnum exercitum ductabat , cuiusvis opes voluisse contra illius potentiam crescere , simul confisum , si coniuratio valuisset , facile apud illos principem se fore .	Accordingly, about the beginning of June, in the consulship of Lucius Cæsar and Caius Figulus, he at first addressed each of his accomplices separately, encouraged some, and sounded others, and informed them of his own resources, of the unprepared condition of the state, and of the great prizes to be expected from the conspiracy. When he had ascertained, to his satisfaction, all that he required, he summoned all whose necessities were the most urgent, and whose spirits were the most daring, to a general conference. At that meeting there were present, of senatorial rank, Publius Lentulus Sura, Publius Autronius, Lucius Cassius Longinus, Caius Cethegus, Publius and Servius Sylla the sons of Servius Sylla, Lucius Vargunteius Quintus Annius, Marcus Porcius Læca, Lucius Bestia, Quintus Curius; and, of the equestrian order, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, Lucius Statilius, Publius Gabinius Capito, Caius Cornelius ; with many from the colonies and municipal towns, persons of consequence in their own localities. There were many others, too, among the nobility, concerned in the plot, but less openly; men whom the hope of power, rather than poverty or any other exigence, prompted to join in the affair. But most of the young men, and especially the sons of the nobility, favored the schemes of Catiline; they who had abundant means of living at ease, either splendidly or voluptuously, preferred uncertainties to certainties, war to peace. There were some, also, at that time, who believed that Marcus Licinius Crassus was not unacquainted with the conspiracy; because Cneius Pompey, whom he hated, was at the head of a large army, and he was willing that the power of any one whomsoever should raise itself against Pompey's influence; trusting, at the same time, that if the plot should succeed, he would easily place himself at the head of the conspirators.
18	Sed antea item coniuravere pauci contra rem publicam , in quibus Catilina fuit . De qua , quam verissume potero , dicam . L . Tullo et M '. Lepido consulibus P . Autronius et P . Sulla designati consules legibus ambitus interrogati poenas dederant . Post paulo Catilina pecuniarum repetundarum reus prohibitus erat consulatum petere , quod intra legitumos dies profiteri nequiverat . Erat eodem tempore Cn . Piso , adulescens nobilis , summae audaciae , egens , factiosus , quem ad perturbandam rem publicam inopia atque mali mores stimulabant . Cum hoc Catilina et Autronius circiter Nonas Decembris consilio communicato parabant in Capitolio Kalendis Ianuariis L . Cottam et L . Torquatum consules interficere , ipsi fascibus correptis Pisonem cum exercitu ad obtinendas duas Hispanias mittere . Ea re cognita rursus in Nonas Februarias consilium caedis transtulerant . Iam tum non consulibus modo , sed plerisque senatoribus perniciem machinabantur . Quod ni Catilina maturasset pro curia signum sociis dare , eo die post conditam urbem Romam pessumum facinus patratum foret . Quia nondum frequentes armati convenerant , ea res consilium diremit .	But previously to this period, a small number of persons, among whom was Catiline, had formed a design against the state: of which affair I shall here give as accurate account as I am able. Under the consulship of Lucius Tullus and Marcus Lepidus, Publius Autronius and Publius Sylla, having been tried for bribery under the laws against it, had paid the penalty of the offense. Shortly after Catiline, being brought to trial for extortion, had been prevented from standing for the consulship, because he had been unable to declare himself a candidate within the legitimate number of days. There was at that time, too, a young patrician of the most daring spirit, needy and discontented, named Cneius Piso, whom poverty and vicious principles instigated to disturb the government. Catiline and Autronius, having concerted measures with this Piso, prepared to assassinate the consuls, Lucius Cotta and Lucius Torquatus, in the Capitol, on the first of January, when they, having seized on the fasces, were to send Piso with an army to take possession of the two Spains. But their design being discovered, they postponed the assassination to the fifth of February; when they meditated the destruction, not of the consuls only, but of most of the senate. And had not Catiline, who was in front of the senate-house, been too hasty to give the singal to his associates, there would that day have been perpetrated the most atrocious outrage since the city of Rome was founded. But as the armed conspirators had not yet assembled in sufficient numbers, the want of force frustrated the design.
19	Postea Piso in citeriorem Hispaniam quaestor pro praetore missus est adnitente Crasso , quod eum infestum inimicum Cn . Pompeio cognoverat . Neque tamen senatus provinciam invitus dederat ; quippe foedum hominem a republica procul esse volebat , simul quia boni conplures praesidium in eo putabant et iam tum potentia Pompei formidulosa erat . Sed is Piso in provincia ab equitibus Hispanis , quos in exercitu ductabat , iter faciens occisus est . Sunt , qui ita dicant : imperia eius iniusta , superba , crudelia barbaros nequivisse pati ; alii autem : equites illos , Cn . Pompei veteres fidosque clientis , voluntate eius Pisonem aggressos ; numquam Hispanos praeterea tale facinus fecisse , sed imperia saeva multa antea perpessos . Nos eam rem in medio relinquemus . De superiore coniuratione satis dictum .	Some time afterward, Piso was sent as quæstor, with Prætorian authority, into Hither Spain; Crassus promoting the appointment, because he knew him to be a bitter enemy to Cneius Pompey. Nor were the senate, indeed, unwilling to grant him the province; for they wished so infamous a character to be removed from the seat of government; and many worthy men, at the same time, thought that there was some security in him against the power of Pompey, which was then becoming formidable. But this Piso, on his march toward his province, was murdered by some Spanish cavalry whom he had in his army. These barbarians, as some say, had been unable to endure his unjust, haughty, and cruel orders; but others assert that this body of cavalry, being old and trusty adherents of Pompey, attacked Piso at his instigation; since the Spaniards, they observed, had never before committed such an outrage, but had patiently submitted to many severe commands. This question we shall leave undecided. Of the first conspiracy enough has been said.
20	Catilina ubi eos , quos paulo ante memoravi , convenisse videt , tametsi cum singulis multa saepe egerat , tamen in rem fore credens univorsos appellare et cohortari in abditam partem aedium secedit atque ibi omnibus arbitris procul amotis orationem huiusce modi habuit : " Ni virtus fidesque vostra spectata mihi forent , nequiquam opportuna res cecidisset ; spes magna , dominatio in manibus frustra fuissent , neque ego per ignaviam aut vana ingenia incerta pro certis captarem . Sed quia multis et magnis tempestatibus vos cognovi fortis fidosque mihi , eo animus ausus est maxumum atque pulcherrumum facinus incipere , simul quia vobis eadem , quae mihi , bona malaque esse intellexi ; nam idem velle atque idem nolle , ea demum firma amicitia est . Sed ego quae mente agitavi , omnes iam antea divorsi audistis . Ceterum mihi in dies magis animus accenditur , cum considero , quae condicio vitae futura sit , nisi nosmet ipsi vindicamus in libertatem . Nam postquam res publica in paucorum potentium ius atque dicionem concessit , semper illis reges , tetrarchae vectigales esse , populi , nationes stipendia pendere ; ceteri omnes , strenui , boni , nobiles atque ignobiles , vulgus fuimus , sine gratia , sine auctoritate , iis obnoxii , quibus , si res publica valeret , formidini essemus . Itaque omnis gratia , potentia , honos , divitiae apud illos sunt aut ubi illi volunt ; nobis reliquere pericula , repulsas , iudicia , egestatem . Quae quousque tandem patiemini , o fortissumi viri ? Nonne emori per virtutem praestat quam vitam miseram atque inhonestam , ubi alienae superbiae ludibrio fueris , per dedecus amittere ? Verum enim vero , pro deum atque hominum fidem , victoria in manu nobis est : viget aetas , animus valet ; contra illis annis atque divitiis omnia consenuerunt . Tantummodo incepto opus est , cetera res expediet . Etenim quis mortalium , cui virile ingenium est , tolerare potest illis divitias superare , quas profundant in exstruendo mari et montibus coaequandis , nobis rem familiarem etiam ad necessaria deesse ? Illos binas aut amplius domos continuare , nobis larem familiarem nusquam ullam esse ? Cum tabulas , signa , toreumata emunt , nova diruunt , alia aedificant , postremo omnibus modis pecuniam trahunt , vexant , tamen summa lubidine divitias suas vincere nequeunt . At nobis est domi inopia , foris aes alienum , mala res , spes multo asperior : denique quid reliqui habemus praeter miseram animam ? Quin igitur expergiscimini ? En illa , illa , quam saepe optastis , libertas , praeterea divitiae , decus , gloria in oculis sita sunt ; fortuna omnia ea victoribus praemia posuit . Res , tempus , pericula , egestas , belli spolia magnifica magis quam oratio mea vos hortantur . Vel imperatore vel milite me utimini ! Neque animus neque corpus a vobis aberit . Haec ipsa , ut spero vobiscum una consul agam , nisi forte me animus fallit et vos servire magis quam imperare parati estis ."	When Catiline saw those, whom I have just above mentioned, assembled, though he had often discussed many points with them singly, yet thinking it would be to his purpose to address and exhort them in a body, retired with them into a private apartment of his house, where, when all witnesses were withdrawn, he harangued them to the following effect: " If your courage and fidelity had not been sufficiently proved by me, this favorable opportunity would have occurred to no purpose; mighty hopes, absolute power, would in vain be within our grasp; nor should I, depending on irresolution or ficklemindedness, pursue contingencies instead of certainties. But as I have, on many remarkable occasions, experienced your bravery and attachment to me, I have ventured to engage in a most important and glorious enterprise. I am aware, too, that whatever advantages or evils affect you, the same affect me; and to have the same desires and the same aversions, is assuredly a firm bond of friendship. "What I have been meditating you have already heard separately. But my ardor for action is daily more and more excited, when I consider what our future condition of life must be, unless we ourselves assert our claims to liberty. For since the government has fallen under the power and jurisdiction of a few, kings and princes have constantly been their tributaries; nations and states have paid them taxes; but all the rest of us, however brave and worthy, whether noble or plebeian, have been regarded as a mere mob, without interest or authority, and subject to those, to whom, if the state were in a sound condition, we should be a terror. Hence, all influence, power, honor, and wealth, are in their hands, or where they dispose of them; to us they have left only insults, dangers, persecutions, and poverty. To such indignities, O bravest of men, how long will you submit? Is it not better to die in a glorious attempt, than, after having been the sport of other men's insolence, to resign a wretched and degraded existence with ignominy? "But success (I call gods and men to witness!) is in our own hands. Our years are fresh, our spirit is unbroken; among our oppressors, on the contrary, through age and wealth a general debility has been produced. We have therefore only to make a beginning; the course of events will accomplish the rest. "Who in the world, indeed, that has the feelings of a man, can endure that they should have a superfluity of riches, to squander in building over seas and leveling mountains, and that means should be wanting to us even for the necessaries of life; that they should join together two houses or more, and and that we should not have a hearth to call our own ? They, though they purchase pictures, statues, and embossed plate ; though they pull down new buildings and erect others, and lavish and abuse their wealth in every possible method, yet can not, with the utmost efforts of caprice, exhaust it. But for us there is poverty at home, debts abroad; our present circumstances are bad, our prospects much worse; and what, in a word, have we left, but a miserable existence ? "Will you not, then, awake to action? Behold that liberty, that liberty for which you have so often wished, with wealth, honor, and glory, are set before your eyes. All these prizes fortune offers to the victorious. Let the enterprise itself, then, let the opportunity, let your poverty, your dangers, and the glorious spoils of war, animate you far more than my words. Use me either as your leader or your fellow-soldier; neither my heart nor my hand shall be wanting to you. These objects I hope to effect, in concert with you, in the character of consul; unless, iudeed, my expectation deceives me, and you prefer to be slaves rather than masters."