[88] Veterans of Sylla, etc.--Elsewhere called the colonists of Sylla; men to whom Sylla had given large tracts of land as rewards for their services, but who, having lived extravagantly, had fallen into such debt and distress, that, as Cicero said, nothing could relieve them but the resurrection of Sylla from the dead. Cic. ii. Orat. in Cat. [89] Pompey was fighting in a distant part of the world--_In extremis terris_. Pompey was then conducting the war against Mithridates and Tigranes, in Pontus and Armenia. [90] The senate was wholly off its guard--_Senatus nihil sane intentus_. The senate was _regardless_, and unsuspicious of any danger. [91] XVII. Lucius Caesar--He was a relation of Julius Caesar; and his sister was the wife of M. Antonius, the orator, and mother of Mark Antony, the triumvir. [92] Publius Lentulus Sura--He was of the same family with Sylla, that of the Cornelii. He had filled the office of consul, but his conduct had been afterward so profligate, that the censors expelled him from the senate. To enable him to resume his seat, he had obtained, as a qualification, the office of praetor, which he held at the time of the conspiracy. He was called Sura, because, when he had squandered the public money in his quaestorship, and was called to account by Sylla for his dishonesty, he declined to make any defense, but said, "I present you the calf of my leg (_sura_);" alluding to a custom among boys playing at ball, of inflicting a certain number of strokes on the leg of an unsuccessful player. Plutarch, Life of Cicero, c.17. [93] Publius Autronius--He had been a companion of Cicero in his boyhood, and his colleague in the quaestorship. He was banished in the year after the conspiracy, together with Cassius, Laeca, Vargunteius, Servius Sylla, and Caius Cornelius, under the Plautian law. _De Brosses_. [94] Lucius Cassius Longinus.--He had been a competitor with Cicero for the consulship. Ascon. Ped., in Cic. Orat. in Tog. Cand. His corpulence was such that Cassius's fat (_Cassii adeps_) became proverbial. Cic. Orat. in Catil., iii. 7. [95] Caius Cethegus--He also was one of the Cornelian family. In the civil wars, says De Brosses, he had first taken the side of Marius, and afterward that of Sylla. Both Cicero (Orat. in Catil., ii.7) and Sallust describe him as fiery and rash. [96] Publius and Servius Sylla--These were nephews of Sylla the dictator. Publius, though present on this occasion, seems not to have joined in the plot, since, when he was afterward accused of having been a conspirator, he was defended by Cicero and acquitted. See Cic. Orat. pro P. Sylla. He was afterward with Caesar in the battle of Pharsalia. Caes. de B.C., iii. 89. [97] Lucius Vargunteius--"Of him or his family little is known. He had been, before this period, accused of bribery, and defended by Hortensius. Cic. pro P. Sylla, c. 2." _Bernouf_.