688.--L. MANLIUS TORQUATUS, L. AURELIUS COTTA.--_Jan_. 1: Catiline's project of the first conspiracy becomes known, and he defers the execution of it to the 5th of February, when he makes an unsuccessful attempt to execute it. _July_ 17: He is acquitted of extortion, and begins to canvass for the consulship for the year 690. 689.--L. JULIUS CAESAR, C. MARCIUS FIGULUS THERMUS.--_June_ 1: Catiline convokes the chiefs of the second conspiracy. He is disappointed in his views on the consulship. 690--M. TULLIUS CICERO, C. ANTONIUS HYBRIDA.--_Oct_. 19: Cicero lays the affair of the conspiracy before the senate, who decree plenary powers to the consuls for defending the state. _Oct_. 21: Silanus and Muraena are elected consuls for the next year, Catiline, who was a candidate, being rejected. _Oct_. 22: Catiline is accused under the Plautian Law _de vi_. Sall. Cat., c. 31. _Oct_. 24: Manlius takes up arms in Etruria. _Nov_. 6: Catiline assembles the chief conspirators, by the agency of Porcius Laeca Sall. Cat., c. 27. _Nov_. 7: Vargunteius and Cornelius undertake to assassinate Cicero. Sall. Cat., c. 28. _Nov_. 8: Catiline appears in the senate; Cicero delivers his first Oration against him; he threatens to extinguish the flame raised around him in a general destruction, and quits Rome. Sall. Cat., c. 31. _Nov_. 9: Cicero delivers his second Oration against Catiline, before an assembly of the people, convoked by order of the senate. _Nov_. 20, _or thereabouts_: Catiline and Manlius are declared public enemies. Soon after this the conspirators attempt to secure the support of the Allobrogian deputies. _Dec_. 3: About two o'clock in the morning the Allobroges are apprehended. Toward evening Cicero delivers his third Oration against Catiline, before the people. _Dec_. 5. Cicero's fourth Oration against Catiline, before the senate. Soon after, the conspirators are condemned to death, and great honors are decreed by the senate to Cicero. 691.--D. JUNIUS SILANUS, L. LICINIUS MURAENA--_Jan_. 5: Battle of Pistoria, and death of Catiline. * * * * * The narrative of Sallust terminates with the account of the battle of Pistoria. There are a few other particulars connected with the history of the conspiracy, which, for the sake of the English reader, it may not be improper to add. When the victory was gained, Antonius caused Catiline's head to be cut off, and sent it to Rome by the messengers who carried the news. Antonius himself was honored, by a public decree, with the title of _Imperator_, although he had done little to merit the distinction, and although the number of slain, which was three thousand, was less than that for which the title was generally given. See Dio Cass. xxxvii., 40, 41.