[-29-] As for Catiline, his ruin was accomplished in the following way and for the reasons which I shall narrate. He had been seeking the consulship even then, and contriving every conceivable way to get appointed, when the senate decreed, chiefly at the instance of Cicero, that a banishment of ten years should be added by law to the penalties imposed for bribery. Catiline thought, as was doubtless true, that this ruling had been made on his account, and planned, by collecting a small band, to slay Cicero and some other foremost men on the very day of the election, in order that he might immediately be chosen consul. This project he was unable, however, to carry out. Cicero learned of the plot beforehand, informed the senate of it, and delivered a long accusation against him. Being unsuccessful, however, in persuading them to vote any of the measures he asked--this was because his announcement was not regarded as credible and he was suspected of having uttered false charges against the men on account of personal enmity--Cicero became frightened, seeing that he had given Catiline additional provocation, and he did not venture to enter the assembly alone, as had been his custom, but he took his friends along prepared to defend him if any danger threatened; and he wore for his own safety and because of their hostility a breastplate beneath his clothing, which he would purposely uncover. For this reason and because anyway some report had been spread of a plot against him, the populace was furiously angry and the fellow conspirators of Catiline through fear of him became quiet. [-30-] In this way new consuls were chosen, and Catiline no longer directed his plot in secret or against Cicero and his adherents only, but against the whole commonwealth. He assembled from Rome itself the lowest characters and such as were always eager for a revolution and as many as possible of the allies, by promising them cancellation of debts, redistribution of lands, and everything else by which he was most likely to allure them. Upon the foremost and most powerful of them (of whose number was Antonius the consul) he imposed the obligation of taking the oath in an unholy manner. He sacrificed a boy, and after administering the oath over his entrails, tasted the inwards in company with the rest. Those who coöperated with him most were: In Rome, the consul and Publius Lentulus, who, after his consulship, had been expelled from the senate (he was now acting as praetor, in order to gain senatorial rank again); at Faesulae, where the men of his party were collecting, one Gaius Mallius, who was most experienced in military matters (he had served with Sulla's centurions) and the greatest possible spendthrift. Everything that he had gained at that epoch, although a vast sum, he had consumed by evil practices, and was eager for other similar exploits. Afranius, returning through Mesopotamia to Syria, contrary to the agreement made with the Parthian, [B.C.