Cicero having thus passed through the quæstorship, ædileship, and prætorship, was now, in his forty-third year, unanimously chosen consul. It cannot be denied that, at the end of his consulship, he became giddy; but he entered upon it with cheerful confidence, and the circumstances in which he was placed were exceedingly difficult. The tribunes everywhere abused their recovered power. The speeches against Rullus are some of the most brilliant examples of eloquence, when he demanded a small sacrifice from the people, and induced them not to accept the bounty which was proffered them in the scheme for the division of the lands. Moreover, when the sons of the proscribed (some of whom were of the first families, and had become impoverished, inasmuch as Sylia had deprived them of all prospect of office), had by the motion of a tribune been given to hope that they might recover their honours, he persuaded them _concordiæ causa_ to renounce them. The person who from the very first withstood him, was Catiline. How Cicero was to be murdered; how he discovered those plots; how he saw into the secrets of the conspirators, without being seen himself; you may read in his own writings, and in Sallust. Matters came to such a pass, that Cicero found it necessary to attack Catiline in the senate; whereupon the latter left Rome, which was considered a great advantage. He betook himself to Tuscany where one of his partisans had gathered together some thousands of armed men, a number of vagabonds and outcasts, part of them Etruscans driven from their homes, others military colonists and such like. The accomplices, however, who had remained behind in Rome were men of the highest standing: among others was the prætor Lentulus, who had already been consul, but had been struck off from the list of the senate _ambitus causa_; so that he had once more to pass through all the offices, beginning at the lowest, to be able again to come into the senate. As to him, Cicero knew of his guilt for certain; in other cases, the connexion was very probable, though it was never proved; in that of M. Crassus, it was very likely. Julius Cæsar was also mentioned; yet Cicero believed him innocent: it is my conviction, that he could not have engaged in anything of the kind, the conspiracy being such, that this is not to be thought of. To get such evidence that the crime might, according to the Roman law, be _delictum manifestum_, Cicero made use of a stratagem. The envoys of the Allobroges, who since Pompey’s return from the war with Sertorius, were Roman citizens, and just then were present at Rome to negotiate a loan, and to obtain relief, he persuaded to disclose to him the offers made them by the conspirators: they were also to get the letters of these to Catiline, and then to give them up to him. The envoys being thereupon arrested, for the sake of appearance, by the prætor Valerius Flaccus, those letters were found among their papers.