still at large. The charge seemed
incredible to most of those who heard it. Crassus had too much at stake
to risk himself in such perilous ventures. Those who believed it were
afraid to press it against so powerful a citizen; and there were many
who were under too great obligations to the accused to allow it,
whatever its truth or falsehood, to be insisted upon. The Senate
resolved that the charge was false, and that its author should be kept
in custody till he disclosed at whose suggestion he had come forward.
Crassus himself believed that the consul had himself contrived the whole
business, with the object of making it impossible for him to take the
part of the accused. "He complained to me," says Sallust the historian,
"of the great insult which had thus been put upon him by Cicero.".

Under these circumstances Cicero determined to act with vigor. On the
fifth of December he called a meeting of the Senate, and put it to the
House what should be done with the prisoners in custody. The consul
elect gave his opinion that they should be put to death. Caesar, when
his turn came to speak, rose and addressed the Senate. He did not seek
to defend the accused. They deserved any punishment. Because that was
so, let them be dealt with according to law. And the law was that no
Roman citizen could suffer death except by a general decree of the
people. If any other course should be taken, men would afterwards
remember not their crimes but the severity with which they had been
treated. Cato followed, giving his voice for the punishment of death;
and Cicero took the same side. The Senate, without dividing, voted that
the prisoners were traitors, and must pay the usual penalty.

The consul still feared that a rescue might be attempted. He directed
the officials to make all necessary preparations, and himself conducted
Lentulus to prison, the other criminals being put into the charge of the
praetors. The prison itself was strongly guarded. In this building,
which was situated under the eastern side of the Capitoline Hill, was a
pit twelve feet deep, said to have been constructed by King Tullius. It
had stone walls and a vaulted stone roof; it was quite dark, and the
stench and filth of the place were hideous. Lentulus was hurried into
this noisome den, where the executioners strangled him. His accomplices
suffered the same fate. The consul was escorted to his house by an
enthusiastic crowd. When he was asked how it had fared with the