fled. He has gone out from among
us. He has broken away!" "I have made this conspiracy plain to you all,
as I said I would, unless indeed there may be some one here who does not
believe that the friends of Catiline will do the same as Catiline would
have done. But there is no time now for soft measures. We have to be
strong-handed. There is one thing I will do for these men. Let them too
go out, so that Catiline shall not pine for them. I will show them the
road. He has gone by the Via Aurelia. If they will hurry they may catch
him before night." He implies by this that the story about Marseilles
was false. Then he speaks with irony of himself as that violent Consul
who could drive citizens into exile by the very breath of his mouth.
"Ego vehemens ille consul qui verbo cives in exsilium ejicio." So he
goes on, in truth defending himself, but leading them with him to take
part in the accusation which he intends to bring against the chief
conspirators who remain in the city. If they too will go, they may go
unscathed; if they choose to remain, let them look to themselves.

Through it all we can see there is but one thing that he fears--that he
shall be driven by the exigencies of the occasion to take some steps
which shall afterward be judged not to have been strictly legal, and
which shall put him into the power of his enemies when the day of his
ascendency shall have passed away. It crops out repeatedly in these
speeches.[202] He seems to be aware that some over-strong measure will
be forced upon him for which he alone will be held responsible. If he
can only avoid that, he will fear nothing else; if he cannot avoid it,
he will encounter even that danger. His foresight was wonderfully
accurate. The strong hand was used, and the punishment came upon him,
not from his enemies but from his friends, almost to the bursting of his
heart.

Though the Senate had decreed that the Consuls were to see that the
Republic should take no harm, and though it was presumed that
extraordinary power was thereby conferred, it is evident that no power
was conferred of inflicting punishment. Antony, as Cicero's colleague,
was nothing. The authority, the responsibility, the action were, and
were intended, to remain with Cicero. He could not legally banish any
one. It was only too evident that there must be much slaughter. There
was the army of rebels with which it would be necessary to fight. Let
them go, these rebels within the city, and eit