n victim; those lips reeked with that
dread abomination! His lips, and those of others, fitter to sip voluptuous
nectar from the soft mouths of their noble paramours than to quaff such
pollution!

"That oath was to destroy Rome, utterly, with fire and the sword, till not
one stone should stand upon another, to mark the site of empire!

"The silver eagle was the god to whom he swore! The silver eagle, whose
wings were dyed so deep in massacre by Marius--to whom he had a shrine in
his own house, consecrated by what crimes, adored by what sacrilege, I say
not!

"The consular election was the day fixed; and, had the people met on that
day in the Campus, on that day had Rome ceased to be!

"To murder me in my robes of peace, at the Comitia, to murder the consuls
elect, to murder the patricians to a man, was his own task, most congenial
to his own savage nature!

"To fire the city in twelve several places was destined to his worthy
comrades, whose terror my eye now beholds, whose names for the present my
tongue shall not disclose. For I would give them time to repent, to change
their frantic purpose, to cast away their sin--oh! that they would do so!
oh! that they would have compassion on their prostrate and imploring
country--compassion on themselves--on me, who beseech them to turn back, ere
it be too late, to the ways of virtue, happiness, and honor!

"But names there are, which I will speak out, for to conceal them would
avail nothing, since they have drawn the sword already, and raised the
banner of rebellion against the majesty of Rome.

"Septimius of Camerinum has stirred the slaves even now to a fresh servile
war! has given out arms! has appointed leaders! by the Gods! has a force
on foot in the Picene district! Julius is soliciting the evil spirits of
Apulia; and, ere four days have flown, you shall have tidings from the
north, that Caius Manlius is in arms at Faesulae. Already he commands more
than two legions; not of raw levies, not of emancipated slaves, or
enfranchised gladiators--though these ere long will swell his host. No!
Sylla's veterans muster under his banner--the same swords gleam around him
which conquered the famed Macedonian phalanx at bloody Chaeronea, which
stormed the long walls of Piraeus, which won Bithynia, Cappadocia,
Paphlagonia, which drove great Mithridates back to his own Pontus!

"Nor is this all--for, if frustrated by the postponement of the consular
comitia, believe not that the