When it was reported in his camp, however, that the conspiracy had
been discovered at Rome, and that Lentulus, Cethegus, and the rest
whom I have named had been put to death, most of those whom the hope
of plunder or the love of change had led to join in the war fell away.
The remainder Catiline conducted, over rugged mountains and by forced
marches, into the neighborhood of Pistoria, with a view to escape
covertly, by crossroads, into Gaul.

But Quintus Metellus Celer, who, with a force of three legions, had,
at that time, his station at Picenum, suspected that Catiline, from
the difficulties of his position, would adopt precisely the course
which we have just described. When, therefore, he had learned
Catiline's route from some deserters, he immediately broke up his
camp, and took his post at the very foot of the hills, at the point
where Catiline's descent would be, in his hurried march into Gaul.[66]
Nor was Antonius far distant, as he was pursuing, tho with a large
army, yet through plainer ground, and with fewer hindrances, the enemy
in retreat.

Catiline, when he saw that he was surrounded by mountains and by
hostile forces, that his schemes in the city had been unsuccessful,
and that there was no hope either of escape or of succor, thinking it
best, in such circumstances, to try the fortune of a battle, resolved
upon engaging, as speedily as possible, with Antonius....

When he had spoken, he ordered, after a short delay, the signal for
battle to be sounded, and led down his troops, in regular order, to
the level ground. Having then sent away the horses of all the cavalry,
in order to increase the men's courage by making their danger equal,
he himself, on foot, drew up his troops suitably to their numbers and
the nature of the ground. As a plain stretched between the mountains
on the left, with a rugged rock on the right, he placed eight cohorts
in front, and stationed the rest of his force, in close order, in the
rear. From among these he removed all the ablest centurions, the
veterans, and the stoutest of the common soldiers that were regularly
armed into the foremost ranks. He ordered Caius Manlius to take the
command on the right, and a certain officer of Faesulae on the left;
while he himself, with his freedmen and the colonists, took his
station by the eagle, which Caius Marius was said to have had in his
army in the Cimbrian war.

On the other side, Caius Antonius, who, being lame, was unable to be