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Yet, at the same time, neither by interest, nor by solicitation, nor by bribes, could Quintus Catulus, and Caius Piso, prevail upon Cicero to have Caius Cæsar falsely accused, either by means of the Allobroges, or any other evidence. Both of these men were at bitter enmity with Cæsar; Piso, as having been attacked by him, when he was on1 his trial for extortion, on a charge of having illegally put to death a Transpadane Gaul; Catulus, as having hated him ever since he stood for the pontificate, because, at an advanced age, and after filling the highest offices, he had been defeated by Cæsar, who was then comparatively a youth.2 The opportunity, too, seemed favorable for such an accusation; for Cæsar, by extraordinary generosity in private, and by magnificent exhibitions in public,3 had fallen greatly into debt. But when they failed to persuade the consul to such injustice, they themselves, by going from one person to another, and spreading fictions of their own, which they pretended to have heard from Volturcius or the Allobroges, excited such violent odium against him, that certain Roman knights, who were stationed as an armed guard round the Temple of Concord, being prompted, either by the greatness of the danger, or by the impulse of a high spirit, to testify more openly their zeal for the republic, threatened Cæsar with their swords as he went out of the senate-house.
1 XLIX. Piso, as having been attacked by him, when he was on, etc.] “Piso, oppugnatus in judicio repetundarum propter cujusdam Transpadani supplicium injustum.” Such is the reading and punctuation of Cortius. Some editions insert pecuniarum before repetundarum, and some a comma after it. I have interpreted the passage in conformity with the explanation of Kritzius, which seems to me the most judicious that has been offered. Oppugnatus, says he, is equivalent to gravitur vexatus, or violently assailed and Piso was thus assailed by Cæsar on account of his unjust execution of the Gaul; the words in judicio repetundarum merely mark the time when Cæsar's attack was made. While he was on his trial for one thing, he was attacked by Cæsar for another. Gerlach, observing that the words in judicio are wanting in one MS., would omit them, and make oppugnatus govern pecuniarum repetundarum, as if it were accusatus; a change which would certainly not improve the passage. The Galli Transpadani seem to have been much attached to Cæsar; see Cic. Ep. ad Att., v. 2; ad Fam. xvi. 12.
2 Comparatively a youth] “Adolescentalo.” Cæsar was then in the thirty-third, or, as some say, the thirty-seventh year of his age. See the note on this word, c. 8.
3 By magnificent exhibitions in public] “Publicè maximis muneribus.” Shows of gladiators.
Conspiracy of Catiline. Sallust. Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A. New York and London. Harper & Brothers. 1899.
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