witnesses of the preparations for fire and massacre, and added that he was the bearer of a special message from Crassus to Catiline, to the effect that he was not to be alarmed by the arrest of Lentulus and the others; only he must march upon the city without delay, and so rescue the prisoners and restore the courage of those who were 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 condemned, he answered with the significant words “THEY HAVE LIVED.”