Caesar, on the other hand, wished everything done in strict accordance
with the laws; as a bold and wise statesman, he urged that nothing was
more impolitic than lawless violence on the part of the rulers. Cicero
was the timid magistrate; Cato, the injudicious reformer; but Caesar,
with his keener knowledge and stronger hand, was the safer guide.

A sentence of death was voted; and Cicero, with unseemly haste, caused
the conspirators to be strangled that same night (December 5, 63). The
suppression of the conspiracy in the city was followed by the defeat
of the army in Etruria. Thither Catiline had fled, and there he fell
fighting with desperate courage at the head of his motley force of
soldiers near Pistoria.

The name of "Father of his Country" was given to Cicero for the
vigilance shown in this affair.

The execution of Lentulus and Cethégus resulted as Caesar had
expected. It was a lawless act on the part of the Consul and the
Senate, and it was felt that by it the constitution was still more
endangered. The people demanded that Pompey return. In him they
thought to have a deliverer from internal strifes.

Cicero was wrapped up in his own conceit, imagining himself a second
Romulus. On the last day of the year (63), as was the custom of the
retiring Consuls, he arose in the Forum to deliver a speech, reviewing
the acts of his year of consulship. Metellus Nepos, a Tribune, forbade
his speaking, on the ground that one who had put to death Roman
citizens without a hearing did not deserve to be heard. Amid the
uproar Cicero could only shout that he had saved his country. Metellus