gods, as well as of the phenomena in the atmosphere (_monstra_), and
other occurrences in nature, which seemed to be contrary to the
ordinary course of things. The system of this kind of superstition
had been principally developed by the ancient Etruscans, and the
haruspices engaged in the state religion of the Romans were generally
natives of Etruria; and the Romans, owing to the uncertainty of their
knowledge of things divine, dreaded this kind of superstition rather
than practised it.
[229] _Libera custodia_ is opposed to the _carcer publicus_, in which
the prisoners were treated like slaves, and kept in chains. There
were at Rome no prisons for those persons whose guilt was not yet
established, or whose punishment consisted merely in confinement; but
private persons, or the relatives of the accused, were obliged to
keep the person of a criminal in their own houses, until the final
decision upon his offence was given by the ordinary courts of
justice.

48. Interea plebes, conjuratione patefacta, quae primo cupida rerum
novarum nimis bello favebat, mutata mente Catilinae consilia execrari,
Ciceronem ad coelum tollere; veluti ex servitute erepta gaudium atque
laetitiam agitabat.[230] Namque alia belli facinora praedae magis quam
detrimento fore, incendium vero crudele, immoderatum ac sibi maxime
calamitosum putabat, quippe cui omnes copiae in usu cotidiano et cultu
corporis erant.[231] Post eum diem quidam L. Tarquinius ad senatum
adductus erat, quem ad Catilinam proficiscentem ex itinere retractum
ajebant. Is, quum se diceret indicaturum de conjuratione, si fides
publica data esset, jussus a consule quae sciret edicere, eadem fere quae
Volturcius, de paratis incendiis, de caede bonorum, de itinere hostium
senatum docet; praeterea se missum a M. Crasso, qui Catilinae nuntiaret,
ne eum Lentulus et Cethegus aliique ex conjuratione deprehensi[232]