another in that of Gaul. He gave the enemy no opportunity of fighting,
yet hoped himself shortly to find one,[280] if his accomplices at Rome
should succeed in their objects. Slaves, meanwhile, of whom vast numbers
[281] had at first flocked to him, he continued to reject, not only as
depending on the strength of the conspiracy, but as thinking it impolitic
[282] to appear to share the cause of citizens with runagates.

LVII. 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 cross roads, into Gaul.

But Quintus Metellus Celer, with a force of three legions, had at that
time, his station in Picenum, who suspected that Catiline, from the
difficulties of his position, would adopt precisely the course which
we have just described. When, therefore, he had learned his 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[283]. Nor was Antonius far
distant, as he was pursuing, though with, a large army, yet through
plainer ground, and with fewer hinderances, the enemy in retreat.[284]

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. Having,