ment of the consul was taken into consideration and the Senate resolved to proclaim that a state of civil war had begun,[1] thus recognising in the consul the power to use extreme measures of resistance, which were permissible only when the commonwealth was in danger. This "Extreme Decree," as it was termed, was expressed in the words, "Let the consuls see to it that the State takes no harm." Under this modest form the magistrate was commissioned to exercise, though always on his own responsibility, whatever force he might deem necessary for the salvation of the Republic. Within the city the plans of the conspirators had not yet developed into overt acts which Cicero could visit with immediate punishment; but levies were ordered throughout Italy, and the consul Antonius and the prætor Metellus Celer were directed to take the field against the insurgents. Manlius appeared in arms, just as Cicero had announced, on the 27th of October at Fæsulæ in Etruria.
The consular elections were held in Rome on the 28th of October. Catiline had hoped for the opportunity of a riot in which the consul might be assassinated. Cicero warned the senators beforehand and many of them retired from Rome for the day.[2] He himself appeared as returning officer on the Campus Martius, guarded by a strong body of friends, and
- ↑ The precise date (October 22d) of the ultimum Senurns Consultum is fixed by the note of Asconius on Cicero's In Pisonem.
- ↑ Cicero, Cat., i., 3, 7. This is perhaps the occasion on which, as Plutarch (Cic., 15, 1) asserts, Crassus brought to Cicero a number of letters which had been left at his house, warning him and other senators to keep out of the way. The story closely resembles that of the letter to Lord Monteagle about the Gunpowder Plot.
