'Yes, rescued, for under the entire city, beneath every house and temple and shrine, the kindling for the holocaust had been secretly prepared. The flames were nickering — but we stamped them out! Swords were raised against the people, pressed against your very throats — but we knocked those swords aside and blunted them with our bare hands! This morning, before the Senate, I revealed the truth of the matter. Now, fellow citizens, I shall briefly convey the facts directly to you, so that you may know for yourselves the danger that was bravely faced and fended off. I shall tell you how, in the name of Rome and by the grace of the gods, this danger was detected, investigated, uncovered, and cut short.

'First of all, when Catilina broke out of town some days ago, or more precisely, when I drove him away — yes, I proudly take credit for running him off, no longer afraid you will censure me for doing so; more worried, in fact, that you will blame me for letting him leave with his life — when Catilina left, it was my hope that he would take all his foul associates with him and we would be rid of that scum for good! Alas, more than a few of these odious intriguers stayed behind, intent on acting out their criminal designs. Your consul has kept a constant watch since then, fellow citizens; indeed, I have hardly allowed myself to sleep, or even blink, knowing that sooner or later they would strike. But even I have been taken aback at the enormity of their madness. You would hardly believe it yourselves if I did not have the proof to show you. But believe it you must, for the sake of your own self-preservation!

'It came to my ears that the praetor Publius Lentulus — yes, citizens, "Legs" Lentulus; save your laughter until you've heard the worst! — was trying to corrupt the envoys of the Allobroges, hoping to set off an insurrection beyond the Alps. These envoys were to set off for Gaul yesterday, with letters and instructions, accompanied by one of Lentulus's henchmen, Titus Volturcius, who was also given a letter addressed to Catilina.

'By Hercules, I thought, the chance had come at last, the opportunity I prayed the gods would send — a way to prove once and for all the depth of these men's degeneracy and their hatred for Rome, irrefutable proof that I could lay before the Senate and the people. Yesterday, then, I summoned two valiant and loyal praetors, Lucius Flaccus and Gaius Pomptinus, and explained the situation. Being men of irreproachable patriotism, they accepted my orders without hesitation. As night fell, they made their way secretly to the Milvian Bridge, divided their forces into two detachments on either side of the Tiber, and hid themselves in the nearest houses. Then they waited.

'In the early hours of this morning their patience was rewarded. The envoys of the Allobroges reached the bridge, accompanied by Volturcius and a retinue of his traitorous companions. Our men burst upon them and encircled them. Swords were drawn, but the praetors wielded the advantage of surprise, and when the Allobroges unexpectedly drew aside rather than join in their defence, Volturcius and his men lost heart and surrendered. The letters were handed over to the praetors with their seals intact. Volturcius and his men were taken into custody and delivered to my doorstep just as dawn was breaking. I immediately summoned those men whose seals were upon the letters, or who were otherwise most deeply implicated, among them that notorious hothead Gaius Cethegus and, of course, Lentulus, who arrived a slow last, despite the reputation of his legs. Perhaps he was sleepy from staying up late, writing incriminating letters!

'Many of our leading statesmen called upon me during the morning. They advised me to go ahead and open the sealed letters myself, so that if I was mistaken as to their contents, I would be spared any embarrassment. But I insisted that they should be unsealed and read before the Senate, and if I was embarrassed, so be it; there is no shame in being overzealous in the defence of freedom! So I hastily convened an emergency meeting of the Senate, here in the Temple of Concord. Remember the significance of this temple and what it commemorates: the harmony of the orders, the happy coexistence and cooperation of the classes, for it is all Romans — plebeians and patricians, rich and poor, freedmen and freeborn alike — who have been saved this day from the calamity that menaced all Rome.

'First Volturcius was summoned to testify before the Senate. The man was in such a panic he could hardly speak. To loosen his tongue, he was given a promise of immunity — he was only a mere messenger boy, after all, though a knowledgeable one, as it turns out. This stumbling footman comes from Croto, down in the toe of Italy. Oh, but a canker on the toe was enough to cripple the schemes of "Legs" Lentulus!'

I took a breath and looked around me. The crowd was laughing, as they laughed at all of Cicero's word games. Even in the more sophisticated arena of the Senate, it was said that he could never resist a pun, no matter how awful, especially if it contained an insult for his enemies. Even Eco was smiling, I noticed, though Meto was not. His face was tightly drawn and his eyes narrowed, as if he wrested with a deeper and darker puzzle than Cicero's wordplay.

^‘What did Volturcius reveal? I will, tell you: first, that Lentulus had given him messages and a letter for Catilina, urging him to mobilize an army of slaves and march on Rome.' At this the crowd's laughter ceased and there were cries of anger and dismay. I remembered Catilina's analogy of the thunderbolts and how Cicero used them to manipulate the crowd, and I found myself looking not at Cicero but at the gleaming new statue of Jupiter, and at the credulous faces around me. 'Within the city their plan was to set the seven hills aflame — yes, with each conspirator taking charge of igniting a given area — and to massacre great numbers of citizens. Catilina was to intercept and slaughter those who fled and then unite his slave army with his loyal forces in the city.'

A wave of anger passed through the crowd, as palpable as a hot wind. Slaves and fire: these two things are dreaded most by free Romans. Both are tools to be bent to their will and to give comfort, but either may run out of control and wreak terrible havoc. For any man to turn them loose upon his fellow Romans is an act of unforgivable betrayal, and in a single breath Cicero had managed to accuse Catilina and his friends of plotting to use both.

'Next, the Allobroges were brought before the Senate. They declared that they had been made to swear an oath and been given letters from Cethegus and Lentulus, and moreover had been ordered to send cavalry across the Alps to assist in their planned uprising. Imagine an army of slaves, Gauls, and outlaws, marching on the city in flames! To secure their alliance, Lentulus had declared to them that soothsayers and the Sibylline oracles had foretold that he would be the third of the Comelii, after Cinna and Sulla, to rule over Rome — or what remained of it, for he also declared his belief that this is the year preordained for the destruction of Rome and its empire, being the tenth year after the acquittal of the Vestal Virgins and the twentieth year after the burning of the Capitol' Cicero shook his head to show his disgust with such blasphemy.

'The Allobroges also informed us of discord within the ranks of these intriguers. It seems that Lentulus, typically lazy, wanted to wait until seventeen days from now and commence their carnage under cover of the festivities of the Saturnalia — the holiday when masters trade places with their slaves. But the bloodthirsty Cethegus, insensitive to such delicate irony, was eager to begin the massacre right away.

It was time to confront these scoundrels directly. Bach of them was called forward and shown the letters that had been intercepted. We showed Cethegus his letter. He agreed that the seal was his. The thread was cut.Written in his own hand and addressed to the leaders of the Allobroges, the message reiterated the plot exactly as I have already described it. Earlier, upon information from the Allobroges, I had sent one of the praetors to Cethegus's house, where a great cache of swords and daggers had been uncovered and confiscated. When I confronted him about this, Cethegus had answered sarcastically that he was merely a collector of fine weaponry! But now that his letter had been read aloud and his wickedness exposed, he collapsed with shame and fear and fell silent