For himself he had been told of his danger; "but if a man be brave in his duty death cannot be disgraceful to him; to one who had reached the honors of the Consulship it could not be premature; to no wise man could it be a misery." Though his brother, though his wife, though his little boy, and his daughter just married were warning him of his peril, not by all that would he be influenced.

"Do you," he says, "Conscript Fathers, look to the safety of the Republic.

These are not the Gracchi, nor Saturninus, who are brought to you for judgment--men who broke the laws, indeed, and therefore suffered death, but who still were not unpatriotic.

These men had sworn to burn the city, to slay the Senate, to force Catiline upon you as a ruler.

The proofs of this are in your own hands.