The persons were, it may be presumed, substantially the same, and the plan was but little altered.

The leaders of the movement again kept in the background.
On this occasion they had set up as candidates for the consulship Catilina himself and Gaius Antonius, the younger son of the orator and a brother of the general who had an ill repute from Crete.
They were sure of Catilina; Antonius, originally a Sullan like Catilina and like the latter brought to trial on that account some years before by the democratic party and ejected from the senate( 12)--otherwise an indolent, insignificant man, in no respect called to be a leader, and utterly bankrupt-- willingly lent himself as a tool to the democrats for the prize of the consulship and the advantages attached to it.

Through these consuls the heads of the conspiracy intended to seize the government, to arrest the children of Pompeius, who remained behind in the capital, as hostages, and to take up arms in Italy and the provinces against Pompeius.

On the first news of the blow struck in the capital, the governor Gnaeus Piso was to raise the banner of insurrection in Hither Spain.

Communication could not be held with him by way of the sea, since Pompeius commanded the seas.