popular.  He had never been a soldier, but he was known to be very brave, and he had a remarkable power of enduring cold and hunger and hardships of every kind.  On the strength of the favor which he thus gained, he stood again for the consulship.  In anticipation of being elected, he gathered a number of men about him, unsuccessful and discontented like himself, and unfolded his plans.  All debts were to be wiped out, and wealthy citizens were to be put to death and their property to be divided.  It was hoped that the consuls at home, and two at least of the armies in the provinces, would support the movement.  The first failure was that Catiline was not elected consul, Cicero being chosen unanimously, with Antonius, who had a small majority over Catiline, for his colleague.  Enraged at his want of success, the latter now proceeded to greater lengths than ever.  He actually raised troops in various parts of Italy, but especially in Etruria, which one Manlius, an old officer in Sulla’s army, commanded.  He then again became a candidate for the consulship, resolving first to get rid of Cicero, who, he found, met and thwarted him at every turn.  Happily for Rome these designs were discovered through the weakness of one of his associates.  This man told the secret to a lady, with whom he was in love, and the lady, dismayed at the boldness and wickedness of the plan, communicated all she knew to Cicero.

Not knowing that he was thus betrayed, Catiline set about ridding himself of his great antagonist.  Nor did the task seem difficult.  The hours both of business and of pleasure in Rome were what we should think inconveniently early.  Thus a Roman noble or statesman would receive in the first hours of the morning the calls of ceremony or friendship which it is our custom to pay in the afternoon.  It would sometimes happen that early visitors would find the great man not yet risen.  In these cases he would often receive them in bed.  This was probably the habit of Cicero, a courteous, kindly man, always anxious to be popular, and therefore easy of access.  On this habit the conspirators counted.  Two of their number, one of them a knight, the other a senator, presented themselves at his door shortly after sunrise on the seventh of November.  They reckoned on finding him, not in the great hall of his mansion, surrounded by friends and dependents, but in his bed-chamber.  But the consul had received warning of their coming, and they were refused admittance.  The next day he called a meeting of the Senate in the temple of Jupiter the Stayer, which was supposed to be the safest place where they could assemble.