I knew to be the principal conspirators.  They came suspecting nothing, Lentulus, who had been up late the night before writing the letters, being the last to present himself.  Some distinguished persons who had assembled at my house wished me to open the letters before laying them before the Senate.  If their contents were not what I suspected I should be blamed for having given a great deal of trouble to no purpose.  I refused in so important a matter to act on my own responsibility.  No one, I was sure, would accuse me of being too careful when the safety of Rome was at stake.  I called a meeting of the Senate, and took care that the attendance should be very large.  Meanwhile, at the suggestion of the Gauls, I sent a praetor to the house of Cethegus to seize all the weapons that he could find.  He brought away a great number of daggers and swords.

“The Senate being now assembled, I brought Vulturcius, one of the conspirators, into the House, promised him a public pardon, and bade him tell all he knew without fear.  As soon as the man could speak, for he was terribly frightened, he said, ’I was taking a letter and a message from Lentulus to Catiline.  Catiline was instructed to bring his forces up to the walls of the city.  They meanwhile would set it on fire in various quarters, as had been arranged, and begin a general massacre.  He was to intercept the fugitives, and thus effect a junction with his friends within the walls.’  I next brought the Gauls into the House.  Their story was as follows.  ’Lentulus and two of his companions gave us letters to our nation.  We were instructed to send our cavalry into Italy with all speed.  They would find a force of infantry.  Lentulus told us how he had learned from Sibylline books that he was that “third Cornelius” who was the fated ruler of Rome.  The two that had gone before him were Cicero and Sulla.  The year too was the one which was destined to see the ruin of the city, for it was the tenth after the acquittal of the Vestal Virgins, the twentieth after the burning of the Capitol.  After this Cethegus and the others had a dispute about the time for setting the city on fire.  Lentulus and others wished to have it done on the feast of Saturn (December 17th).  Cethegus thought that this was putting it off too long.’  I then had the letter brought in.  First I showed Cethegus his seal.  He acknowledged it.  I cut the string.  I read the letter.  It was written in his own handwriting and was to this effect:  he assured the Senate and people of the Gauls that he would do what he had promised to their deputies, and begged them on the other hand to perform what their deputies had undertaken.  Cethegus, who had accounted for the weapons found in his house by declaring that he had always been a connoisseur in such things, was overwhelmed by hearing his letter read, and said nothing.