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SCENE IV.
A Street: the Portal of Cicero's Palace at one Side. A Crowd of Patricians from the Banquet, with Garlands on their Heads, and Torches and Swords in their Hands, rush in tumultuously, led by Cethegus. They stop and gather round him as he addresses them.FIRST PATRICIAN.
Silence!
CETHEGUS.
Roman youth!
SECOND PATRICIAN
(keeping back the crowd).
Gallant Cethegus speaks—
CETHEGUS.
Patricians! Shall the tale be told in Rome,
That upstarts should engross the consulate?
FIRST PATRICIAN.
By Romulus! it is a common shame
To every nobleman!
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Who's Cicero?
A peasant; an Arpinian.
Silius Italicus derives Cicero from a royal line,—“Regia progenies, et Tullo sanguis ab alto.” But Cicero speaks of his family as merely of great antiquity, “Orti stirpe antiquissima,” possessing the “majorum multa vestigia,” and having been of the equestrian order from a remote period. His family seat was near Arpinum, a Samnite town, of which Pompey said, that in giving birth to Marius and Cicero, it had twice saved the state. Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, describes this villa, its island in the Fibrenus, its romantic rocks, and secluded shades, with the fondness of early delight. It was one of his favourite retreats till the close of his tempestuous and magnificent career.
This Consul's grandfather. A talking slave,
That makes his bread by squabbles in the courts.
SECOND PATRICIAN.
A dastard! that wears armour in the streets,
To make the rabble roar for him.
CETHEGUS.
Come on!
Yonder's the upstart's house. There's not a rogue
That rubs our horses' heels, or sweeps our gates,
But may be consul now. There's not a year,
But some base Sabine, or Apulian clown,
Will beard us at the elections. All he wants
Is cunning, and low flattery of the tribes,
To seize the fasces.
THIRD PATRICIAN.
We must have him down.
FOURTH PATRICIAN.
We'll fire the house, and give the orator,
More than his father had, a funeral pile.
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Now to your work, Patricians! If his guards—
SECOND PATRICIAN
(recoiling).
Troops in the house?
CETHEGUS.
Ay—lictors, Greeks, and slaves!
We'll storm his garrison; we'll make him show
His generalship!
THIRD PATRICIAN
(laughing).
He was a general once.
FIRST PATRICIAN.
Ay, in Cilicia; where he swears he fought—
CETHEGUS.
The highwaymen!
[Shouts and laughing.
Now strike—for Catiline!
[They rush within the Gates. The Scene closes.
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