Editing Catiline (section)

=== Flight from the city ===
[[File:Cicero Denounces Catiline in the Roman Senate by Cesare Maccari.png|thumb|Cesare Maccari's famous 19th century depiction of Cicero denouncing Catiline before the senate. {{Harnvb|Beard|2015|pp=31–33}} notes that this idealised depiction is "no more than a seductive fantasy". Both men at the time were in their forties; the senate also was far larger and its building was more dull.]]

While the consuls fortified central Italy, reports also filtered in of slave revolts in the south. Two generals{{efn|The two generals were [[Quintus Marcius Rex (consul 68 BC)|Quintus Marcius Rex]] and [[Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus]]; they had served as consul in 68 and 69&nbsp;BC, respectively.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=33}} }} who were waiting for their triumphs to be approved were then dispatched with men to garrison the northern approaches to Rome and southern Italy.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=33}} Catiline for his part remained in Rome since the letters sent to Crassus were anonymous and thus insufficient to prove Catiline's involvement.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=33}} 

On 6 November, Catiline held a secret meeting in Rome at the house of Marcus Porcius Laeca where he planned to go to Manlius' army, for other members of the conspiracy to take charge of the nascent revolts elsewhere in Italy, for conspirators in Rome to set fires in the city, and for two specific conspirators to assassinate Cicero the next morning.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=34}} Cicero exaggerates Catiline's supposed intention to raze the city as a means to turn the urban population against him – a story further embellished in Plutarch<ref>{{harvnb|Berry|2020|p=34|ps=, citing Plut. ''Cic.'' 18.2, which reports a "not credible" scheme involving a hundred men to raze the whole city.}}</ref> – it is more likely that Catiline's fires were intended only to create exploitable confusion for his army.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=34}}

The next day, on 7 November, the assassins found Cicero's house shut against them and Cicero convened the senate later that day at the [[Temple of Jupiter Stator (3rd century BC)|Temple of Jupiter Stator]] reporting the threat to his life and then delivering the ''First Catilinarian'' denouncing Catiline. Catiline, who was already planning to leave the city, offered to go into exile if the senate would so decree. After Cicero refused to bring up such a motion, Catiline protested his innocence and insulted Cicero's ancestry, calling him a "squatter".<ref>{{harvnb|Berry|2020|p=36}}, citing {{harvnb|Sall. ''Cat.''|loc=31.7–8}}.</ref> He thereafter left the city, claiming that he was going into voluntary exile at [[Massalia|Massilia]] "to spare his country a civil war".{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=37}} On his departure, he sent a letter to his old friend and ally [[Quintus Lutatius Catulus Capitolinus]], which Sallust copied into ''Bellum Catilinae''.<ref>{{harvnb|Berry|2020|p=38}}, citing {{harvnb|Sall. ''Cat.''|loc=35}}.</ref> In the letter, Catiline defends himself as an injured party who took up the cause of the less fortunate in accordance with his patrician forebears' custom; he vehemently denies that he goes into exile due to his debts and commits his wife Orestilla to Catulus' care.{{sfn|Berry|2020|pp=38–41}}

He left the city on the road to Massilia, but in Etruria, he went to a weapons cache before diverting for [[Faesulae]] where he met up with Manlius' forces. Upon his arrival, he proclaimed himself consul and adopted consular regalia. When news of this reached Rome, the senate declared Catiline and Manlius [[Hostis|''hostes'']] (public enemies) and dispatched Antonius at the head of an army to subdue him.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=42}}