Note 981 — Chapter III · (691-695.)
Reading edition
We may read in the historians of the time the recital of fables invented at will to ruin the conspirators. Thus Catiline, seeking to bind by an oath accomplices in his crime, is represented as causing cups filled with human blood and wine to be passed round. (Sallust, Catiline, 22.)—According to Plutarch, they slaughtered a man, and all ate of his flesh. (Plutarch, Cicero, 14.—Florus, IV. 1.)