Career
For others with the name, see Rabirius (gens). Caesar's real objective was to warn the Senate against interference by force with popular movements, to uphold the sovereignty of the people and the inviolability of the person of the tribunes, at the time of the conspiracy of Lucius Sergius Catilina. Rabirius was condemned, and the people, to whom the accused had exercised the right of appeal, were on the point of ratifying the decision, when Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer pulled down the military flag from the Janiculum, which was equivalent to the dissolution of the assembly.
The defense was taken by Marcus Tullius Cicero, consul at the time. The speech is extant: Pro Rabirio reo perduellionis. Robert Harris included Rabirius's trial in his book "lustrum".
