3so that Silanus also changed his position and excused himself by saying that even his proposal had not meant death: for “extremest punishment,” in the case of a Roman senator, meant the prison. Lutatius Catulus was the first to oppose the opinion which Caesar had given; then Cato followed him, helping by the vehemence of his speech to fix suspicion upon Caesar, and filled the senate with angry resolution, so that a decree of death was passed upon the conspirators.