Conspiracy of Catiline and The Jurgurthine War | Page 5

mind.[66] It is always
unbounded and insatiable, and is abated neither by abundance nor by
want.
But after Lucius Sylla, having recovered the government[67] by force
of arms, proceeded, after a fair commencement, to a pernicious
termination, all became robbers and plunderers;[68] some set their
affections on houses, others on lands; his victorious troops knew
neither restraint nor moderation, but inflicted on the citizens disgraceful
and inhuman outrages. Their rapacity was increased by the
circumstance that Sylla, in order to secure the attachment of the forces
which he had commanded in Asia,[69] had treated them, contrary to the
practice of our ancestors, with extraordinary indulgence, and exemption
from discipline; and pleasant and luxurious quarters had easily, during
seasons of idleness, enervated the minds of the soldiery. Then the
armies of the Roman people first became habituated to licentiousness
and intemperance, and began to admire statues, pictures, and sculptured
vases; to seize such objects alike in public edifices and private
dwellings;[70] to spoil temples; and to cast off respect for every thing,
sacred and profane. Such troops, accordingly, when once they obtained
the mastery, left nothing to be vanquished. Success unsettles the
principles even of the wise, and scarcely would those of debauched
habits use victory with moderation.
XII. When wealth was once considered an honor, and glory, authority,
and power attended on it, virtue lost her influence, poverty was thought
a disgrace, and a life of innocence was regarded as a life of
ill-nature.[71] From the influence of riches, accordingly, luxury,
avarice, and pride prevailed among the youth; they grew at once
rapacious and prodigal; they undervalued what was their own, and
coveted what was another's; they set at naught modesty and continence;
they lost all distinction between sacred and profane, and threw off all
consideration and self-restraint.
It furnishes much matter for reflection,[72] after viewing our modern
mansions and villas extended to the size of cities, to contemplate the
temples which our ancestors, a most devout race of men, erected to the
gods. But our forefathers adorned the fanes of the deities with devotion,
and their homes with their own glory, and took nothing from those
whom they conquered but the power of doing harm; their descendants,

on the contrary, the basest of mankind,[73] have even wrested from
their allies, with the most flagrant injustice, whatever their brave and
victorious ancestors had left to their vanquished enemies; as if the only
use of power were to inflict injury.
XIII. For why should I mention those displays of extravagance, which
can be believed by none but those who have seen them; as that
mountains have been leveled, and seas covered with edifices,[74] by
many private citizens; men whom I consider to have made a sport of
their wealth,[75] since they were impatient to squander disreputably
what they might have enjoyed with honor.
But the love of irregular gratification, open debauchery, and all kinds of
luxury,[76] had spread abroad with no less force. Men forgot their sex;
women threw off all the restraints of modesty. To gratify appetite, they
sought for every kind of production by land and by sea; they slept
before there was any inclination for sleep; they no longer waited to feel
hunger, thirst, cold,[77] or fatigue, but anticipated them all by luxurious
indulgence. Such propensities drove the youth, when their patrimonies
were exhausted, to criminal practices; for their minds, impregnated
with evil habits, could not easily abstain from gratifying their passions,
and were thus the more inordinately devoted in every way to rapacity
and extravagance.
XIV. In so populous and so corrupt a city, Catiline, as it was very easy
to do, kept about him, like a body-guard, crowds of the unprincipled
and desperate. For all those shameless, libertine, and profligate
characters, who had dissipated their patrimonies by gaming,[78] luxury,
and sensuality; all who had contracted heavy debts, to purchase
immunity for their crimes or offenses; all assassins[79] or sacrilegious
persons from every quarter, convicted or dreading conviction for their
evil deeds; all, besides, whom their tongue or their hand maintained by
perjury or civil bloodshed; all, in fine, whom wickedness, poverty, or a
guilty conscience disquieted, were the associates and intimate friends
of Catiline. And if any one, as yet of unblemished character, fell into
his society, he was presently rendered, by daily intercourse and
temptation, similar and equal to the rest. But it was the young whose
acquaintance he chiefly courted; as their minds, ductile and unsettled
from their age, were easily insnared by his stratagems. For as the
passions of each, according to his years, appeared excited, he furnished

mistresses to some, bought horses and dogs for others, and spared, in a
word, neither his purse nor his character, if he could but make them his
devoted and trustworthy supporters. There were some, I know, who