Conspiracy of Catiline and The Jurgurthine War | Page 6

thought that the youth, who frequented the house of Catiline, were
guilty of crimes against nature; but this report arose rather from other
causes than from any evidence of the fact[80].
XV. Catiline, in his youth, had been guilty of many criminal
connections, with a virgin of noble birth[81], with a priestess of
Vesta[82], and of many other offenses of this nature, in defiance alike
of law and religion. At last, when he was smitten with a passion for
Aurelia Orestilla[83], in whom no good man, at any time of her life,
commended any thing but her beauty, it is confidently believed that
because she hesitated to marry him, from the dread of having a
grown-up step-son[84], he cleared the house for their nuptials by
putting his son to death. And this crime appears to me to have been the
chief cause of hurrying forward the conspiracy. For his guilty mind, at
peace with neither gods nor men, found no comfort either waking or
sleeping; so effectually did conscience desolate his tortured spirit.[85]
His complexion, in consequence, was pale, his eyes haggard, his walk
sometimes quick and sometimes slow, and distraction was plainly
apparent in every feature and look.
XVI. The young men, whom, as I said before, he had enticed to join
him, he initiated, by various methods, in evil practices. From among
them he furnished false witnesses,[86] and forgers of signatures; and he
taught them all to regard, with equal unconcern, honor, property, and
danger. At length, when he had stripped them of all character and
shame, he led them to other and greater enormities. If a motive for
crime did not readily occur, he incited them, nevertheless, to
circumvent and murder inoffensive persons[87] just as if they had
injured him; for, lest their hand or heart should grow torpid for want of
employment, he chose to be gratuitously wicked and cruel.
Depending on such accomplices and adherents, and knowing that the
load of debt was every where great, and that the veterans of Sylla,[88]
having spent their money too liberally, and remembering their spoils
and former victory, were longing for a civil war, Catiline formed the
design of overthrowing the government. There was no army in Italy;
Pompey was fighting in a distant part of the world;[89] he himself had

great hopes of obtaining the consulship; the senate was wholly off its
guard;[90] every thing was quiet and tranquil; and all those
circumstances were exceedingly favorable for Catiline.
XVII. Accordingly, about the beginning of June, in the consulship of
Lucius Caesar[91] and Caius Figulus, he at first addressed each of his
accomplices separately, encouraged some, and sounded others, and
informed them, of his own resources, of the unprepared condition of the
state, and of the great prizes to be expected from the conspiracy. When
he had ascertained, to his satisfaction, all that he required, he
summoned all whose necessities were the most urgent, and whose
spirits were the most daring, to a general conference.
At that meeting there were present, of senatorial rank, Publius Lentulus
Sura,[92] Publius Autronius,[93] Lucius Cassius Longinus,[94] Caius
Cethegus,[95] Publius and Servius Sylla[96] the sons of Servius Sylla,
Lucius Vargunteius,[97] Quintus Annius,[98] Marcus Porcius
Laeca,[99] Lucius Bestia,[100] Quintus Curius;[101] and, of the
equestrian order, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior,[102] Lucius Statilius,[103]
Publius Gabinius Capito,[104] Caius Cornelius;[105] with many from
the colonies and municipal towns,[106] persons of consequence in their
own localities. There were many others, too, among the nobility,
concerned in the plot, but less openly: men whom the hope of power,
rather than poverty or any other exigence, prompted to join in the affair.
But most of the young men, and especially the sons of the nobility,
favored the schemes of Catiline; they who had abundant means of
living at ease, either splendidly or voluptuously, preferred uncertainties
to certainties, war to peace. There were some, also, at that time, who
believed that Marcus Licinius Crassus[107] was not unacquainted with
the conspiracy; because Cneius Pompey, whom he hated, was at the
head of a large army, and he was willing that the power of any one
whomsoever should raise itself against Pompey's influence; trusting, at
the same time, that if the plot should succeed, he would easily place
himself at the head of the conspirators.
XVIII. But previously[108] to this period, a small number of persons,
among whom was Catiline, had formed a design against the state: of
which affair I shall here give as accurate account as I am able. Under
the consulship of Lucius Tullus and Marcus Lepidus, Publius Autronius
and Publius Sylla,[109] having been tried for bribery under the laws

against it,[110] had paid the penalty of the offense. Shortly after
Catiline, being brought to trial for extortion,[111] had been prevented
from standing for the consulship, because he had been unable to declare
himself