[75] To have made a sport of their wealth—Quibus mihi videntur ledibrio fuisse divitiae. "They spent their riches on objects which, in the judgment of men of sense, are ridiculous and contemptible." Cortius.
[76] Luxury—Cultûs. "Deliciarum in victu_, luxuries of the table; for we must be careful not to suppose that apparel is meant." Cortius.
[77] Cold—Frigus. It is mentioned by Cortius that this word is wanting in one MS.; and the English reader may possibly wish that it were away altogether. Cortius refers it to cool places built of stone, sometimes underground, to which the luxurious retired in the hot weather; and he cites Pliny, Ep., v. 6, who speaks of crytoporticus, a gallery from which the sun was excluded, almost as if it were underground, and which, even in summer was cold nearly to freezing. He also refers to Ambros., Epist. xii., and Casaubon. Ad Spartian. Adrian., c. x., p. 87.
[78] XIV. Gaming—Manu. Gerlach, Dietsch, Kritzius, and all the recent editors, agree to interpret manu by gaming.
[79] Assassins—Parricidae. "Not only he who had killed his father was called a parricide, but he who had killed any man; as is evident from a law of Numa Pompilius: If any one unlawfully and knowingly bring a free man to death, let him be a parricide." Festus sub voce Parrici.
[80] Than from any evidence of the fact—Quam quod cuiquam id compertum foret.
[81] XV. With a virgin of noble birth—Cum virgine nobili. Who this was is not known. The name may have been suppressed from respect to her family. If what is found in a fragment of Cicero be true, Catiline had an illicit connection with some female, and afterward married the daughter who was the fruit of the connection: Ex eodem stupro et uxorem et filiam invenisti; Orat. in Tog. Cand. (Oration xvi., Ernesti's edit.) On which words Asconius Pedianus makes this comment: "Dicitur Catilinam adulterium commisisse cum ea quae ci postea socrus fuit, et ex eo stupro duxisse uxorem, cum filia ejus esset. Haec Lucceius quoque Catilinae objecit in orationibus, quas in eum scripsit. Nomina harum mulierum nondum inveni." Plutarch, too (Life of Cicero, c. 10), says that Catiline was accused of having corrupted his own daughter.
[82] With a priestess of Vesta—Cum sacerdote Vestae. This priestess of Vesta was Fabia Terentia, sister to Terentia, Cicero's wife, whom Sallust, after she was divorced by Cicero, married. Clodius accused her, but she was acquitted, either because she was thought innocent, or because the interest of Catulus and others, who exerted themselves in her favor, procured her acquittal. See Orosius, vi. 3; the Oration of Cicero, quoted in the preceding note; and Asconius's commentary on it.
[83] Aurelia Orestilla—See c. 35. She was the sister or daughter, as De Brosses thinks, of Cneius Aurelius Orestis, who had been praetor, A.U.C. 677.
[84] A grown-up step-son—Privignum adulta aetate. A son of Catiline's by a former marriage.