[171]XXXV. "Lucius Catiline to Quintus Catulus, wishing health. Your eminent integrity, known to me by experience,[172] gives a pleasing confidence, in the midst of great perils, to my present recommendation. [173] I have determined, therefore, to make no formal defense[174] with regard to my new course of conduct; yet I was resolved, though conscious of no guilt,[175] to offer you some explanation,[176] which, on my word of honor,[177] you may receive as true.[178] Provoked by injuries and indignities, since, being robbed of the fruit of my labor and exertion, [179] I did not obtain the post of honor due to me,[180] I have undertaken, according to my custom, the public cause of the distressed. Not but that I could have paid, out of my own property, the debts contracted on my own security;[181] while the generosity of Orestilla, out of her own fortune and her daughter's, would discharge those incurred on the security of others. But because I saw unworthy men ennobled with honors, and myself proscribed[182] on groundless suspicion, I have for this very reason, adopted a course,[183] amply justifiable in my present circumstances, for preserving what honor is left to me. When I was proceeding to write more, intelligence was brought that violence is preparing against me. I now commend and intrust Orestilla to your protection;[184] intreating you, by your love for your own children, to defend her from injury.[185] Farewell."
XXXVI. Catiline himself, having stayed a few days with Caius Flaminius Flamma in the neighborhood of Arretium,[186] while he was supplying the adjacent parts, already excited to insurrection, with arms, marched with his fasces, and other ensigns of authority, to join Manlius in his camp.
When this was known at Rome, the senate declared Catiline and Manlius enemies to the state, and fixed a day as to the rest of their force, before which they might lay down their arms with impunity, except such as had been convicted of capital offenses. They also decreed that the consuls should hold a levy; that Antonius, with an army, should hasten in pursuit of Catiline; and that Cicero should protect the city.
At this period the empire of Rome appears to me to have been in an extremely deplorable condition;[187] for though every nation, from the rising to the setting of the sun, lay in subjection to her arms, and though peace and prosperity, which mankind think the greatest blessings, were hers in abundance, there yet were found, among her citizens, men who were bent with obstinate determination, to plunge themselves and their country into ruin; for, notwithstanding the two decrees of the senate,[188] not one individual, out of so vast a number, was induced by the offer of reward to give information of the conspiracy; nor was there a single deserter from the camp of Catiline. So strong a spirit of disaffection had, like a pestilence, pervaded the minds of most of the citizens.
XXXVII. Nor was this disaffected spirit confined to those who were actually concerned in the conspiracy; for the whole of the common people, from a desire of change, favored the projects of Catiline. This they seemed to do in accordance with their general character; for, in every state, they that are poor envy those of a better class, and endeavor to exalt the factious;[189] they dislike the established condition of things, and long for something new; they are discontented with their own circumstances, and desire a general alteration; they can support themselves amid tumult and sedition, without anxiety, since poverty does not easily suffer loss.[190]
As for the populace of the city, they had become disaffected[191] from various causes. In the first place,[192] such as every where took the lead in crime and profligacy, with others who had squandered their fortunes in dissipation, and, in a word, all whom vice and villainy had driven from their homes, had flocked to Rome as a general receptacle of impurity. In the next place, many, who thought of the success of Sylla, when they had seen some raised from common soldiers into senators, and others so enriched as to live in regal luxury and pomp, hoped, each for himself, similar results from victory, if they should once take up arms. In addition to this, the youth, who, in the country, had earned a scanty livelihood by manual labor, tempted by public and private largesses, had preferred idleness in the city to unwelcome toil in the field. To these, and all others of similar character, public disorders would furnish subsistence. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that men in distress, of dissolute principles and extravagant expectations, should have consulted the interest of the state no further than as it was subservient to their own. Besides, those whose parents, by the victory of Sylla, had been proscribed, whose property had been confiscated, and whose civil rights had been curtailed,[193] looked forward to the event of a war with precisely the same feelings.
All those, too, who were of any party opposed to that of the senate, were desirous rather that the state should be embroiled, than that they themselves should be out of power. This was an evil, which, after many years, had returned upon the community to the extent to which it now prevailed.[194]
XXXVIII. For after the powers of the tribunes, in the consulate of Cneius Pompey and Marcus Crassus, had been fully restored,[195] certain young men, of an ardent age and temper, having obtained that high office,[196] began to stir up the populace by inveighing against the senate, and proceeded, in course of time, by means of largesses and promises, to inflame them more and more; by which methods they became popular and powerful. On the other hand, the most of the nobility opposed their proceedings to the utmost; under pretense, indeed, of supporting the senate, but in reality for their own aggrandizement. For, to state the truth in few words, whatever parties, during that period, disturbed the republic under plausible pretexts, some, as if to defend the rights of the people, others, to make the authority of the senate as great as possible, all, though affecting concern for the public good, contended every one for his own interest. In such contests there was neither moderation nor limit; each party made a merciless use of its successes.
XXXIX. After Pompey, however, was sent to the maritime and Mithridatic wars, the power of the people was diminished, and the influence of the few increased. These few kept all public offices, the administration of the provinces, and every thing else, in their own hands; they themselves lived free from harm,[197] in flourishing circumstances, and without apprehension; overawing others, at the same time, with threats of impeachment,[198] so that when in office, they might be less inclined to inflame the people. But as soon as a prospect of change, in this dubious state of affairs, had presented itself, the old spirit of contention awakened their passions; and had Catiline, in his first battle, come off victorious, or left the struggle undecided, great distress and calamity must certainly have fallen upon the state, nor would those, who might at last have gained the ascendency, have been allowed to enjoy it long, for some superior power would have wrested dominion and liberty from them when weary and exhausted.
There were some, however, unconnected with the conspiracy, who set out to join Catiline at an early period of his proceedings. Among these was Aulus Fulvius, the son of a senator, whom, being arrested on his journey, his father ordered to be put to death.[199] In Rome, at the same time, Lentulus, in pursuance of Catiline's directions, was endeavoring to gain over, by his own agency or that of others, all whom he thought adapted, either by principles or circumstances, to promote an insurrection; and not citizens only, but every description of men who could be of any service in war.