Conspiracy of Catiline (5)

LUCIUS CATILINE was a man of noble birth,[*] and of eminent mental and personal endowments; but of a vicious and

depraved disposition. His delight, from his youth, had been in civil commotions, bloodshed, robbery, and sedition;[*] and in such scenes he had spent his early years.[*] His constitution could endure hunger, want of sleep, and cold, to a degree surpassing belief. His mind was daring, subtle, and versatile, capable of pretending or dissembling whatever he wished.[*] He was covetous of other men's property, and prodigal of his own. He had abundance of eloquence,[*] though but little wisdom. His insatiable ambition was always pursuing objects extravagant, romantic, and unattainable.

Since the time of Sylla's dictatorship,[*] a strong desire of

seizing the government possessed him, nor did he at all care, provided that he secured power[*] for himself, by what means he might arrive at it. His violent spirit was daily more and more hurried on by the diminution of his patrimony, and by his consciousness of guilt; both which evils he had increased by those practices which I have mentioned above. The corrupt morals of the state, too, which extravagance and selfishness, pernicious and contending vices, rendered thoroughly depraved,[*] furnished him with additional incentives to action.

Since the occasion has thus brought public morals under my notice, the subject itself seems to call upon me to look back, and briefly to describe the conduct of our ancestors[*] in peace and war; how they managed the state, and how powerful they left it; and how, by gradual alteration, it became, from being the most virtuous, the most vicious and depraved.