Of the city of Rome, as I understand, the founders and earliest
inhabitants were the Trojans, who, under the conduct of AEneas, were
wandering about as exiles from their country, without any settled
abode; and with these were joined the Aborigines, a savage race of
men, without laws or government, free, and owning no control. How
easily these two tribes, tho of different origin, dissimilar language,
and opposite habits of life, formed a union when they met within the
same walls is almost incredible. But when their state, from an
accession of population and territory and an improved condition of
morals, showed itself tolerably flourishing and powerful, envy, as is
generally the case in human affairs, was the consequence of its
prosperity. The neighboring kings and people, accordingly, began to
assail them in war, while a few only of their friends came to their
support; for the rest, struck with alarm, shrunk from sharing their
dangers. But the Romans, active at home and in the field, prepared
with alacrity for their defense. They encouraged one another, and
hurried to meet the enemy. They protected, with their arms, their
liberty, their country, and their homes. And when they had at length
repelled danger by valor, they lent assistance to their allies and
supporters, and procured friendships rather by bestowing favors than
by receiving them.
They had a government regulated by laws. The denomination of their
government was monarchy. Chosen men, whose bodies might be enfeebled
by years, but whose minds were vigorous in understanding, formed the
council of the state; and these, whether from their age, or from the
similarity of their duty, were called Fathers. But afterward, when the
monarchical power, which had been originally established for the
protection of liberty and for the promotion of the public interest,
had degenerated into tyranny and oppression, they changed their plan,
and appointed two magistrates, with power only annual; for they
conceived that, by this method, the human mind would be least likely
to grow overbearing through want of control.
At this period every citizen began to seek distinction, and to display
his talents with greater freedom; for, with princes, the meritorious
are greater objects of suspicion than the undeserving, and to them the
worth of others is a source of alarm. But when liberty was secured, it
is almost incredible how much the state strengthened itself in a short
space of time, so strong a passion for distinction had pervaded it.
Now, for the first time, the youth, as soon as they were able to bear
the toils of war, acquired military skill by actual service in the
camp, and took pleasure rather in splendid arms and military steeds
than in the society of mistresses and convivial indulgence. To such
men no toil was unusual, no place was difficult or inaccessible, no
armed enemy was formidable; their valor had overcome everything. But
among themselves the grand rivalry was for glory; each sought to be
first to wound an enemy, to scale a wall, and to be noticed while
performing such an exploit. Distinction such as this they regarded as
wealth, honor, and true nobility. They were covetous of praise, but
liberal of money; they desired competent riches, but boundless glory.
I could mention, but that the account would draw me too far from my
subject, places in which the Roman people, with a small body of men,
routed vast armies of the enemy; and cities which, tho fortified by
nature, they carried by assault....
By these two virtues, intrepidity in war and equity in peace, they
maintained themselves and their state; of their exercise of which
virtues, I consider these as the greatest proofs: that, in war,
punishment was oftener inflicted on those who attacked an enemy
contrary to orders, and who, when commanded to retreat, retired too
slowly from the contest, than on those who had dared to desert their
standards, or, when prest by the enemy, to abandon their posts; and
that, in peace, they governed more by conferring benefits than by
exciting terror, and, when they received an injury, chose rather to
pardon than to revenge it.
But when, by perseverance and integrity, the republic had increased
its power; when mighty princes had been vanquished in war; when
barbarous tribes and populous states had been reduced to subjection;
when Carthage, the rival of Rome's dominion, had been utterly
destroyed, and sea and land lay everywhere open to her sway, Fortune
then began to exercise her tyranny, and to introduce universal
innovation. To those who had easily endured toils, dangers, and
doubtful and difficult circumstances, ease and wealth, the objects of
desire to others, became a burden and a trouble. At first the love of
money, and then that of power, began to prevail, and these became, as
it were, the sources of every evil. For avarice subverted honesty,
integrity, and other honorable principles, and in their stead,
inculcated pride, inhumanity, contempt of religion, and general
venality. Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one
thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue; to
estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according
to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest
heart. These vices at first advanced but slowly, and were sometimes
restrained by correction; but afterward, when their infection had
spread like a pestilence, the state was entirely changed, and the
government, from being the most equitable and praiseworthy, became
rapacious and insupportable.
At first, however, it was ambition, rather than avarice, that
influenced the minds of men--a vice which approaches nearer to virtue
than the other. For of glory, honor, and power, the worthy is as
desirous as the worthless; but the one pursues them by just methods;
the other, being destitute of honorable qualities, works with fraud
and deceit. But avarice has merely money for its object, which no wise
man has ever immoderately desired. It is a vice which, as if imbued
with deadly poison, enervates whatever is manly in body or mind. It is
always unbounded and insatiable, and is abated neither by abundance
nor by want.
But after Lucius Sulla, having recovered the government by force of
arms, proceeded, after a fair commencement, to a pernicious
termination, all became robbers and plunderers; 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 Sulla, in order to secure the attachment of the
forces which he had commanded in Asia, had treated them, contrary to
the practise 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; to spoil temples; and to cast off
respect for everything, sacred and profane. Such troops, accordingly,
when once they obtained the mastery, left nothing to the vanquished.
Success unsettles the principles even of the wise, and scarcely would
those of debauched habits use victory with moderation....
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, luxury, and
sensuality; all who had contracted heavy debts, to purchase immunity
for their crimes or offenses; all assassins 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 ensnared 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 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....
Depending on such accomplices and adherents, and knowing that the load
of debt was everywhere great, and that the veterans of Sulla,[60]
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;[61] he himself had
great hopes of obtaining the consulship; the Senate was wholly off its
guard; everything was quiet and tranquil, and all these circumstances
were exceedingly favorable for Catiline....