638 



C A T I L I N E, 



Cathmandii 



II. 

 Cat;ue. 



CATHMANDU. See KIIATMANDU. 



CATHOLICS, ROMAN. See ECCLESIASTICAL 

 HISTORY, and BRITAIN Index. 



CATILINA, L. SERGIUS, a patrician of Rome, 

 \vas descended of an old and respectable family. Nei- 

 ther his father nor grandfather appear to have filled 

 any public office, but several of his ancestors were 

 men of talents and of consideration in the state. See 

 Pliny, vii. 28. His great grandfather was praetor 

 of the city in the year U. C. 553, and obtained great 

 credit for his moderation and integrity. See Lity, 

 1. xxxii. c. 27, 9, 31, and lib. iii. c. 21, 24. When 

 Catiline first entered upon the stage of public life, 

 the highest expectations were formed of his future 

 eminence, and though his character was not free from 

 all imputation of levity, yet his fellow citizens repo- 

 sed with confidence on his patriotism, and excused 

 his excesses as the errors of unguarded youth. But 

 in the discharge of the office of praetor, to which he 

 was elected at the usual age, he shewed such com- 

 plete want of principle, and such unbridled profliga- 

 cy, that it was easy to foresee, in the conduct of the 

 abandoned magistrate, the depravity of the future 

 traitor. In the year after, he was sent as the pro- 

 prietor to Africa. In this situation he governed with 

 the utmost inhumanity, and, to feed his extravagance 

 and debauchery, exacted immense contributions from 

 the inhabitants. The oppression of his administra- 

 tion was so severely felt, that a deputation was sent 

 from Africa to impeach him of cruelty and extor- 

 tion, -j- But it seldom happened that the unhappy 

 provinces., which suffered all the miseries of war, 

 aggravated by the permanent and arbitrary despotism 

 of capricious governors, could obtain redress by an 

 appeal to Rome : ( Cicero in Verr, passim. ) The se- 

 nate, conscious of their own injustice and rapacity, 

 felt the inconsistency of punishing in others the crimes 

 which they had themselves committed, and often 

 made common cause with their officers against the 

 wretched provinces. Catiline was acquitted, and no 

 notice, in consequence of these proceedings, was taken 

 of him, but to declare him incapable of standing can- 

 didate that year for the consulship, because he had 

 neglected to register his name. During this prose- 

 cution, Catiline requested Cicero to be his counsel, 

 who either was, or pretended to be, so much deceived 

 regarding his real character, that he at first consent- 

 ed, but, in consequence of the disclosure of some acts 

 of villany, afterwards refused. \ 



The excesses and prodigality of Catiline after his 

 return from Africa involved him in much embarrass- 

 and it was from the pressure of pecuniary dis- 



tress, and the galling load of public infamy, that he 

 first formed the design of enriching himself in the 

 spoils and destruction of his country. Bold as such a 

 scheme was, and appalling one would have thought 

 to every mind, however depraved and hardened, there 

 were not wanting numbers in Rome, who, from their 

 profligacy and despair, shrunk from no enterprises or 

 enormities which could promise them any rehef. 

 tc Qui ob suwmam miseriam nullam deteriorem condi- 

 tionern pertimescentes, durn turbare ac m>t,cere omtiia, 

 in meliorumfortunas et opes impellebant vetuti an hosti- 



um prcedam." || While he secured a sufficient number Catiline 

 of these needy villains, whom gold could easily tempt, v *" 

 " unto a close exploit of death," Catiline was not in- 

 attentive to the arts by which he could gain adherents 

 of more influence and importance. With this view, 

 he drew around him mariy young men of family, by 

 his attractive and fascinating manners, whom he led 

 gradually on to vice, until he had ruined for ever 

 their characters and their fortunes, and made them 

 companions in profligacy. When, like the envenom- 

 ed spider, he had entangled his victims irretrievably 

 in his snares, and plunged them into the guit of 

 ruin, he proposed to them 'his plan of extricating 

 themselves by the overthrow of their country, or the 

 dreadful alternative of dying in the haunts of misery 

 and vice, and exposed to the execration of every good 

 and virtuous Roman. Their hesitation was not long; 

 and thus were the materials of a mine laid, which had 

 nearly exploded in the centre of Rome, and covered 

 the world with its fragments. In the mean time Ca- 

 tiline stood candidate for the consulship, backed with 

 the powerful support of Crassus and Caesar. Among 

 his competitors was M. Tullitis Cicero, whose inte- 

 grity and transcendant talents rendered him equally 

 an object of haired to every faction, and of admira- 

 tion and confidence to the good and the wise. Some 

 suspicions of Catiline's designs having been surmised 

 among the people, they took alarm, and chose Cicero 

 and Antonius consuls. The fury of Catiline on be- 

 ing thus baffled in his attempt to retrieve his ruined 

 foitune, broke out into the most violent turbulence, 

 and happily discovered to the Romans the character 

 of this candidate for power and popularity. The 

 consuls and patricians were on their guard at the 

 next election, and effectual measures were taken to 

 prevent his success. Irritated by the vigour and 

 opposition of Cicero, whose powerful mind disconcert- 

 ed all his designs, and met him in every plot, he 

 resolved to assassinate him and the other consul, on 

 the day of election for the ensuing year. But the 

 genius of Cicero still predominated ; the plot was 

 discovered, and Catiline rejected with disgrace. 

 His outrageous resentment precipitated him into 

 open rebellion, and several armies of his partizans 

 were collected in different parts of Italy. The event 

 of this rash conspiracy, and the circumstances con- 

 nected with it, are so well known, and have been 

 blazoned forth with such parade in every page of 

 Cicero's writings, that any detail of them here is 

 wholly unnecessary. It is customary to represent. 

 Catiline as a mere tool employed by Caesar and 

 Crassus to corrupt the people, and alienate them from 

 their attachment to the established constitution, but 

 whose impetuosity and ambition carried him to 

 lengths to which these more wary politicians were 

 unwilling, openly at least, to proceed. But in this 

 opinion we cannot concur. The conduct and views 

 of Catiline betrayed none of the artifices or subser- 

 viency of an instrument of faction. He had no de- 

 sign of advancing the interests of any party or poli- 

 tical leader. His object was not to depress one party 

 in order to raise another, but the destruction of all 

 parties, and the general ruin and desolation of the state* 



f- Multte graven sentential (inquit Pedianus in Cic- Orat. in Tog. Candid.) in eo dictte sunt. 



$ Fenestella says, that Cicero did defend him ; but this is H. mistake, ..s Torquatus was his counsel. See Cicero Orat. pro Sylla. 

 || See the elegant work of Gravina De Ortu et Prognasu Juris Ciwlis, lib. i. sect. 12, for a most nervous and eloquent de- 

 scription of the Wood-thirsty ferocious savageness of these hardened monsters. 



