The Conspiracy Of Catiline
(Sallust)
Sallust exaggerated in describing Catiline and hisintentions, as did Cicero who portrayed him as a monster of wickedness.Catiline decided to burn down Rome, as he was defeated in his candidacyto the consulship. The man, who had been at the beginning described asa brave soldier, of a noble birth, suddenly became a traitor, anagitator; rousing the rabble and common Romans after his failure toobtain a consulship. Sallust and Cicero did so to impressthe senate to incriminate Catiline of grave charges so that thesentence would be severe too. Being a good writer, an orator, Sallustmanaged to enhance and aggravate accusations brought against Catiline.But in his book, before he began to describe the conspiracy and explainthe events in details, he preferred to depict the Romans, showing themin a very good light. He said that they were men of action; outshiningtheir Greek neighbours. The Romans preferred deeds to words, contraryto the Greeks who owed their renown to the exploits of the historianswho overrated it. For his conspiracy, Catiline began togather poor and young people who had no share or part to play in thesenate or the consulship; they were completely ignored and forgotten bytheir leaders. The first attempt to denounce the conspiracy was done bya woman named Fluvia who was the mistress of Quintus Curius, a memberof the conspiracy. The information caused the people to entrust theconsulship to Cicero despite his being an outsider, an immigrant. What made some people ready and eager to conspire was the fact thatthey remembered the men who had served under Sulla. Most of them hadbeen common soldiers and had become rich and risen to be senators. Thesecond denunciation of the conspiracy was done by the Allobroges whenthey were approached by Umbrunus who asked them to take part in the waras Catiline?s allies. Cicero was immediately informed of the plot. Whenpeople heard about the plan they praised Cicero to the skies.
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