in the lost treatise on his consulship. Besides these we possess the monograph of Sallust on the Catilinarian conspiracy. This as the work of a contemporary and a Cæsarian is of especial value. We have the satisfaction of finding that the writer on the Cæsarian side gives substantially the same account of the conspirators and their plans as that which we gather from Cicero's own speeches. In presence of this agreement we may feel pretty confident that we have a story trustworthy and correct in its main outlines.
Lucius Sergius Catilina was a member of an ancient patrician family which had been famous in the early days of the Republic, but which had long fallen into obscurity. None of its members had attained the consulship during the last two hundred years, and the name of the Sergii is scarcely mentioned in the history of the period when Rome was conquering and ruling the world.
During the Civil War Catiline had been a partisan of Sulla and had taken an active part in the bloody work of the Proscription. His brother was one of the victims, and a dark story ran that the infamy which Lepidus earned in later years had been anticipated in the first Proscription, and that Catiline was himself responsible for the insertion of his kinsman's name in the list.[1] Since then he had risen through the various magistracies till he attained the government of Africa as pro-prætor. After his return he was accused of extortion on evidence which Cicero, though he thought of accepting a brief for the
- ↑ Plutarch, Sulla, 32, 2.
