Latin
Lines 1.9-1.11
Greek and Roman Historians, The Conspiracy of Catiline 1.9-11
Not analysed yet
In his monograph Sallust is seeking to characterize Catiline as symptomatic of all that was evil at Rome and a man foredoomed by the corruptness of society to a life of crime and violence. We know that Sallust used speeches of Cicero for his own writing, and the crimes with which we are presented in the speech In Toga Candida would be just what he wanted to make good his case. Yet there are surprisingly few of them in his work. No mention of the murders by Sulla's lieutenant, and of his moral depravity only a reference to Fabia and then the murder of his son introduced to provide the driving force of his revolutionary designs.
In speeches delivered after the consular elections of 63 B. C. Cicero makes further allegations about Catiline's earlier plots: that he planned to murder Cicero in 64 B. C., to murder Cicero and his rival candidates at the elections of 63 B. C., to kill the consuls and the other leading men on the 29th of December 66 B. C., to massacre the Senate on the same occasion and to take the place of one of the consulares for 65 B. C. who were to be murdered.
These statements about Catiline's plans for violence at the end of 66 B. C. merit further study. In the speech In Toga Candida Cicero says that he will pass over the plot to massacre the Optimates, but the speech Pro Sulla can shed light on the origin of the myth. Cicero is engaged in the defense of Publius Cornelius Sulla and the prosecution has pointed out that in his letter to Pompey Cicero had linked the earlier affair with the conspiracy of 63 B. C. Cicero therefore has to extricate Sulla from complicity in 66 B. C., and one of the devices he employs is the substitution of Catiline for Sulla as a principal in the affair and the implication that Catiline was to have taken the place of one of the murdered consuls.