SPIRACY OF CATILINE, 63 B. C.

*The situation in Rome.* While Pompey was adding to his military
reputation in the East he was regarded with jealous and anxious eyes not
only by the Senate but also by the other champions of the popular party,
Crassus who found his wealth no match for Pompey's military achievements,
and Caius Julius Caesar who was rapidly coming to be one of the leading
figures in Roman public life. Caesar was born in 100 B. C., of the
patrician _gens_ of the Julii, but since his aunt was the wife of Marius,
and he himself had married the daughter of Cinna, his lot was cast with
the Populares. As a young man he had distinguished himself by refusing to
divorce his wife at Sulla's behest, whereat Sulla was with difficulty
induced to spare his life, saying that he saw in him many a Marius. For
the time being Caesar judged it prudent to withdraw from Rome to Rhodes.
While in the East he was captured by pirates, and after being ransomed,
fulfilled his threat to avenge himself by taking and executing his
captors. After the death of Sulla, Caesar returned to Rome and devoted his
more than average oratorical abilities to the cause of the Marians. In 69
or 68 B. C. he was quaestor in Farther Spain, and shortly afterwards he
became closely associated with Crassus in the attempt to develop a
counterpoise to Pompey's influence. While aedile in 65 B. C. he curried
favor with the populace by the extraordinary lavishness with which he
celebrated the public festivals, by the restoration of the public
monuments of the campaign of Marius and by supporting the prosecution of
agents in the Sullan proscriptions. The splendor of his shows had obliged
Caesar to contract heavy debts, and Crassus was in all probability his
chief creditor. Both were therefore interested in securing for Caesar a
position in which he could secure the wealth to meet his obligations.

The unrest in Rome was heightened by the presence there of a number of men
of ruined fortunes, both Marians dispossessed by Sulla and those of the
opposite party who had squandered their resources or had been excluded
from the Senate by the censors of 70 B. C. This element was ready to
resort to any means, however desperate, to win wealth or office. Foremost
among them was Lucius Sergius Catilina, a patrician who enjoyed an evil
repute for his share in the Sullan proscriptions and the viciousness of
his private life. Symptomatic of the weakening of the public authority