and a half after
the conspiracy, gives us of Catiline the same personal story as that told
both by Sallust and Cicero: "Debauchery, in the first place; and then the
poverty which that had produced; and then the opportunity of the time,
because the Roman armies were in distant lands, induced Catiline to
conspire for the destruction of his country."[183] Mommsen, who was
certainly biassed by no feeling in favor of Cicero, declares that
Catiline in particular was "one of the most nefarious men in that
nefarious age. His villanies belong to the criminal records, not to
history."[184] All this is no evidence. Cicero and Sallust may possibly
have combined to lie about Catiline. Other Roman writers may have
followed them, and modern poets and modern historians may have followed
the Roman writers. It is possible that the world may have been wrong as
to a period of Roman history with which it has thought itself to be well
acquainted; but the world now has nothing to go by but the facts as they
have come down to it. The writers of the ages since have combined to
speak of Cicero with respect and admiration. They have combined, also, to
speak of Catiline with abhorrence. They have agreed, also, to treat those
other rebels, the Gracchi, after such a fashion that, in spite of their
sedition, a sweet savor, as I have said, attaches itself to their names.
For myself, I am contented to take the opinion of the world, and feel
assured that I shall do no injustice in speaking of Catiline as all who
have written about him hitherto have spoken of him I cannot consent to
the building up of a noble patriot out of such materials as we have
concerning him.[185]

Two strong points have been made for Catiline in Mr. Beesly's defence.
His ancestors had been Consuls when the forefathers of patricians of a
later date "were clapping their chapped hands and throwing up their
sweaty nightcaps." That scorn against the people should be expressed by
the aristocrat Casca was well supposed by Shakspeare; but how did a
liberal of the present day bring himself to do honor to his hero by such
allusions? In truth, however, the glory of ancient blood and the
disgrace attaching to the signs of labor are ideas seldom relinquished
even by democratic minds. A Howard is nowhere lovelier than in America,
or a sweaty nightcap less relished. We are then reminded how Catiline
died fighting, with the wounds all in front; and are told that the
"world has generally a generou