er asked himself the question whether it was in mortal peril, and if
so, whether it might possibly be saved. In his Consulship he did do so;
and, seeing less of the Republic than we can see now, told himself that
it was possible.

The stories told to us of Catiline's conspiracy by Sallust and by Cicero
are so little conflicting that we can trust them both. Trusting them
both, we are justified in believing that we know the truth. We are here
concerned only with the part which Cicero took. Nothing, I think, which
Cicero says is contradicted by Sallust, though of much that Cicero
certainly did Sallust is silent. Sallust damns him, but only by faint
praise. We may, therefore, take the account of the plot as given by
Cicero himself as verified: indeed, I am not aware that any of Cicero's
facts have been questioned.

Sallust declares that Catiline's attempt was popular in Rome
generally.[195] This, I think, must be taken as showing simply that
revolution and conspiracy were in themselves popular: that, as a
condition of things around him such as existed in Rome, a plotter of
state plots should be able to collect a body of followers, was a thing
of course; that there were many citizens who would not work, and who
expected to live in luxury on public or private plunder, is certain.
When the conspiracy was first announced in the Senate, Catiline had an
army collected; but we have no proof that the hearts of the inhabitants
of Rome generally were with the conspirators. On the other hand, we have
proof, in the unparalleled devotion shown by the citizens to Cicero
after the conspiracy was quelled, that their hearts were with him. The
populace, fond of change, liked a disturbance; but there is nothing to
show that Catiline was ever beloved as had been the Gracchi, and other
tribunes of the people who came after them.

Catiline, in the autumn of the year B.C. 63, had arranged the outside
circumstances of his conspiracy, knowing that he would, for the third
time, be unsuccessful in his canvass for the Consulship. That Cicero
with other Senators should be murdered seems to have been their first
object, and that then the Consulship should be seized by force. On the
21st of October Cicero made his first report to the Senate as to the
conspiracy, and called upon Catiline for his answer. It was then that
Catiline made his famous reply: "That the Republic had two bodies, of
which one was weak and had a bad head"--meaning the aristocracy,