The Conspiracy of Catiline

But at that time, everyone began to exalt themselves more and to display their talent more readily. For to kings, the good are more suspect than the bad, and to them another’s virtue is always a source of fear. But once liberty was obtained, it is incredible to relate how much the state grew in a short time: so great a desire for glory had come upon them. Now first of all, the youth, as soon as they were capable of enduring war, learned the practice of military service through labor in the camp, and they took their pleasure more in beautiful arms and military horses than in harlots and banquets. Therefore, to such men, no labor was unusual, no place rough or steep, no armed enemy fearsome: valour had conquered all. But the greatest contest of glory was among themselves: each one hastened to strike the enemy, to scale the wall, to be seen while performing such a deed. They considered this to be wealth, this to be a good reputation and great nobility. They were greedy for praise, liberal with money; they wanted immense glory, honorable wealth. I could relate in what places the Roman people routed the greatest forces of the enemy with a small band, and what cities fortified by nature they took by fighting, did not this matter drag us too far from our undertaking.

But surely fortune rules in everything; she makes famous and obscures all things according to her whim rather than according to truth. The achievements of the Athenians, as I estimate, were indeed sufficiently great and magnificent, but yet somewhat less than they are reported by fame. But because great talents of writers arose there, the deeds of the Athenians are celebrated throughout the world as the greatest. Thus the virtue of those who performed them is held to be as great as illustrious talents were able to extol it in words. But the Roman people never had that abundance, because the most prudent was always the most busy, no one exercised his mind without his body, and all the best men preferred to act rather than to speak, and preferred that their own good deeds be praised by others rather than that they themselves relate those of others.

Therefore, good morals were cultivated at home and in war; there was the greatest concord, the least avarice; justice and goodness prevailed among them not more by laws than by nature. They exercised quarrels, discords, and enmities with enemies; citizens competed with citizens concerning virtue. They were magnificent in the worship of the gods, frugal at home, faithful to friends. By these two arts—boldness in war, and equity when peace had come—they cared for themselves and the republic. Of which things I have these greatest proofs: that in war punishment was more often inflicted on those who had fought against the enemy contrary to orders and who, when recalled, had withdrawn too slowly from battle, than on those who had dared to abandon the standards or, when repulsed, to yield their ground; and in peace, indeed, that they managed their rule by benefits more than by fear, and when an injury was received, they preferred to forgive rather than to avenge.

But when the republic had grown through labor and justice, great kings were subdued in war, fierce nations and immense peoples were subjugated by force, Carthage, the rival of the Roman empire, perished from its roots, and all seas and lands lay open, fortune began to grow cruel and to throw everything into confusion. To those who had easily tolerated labors, dangers, and doubtful and harsh circumstances, leisure and wealth, things to be desired at other times, were a burden and a misery. Therefore, first the desire for money, then for power grew; these were, as it were, the material of all evils. For avarice subverted faith, honesty, and all other good arts; in place of these, it taught pride, cruelty, to neglect the gods, and to hold all things venal. Ambition compelled many mortals to become false, to have one thing shut up in their breast and another ready on their tongue, to value friendships and enmities not from the facts but from convenience, and to have a good face rather than a good character. These things at first grew gradually and were sometimes punished; afterward, when the contagion invaded like a pestilence, the state was changed, and the empire, from the most just and best, became cruel and intolerable.