16 The young men,
whom, as I said before, he had enticed to join him, he initiated, by various
methods, in evil practices. From among them he furnished false witnesses, and
forgers of signatures; and he taught them all to regard, with equal unconcern,
honor, property, and danger. At length, when he had stripped them of all
character and shame, he led them to other and greater enormities. If a motive
for crime did not readily occur, he invited them, nevertheless, to circumvent
and murder inoffensive persons, just as if they had injured him; for, lest
their hand or heart should grow torpid for want of employment, he chose to be
gratuitously wicked and cruel.
Depending on such accomplices and adherents, and knowing that the load of debt
was everywhere great, and that the veterans of Sylla, having spent their money
too liberally, and remembering their spoils and former victory, were longing
for a civil war, Catiline formed the design of overthrowing the government.
There was no army in Italy;
Pompey was fighting in a distant part of the world; he himself had great hopes
of obtaining the consulship; the senate was wholly off its guard; everything
was quiet and tranquil, and all these circumstances were exceedingly favorable
for Catiline.
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