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37This insanity was not confined to those who were implicated in the plot, but the whole body of the commons through desire for change favoured the designs of Catiline. 2In this very particular they seemed to act as the populace usually does; 3for in every community those who have no means envy the good, exalt the base, hate what is old and established, long for something new, and from disgust with their own lot desire a general upheaval. Amid turmoil and rebellion they maintain themselves without difficulty, since poverty is easily provided for and can suffer no loss. 4But the city populace in particular acted with desperation for many reasons. 5To begin with, all who were especially conspicuous for their shamelessness and impudence, those too who had squandered their patrimony in riotous living, finally all whom disgrace or crime had forced to leave home, had all flowed into Rome as into a cesspool. 6Many, too, who recalled Sulla’s victory, when they saw common soldiers risen to the rank of senator, and others become so rich that they feasted and lived like kings, hoped each for himself for like fruits of victory, if he took the field. 7Besides this, the young men who had maintained a wretched existence by manual labour in the country, tempted by public and private doles had come to prefer idleness in the city to their hateful toil; these, like all the others, battened on the public ills. 8Therefore it is not surprising that men who were beggars and without character, with illimitable hopes, should respect their country as little as they did themselves. 9Moreover, those to whom Sulla’s victory had meant the proscription of their parents, loss of property, and curtailment of their rights, looked forward in a similar spirit to the issue of a war. 10Finally, all who belonged to another party than that of the senate preferred to see the government overthrown rather than be out of power themselves. 11Such, then, was the evil which after many years had returned upon the state.
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