[80] 'Mountains are levelled, and seas are produced artificially.' In
the latter expression, Sallust, as in chap. 20 (_maria extruuntur_),
alludes to the formation of immense basins in the interior of the
country, into which the water was conducted from the sea, for the
purpose of keeping in them sea-fish and oysters. In this kind of
luxury and extravagance all the earlier Roman grandees were eclipsed
by L. Lucullus, who had amassed immense wealth in the war against
Mithridates. He possessed a very extensive _piscina_ of this kind
near the coast of Campania, in the neighbourhood of Baiae.
[81] _Cultus_ comprises the whole domestic arrangement, and especially
includes costly furniture and dresses.
[82] 'To the acquisition and to the squandering of money;' for, as we
stated before, it was peculiar to the corruption prevalent among
the Romans that they squandered their own property, and appropriated
to themselves, by violent means, that which belonged to others.

14. In tanta tamque corrupta civitate Catilina, id quod factu facillimum
erat, omnium flagitiorum atque facinorum circum se tamquam stipatorum
catervas habebat.[83] Nam quicunque impudicus, adulter, ganeo manu,[84]
ventre, pene bona patria laceraverat, quique alienum aes grande
conflaverat, quo flagitium aut facinus redimeret, praeterea omnes undique
parricidae, sacrilegi, convicti judiciis aut pro factis judicium
timentes, ad hoc quos manus atque lingua perjurio aut sanguine civili
alebat, postremo omnes, quos flagitium, egestas, conscius animus
exagitabat: hi Catilinae proximi familiaresque erant. Quodsi quis etiam a
culpa vacuus in amicitiam ejus inciderat, cotidiano usu atque illecebris
facile par similisque ceteris efficiebatur. Sed maxime adolescentium
familiaritates appetebat; eorum animi molles et aetate fluxi dolis haud
difficulter[85] capiebantur. Nam ut cujusque studium ex aetate[86]
flagrabat, aliis scorta praebere, aliis canes atque equos mercari,