committed such an outrage, but had patiently submitted to many severe
commands. This question we shall leave undecided. Of the first
conspiracy enough has been said.

XX. When Catiline saw those, whom I have just above mentioned,[118]
assembled, though he had often discussed many points with them singly,
yet thinking it would be to his purpose to address and exhort them in
a body, retired with them into a private apartment of his house,
where, when all witnesses were withdrawn, he harangued them to the
following effect:

"If your courage and fidelity had not been sufficiently proved by me,
this favorable opportunity[119] would have occurred to no purpose;
mighty hopes, absolute power, would in vain be within our grasp; nor
should I, depending on irresolution or ficklemindedness, pursue
contingencies instead of certainties. But as I have, on many remarkable
occasions, experienced your bravery and attachment to me, I have
ventured to engage in a most important and glorious enterprise. I am
aware, too, that whatever advantages or evils affect you, the same
affect me; and to have the same desires and the same aversions, is
assuredly a firm bond of friendship.

"What I have been meditating you have already heard separately. But my
ardor for action is daily more and more excited, when I consider what
our future condition of life must be, unless we ourselves assert our
claims to liberty.[120] For since the government has fallen under the
power and jurisdiction of a few, kings and princes[121] have constantly
been their tributaries; nations and states have paid them taxes; but all
the rest of us, however brave and worthy, whether noble or plebeian,
have been regarded as a mere mob, without interest or authority, and