feelings of the citizens to give the consulship to Marcus Tullius
Cicero.[134] For before this period, most of the nobility were moved
with jealousy, and thought the consulship in some degree sullied, if a
man of no family,[135] however meritorious, obtained it. But when
danger showed itself, envy and pride were laid aside. XXIV.
Accordingly, when the comitia were held, Marcus Tullius and Caius
Antonius were declared consuls; an event which gave the first shock to
the conspirators. The ardor of Catiline, however, was not at all
diminished; he formed every day new schemes; he deposited arms, in
convenient places, throughout Italy; he sent sums of money borrowed on
his own credit, or that of his friends, to a certain Manlius,[136] at
Faesulae,[137] who was subsequently the first to engage in hostilities.
At this period, too, he is said to have attached to his cause great
numbers of men of all classes, and some women, who had, in their earlier
days, supported an expensive life by the price of their beauty, but who,
when age had lessened their gains but not their extravagance, had
contracted heavy debts. By the influence of these females, Catiline
hoped to gain over the slaves in Rome, to get the city set on fire, and
either to secure the support of their husbands or take away their lives.

XXV. In the number of those ladies was Sempronia,[138] a woman who had
committed many crimes with the spirit of a man. In birth and beauty,
in her husband and her children, she was extremely fortunate; she was
skilled in Greek and Roman literature; she could sing, play, and
dance,[139] with greater elegance than became a woman of virtue, and
possessed many other accomplishments that tend to excite the passions.
But nothing was ever less valued by her than honor or chastity.
Whether she was more prodigal of her money or her reputation, it would
have been difficult to decide. Her desires were so ardent that she
oftener made advances to the other sex than waited for solicitation.