10.
[21]
There is a fourth class, various, promiscuous and turbulent; who indeed are now
overwhelmed; who will never recover themselves; who, partly from indolence, partly from
managing their affairs badly, partly from extravagance, are embarrassed by old debts; and
worn out with bail bonds, and judgments, and seizures of their goods, are said to be betaking
themselves in numbers to that camp both from the city and the country. These men I think not
so much active soldiers as lazy insolvents; who, if they cannot stand at first, may fall, but
fall so, that not only the city but even their nearest neighbours know nothing of it. For I
do not understand why, if they cannot live with honour, they should wish to die shamefully;
or wily they think they shall perish with less pain in a crowd, than if they perish by
themselves.
[22]
There is a fifth class, of parricides, assassins, in short of all infamous characters, whom
I do not wish to recall from Catiline, and indeed they cannot be separated from him. Let them
perish in their wicked war, since they are so numerous that a prison cannot contain them.
There is a last class, last not only in number but in the sort of men and in their way of
life; the especial body-guard of Catiline, of his levying; yes, the friends of his embraces
and of his bosom; whom you see with carefully combed hair, glossy, beardless, or with
well-trimmed beards; with tunics with sleeves, or reaching to the ankles; clothed with veils,
not with robes; all the industry of whose life, all the labour of whose watchfulness, is
expended in suppers lasting till daybreak.
[23]
In these bands are all the gamblers, all the adulterers, all the unclean and shameless
citizens. These boys, so witty and delicate, have learnt not only to love and to be loved,
not only to sing and to dance, but also to brandish daggers and to administer poisons; and
unless they are driven out, unless they die, even should Catiline die, I warn you that the
school of Catiline would exist in the republic. But what do those wretches want? Are they
going to take their wives with them to the camp? how can they do without them, especially in
these nights? and how will they endure the Apennines, and these frosts, and this snow? unless they think that they will
bear the winter more easily because they have been in the habit of dancing naked at their
feasts. O war much to be dreaded, when Catiline is going to have his bodyguard of
prostitutes!
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.