+The character of Catiline.+ ‘He was one of the most wicked men in that wicked age. He possessed in a high degree the qualities which are required in the leader of a band of ruined and desperate men--the faculty of enjoying all pleasures and of bearing all privations, courage, military talent, knowledge of men, indomitable energy.’ --M. Cf. Sall. _Catil._ 5.
_Forms the First Triumvirate: Consul, 60-59 B.C._
Hoc igitur consule inter eum et Cn. Pompeium et M. Crassum inita potentiae societas, quae urbi orbique terrarum nec minus diverso quoque tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit. Hoc consilium sequendi Pompeius causam habuerat, ut tandem acta in { 5} transmarinis provinciis, quibus, ut praediximus, multi obtrectabant, per Caesarem confirmarentur consulem, Caesar autem, quod animadvertebat se cedendo Pompei gloriae aucturum suam et invidia communis potentiae in illum relegata confirmaturum { 10} vires suas, Crassus, ut quem principatum solus adsequi non poterat, auctoritate Pompei, viribus teneret Caesaris. Adfinitas etiam inter Caesarem Pompeiumque contracta nuptiis, quippe Iuliam, filiam C. Caesaris, Cn. Magnus duxit uxorem. In { 15} hoc consulatu Caesar legem tulit, ut ager Campanus plebei divideretur, suasore legis Pompeio: ita circiter XX milia civium eo deducta et ius urbis restitutum post annos circiter CLII quam bello Punico ab Romanis Capua in formam praefecturae { 20} redacta erat. Bibulus, collega Caesaris, cum actiones eius magis vellet impedire quam posset, maiore parte anni domi se tenuit: quo facto dum augere vult invidiam collegae, auxit potentiam. Tum Caesari decretae in quinquennium Galliae. { 25}
[Linenotes: 1-2. +inter eum ... societas+, the famous First Triumvirate. ‘It was at first an expedient to secure, as we should say, a working majority for a vigorous democratic policy, but the bitterness of its enemies transformed the coalition itself from an honourable union into the semblance of a three-headed tyranny.’ --Warde Fowler. 4-7. The ultra-senatorial party (after Pompeius’ great act of renunciation, when he dismissed his victorious veterans in 62 B.C.) had checked and worried Pompeius by refusing to ratify his arrangements in the East, and by criticising and opposing his plans for rewarding his veterans. Thus they deliberately drove him once more into the arms of Caesar and the democracy. 10. +relegata+ = _attributed_, _imputed_, lit. _removed_ (_re_ + _lēgo_). 21. +Bibulus, collega Caesaris:+ cf. Suet. _Divus Iulius_ 20: _Non Bibulo quicquam, nuper sed Caesare factum est: Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini._]