The Conspiracy of Catiline: Decline of the Republic



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Read the excerpt from Sallust’s “The Conspiracy of Catiline: Decline of the Republic”

Answer the following questions

  1. According to Sallust, what was Rome like in the Good Old Days?

  2. Based on Paragraph 2, what has happened since the Good Old Days?

  3. What does he think is wrong with Roman society of his day? No need for complete sentences; draw up a list of at least 5 things.

  4. In 5 words or less, what does Sallust believe is cause of problems for Rome?

Caius Sallustius Crispus (86-35 B.C.E.), a native of the hill country of southern Italy, settled in Rome where he entered politics and became involved in factional struggles. As one of the radicals who opposed the senatorial aristocracy, be was a natural ally of Julius Caesar, who promoted him to high office. Sallust rose to become governor of Africa (now Tunisia), but retired from public life after Caesar's assassination. Thanks to the usual bribery and embezzlement of the age, he had acquired great wealth and spent a comfortable retirement in his estates in Rome writing history. His two surviving monographs deal with events of the first century B.C.E., a turbulent time.

In peace and war, as I have said, virtue was held in high esteem . . . and avarice was a thing almost unknown. Justice and righteousness were upheld not so much by law as by natural instinct. They [the Romans] quarreled and fought with their country’s foes; between themselves, the citizens contended only for honor. In making offerings to the gods they spared no expense; at home they lived frugally and never betrayed friend. By combining boldness in war with fair dealing when peace was restored they protected themselves and the state. There are convincing proofs of this. In time of war, soldiers were often punished for attacking against orders or for being slow to obey a signal of recall from battle, whereas few ever ventured to desert their standards or to give ground when hard pressed. In peace, they governed by conferring benefits on their subjects, not by intimidation; and when wronged they would rather pardon than seek vengeance.

Thus by hard work and just dealing the power of the state increased. Mighty kings were vanquished, savage tribes and huge nations were brought to their knees; and when Carthage, Rome’s rival in her quest for empire, had been annihilated, every land and sea lay open to her. It was then that fortune turned unkind and confounded all her enterprises. To the men who had so easily endured toil and peril, anxiety and adversity, the leisure and riches which are generally regarded as so desirable proved a burden and a curse. Growing love of money, and the lust for power which followed it, engendered every kind of evil. Avarice destroyed honor, integrity, and every other virtue, and instead taught men to be proud and cruel, to neglect religion, and to hold nothing too sacred to sell. Ambition tempted many to be false, to have one thought hidden in their hearts, another ready on their tongues, to become a man’s friend or enemy not because they judged him worthy or unworthy but because they thought it would pay them, and to put on the semblance of virtues that they had not. At first these vices grew slowly and sometimes met with punishment; later on, when the disease had spread like a plague, Rome changed: her government, once so just and admirable, became harsh and unendurable.

At first, however, it was not so much avarice as ambition that disturbed men’s minds—a fault which after all comes nearer to being a virtue. For distinction, preferment and power are the desire of good and bad alike—only, the one strives to reach his goal by honorable means, while the other, being destitute of good qualities, falls back on craft and deceit. Avarice is different: it means setting your heart on money, a thing that no wise man ever did. It is a kind of deadly poison, which ruins a man’s health and weakens his moral fiber. It knows no bounds and can never be satisfied: he that has not, wants; and he that has, wants more…



As soon as wealth came to be a mark of distinction and an easy way to renown, military commands, and political power, virtue began to decline. Poverty was now looked on as a disgrace and blameless life as a sign of ill nature. Riches made the younger generation a prey to luxury, avarice, and pride… To one familiar with mansions and villas reared aloft on such a scale that they look like so many towns, it is instructive to visit the temples built by our god-fearing ancestors. In those days piety was the ornament of shrines; glory, of men’s dwellings. When they conquered a foe, they took nothing from him save his power to harm. But their base successors stuck at no crime to rob subject peoples of all that those brave conquerors had left them, as though oppression were the only possible method of ruling an empire… Such men, it seems to me, have treated their wealth as a mere plaything: instead of making honorable use of it, they have shamefully misused it on the first wasteful project that occurred to them…
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