t, it finally
caused him to lose his sense of balance altogether and to think of
himself as a statesman: a part for which he was ill fitted. He was so
much impressed with his own importance that he bought a vast house on
the Palatine. To do so he had to borrow money and thus got into debt.
Before he had been free, after his consulship he became entangled and
embarrassed.

This was the case with many of the leading politicians and men of all
parties, and hampered their actions in countless ways. In order to win
popular favour they spent huge sums on shows and gave feasts and
presents to the populace. They lived altogether in a way expensive and
showy beyond their means. To do this they had to borrow money at
exorbitant terms, and were thus helplessly in the power of the rich men
who lent to them. Caesar at this time was fearfully in debt and
constantly in difficulties on this account. So were innumerable
fashionable young aristocrats. The Roman laws of debt were still
extremely harsh and all acted against the unfortunate debtor. Prices
were steadily rising: the vast wealth of the few made the lot of the
many increasingly hard. While Lucullus was in the East there had been a
serious financial crisis in Rome, and the effects of this lasted for a
long time.

As a consequence of this state of things a vast number of people of all
classes were stirred to wild excitement and enthusiasm when Catiline,
who was determined to be consul and by no means inclined to sit down
under one rebuff, set out a programme of which the chief item was a
wiping off of a large part of all outstanding debts. The poorer people
were on his side in this almost to a man. So were a great many needy
aristocrats, especially among the younger men. The rich, on the other
hand, especially the class of Knights, to which most of the big
financiers and trading houses belonged, were furious. They were ready to
throw all their influence and the great power of the purse on to the
side of the Conservatives, who cried that Catiline's programme meant
revolution. On both sides the wildest excitement and the most extreme
bitterness of feeling was stirred up.

Catiline was a man of low character, and of very bad record, quite
reckless. But he was by no means without ability. There was something to
be said for his programme if nothing for the man who proposed it.
Certainly the law of debt needed to be reformed. The rich did not argue
against it: they fell into a pani