Rome, 63 BC. A ruined aristocrat named Catiline gathers an army of the desperate — debtors, veterans, the dispossessed — and plots to overthrow the Republic. Sallust tells the story with a moralist's fury: this is what happens when a ruling class loses its grip. The prose is clipped, the character sketches devastating, and the set-piece speeches — Catiline to his conspirators, Caesar and Cato debating in the Senate — are among the finest in Latin.
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