5.
[11]
Having then been so many years about the forum without any suspicion, and
without any slur on his character, he espoused the cause of Catiline when he
offered himself for the consulship a second time. How long then do you think
that men of his age are to be kept in a state of pupilage? Formerly, we had
one year established by custom during which the arm was restrained by our
robe and during which we practised our exercises and sports in the
Campus Martius in our tunics.
And the very same practice prevailed in the camps and in the army, if we
began to serve in campaigns at once. And at that age, unless a man protected
himself by great gravity and chastity on his own part and not only by rigid
domestic discipline, but by an extraordinary degree of natural virtue,
however he was looked after by his relations, he still could not escape some
slur on his character. But any one who passed that beginning of his life in
perfect purity, and free from all stain, never was liable to have any one
speak against his fair fame and his chastity when his principles had gained
strength, and when he was a man and among men.
[12]
Caelius espoused the cause of Catiline, when he had
been for several years mixing in the forum; and many of every rank and of
every age did the very same thing. For that man, as I should think many of
you must remember, had very many marks—not indeed fully brought
out, but only in outline as it were of the most eminent virtues. He was
intimate with many thoroughly wicked men; but he pretended to be entirely
devoted to the most virtuous of the citizens. He had many things about him
which served to allure men to the gratification of their passions; he had
also many things which acted as incentives to industry and toil. The vices
of lust raged in him; but at the same time he was conspicuous for great energy and military skill. Nor do I believe that there
ever existed so strange a prodigy upon the earth, made up in such a manner
of the most various, and different and inconsistent studies and desires.
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