own hand.  These evil deeds and his private character, which was of the very worst, did not hinder him from rising to high offices in the State.  He was made first aedile, then praetor, then governor of Africa, a province covering the region which now bears the names of Tripoli and Tunis.  At the end of his year of government he returned to Rome, intending to become a candidate for the consulship.  In this he met with a great disappointment.  He was indicted for misgovernment in his province, and as the law did not permit any one who had such a charge hanging over him to stand for any public office, he was compelled to retire.  But he soon found, or fancied that he had found, an opportunity of revenging himself.  The two new consuls were found guilty of bribery, and were compelled to resign.  One of them, enraged at his disgrace, made common cause with Catiline.  A plot, in which not a few powerful citizens were afterwards suspected with more or less reason of having joined, was formed.  It was arranged that the consuls should be assassinated on the first day of the new year; the day, that is, on which they were to enter on their office.  But a rumor of some impending danger got about; on the appointed day the new consuls appeared with a sufficient escort, and the conspirators agreed to postpone the execution of their scheme till an early day in February.  This time the secret was better kept, but the impatience of Catiline hindered the plot from being carried out.  It had been arranged that he should take his place in front of the senate-house, and give to the hired band of assassins the signal to begin.  This signal he gave before the whole number was assembled.  The few that were present had not the courage to act, and the opportunity was lost.

The trial for misgovernment ended in an acquittal, purchased, it was said, by large bribes given to the jurymen and even to the prosecutor, a certain Clodius, of whom we shall hear again, and shall find to have been not one whit better than Catiline himself.  A second trial, this time for misdeeds committed in the days of Sulla, ended in the same way.  Catiline now resolved on following another course of action.  He would take up the character of a friend of the people.  He had the advantage of being a noble, for men thought that he was honest when they saw him thus turn against his own order, and, as it seemed, against his own interests.  And indeed there was much that he could say, and say with perfect truth, against the nobles.  They were corrupt and profligate beyond all bearing.  They sat on juries and gave false verdicts for money.  They went out to govern provinces, showed themselves horribly cruel and greedy, and then came home to be acquitted by men who had done or hoped to do the very same things themselves.  People listened to Catiline when he spoke against such doings, without remembering that he was just as bad himself.  He had too, just the reputation for strength and courage that was likely to make him