Even Cicero, who of all the Romans was the most humane--even he, no doubt, would have been well contented that Catiline should have been destroyed by the people.[178] Even he was the cause, as we shall see just now, of the execution of the leaders of the conspirators whom Catiline left behind him in the city--an execution of which the legality is at any rate very doubtful.

But in judging even of bloodshed we have to regard the circumstances of the time in the verdicts we give.

Our consciousness of altered manners and of the growth of gentleness force this upon us.

We cannot execrate the conspirators who murdered Caesar as we would do those who might now plot the death of a tyrant; nor can we deal as heavily with the murderers of Caesar as we would have done then with Catilinarian conspirators in Rome, had Catiline's conspiracy succeeded.

And so, too, in acknowledging that Catiline was the outcome of the Gracchi, and to some extent the preparation for Caesar, we must again compare him with them, his motives and designs with theirs, before we can allow ourselves to sympathize with him, because there was much in them worthy of praise and honor.
That the Gracchi were seditious no historian has, I think, denied.