The various steps from the Gracchi to him were as those which had to be made from the Girondists to Napoleon.

Catiline, no doubt, was one of the steps, as were Danton and Robespierre steps.
The continuation of steps in each case was at first occasioned by the bad government and greed of a few men in power.

But as Robespierre was vile and low, whereas Vergniaud was honest and Napoleon great, so was it with Catiline between the Gracchi and Caesar.

There is, to my thinking, no excuse for Catiline in the fact that he was a natural step, not even though he were a necessary step, between the Gracchi and Caesar.
I regard as futile the attempts which are made to rewrite history on the base of moral convictions and philosophical conclusion.

History very often has been, and no doubt often again will be, rewritten, with good effect and in the service of truth, on the finding of new facts.