let me say I was deliberately provocative in my post on Cicero.

I truly appreciate the man himself with all his dreams, utopias and weaknesses and I do believe he was a true patriot and a true supporter of the republic. What I really can not stand - in case nobody noticed - is his portrayal as the totally unselfish voice of the dying republic.

As for his role in the conspiracy of Catiline – in accordance with some authors (I do not have access to books in this moment, but I’ll look up in the weekend) – I do wonder how much he contributed to actually worsening a crisis that might otherwise have been a minor one. I do remember an author posing the question whether Cataline would have ever tried to start a revolution by raising an army, if Cicero had not actually used Catiline’s scorn (and troublesome character) as a potential threat to the Republic… which Cicero himself saved, as he went on reminding to everybody for the next 20 years or so.
Pardon my bitterness at Cicero… maybe I just had to translate one too many pieces of his Catilinariae when I was at school!
:-)