[126] _Popularis_, properly 'a fellow-countryman,' or 'belonging to the same people;' but Sallust here, and in chapter 24, uses it in the more general sense of _particeps, socius_, 'associate.' [127] _Dictitare_, a contraction for _dictitavere_: 'it was frequently said that Catiline had done it for this reason.' This contraction has nothing that is offensive here, though in form it is the same as the present infinitive; for such an ambiguity of form is not always avoided, provided the context clearly shows what the meaning is. _Dictitare_ contains a repetition of what is implied in _fuere qui dicerent_. 23. Sed in ea conjuratione fuit Q. Curius, natus haud obscuro loco, flagitiis atque facinoribus coopertus, quera censores senatu probri gratia moverant. Huic homini non minor vanitas inerat quam audacia; neque reticere, quae audierat, neque suamet[128] ipse scelera occultare, prorsus neque dicere neque facere quidquam pensi habebat. Erat ei cum Fulvia, muliere nobili, stupri[129] vetus consuetudo; cui quum minus gratus esset, quia inopia minus largiri poterat, repente glorians maria montesque polliceri coepit et minari interdum ferro, ni sibi obnoxia foret, postremo ferocius agitare[130] quam solitus erat. At Fulvia, insolentiae Curii causa cognita, tale periculum rei publicae haud occultum habuit, sed sublato auctore[131] de Catilinae conjuratione quae quoque modo audierat compluribus narravit. Ea res in primis studia hominum accendit ad consulatum mandandum M. Tullio Ciceroni. Namque antea pleraque nobilitas invidia aestuabat,[132] et quasi pollui consulatum credebant, si eum quamvis egregius homo novus[133] adeptus foret. Sed ubi periculum advenit, invidia atque superbia post fuere.[134] [128] _Met_ is a suffix which may be appended to all the cases of _suus_, and answers to our 'own.' It is usually followed by _ipse_. See Zumpt, S 139, note. [129] _Stuprum_ is the name for every unchaste connexion with unmarried as well as with married women; but _adulterium_ is the illicit intercourse with married women. [130] 'To behave more ferociously;' for _agere_ and _agitare_, even without an accusative, signify 'to behave,' 'conduct one's self,' 'lead a life.' [131] _Sublato auctore_, 'without mentioning the one of whom she had learned it.' [132] 'The nobility was boiling with envy;' a figurative expression, taken from the boiling of water over the fire, which is frequently used to describe violent passions. So also _incendi, ardere, flagrare cupiditate_. [133] A _homo novus_ was at Rome the name for any person, none of whose ancestors had been invested with a curule office; that is, with the consulship, praetorship, quaestorship, or curule aedileship. [134] _Post fuere_; that is, _postposita sunt_, 'were put on one side.'