Sallust declares that an attempt was made to murder Caesar as he left the Senate.

There was probably some quarrel and hustling, but no more.
[195] Sallust, Catilinaria, xxxvii.: "Omnino cuncta plebes, novarum rerum studio, Catilinae incepta probabat." By the words "novarum rerum studio"-- by a love of revolution--we can understand the kind of popularity which Sallust intended to express.
[196] Pro Murena, xxv.
[197] "Darent operam consules ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat." [198] Catilinaria, xxxi.
[199] Quintilian, lib.xii., 10: "Quem tamen et suorum homines temporum incessere audebant, ut tumidiorem, et asianum, et redundantem." [200] Orator., xxxvii.: "A nobis homo audacissimus Catilina in senatu accusatus obmutuit." [201] 2 Catilinaria, xxxi.
[202] In the first of them to the Senate, chap.ix., he declares this to Catiline himself: "Si mea voce perterritus ire in exsilium animum induxeris, quanta tempestas invidiae nobis, si minus in praesens tempus, recenti memoria scelerum tuorum, at in posteritatem impendeat." He goes on to declare that he will endure all that, if by so doing he can save the Republic.

"Sed est mihi tanti; dummodo ista privata sit calamitas, et a reipublicae periculis sejungatur." [203] Sallust, Catilinaria, xli.: "Itaque Q.Fabio Sangae cujus patrocinio civitas plurimum utebatur rem omnem uti cognoverant aperiunt." [204] Horace, Epo.xvi., 6: "Novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox." The unhappy Savoyard has from this line been known through ages as a conspirator, false even to his fellow-conspirators.
Juvenal, vii., 214: "Rufum qui toties Ciceronem Allobroga dixit." Some Rufus, acting as advocate, had thought to put down Cicero by calling him an Allobrogian.
[205] The words in which this honor was conferred he himself repeats: "Quod urbem incendiis, caede cives, Italiam bello liberassem"-- "because I had rescued the city from fire, the citizens from slaughter, and Italy from war." [206] It is necessary in all oratory to read something between the lines.

It is allowed to the speaker to produce effect by diminishing and exaggerating.

I think we should detract something from the praises bestowed on Catiline's military virtues.