Mad, bad and dangerous to know? Misunderstood rebel against privilege? Desperate debtor?
All of these cases could be made and more besides. As a loser he didn't get to write the history, and surely we are left with the problem that at best history here is a form of impressionism, constantly moving in view for all. Perhaps we can merely see such things through the shifting prism of what we laughable designate a consistent being, and accept that if truth were food in history, we would all starve.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catilina