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THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY

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“When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience?”

— Cicero (The First Oration)

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INTRODUCTION

You heard of Salvius in the Cambridge Book. Salvius the manipulative evil genius who leads to the death of King Cogidubnus and the overthrow of him kingdom. However Salvius, much like the toothfairy, is not real. Sure there is Gaius Salvius Liberalis who we have records of, but he is nothing like the treacherous Salvius we know and love in our stories. Fortunately Salvius has a parallel in history— Lucius Sergius Catilina, also known as Catiline.

CATILINE

Throughout history, Catiline has been framed as someone who is murderous and bloodthirsty. Although he was rather violent, he did in fact have many redeeming qualities that opponents of him look to ignore for their benefit. Here we will see that perhaps Catiline is not just simply a one-sided villain and that maybe you will even see that #CatilineDidNothingWrong.

From the beginning, Catiline had a rag to riches story. He was a nameless noble person in the middle of Rome where he soon applied to become a soldier. Through hard work and perseverance he rose through the ranks and became the governor of Africa. Hoping to restore honor to his family, a family who has never bared anyone as consul in 300 years, he ran for consul, advocating for the tabula nova¹. This made him extremely popular with the poor and middle class folks— those who are all too familiar with debt and economic issues. However his stance made him a prime enemy of the republic, or rather those who represent the republic. For the republic relied on the indebted public to prosper and soon became an enemy of Catiline. In order to prevent Catiline from growing in power they quickly formed a campaign against him. Running against Cicero for consul, Catiline was easily overtaken by the very well spoken Cicero and angrily fled.

This is where things began to go downhill.

Catiline quickly rallied the public in a final stand. He recruited barbarians from nearby provinces, and soon constructed a conspiracy to overthrow Cicero and soon the Roman Republic itself. As a first step however, he needed to get rid of Cicero— someone who held a firm grasp over the Republic. Quickly, he went to assassinate Cicero. Alas! He failed as Cicero knew ahead of time and defended himself against the assassination. Cicero quickly ordered a senatus consultum ultimum, known today as “marshall law” and looked for Catiline. But surprise, surprise! Catiline was unsuspiciously sitting in the Senate along with the other Senators. Cicero quickly attacked Catiline in what is known as the famous four Catilinarian Orations. Catiline was defended by the other senators profusely, even defended by Julius Caesar himself, and it wasn’t until letters, captured by the Gauls², from Catiline about rallying the army to overthrow the Republic were revealed to the senators that they quickly shifted sides and executed many of Catiline’s conspirators in prison⁴. Causing many of Catiline’s army to flee. Catiline soon took what was left of his army against the Roman Republic where they were met by three legions. In a final stand, Catiline and his men threw themselves upon the legion in a ferocious battle rivaling those of Lord of the Rings³. When the battle was over, it was clear that all of Catiline’s follower and Catiline himself were dead. They were dead with wounds only on front of their body— signifying a worthy and honorable death.⁵

 

REDEMPTION

Catiline was a terrible man, however you have to see from his perspective to see why he committed such acts of violence.

Catiline was someone who had no name, no title, nothing. He worked hard through the ranks and strove enough to win the appeal of the lower classes. Yet people opposed him and sponsored against him, and Cicero– the arguably one of the most famous orators in history– ran against him with the support of the upper class. Imagine climbing up all the way up a mountain, only to be kicked down by some rich guy who took a helicopter up there. That’s how Catiline felt. And rather than climb back up he turned to more radical measures in an act of rebellion. He rallied the lower class against the whole Roman Republic and it wasn’t until he was shut down and killed by the Roman legions that his bloodlust ended.

It wasn’t until such acts of adversity, such acts of unfairness, that Catiline cracked and decided instead of following a system— he was going to rewrite the system. Such as how villains are born or terrorists are radicalized, Catiline too was radicalized and turned to violence to solve his issues. Catiline was a great man until he was crushed in the consul election and forgotten in history. Which brings me to my next part.

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“History is always written by the victors.”

— Dan Brown

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FRAMING

Cicero benefited greatly from the tragedy of Catiline. He was hailed by all in Rome as a hero, Cicero being praised as a savior and protagonist in the recent events. Cicero knew this, and used Catiline as a figurehead as all that is evil in Rome. Greatly exaggerating his crimes and faults, striving to provide the citizens a one-sided view of Catiline and to despise him so that they may love him instead. Since Catiline was well, dead, Cicero produced aggrandized stories to further his reputation. He was extremely successful in doing so and perhaps even today Catiline still remains the figurehead as someone who is evil. As a victor, he wrote history and wrote history to make himself great in history.

PRODUCT

To demonstrate this extreme adversity that Cicero created against Catiline I decided to create some propaganda that holds the view of Cicero.

As you can see, in this Scooby-Doo type comic strip, Catiline is portrayed as someone is who evil as the stereotypical “villain” while Cicero is the one thanking and celebrating with the “heroes”. Had you not know who the heck Catiline is, you would immediately see him as the bad guy and this is how many of the Romans felt. This image representing the lies of Cicero and his exaggerations.

De facto

So you may be wondering, why in the world is this important? Their both dead, why does it matter? Well like all issues from the beginning of time. We need to remember that there are always more perspectives out there. That as a historian or even just a regular student, we need to look at both sides of history— both sides of a coin.

As always, remember.

#CatilineDidNothingWrong

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Footnotes

^{1. a policy in which if passed will cause all debts to be erased. The tabula nova has happened throughout Roman history especially after expensive wars and economic plights↩}

^{2. a while epic chase by the Gauls where they were recruited to hunt down letters from Catiline. ↩}

^{3. a fantastic movie by the way.↩}

^{4. because if they had wounds on their back that means they were running away from battle ↩}

^{5. they were imprisoned in the Tullianum↩}

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Works Cited

1. “Catiline.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998. Student Resources In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1631001214/SUIC?u=sant89825&sid=SUIC&xid=78d78caa. Accessed 21 May 2018.
2. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. “M. Tullius Cicero, Against Catiline C. D. Yonge, Ed.” Translated by C. D. Young, Demosthenes, Philippic 2, Section 2, 1856, data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi013.perseus-eng1
3. Conliffe, Claran. “Catiline, Roman Conspirator.” Headstuff, Headstuff, 24 Oct. 2017, www.headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/catiline-rome-roman-conspirator/.
4. “The Conspiracy of Catiline (63 B.C.).” Robert Anderson (1805-1871), www.thelatinlibrary.com/historians/narrative/catiline.html.
5. Forsyth, Fiona. Cicero: Defender of the Republic. Rosen Pub. Group, 2003.
6. Johnson, Bruce. “LUCIUS SERGIUS CATILINA.” John Singleton Copley, www.hoocher.com/catilina.htm.
7. Phinney, Ed. Cambridge Latin Course 3. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
8. Wasson, Donald L. “Cicero & the Catiline Conspiracy.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 23 May 2018, www.ancient.eu/article/861/cicero–the-catiline-conspiracy/.
9. World Eras. Ed. John T. Kirby. Vol. 3: Roman Republic and Empire, 264 B.C.E.- 476 C.E.. Detroit: Gale, 2001.p88-89.
10. World Eras. Ed. John T. Kirby. Vol. 3: Roman Republic and Empire, 264 B.C.E.- 476 C.E.. Detroit: Gale, 2001.p89-91.

 

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