Catiline

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Catiline

Latin name Lucius Sergius Catilina. ?108--62 bc, Roman politician: organized an unsuccessful conspiracy against Cicero (63--62)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Catiline

(Lucius Sergius Catilina). Born circa 108 B.C.; died 62 B.C., near Pistoria (present-day Pistoia), northern Etruria. Roman politician.

In the civil wars of 88–82 B.C., Catiline was a follower of Sulla, and later he participated in the proscriptions. He became praetorin 68 and served as propraetor in the province of Africa in 67–66.Upon his return, he was accused of extortions but was acquittedby the court. The trial prevented Catiline from participating inelections for the consulship. Apparently during that time Cati-line plotted his first conspiracy, a plan for a coup d’etat that wasnot carried out (66). In 64, Catiline was defeated in the consularelections (Cicero was elected), but in 63 he stood for electionagain, trying to attract all the dissatisfied by promising debtcancellation. After his second defeat Catiline organized a con-spiracy for the forceful seizure of power, but he could not carryout his intentions because the consul Cicero learned of the plot.Having received extraordinary powers from the Senate, Cicerodemanded (on Nov. 7, 63) that Catiline leave Rome immedi-ately. Catiline went to Etruria, where his followers gathered anarmy. In December 63, Catiline’s followers in Rome were ar-rested, after being exposed, and were later executed. Catiline fellin a battle with the consular army. The vivid portrayal of Cati-line given by his ambitious enemy Cicero (orations against Cati-line) and the historian Sallust gave rise in modern times to aromantic view of Catiline and an exaggerated notion of the im-portance of his conspiracy.

V. M. SMIRIN

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References in periodicals archive ?

Over the past year, we have witnessed an incredible stream of Catilinarian traitors engaging in an ever more brazen and transparent conspiracy against the rule of law and our entire moral and constitutional order.

"A Murderer Is Less to Be Feared"

Cicero's ploy is to urge Catiline to depart, and thus to draw a geographical boundary between the two parties which will leave Cicero in control of the symbolic center of the state: "The consul orders a public enemy to leave the city" (Catilinarians 1.5.13).

Loyalty: the missing virtue in classical thought

Long has shown that Cicero's last philosophical work, the de Officiis, is best understood in a political context: (124) like the Fourth Catilinarian, it is openly altruistic and it is not presented as a dialogue.

Altruism and the Art of Writing: Plato, Cicero, and Leo Strauss

Pagan focuses on the narratives surrounding five conspiracies that will be familiar to all but the most casual students of Roman history: the Catilinarian conspiracy of 63 BCE, as narrated by Sallust; the Bacchanalian affair of 186 BCE, as narrated by Livy; the Pisonian conspiracy of 65 CE, as narrated by Tacitus; the assassination of Caligula in 41 CE, as narrated by Josephus; and the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, as narrated by Appian.

Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History

(126.) See HEICHELHEIM, supra note 3, at 204-06 (summarizing the events of the Catilinarian conspiracy).

Promises past: Marcus Atilius Regulus and the dialogue of natural law

Three scholars put forward literary parallels to Paul in Acts: Cicero's speeches during the Catilinarian controversy in 63 BC later written up by Sallust (T: Hillard); the sophist orations of Favorinus in the second century AD, with information about him from his friend Gellius, and a short biographical entry in Philostratus' life of the Sophists eighty years later (B.

The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting, vol. 1: Ancient Literary Setting

In recognition of the sensitivity of the case in which a white man in a paramilitary position faced the death penalty for manslaughter of a captive Khoikhoi, he begins with a quotation from Caesar's defence of the Catilinarian conspirators as recounted by Sallust (Cat.

The influence of Roman Law on the practice of slavery at the Cape of Good Hope (1652-1834)

Caesar, who had defended Catiline's confederates in the Senate, was oratorically worsted by both Cicero and Cato; suspicions of his involvement in the Catilinarian conspiracy tainted him in the eyes of many.

The rise of Caesarism: the weakened Roman Republic was crushed by Julius Caesar, a charismatic military leader who exploited his popularity with a Roman people who desired security above all else