Catiline

Catiline was born in 108 BC to one of the oldest patrician families in Rome, gens Sergia. His parents were Lucius Sergius Silus and Belliena.[2] Although his family was of consular heritage, they were then declining in both social and financial fortunes. Virgil later gave the family an ancestor, Sergestus, who had come with Aeneas to Italy, presumably because they were notably ancient, but had not been prominent for centuries. The last Sergius to be consul had been Gnaeus Sergius Fidenas Coxo in 380 BC.[3] His great-grandfather was Marcus Sergius. Later, these factors would dramatically shape Catiline's ambitions and goals as he would desire above all else to restore the political heritage of his family along with its financial power.[4]

An able commander, Catiline had a distinguished military career.[5] In 89 BC, during the Social War, he served with Pompey and Cicero, under the consul Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo (known as Pompey Strabo to disinguish him from his son, Pompey). Catiline is mentioned on the Asculum Inscription, a bronze tablet which was once nailed to the wall of an unknown public building in Rome, which records the names of Pompey Strabo's council (consilium) when he granted citizenship to several auxiliaries in his army (Catiline is number 46 on the inscription). During the regime of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, Catiline played no major role, but he remained politically secure, married to the niece of Gaius Marius. He later supported Lucius Cornelius Sulla in the civil war of 84–81 BC. According to accusations made by Cicero, during Sulla's proscription Catiline helped Quintus Lutatius Catulus avenge himself upon Catiline's brother-in-law, Marcus Marius Gratidianus, the prosecutor who had caused the death of his father. Catiline maimed and killed his brother-in-law at the tomb of the elder Catulus, then decapitated the corpse.[6] Catiline proceeded to carry the head through the streets of Rome and deposited it at Sulla's feet at the Temple of Apollo.

Catiline was also accused of murdering his first wife and son so that he could marry the wealthy and beautiful Aurelia Orestilla, daughter of the consul of 71 BC, Gnaeus Aufidius Orestes. In the early 70s BC he served abroad, possibly with Publius Servilius Vatia in Cilicia. In 73 BC, he was brought to trial for adultery with a Vestal Virgin, a capital crime. Catulus, by then the principal leader of the Optimates, testified in his favor. Catiline was acquitted.[7]

He was praetor in 68 BC, and for the following two years was the propraetorian governor for Africa.[8] Upon his return home in 66 BC, he presented himself as a candidate for the consular elections, but a delegation from Africa appealing to the Senate, indicting him for abuses, prevented this as the incumbent consul, Lucius Volcatius Tullus, disallowed the candidacy.[9][10] He was finally brought to trial in 65 BC, where he received the support of many distinguished men, including many consulars.[8] Even one of the consuls for 65 BC, Lucius Manlius Torquatus, demonstrated his support for Catiline.[11] Cicero also contemplated defending Catiline in court.[12]

Eventually, Catiline was acquitted. The author of the Commentariolum Petitionis, possibly Cicero's brother, Quintus Cicero, suggests that Catiline was only acquitted by the fact that "he left the court as poor as some of his judges had been before the trial,"[13] implying that he bribed his judges.

The first Catilinarian conspiracy was a plot to murder the consuls of 65 BC and seize power. Historians consider it unlikely that Catiline would have been involved in the First Catilinarian Conspiracy or, indeed, that the conspiracy existed at all.[14]

Catilina propaganda cup for the election to 62 BC consulate (right cup). These cups, filled with food or drinks, were distributed to the electors to support the candidates.

During 64 BC, Catiline was officially accepted as a candidate in the consular election for 63 BC. He ran alongside Gaius Antonius Hybrida, whom Sallust suspected may have been a fellow conspirator.[15] Nevertheless, Catiline was defeated by both Cicero and Antonius Hybrida in the consular election, largely because the Roman aristocracy feared Catiline and his economic plan.[16] The Optimates were particularly repulsed because he promoted the plight of the urban plebs along with his economic policy of tabulae novae, the universal cancellation of debts.[17]

He was brought to trial later that same year, but this time it was for his role in the Sullan proscriptions. At the insistence of Cato the Younger, who was then quaestor, all men who had profited during the proscriptions were brought to trial. For his involvement, Catiline was accused of killing his former brother-in-law Marcus Marius Gratidianus,[18] carrying this man’s severed head through the streets of Rome and then having Sulla add him to the proscription to make it legal. Other allegations claimed that he murdered several other notable men.[19] Despite this, Catiline was acquitted again, though some surmise that it was through the influence of Caesar, who presided over the court.

Catiline chose to stand for the consulship again in the following year.[20] However, by the time of the consular election for 62 BC, Catiline had lost much of the political support he had enjoyed during the previous year's election. He was defeated by two other candidates, Decimus Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena, ultimately crushing his political ambitions. The only remaining chance of attaining the consulship would be through illegitimate means: conspiracy or revolution.[21]

The second Catilinarian conspiracy was a plot, devised by Catiline with the help of a group of aristocrats and disaffected veterans, to overthrow the Roman Republic in 63 BC. Cicero exposed the plot in a senate meeting in November 8, which forced Catiline to flee from Rome.[22]

Alcide Segoni's The Discovery of the Body of Catiline (1871). In the Gallery of Modern Art, Florence.

The failure of the conspiracy in Rome was a massive blow to Catiline‘s cause. Upon hearing of the death of Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura and the other conspirators at Rome, many men deserted his army, reducing the size from about 10,000 to a mere 3,000. Catiline and his ill-equipped army began to march towards Gaul, however they were blocked by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (the governor of Cisalpine Gaul) with three legions. They marched back towards Rome and then north again repeating this several times in a vain attempt to avoid battle. Gaius Antonius marched up from Rome with two legions. Catiline chose to engage the smaller army of Gaius Antonius near Pistoia, hoping that he could defeat Antonius in the ensuing battle and dishearten the other Republican armies. Catiline also hoped that he might have an easier battle against Antonius who, he assumed, would fight less determinedly, as he had once been allied with Catiline.[23] In fact, Catiline may have still believed that Antonius Hybrida was conspiring with him—which may have been true, as Antonius Hybrida claimed to be ill on the day of the battle.[15]

Catiline and all his troops fought bravely, Catiline himself on the front lines. Once Catiline saw that there was no hope of victory, he threw himself into the thick of the fray. When the corpses were counted, all Catiline's soldiers were found with frontal wounds, and his corpse was found far in front of his own lines. In Catiline's War, the 1st-century BC Roman historian Sallust gives the following account:

When the battle was ended it became evident what boldness and resolution had pervaded Catiline's army. For almost every man covered with his body, when life was gone, the position which he had taken when alive at the beginning of the conflict. A few, indeed, in the centre, whom the praetorian cohort had scattered, lay a little apart from the rest, but the wounds even of these were in front. But Catiline was found far in advance of his men amid a heap of slain foemen, still breathing slightly, and showing in his face the indomitable spirit which had animated him when alive.[24]