Catiline Conspiracy (63 BC): Cicero Against Catiline

The Catiline conspiracy was a plot by the Roman aristocrat Lucius Sergius Catilina, known in English as Catiline, to seize power in Rome in 63 BC. It was uncovered by the consul Marcus Tullius Cicero, whose four speeches against Catiline became classics of Latin oratory. The affair ended with five leading conspirators executed without trial and Catiline killed in battle, and it raised questions about emergency powers and the rights of citizens that troubled Roman politics for years.

Background: debt, ambition and failed elections

Catiline came from an old patrician family that had produced no consul for generations. He had prospered under Sulla’s dictatorship, when he was accused of taking part in the killings of the proscriptions, and he later served as praetor and governor of Africa.

His attempts to reach the consulship, the highest office, repeatedly failed. In 66 BC a prosecution for extortion in his province kept him from standing. In 64 BC he lost to Cicero, a “new man” without consular ancestors, and Gaius Antonius Hybrida. In the elections for 62 BC, held in 63 BC, he lost again, to Decimus Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena.

Catiline campaigned on the cancellation of debts. That appealed to many: ruined aristocrats, veterans of Sulla who had failed as farmers, and rural poor dispossessed in the civil wars. When the ballot box failed him, he and his associates turned to force.

The plot unfolds

Cicero learned of the plans early, partly through Fulvia, the mistress of the conspirator Quintus Curius. In October 63 BC news arrived that Gaius Manlius, a former Sullan centurion, was raising an army near Faesulae (Fiesole) in Etruria. On about 21 October the Senate passed its “final decree” (senatus consultum ultimum), urging the consuls to see that the state came to no harm, a formula that in effect authorised emergency measures.

On the night of 6-7 November the conspirators met at the house of Marcus Porcius Laeca, and two of them agreed to kill Cicero at his home the next morning. Warned in advance, Cicero barred his doors and the attempt failed.

On 8 November Cicero convened the Senate in the Temple of Jupiter Stator and, with Catiline present, delivered the first of his speeches against him. Its opening line, “Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?” (“How long, Catiline, will you abuse our patience?”), is one of the most famous in Latin. Catiline left Rome that night to join Manlius, and some days later the Senate declared both men public enemies.

The Allobroges and the arrests

Leadership in the city passed to Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, a serving praetor and former consul. The conspirators approached envoys of the Allobroges, a Gallic people then in Rome to complain about their debts and treatment, hoping to win Gallic cavalry for the rising.

The envoys instead informed their Roman patron, who told Cicero. On Cicero’s instructions they asked for written pledges, and on the night of 2-3 December they were stopped at the Milvian Bridge north of Rome carrying letters sealed by the conspirators. Lentulus, Gaius Cornelius Cethegus, Lucius Statilius, Publius Gabinius Capito and Marcus Caeparius were arrested. Cicero reported the evidence to the Senate and the people in his third speech.

The debate of 5 December

On 5 December the Senate met to decide the prisoners’ fate. Silanus, consul-elect, proposed the “ultimate penalty”. Gaius Julius Caesar, then praetor-elect, argued instead for life imprisonment in Italian towns and confiscation of property, warning against a precedent of killing citizens without trial. His speech swayed many.

The young Marcus Porcius Cato, later known as Cato the Younger, answered with a fierce speech demanding death, and the majority followed him. Sallust, who wrote the main narrative a generation later, gives versions of both speeches, though these are his reworkings rather than exact records. Cicero’s fourth speech belongs to the same debate.

That evening the five men were taken to the Tullianum, the state prison, and strangled. Cicero announced the deaths to the crowd with a single word, “vixerunt”, “they have lived”.

The Battle of Pistoria

Catiline’s army in Etruria, perhaps several thousand strong, dwindled when news of the executions arrived. Trapped between forces in the north and the army of the consul Antonius, it was brought to battle near Pistoria (Pistoia) in early January 62 BC. Antonius, pleading illness, left command to his legate Marcus Petreius.

Catiline and his men fought to the end. Sallust writes that almost all were found with their wounds in front, and Catiline himself far ahead of his line among the enemy dead. Estimates of his army at the end are around 3,000 men.

Key people

• Catiline (c. 108-62 BC): Patrician politician whose repeated defeats in consular elections drove him to conspiracy. Even his enemies admitted his physical endurance and his hold over followers.
• Cicero (106-43 BC): Consul in 63 BC, lawyer and orator from Arpinum, who uncovered the plot and pressed for decisive action.
• Lentulus Sura: Praetor and former consul who led the conspirators inside Rome after Catiline left; reportedly he believed a prophecy that a third Cornelius would rule Rome.
• Cato the Younger (95-46 BC): Tribune-elect whose speech persuaded the Senate to vote for the executions.
• Julius Caesar (100-44 BC): Praetor-elect who argued for imprisonment rather than death, beginning his long rivalry with Cato.
• Gaius Manlius: Veteran of Sulla’s army who raised the rebel force at Faesulae and died with Catiline at Pistoria.

Consequences and legacy

Cicero was hailed as “father of the fatherland” and regarded the suppression of the conspiracy as the high point of his life. But the executions without trial left him exposed. In 58 BC the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher passed a law against anyone who had killed citizens without trial, and Cicero went into exile until 57 BC.

The debate also marked the emergence of Caesar and Cato as leading political rivals, a contest that ran through the First Triumvirate and the civil war. Cicero himself was eventually killed in the proscriptions of the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC.

Historians debate how dangerous the conspiracy really was. Sallust portrays Catiline as a depraved symbol of a corrupt age, and Cicero, the other main source, had every reason to magnify his own role. Some modern scholars see the plot as a desperate movement of the indebted rather than a serious bid for power, but the armed force in Etruria and the documents seized at the Milvian Bridge show it was real.

Timeline

• 64 BC: Catiline loses the consular election to Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida.
• 63 BC, summer or autumn: Catiline is defeated again in the elections for 62 BC.
• 63 BC, c. 21 October: The Senate passes the final decree as Manlius gathers troops in Etruria.
• 63 BC, 7 November: A planned attempt on Cicero’s life fails.
• 63 BC, 8 November: Cicero delivers the first speech against Catiline, who leaves Rome that night.
• 63 BC, 2-3 December: The Allobroges’ envoys are stopped at the Milvian Bridge with incriminating letters.
• 63 BC, 5 December: The Senate debates; five conspirators are executed in the Tullianum.
• 62 BC, early January: Catiline is killed at the Battle of Pistoria.
• 58 BC: Cicero is exiled under a law of Clodius.

Why it matters

The Catiline conspiracy showed how debt, political frustration and the legacy of civil war could push a Roman aristocrat to armed revolt. Through Cicero’s speeches and Sallust’s history it became a lasting case study in emergency government, raising a question that still matters: when, if ever, may a state set aside the right to a trial to protect itself?