Lucius Sergius Catilina ( c. 108 BC – January 62 BC), known in English as Catiline ( / ˈ k æ t ə l aɪ n / ), was a Roman politician and soldier best known for instigating the Catilinarian conspiracy —a failed attempt to violently seize control of the Roman state in 63 BC.
170-572: Born to an ancient patrician family, he joined Sulla during Sulla's civil war and profited from Sulla's purges of his political enemies, becoming a wealthy man. In the early 60s BC, he served as praetor and then as governor of Africa (67 – 66 BC). Upon his return to Rome, he attempted to stand for the consulship but was rebuffed; he then was beset with legal challenges over alleged corruption in Africa and his actions during Sulla's proscriptions (83 – 82 BC). Acquitted on all charges with
340-415: A "hopelessly confused" statement by Pliny , is that Gratidianus introduced a method for detecting counterfeit money . The two reforms are not incompatible, but historian and numismatist Michael Crawford finds no widespread evidence of silver-plated or counterfeit denarii in surviving coin hoards from the period leading up to the edict. Since the measures taken by Gratidianus cannot be shown to address
510-676: A Lucius Sergius is mentioned there, almost certainly Catiline. He married a woman named Gratidia, one of Gaius Marius 's nieces. During Sulla's civil war , Catiline joined with the Sullans in 82 BC and served as a lieutenant. According to many of the ancient sources, he made himself wealthy during the Sullan proscriptions by killing his brother and two of his brothers-in-law (one brother of his wife and one husband of his sister). Cicero accused him of helping Quintus Lutatius Catulus avenge himself upon Catiline's wife's brother, Marcus Marius Gratidianus ,
680-489: A Roman ally. Mithridates, still in Asia, was faced with local uprisings against his rule. Adding to his challenges was Lucullus' fleet, reinforced by Rhodian allies. When Flaccus' consular army marched through Macedonia towards Thrace, his command was usurped by his legate Gaius Flavius Fimbria , who had Flaccus killed before chasing Mithridates with his army into Asia itself. Faced with Fimbria's army in Asia, Lucullus' fleet off
850-406: A bill against electoral bribery was defeated, Cicero gave In toga candida , a speech full of invective attacking Catiline and Antonius. Antonius and Catiline were allies during the election and attempted to beat Cicero. Their strategy, however, was unsuccessful. Cicero was carried unanimously and Antonius narrowly defeated Catiline. This was also the year that Gaius Julius Caesar was president of
1020-699: A bit more than three thousand men. Hoping to escape into Gaul, his escape from Italy was blocked when Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer – proconsul in Cisalpine Gaul – garrisoned the Apennine passes near Bononia . Antonius kept his men relatively docile near Faesulae, but after he received reinforcements from then-quaestor Publius Sestius in the last days of December, he moved out. Catiline, for his part, seeing his escape blocked, turned south to face Antonius, perhaps believing that Antonius would not fight as hard. They met at Pistoria, modern day Pistoia . Descending from
1190-415: A claim, probably also a civil suit, was filed against Gratidianus by Gaius Visellius Aculeo , supported again by Crassus. A Lucius Aelius Lamia spoke on behalf of Gratidianus, but the grounds for the suit are unknown. Gratidianus was probably tribune of the plebs in 87 BC; if so, then he was among the six tribunes who left the city to take up arms when Lucius Cornelius Cinna , one of his uncle's allies,
1360-1134: A fight. Sulla's arrival in Brundisium induced defections from the Senate in Rome: Marcus Licinius Crassus , who had already fled from the Cinnan regime, raised an army in Spain, and departed for Africa to join with Metellus Pius (who also joined the Sullans), joined Sulla even before his landing in Italy. Pompey , the son of Pompey Strabo , raised a legion from his clients in Picenum and also joined Sulla; Sulla treated him with great respect and addressed him as imperator before dispatching him to raise more troops. Even those whom Sulla had quarrelled with (including Publius Cornelius Cethegus , whom Sulla had outlawed in 88 BC) defected to join his side. The general feeling in Italy, however,
1530-492: A kind of "missing link" in the narrative tradition. The Commentariolum says that Catiline killed a man who was most beloved to the Roman people; with the Roman people looking on, he scourged M. Marius with vine-staffs through the whole city, drove him to the tomb, and there mutilated him with every torture. While he was alive and in an upright position, Catiline took a sword in his own right hand and severed his neck, holding on to
1700-505: A legal commander. Sulla moved to intercept Flaccus' army in Thessaly, but turned around when Pontic forces reoccupied Boetia. Turning south, he engaged the Pontic army – allegedly 90,000 – on the plain of Orchomenus. His troops prepared the ground by starting to dig a series of three trenches, which successfully contained Pontic cavalry. When the Pontic cavalry attacked to interrupt the earthworks,
1870-692: A legate in Macedonia. Sulla's ability to use military force against his own countrymen was "in many ways a continuation of the Social War... a civil war between former allies and friends developed into a civil war between citizens... what was eroded in the process was the fundamental distinction between Romans and foreign enemies". Political violence in Rome continued even in Sulla's absence. Cinna violently quarrelled with his co-consul, Gnaeus Octavius . After Octavius induced
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#17328376826392040-511: A local hero; another version gives him a son, Uberto, who eventually spawns the Uberti dynasty in Florence . While history has often viewed Catiline through the lenses of his enemies – especially in the vein of Cicero's four Catilinarians – some modern historians have reassessed Catiline. The first major attempt was Edward Spencer Beesly in 1878, who argued against the then-prevailing view that Catiline
2210-469: A most gentle man, shed his blood drop by measured drop. Marius was worthy of the things that he suffered, Sulla was worthy of what he had ordered, and Catilina was worthy of what he did, but the republic did not deserve to take the sword-blades from both enemies and avengers into her very core. Lucan , Seneca's nephew and like him writing under the Imperial terror of Nero , who drove them both to suicide, has
2380-544: A normal education for his class, grounded in ancient Greek and Latin classics. Sallust declares him well-read, intelligent, and he was fluent in Greek. Regardless, by the standards of the Roman political class, Sulla was a very poor man. His first wife was called either Ilia or Julia. If the latter, he may have married into the Julii Caesares. He had one child from this union, before his first wife's death. He married again, with
2550-441: A panel of pontiffs as judges) – with a Vestal Virgin named Fabia, a half-sister of Cicero's wife Terentia. While evidence for Fabia's prosecution is clear, only Orosius mentions Catiline's prosecution. Conviction would have led to execution for sacrilege. Catiline's friend Catulus – probably the president of the court and definitely one of the pontiffs – and other former consuls rallied to help Fabia, and possibly Catiline if he too
2720-455: A particularly vicious death during Sulla's proscription ; in the most sensational accounts, he was tortured and dismembered by Catiline at the tomb of Quintus Lutatius Catulus , in a manner that evoked human sacrifice , and his severed head was carried through the streets of Rome on a pike. Gratidianus was the son of Marcus Gratidius , of the gens Gratidia from Arpinum , and Maria, the sister of Gaius Marius. After his father's death, he
2890-477: A problem of counterfeit money, the edict is best understood as part of the Cinnan government's efforts to restore and create a perception of stability in the wake of the civil war . Cicero says the people expressed their gratitude by offering wine and incense before images of Gratidianus at street-corner shrines ( compita , singular compitum ). Each neighborhood ( vicus ) had a compitum within which its guardian spirits , or Lares , were thought to reside. During
3060-498: A promise that Sulla's life would be safe". Sulla then left for Capua before joining an army near Nola in southern Italy. He may have felt, after this political humiliation, that the only way to recover his career was to come back from the Mithridatic command victorious. With Sulpicius able to enact legislation without consular opposition, Sulla discovered that Marius had tricked him, for the first piece of legislation Sulpicius brought
3230-455: A sacral aura of dread in the minds of observers and those to whom it would be reported. Moreover, these two incidents took place within parameters of victory and punishment in a military setting, outside the civil and religious realm of Rome. The intentions of those who carried out these acts may be unrecoverable; surviving sources only indicate which elements were worth noting and might be construed as sacral. Orosius , whose primary source for
3400-544: A secret deal with Marius, who had for years been coveting another military command, according to which Marius would support Sulpicius' Italian legislation in exchange for a law transferring Sulla's command to Marius. Sulpicius' attempts to push through the Italian legislation again brought him into violent urban conflict, although he "offered nothing to the urban plebs... so it continued to resist him". The consuls, fearful of intimidation of Sulpicius and his armed bodyguards, declared
3570-490: A set of relatively cordial peace terms which were then forwarded to Mithridates. Mithridates was to give Asia and Paphlagonia back to Rome. He was to return the kingdoms of Bithynia and Cappadocia to Nicomedes and Ariobarzanes , respectively. Mithridates would also equip Sulla with seventy or eighty ships and pay a war indemnity of two or three thousand talents. Sulla would ratify Mithridates' position in Pontus and have him declared
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#17328376826393740-451: A suspension of public business ( iustitium ) which led to Sulpicius and his mob forcing the consuls to flee. During the violence, Sulla was forced to shelter in Marius' nearby house (later denied in his memoirs). Marius arranged for Sulla to lift the iustitium and allow Sulpicius to bring proposals; Sulla, in a "desperately weak position... [received] little in return[,] perhaps no more than
3910-416: A tomb implies that the killing amounted to a sacrifice, in appeasement for an ancestor's Manes . Human sacrifices at Rome were rare, but documented in historical times — "their savagery was closely connected with religion" — and had been banned by law only fifteen years before the death of Gratidianus. The relative "lateness" of specifying the tomb of Catulus as the site also depends on the dating of one of
4080-657: A town held by Sulla in violation of a ceasefire. The breakdown allowed Sulla to play the aggrieved party and place blame on his enemies for any further bloodshed. Scipio's army blamed him for the breakdown in negotiations and made it clear to the consul that they would not fight Sulla, who at this point appeared the peacemaker. Sulla, hearing this, feigned an attack while instructing his men to fraternise with Scipio's army. Scipio's men quickly abandoned him for Sulla; finding him almost alone in his camp, Sulla tried again to persuade Scipio to defect. When Scipio refused, Sulla let him go. Sulla attempted to open negotiations with Norbanus, who
4250-497: A tyranny over the city. Hind 1994 , p. 150 dismisses claims in Plutarch and Vellius Paterclus of Athens' being forced to cooperate with Mithridates as "very hollow" and "apologia". Rome defended Delos unsuccessfully from a joint invasion by Athens and Pontus. They were, however, successful in holding Macedonia , then governed by propraetor Gaius Sentius and his legate Quintus Bruttius Sura . Early in 87 BC, Sulla transited
4420-589: A woman called Aelia, of whom nothing is known other than her name. During these marriages, he engaged in an affair with the hetaira Nicopolis , who also was older than he. The means by which Sulla attained the fortune which later would enable him to ascend the ladder of Roman politics are not clear; Plutarch refers to two inheritances, one from his stepmother (who loved him dearly) and the other from his mistress Nicopolis. Keaveney 2005 , pp. 10–11 accepts these inheritances without much comment and places them around Sulla's turning thirty years of age. After meeting
4590-504: Is called a " First Catilinarian conspiracy " in which Catiline (except in Suetonius ' narrative) conspired with the deposed consular candidates from the first election to recover the consulship by force. In some tellings, Catiline himself was to assume the consulship. Regardless, the supposed date of this alleged conspiracy, 5 February, came and went without incident. Modern scholars overwhelmingly believe that this "First Catilinarian conspiracy"
4760-421: Is fictitious. Later that year, in the second half of 65 BC (some time after 17 July), Catiline was brought to trial for corruption during his governorship. The prosecution was led by Publius Clodius Pulcher , but Catiline was defended by many influential former consuls, including one of the consuls of 65 BC (who had won in the second election; that consul also disavowed Catiline's rumoured involvement in
4930-504: Is known of this speech, and thus Cicero's version of the events, depends on notes provided by the first-century grammarian Asconius . By chance, the surviving quotations from Cicero name neither the victim nor the executioner; these are supplied by Asconius. One of Cicero's purposes in the speech was to smear his rivals, among them Catiline , whose participation in the crime Cicero asserted repeatedly throughout. The orator claimed that Catiline cut off Gratidianus' head, and carried it through
5100-481: Is not among Sallust's allegations against Catiline in his Bellum Catilinae ("The War of Catiline"). Sallust's description of the death, however, influenced those of Livy , Valerius Maximus , Seneca , Lucan , and Florus , with the torture and mutilation varied and amplified. Although B. A. Marshall argued that the versions of Cicero and Sallust constituted two different traditions, and that only Cicero implicated Catiline, other scholars have found no details in
5270-502: Is unclear. In historical times, the Compitalia included a purification ( lustratio ) and the sacrifice of a pig who was first paraded around the city. Street theater , including farces that satirized current political events, was a feature. Because it encouraged the people to assemble and possibly foment insurrection , there were sporadic efforts among the elite to regulate or suppress the Compitalia. The political aspect suggests why
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5440-444: The sacer Mamurio in which an old man was driven through the city while beaten with sticks in what has been interpreted as a pharmakos or scapegoat ritual; beatings, such as the semi-ritualized fustuarium , were also a disciplinary and punitive measure in the military. Accounts emphasize that Gratidianus was dismembered methodically, another feature of sacrifice. Finally, his severed head, described as still oozing with life,
5610-467: The Compitalia , a new year festival , the cult images were displayed in procession. Festus and Macrobius thought that the "dolls" were ritual replacements for human sacrifices to the spirits of the dead. The sources express no surprise or disapproval toward tending cult for a living man, which may have been a tradition otherwise little evidenced; the theological basis of the homage paid to Gratidianus
5780-514: The Oppian Hill (near the ruins of the Colosseum ) and delivered to the consuls anonymous letters, warning that Catiline was planning a massacre of leading politicians, and advising them to leave the city. Cicero convened the senate and had them read aloud. A few days later, on 21 or 22 October, an ex-praetor reported news that an ex-Sullan centurion – Gaius Manlius – who had supported Catiline's bid for
5950-640: The Second Punic War . During the Social War , Catiline served under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo , along with Strabo's son – the more famous Pompey – and Cicero . His specific title was not recorded. This is recorded 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 Pompeius Strabo's council ( consilium ) when he granted citizenship to several auxiliaries in his army;
6120-627: The Tiber ", which accords with Cicero's statement that the head was carried from the Janiculum to the Temple of Apollo. Sallust himself may indirectly site the killing at the tomb in a speech in which Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , the consular colleague of Catulus in 78 BC who eventually confronted him on the battlefield, addressed those Romans in opposition to Sulla: "In just this way have you seen human sacrifices and tombs stained with citizens' blood". Blood shed at
6290-514: The first major civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Sulla held the office of consul twice and revived the dictatorship . A gifted general, he achieved successes in wars against foreign and domestic opponents. Sulla rose to prominence during the war against the Numidian king Jugurtha , whom he captured as a result of Jugurtha's betrayal by
6460-595: The "co-conspirators" for Cicero's own political advancement. Seager's defence does not go so far, but instead argues the conspiracy was purposefully incited by Cicero and the senate to purge Italy of men who might join with Pompey if he were to follow in Sulla's footsteps on his then-imminent return from the Third Mithridatic War . Other classicists have argued that Catiline was a precursor of Caesar or that he rebelled to oppose senatorial corruption and incompetence. But, largely, such defences are highly speculative, as
6630-505: The Adriatic for Thessaly with his five legions. Upon his arrival, Sulla had his quaestor Lucullus order Sura, who had vitally delayed Mithridates' advances into Greece, to retreat back into Macedonia. He separately besieged Athens and Piraeus (the Long Walls had since been demolished). Threatened by the Pontic navy, Sulla sent his quaestor Lucullus to scrounge about for allied naval forces. At
6800-526: The Catilinarian conspiracy as a template to fill in shaky portions of early Roman history. For example, the conspiracy of one Marcus Manlius, who rose up against the elite with the support of poor plebs, both gives a speech patterned on Cicero's First Catilinarian and takes actions patterned on the real Catiline's. Virgil , in the Aeneid (written during the reign of Augustus), depicts Catiline as being tortured in
6970-565: The East, claims which were "surely false". The troops were willing to follow Sulla to Rome; his officers, however, realised Sulla's plans and deserted him (except his quaestor and kinsman, almost certainly Lucius Licinius Lucullus ). They then killed Marcus Gratidius, one of Marius' legates, when Gratidius attempted to effect the transfer of command. When the march on Rome started, the Senate and people were appalled. The Senate immediately sent an embassy demanding an explanation for his seeming march on
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7140-605: The Germanic invaders, he was able to negotiate their defection from the Cimbri and Teutones. His prospects for advancement under Marius being stalled, however, Sulla started to complain "most unfairly" that Marius was withholding opportunities from him. Demanding transfer to Catulus' (Marius' consular colleague) army, he received it. In 102 BC, the invaders returned and moved to force the Alps. Catulus, with Sulla, moved to block their advance;
7310-508: The Italian countryside. Advancing on Capua, he met the two consuls of that year – Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus and Gaius Norbanus – who had dangerously divided their forces. He defeated Norbanus at the Battle of Mount Tifata , forcing the consul to withdraw. Continuing towards Scipio's position at Teanum Sidicinum, Sulla negotiated and was almost able to convince Scipio to defect. Negotiations broke down after one of Scipio's lieutenants seized
7480-482: The Mithridatic command. Sulla became embroiled in a political fight against one of the plebeian tribunes, Publius Sulpicius Rufus , on the matter of how the new Italian citizens were to be distributed into the Roman tribes for purposes of voting. Sulla and Pompeius Rufus opposed the bill, which Sulpicius took as a betrayal; Sulpicius, without the support of the consuls, looked elsewhere for political allies. This led him to
7650-655: The Numidian king. Jugurtha had fled to his father-in-law, King Bocchus I of Mauretania (a nearby kingdom); Marius invaded Mauretania, and after a pitched battle in which both Sulla and Marius played important roles in securing victory, Bocchus felt forced by Roman arms to betray Jugurtha. After the Senate approved negotiations with Bocchus, it delegated the talks to Marius, who appointed Sulla as envoy plenipotentiary. Winning Bocchus' friendship and making plain Rome's demands for Jugurtha's deliverance, Sulla successfully concluded negotiations and secured Bocchus' capture of Jugurtha and
7820-589: The Parthian ambassador, Orobazus, was executed upon his return to Parthia for allowing this humiliation, the Parthians ratified the treaty, establishing the Euphrates as a clear boundary between Parthia and Rome. At this meeting, Sulla was told by a Chaldean seer that he would die at the height of his fame and fortune. This prophecy was to have a powerful hold on Sulla throughout his lifetime. In 94 BC, Sulla repulsed
7990-459: The Republic was the lost portions of Livy's history, provides the peculiar detail that Gratidianus was held in a goat-pen before he was bound and exhibited. Like the sacrificial pig at the Compitalia, he was paraded through the streets, past the very shrines at which his image had received honors, while he was whipped. Various forms of flogging or striking were ritual acts in Roman religion , such as
8160-505: The Roman forces followed a plan very similar to that of Metellus, capturing and garrisoning fortified positions in the African countryside. Sulla was popular with the men; charming and benign, he built up a healthy rapport while also winning popularity with other officers, including Marius. Ultimately, the Numidians were defeated in 106 BC, due in large part to Sulla's initiative in capturing
8330-590: The Romans almost broke; Sulla on foot personally rallied his men and stabilised the area. Roman forces then surrounded the Pontic camp. Archelaus tried to break out but was unsuccessful; Sulla then annihilated the Pontic army and captured its camp. Archelaus then hid in the nearby marshes before escaping to Chalcis. In the aftermath of the battle, Sulla was approached by Archelaus for terms. With Mithridates' armies in Europe almost entirely destroyed, Archelaus and Sulla negotiated
8500-548: The Samnites, and general Roman victory across Italy, Sulla stood for and was elected easily to the consulship of 88 BC; his colleague would be Quintus Pompeius Rufus . Sulla's election to the consulship, successful likely due to his military success in 89 BC, was not uncontested. Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo , merely an ex-aedile and one of Sulla's long-time enemies, had contested the top magistracy. Beyond personal enmity, Caesar Strabo may also have stood for office because it
8670-406: The alleged putsch). Clodius, prosecuting, may have helped Catiline out by selecting a favourable jury that would be impressed by the consulares coming to Catiline's aid. But scholarly opinion on whether Clodius purposefully manipulated the proceedings for acquittal is divided. In the end, the jury – composed of senators, equites, and the tribuni aerarii – divided: the senators voted for conviction,
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#17328376826398840-447: The allies Roman citizenship over the decades had failed for various reasons, just as the allies also "became progressively more aware of the need to cease to be subjects and to share in the exercise of imperial power" by acquiring that citizenship. The Cimbric war also revived Italian solidarity, aided by Roman extension of corruption laws to allow allies to lodge extortion claims. When the pro-Italian plebeian tribune Marcus Livius Drusus
9010-579: The banks of the Euphrates , where he was approached by an embassy from the Parthian Empire . Sulla was the first Roman magistrate to meet a Parthian ambassador. At the meeting, he took the seat between the Parthian ambassador, Orobazus , and Ariobarzanes, seeking to gain psychological advantage over the Parthian envoy by portraying the Parthians and the Cappadocians as equals, with Rome being superior. While
9180-401: 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
9350-410: The city and stripping the twelve outlaws of their Roman citizenship. Of the twelve outlaws, only Sulpicius was killed after being betrayed by a slave. Marius and his son, along with some others, escaped to Africa. Sulla then had Sulpicius' legislation invalidated on the grounds that all had been passed by force. According only to Appian, he then brought legislation to strengthen the Senate's position in
9520-502: The city from the Janiculum to the Temple of Apollo , where he delivered it to Sulla "full of soul and breath". A fragment from Sallust's Histories omits mention of Catiline in describing the death: Gratidianus "had his life drained out of him piece by piece, in effect: his legs and arms were first broken, and his eyes gouged out". A more telling omission is that the execution of Gratidianus
9690-489: The city on the road to Massilia, but in Etruria, he went to a weapons cache before diverting for Faesulae where he met up with Manlius' forces. Upon his arrival, he proclaimed himself consul and adopted consular regalia. When news of this reached Rome, the senate declared Catiline and Manlius hostes (public enemies) and dispatched Antonius at the head of an army to subdue him. In late November, Antonius' forces approached from
9860-530: The city's walls, Sulla then invested the town and for his efforts was awarded a grass crown , the highest Roman military honour. Pompeii was taken some time during the year, along with Stabiae and Aeclanum ; with the capture of Aeclanum, Sulla forced the Hirpini to surrender. He then attacked the Samnites and routed one of their armies near Aesernia before capturing the new Italian capital at Bovianum Undecimanorum . All of these victories would have been won before
10030-454: The city, and for two specific conspirators to assassinate Cicero the next morning. Cicero exaggerates Catiline's supposed intention to raze the city as a means to turn the urban population against him – a story further embellished in Plutarch – it is more likely that Catiline's fires were intended only to create exploitable confusion for his army. The next day, on 7 November, the assassins found Cicero's house shut against them and Cicero convened
10200-532: The city, claiming that he was going into voluntary exile at Massilia "to spare his country a civil war". On his departure, he sent a letter to his old friend and ally Quintus Lutatius Catulus Capitolinus , which Sallust copied into Bellum Catilinae . In the letter, Catiline defends himself as an injured party who took up the cause of the less fortunate in accordance with his patrician forebears' custom; he vehemently denies that he goes into exile due to his debts and commits his wife Orestilla to Catulus' care. He left
10370-493: The close of the Social War, in 89 BC, Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus invaded Roman Asia . In the summer of 88, he reorganised the administration of the area before unsuccessfully besieging Rhodes. News of these conquests reached Rome in the autumn of 89 BC, leading the Senate and people to declare war; actual preparations for war were, however, delayed: after Sulla was given the command, it took him some eighteen months to organise five legions before setting off; Rome
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#173283768263910540-425: The coast, and internal unrest, Mithridates eventually met with Sulla at Dardanus in autumn 85 BC and accepted the terms negotiated by Archelaus. After peace was reached, Sulla advanced on Fimbria's forces, which deserted their upstart commander. Fimbria then committed suicide after a failed attempt on Sulla's life. Sulla then settled affairs – "reparations, rewards, administrative and financial arrangements for
10710-508: The command of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo 's army. The law was vetoed by one of the tribunes, but when Quintus Pompeius Rufus went to Pompey Strabo's army to take command under the Senate's authority, he was promptly assassinated after his arrival and assumption of command, almost certainly on Strabo's orders. No action was taken against the troops nor any action taken to relieve Pompey Strabo of command. He then left Italy with his troops without delay, ignoring legal summons and taking over command from
10880-442: The conspiracy only came into actual fruition when Catiline joined Manlius' rebellion when leaving Rome for exile and seeing nothing to lose. There are, however, no indications of this in the ancient sources. Catiline's indebtedness – if he was in fact indebted, there is little evidence one way or the other – was not the sole cause of his conspiring: "wounded pride and fierce ambition" played a great role in his decision-making. Many of
11050-597: The consul Lucius Porcius Cato . But after Cato's death in battle with the Marsi, Sulla was prorogued pro consule and placed in supreme command of the southern theatre. He brought Pompeii under siege. After one of the other legates was killed by his men, Sulla refused to discipline them except by issuing a proclamation imploring them to show more courage against the enemy. While besieging Pompeii, an Italian relief force came under Lucius Cluentius , which Sulla defeated and forced into flight towards Nola . Killing Cluentius before
11220-515: The consul conducted offensive campaigning. Late in the year, Sulla cooperated with Marius (who was a legate in the northern theatre) in the northern part of southern Italy to defeat the Marsi: Marius defeated the Marsi, sending them headlong into Sulla's waiting forces. Sulla attempted also to assist Lucius' relief of the city of Aesernia , which was under siege, but both men were unsuccessful. The next year, 89 BC, Sulla served as legate under
11390-582: The consular elections in October 89. Political developments in Rome also started to bring an end to the war. In 89 BC, one of the tribunes of the plebs passed the lex Plautia Papiria , which granted citizenship to all of the allies (with exception for the Samnites and Lucanians still under arms). This had been preceded by the lex Julia , passed by Lucius Julius Caesar in October 90 BC, which had granted citizenship to those allies who remained loyal. Buttressed by success against Rome's traditional enemies,
11560-468: The consuls political cover to break laws in suppressing civil unrest). Rabirius was convicted by Caesar ("not an impartial judge") by means of an archaic procedure before appealing and then being acquitted by a similarly archaic loophole. A later proposal to overturn Sulla's civil disabilities for the sons of the victims of the proscriptions also was defeated with Cicero's help; Cicero argued that repeal would cause political upheaval. This failure "drove some of
11730-490: The consuls, in October 63 BC, but it took until November before evidence of Catiline's participation emerged. Discovered, he left the city to join his rebellion. In early January 62 BC, at the head of a rebel army near Pistoria (modern-day Pistoia in Tuscany), Catiline fought a battle against republican forces. He was killed and his army annihilated. Catiline's name became a byword for doomed and treasonous rebellion in
11900-499: The consulship had raised an army in Etruria. The senate acted immediately, usually dated to the 21st, to pass a senatus consultum ultimum directing the consuls to take whatever actions they believed necessary for state security. When news of the decree arrived to Manlius he declared an open rebellion. Some modern scholars reject a connection between Manlius and Catiline at this early point, arguing that Manlius' rebellion may have been separate from Catiline's alleged conspiracy and that
12070-407: The consulship, but his candidacy was rejected by the presiding magistrate. Sallust and Cicero attribute the rejection to an imminent extortion trial, but this decision may have been made in terms of the contested elections for the consulship of 65 BC: before Catiline's return to Rome, the first consular elections were held but both men elected were deposed after they were both convicted of bribery;
12240-473: The consulship. Bribery was again rampant, after the senate moved again to pass legislation to stamp it out, Cicero and Antonius as consuls were successful in moving the lex Tullia increasing penalties and enumerating forbidden electoral practices. Just before the elections, Cicero alleges Catiline engaged in demagoguery and attempted to build up his bona fides with the poor and dispossessed men of Rome and Italy, including himself among their number, advocating
12410-499: The display of Gratidianus' image would be viewed as dangerous in the rivalry between the populares and the optimates , the faction of Sulla. Cicero uses his cousin's subsequent fall as a cautionary tale about relying on popular support. This form of devotion toward a living man has also been pointed to as a precedent for so-called " emperor worship " in the Imperial era . Seneca , following Cicero's lead, criticizes Gratidianus for compromising his integrity in claiming credit for
12580-425: The dutiful son may not have wanted to bloody his own hands with the deed: "One would not expect the polished Catulus actually to preside over the torture, and carry the head to Sulla", observes Elizabeth Rawson , noting that Catulus was later known as the friend and protector of Catiline. The site of the family tomb, otherwise unknown, is mentioned only in connection with this incident and identified vaguely as "across
12750-466: The east in 82 BC, marched on Rome again and crushed the populares and their Italian allies at the Battle of the Colline Gate . Sulla revived the office of dictator , which had been dormant since the Second Punic War , over a century before. He used his powers to purge his opponents , and reform Roman constitutional laws , to restore the primacy of the Senate and limit the power of the tribunes of
12920-433: The entire kingdom of Numidia in defiance of Roman decrees that divided it among several members of the royal family. After the massacre of a number of Italian traders who supported one of his rivals, indignation erupted as to Jugurtha's use of bribery to secure a favourable peace treaty; called to Rome to testify on bribery charges, he plotted successfully the assassination of another royal claimant before returning home. After
13090-568: The eyeballs from their sockets — he dug out the eyes last, after they bore witness for the other body parts". Rawson pointed out that the piling up of atrocities in accounts of the Roman civil wars should not be discounted too quickly as literary invention: "Sceptical modern historians sometimes suffer from a happy failure of imagination in refusing to envisage the horrors which we all ought to know occur too often in civil war ". Such gruesome catalogues are characteristic of Roman historians rather than their Greek models , she noted, and Sallust
13260-461: The fact. Cicero, who claimed for himself the credit of saving the state from Catiline's revolt, later praised Catiline's personal qualities in a defence speech for someone accused of being a co-conspirator: Cicero paints Catiline as a good motivator, effective general, sociable, and strong as reasons for why so many men were willing to associate with him (for Cicero's client, however, only as a non-conspiring friend). The history of Sallust, written around
13430-541: The fatherland, to which Sulla responded boldly, saying that he was freeing it from tyrants. Rome having no troops to defend itself, Sulla entered the city; once there, however, his men were pelted with stones from the rooftops by common people. Almost breaking before Marius' makeshift forces, Sulla then stationed troops all over the city before summoning the Senate and inducing it to outlaw Marius, Marius' son , Sulpicius, and nine others. He then reinforced this decision by legislation, retroactively justifying his illegal march on
13600-471: The first century BC, human sacrifice survived perhaps only as travesty or accusation. Julius Caesar was accused — rather vaguely — of sacrificing two mutinous soldiers in the Campus Martius . On the anniversary of Caesar's death in 40 BC, after achieving a victory at the siege of Perugia , the future Augustus executed 300 senators and knights who had fought against him under Lucius Antonius . Lucius
13770-543: The forces of Tigranes the Great of Armenia from Cappadocia. He may have stayed in the east until 92 BC, when he returned to Rome; Keaveney places his departure in the year 93 BC. Sulla was regarded to have done well in the east: he had restored Ariobarzanes to the throne, been hailed imperator by his men, and was the first Roman to treat successfully with the Parthians. With military and diplomatic victory, his political fortunes seemed positive. However, his candidature
13940-417: The future" – in Asia, staying there until 84 BC. He then sailed for Italy at the head of 1,200 ships. The peace reached with Mithridates was condemned in ancient times as a betrayal of Roman interests in favour of Sulla's private interest in fighting and winning the coming civil war. Modern sources have been somewhat less damning, as the Mithridatic campaigns later showed that no quick victory over Pontus
14110-593: The hair at the top of his head with his left hand. He carried the head by hand while streams of blood flowed between his fingers. The tomb is not specified as that of the Lutatii, but the Commentariolum places an emphasis on the Roman people as witness that is present also in Cicero's speech and Asconius' notes, as well as Sallust's "Speech of Lepidus". Seneca , though closely echoing Sallust's wording, names Catiline, adds to
14280-514: The heights, he offered battle to Antonius' army, possibly on 3 January 62 BC. On the day of the battle, Antonius gave operational command to Marcus Petreius (Sallust claims he was stricken with gout), an experienced lieutenant, who broke through the Catilinarian centre with the praetorian cohort, forcing Catiline's men to flight. Catiline and his diehard supporters fought bravely and were annihilated: "they were desperate men who did not wish to survive their defeat". Sallust's account reads: When
14450-588: The king's allies, although his superior Gaius Marius took credit for ending the war. He then fought successfully against Germanic tribes during the Cimbrian War , and Italian allies during the Social War . He was awarded the Grass Crown for his bravery at the Battle of Nola. Sulla was closely associated with Venus , adopting the title Epaphroditos meaning favoured of Aphrodite/Venus. Sulla played an important role in
14620-510: The king's rendition to Marius' camp. The publicity attracted by this feat boosted Sulla's political career. Years later, in 91 BC, Bocchus paid for the erection of a gilded equestrian statue depicting Sulla's capture of Jugurtha. In 104 BC, the Cimbri and the Teutones , two Germanic tribes who had bested the Roman legions on several occasions, seemed again to be heading for Italy. Marius, in
14790-490: The last weeks of the year, Sulla married his daughter to one of his colleague Pompeius Rufus' sons. He also divorced his then-wife Cloelia and married Metella, widow of the recently-deceased Marcus Aemilius Scaurus . These marriages helped build political alliances with the influential Caecilii Metelli and the Pompeys. He was also assigned by the senate, probably with the support of his consular colleague, Quintus Pompeius Rufus ,
14960-500: The latter two panels for acquittal. Cicero, not yet having broken with Catiline, considered defending Catiline at this trial, but eventually decided not to; Catiline's advocate is unknown. Catiline's candidacy at the consular elections in 64 BC was accepted. Also standing for the consulship that year were Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida ; the three were the only candidates with a realistic chance of winning. Catiline, bankrolled by Caesar and Crassus, distributed large bribes; after
15130-465: The legislation, by which he had hoped to garner support for his candidacy as consul . In the event, his party failed to support his bid, and the honor paid to him by the people probably contributed to the viciousness of the actions taken against him later by the supporters of Sulla. Gratidianus had an unusual second praetorship, possibly as a "consolation prize" granted him when the Cinnans decided to back
15300-484: The list of mutilations the cutting out of Gratidianus' tongue, and places the killing at the tomb of Catulus, explicitly linking the favor of the people to the extreme measures taken at his death: The people had dedicated statues to Marcus Marius throughout the neighborhoods and offered devotions with frankincense and wine; Lucius Sulla gave the order for his legs to be broken, his eyes gouged out, his tongue and his hands cut off and — as if he could die as many times as he
15470-409: The literary evidence that survives is overwhelmingly Ciceronean and biased against Catiline. [REDACTED] Media related to Catiline at Wikimedia Commons Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix ( / ˈ s ʌ l ə / , Latin pronunciation: [ˈɫ̪uːkius̠ korˈneːlʲius̠ ˈs̠uɫːa ˈfeːlʲiːks̠] ; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla , was a Roman general and statesman . He won
15640-578: The long political struggle between the optimates and populares factions at Rome. He was a leader of the optimates , who sought to maintain senatorial supremacy against the populist reforms advocated by the populares , headed by Marius. In a dispute over the command of the war against Mithridates , initially awarded to Sulla by the Senate but withdrawn as a result of Marius' intrigues, Sulla marched on Rome in an unprecedented act and defeated Marian forces in battle. The populares seized power once he left with his army to Asia . He returned victorious from
15810-457: The match; he also claimed in In toga candida that Orestilla was Catiline's own illegitimate daughter. Cicero's allegations "cannot be taken at face value and reveal more about typical themes and slanders found in Roman invective than they do about Catiline's domestic history". Upon his return to Rome in 66 BC, embassies from Africa protested his maladministration. Catiline also attempted to stand for
15980-488: The men concerned into supporting Catiline" in his conspiracy. That summer, Catiline stood again for the consulship in 63 BC; his candidacy was accepted by Cicero. Against him were three other major candidates: Decimus Junius Silanus , Lucius Licinius Murena , and Servius Sulpicius Rufus . Cicero supported Sulpicius' bid as a friend and fellow lawyer, which directly harmed Catiline's chances, since both men were patricians and therefore were legally barred from both holding
16150-429: The mid-60s BC, Catiline married the wealthy and beautiful Aurelia Orestilla, daughter of the consul of 71 BC, Gnaeus Aufidius Orestes ; this was his second marriage. Sallust relates that he did so not out of money, but only due to her good looks, something which Romans believed to be discreditable. Cicero later claimed in his Catilinarians that Catiline murdered his first wife and Orestilla's son to make way for
16320-404: The midst of this military crisis, sought and won repeated consulships, which upset aristocrats in the Senate; it is likely however that they acknowledged the indispensability of Marius' military capabilities in defeating the Germanic invaders. Amid a reorganisation of political alliances, the traditionalists in the Senate raised up Sulla – a patrician, even if a poor one – as a counterweight against
16490-417: The minimum age requirement of thirty, he stood for the quaestorship in 108 BC. Normally, candidates had to have first served for ten years in the military, but by Sulla's time, this had been superseded by an age requirement. He was then assigned by lot to serve under the consul Gaius Marius . The Jugurthine War had started in 112 BC when Jugurtha , grandson of Massinissa of Numidia , claimed
16660-414: The most extensive list of tortures in his epic poem on the civil war of the 40s . The historicity of Lucan's epic should be treated with care; its aims are more like those of Shakespeare's history plays or the modern historical novel , in that factuality is subordinate to character and theme. Lucan places his account in the mouth of an old man who had lived through Sulla's civil war four decades before
16830-411: The newcomer Marius. Starting in 104 BC, Marius moved to reform the defeated Roman armies in southern Gaul. Sulla then served as legate under his former commander and, in that stead, successfully subdued a Gallic tribe which revolted in the aftermath of a previous Roman defeat. The next year, Sulla was elected military tribune and served under Marius, and assigned to treat with the Marsi, part of
17000-464: The northern approaches to Rome and southern Italy. Catiline for his part remained in Rome since the letters sent to Crassus were anonymous and thus insufficient to prove Catiline's involvement. On 6 November, Catiline held a secret meeting in Rome at the house of Marcus Porcius Laeca where he planned to go to Manlius' army, for other members of the conspiracy to take charge of the nascent revolts elsewhere in Italy, for conspirators in Rome to set fires in
17170-408: The opportunity to attach his name to the edict and claim credit for publishing it first. The currency measure pleased the equites , or business class, more than did the debt reform legislation of Lucius Valerius Flaccus , which had permitted the repayment of loans at one-quarter of the amount owed, and it was enormously popular with the plebs . An alternative view of the reform, based mainly on
17340-600: The other sources on the killing, the Commentariolum petitionis , an epistolary pamphlet traditionally attributed to Cicero's brother, Quintus , but suspected of being an exercise in prosopopoeia by another writer in Imperial times. The epistle presents itself as having been written in 64 BC by Quintus for his brother during his candidacy for the consulship; if authentically the work of Quintus, it would be contemporary with Cicero's own account of Gratidianus' death, and provide
17510-445: The people to the beneficiaries of the Sullan proscriptions. The failure of the land proposal contributed to the conspiracy's support among the people in the coming months. A trial that year for one Gaius Rabirius for the murder of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus in 100 BC, almost forty years earlier, was possibly a signal from Caesar to the senate against use of the senatus consultum ultimum (a declaration of emergency which gave
17680-417: The plain. According to the ancient sources, Archelaus commanded between 60,000 and 120,000 men; in the aftermath, he allegedly escaped with only 10,000. After the Battle of Chaeronea, Sulla learnt that Cinna's government had sent Lucius Valerius Flaccus to take over his command. Sulla had officially been declared an outlaw and in the eyes of the Cinnan regime, Flaccus was to take command of an army without
17850-465: The plebs . Resigning his dictatorship in 79 BC, Sulla retired to private life and died the following year. Later political leaders such as Julius Caesar followed the precedent set by Sulla with his military coup to attain political power through force. Sulla, the son of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and the grandson of Publius Cornelius Sulla , was born into a branch of the patrician gens Cornelia , but his family had fallen to an impoverished condition at
18020-446: The political snub evidently contributed to the latter's secession in Spain . The dates for Gratidianus' praetorships are arguable; T.R.S. Broughton gives 86 and 84, but the timing of the currency reform makes 85 a more secure date, with the second term in 84, 83, or 82. During the closing violence of the civil war , Gratidianus was tortured and killed. A death, if Sulla were victorious,
18190-429: The praetorship again the next year and, promising he would pay for good shows, was elected praetor for 97 BC; he was assigned by lot to the urban praetorship. His term as praetor was largely uneventful, excepting a public dispute with Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo (possibly his brother-in-law) and his magnificent holding of the ludi Apollinares . The next year, 96 BC, he was assigned – "probably pro consule as
18360-424: The prosecution of Quintus Lutatius Catulus, a move that was later to prove fateful. Catulus had been the colleague of Marius during his consulship in 102 BC, and had shared his triumph over the Cimbri , but had later broken with him. Rather than face the inevitable guilty verdict, Catulus committed suicide. The charge was probably perduellio , submitted to the judgment of the people ( iudicium populi ), for which
18530-562: The prosecutor who had caused the death of Catulus' father . Cicero's account – given in a campaign speech attacking Catiline, who was a rival candidate for the consulship of 63 BC, – has Catiline beheading Gratidianus and then carrying the head through the city from the Janiculum to Sulla at the Temple of Apollo; later accounts embellish the tale, describing Catiline as engaging in gratuitous cruelties against Gratidianus, as described in later sources such as Livy , Valerius Maximus , Lucan , and Florus . Some modern historians doubt Catiline
18700-403: The punishment was death by scourging at the stake. As praetor in 85, Gratidianus was among those officials who attempted to address Rome's economic crisis. A number of praetors and tribunes drafted a currency reform measure to reassert the former official exchange rate of silver (the denarius ) and the bronze as , which had been allowed to fluctuate and destabilize. Gratidianus seized
18870-478: The ruined Sullan veterans, who were unpopular; but at the end, Catiline likely kept only the support of the dispossessed Etruscans who had "nowhere else to go". Altogether, these men had mixed backgrounds and no "single-minded purpose [can] readily be ascribed" to them. While the consuls fortified central Italy, reports also filtered in of slave revolts in the south. Two generals who were waiting for their triumphs to be approved were then dispatched with men to garrison
19040-564: The same time, Mithridates attempted to force a land battle in northern Greece , and dispatched a large army across the Hellespont . These sieges lasted until spring of 86 BC. Discovering a weak point in the walls and popular discontent with the Athenian tyrant Aristion, Sulla stormed and captured Athens (except the Acropolis ) on 1 March 86 BC. The Acropolis was then besieged. Athens itself
19210-425: The second elections, after Catiline's return, were held with the same candidates – the two convicts excepted – returning two different consuls. Catiline's candidacy could have been rejected not due to expectations of an extortion trial, but rather for the mere fact that he was not a candidate in the first election. Following the elections, early in 65 BC, the ancient sources give contradictory descriptions of what
19380-486: The senate later that day at the Temple of Jupiter Stator reporting the threat to his life and then delivering the First Catilinarian denouncing Catiline. Catiline, who was already planning to leave the city, offered to go into exile if the senate would so decree. After Cicero refused to bring up such a motion, Catiline protested his innocence and insulted Cicero's ancestry, calling him a "squatter". He thereafter left
19550-465: The senate to outlaw Cinna, Cinna suborned the army besieging Nola and induced the Italians again to rise up. Marius, offering his services to Cinna, helped levy troops. By the end of 87 BC, Cinna and Marius had besieged Rome and taken the city, killed consul Gnaeus Octavius, massacred their political enemies, and declared Sulla an outlaw; they then had themselves elected consuls for 86 BC. During
19720-439: The senatorial members of the conspiracy were men who had been ejected from the senate for immorality, corruption, or seen their careers stall out (especially in attempts to reach the consulship). The men who joined Manlius' rebellion were largely two groups: poor farmers who had been dispossessed by Sulla's confiscations after the civil war and ruined Sullan veterans seeking more riches. Cicero, in his invectives, naturally focused on
19890-499: The south. He decamped from Faesulae and moved near the mountains but remained close enough to the town to be in striking distance. When Antonius' forces arrived in the vicinity of the town, he avoided battle. Catiline's coconspirators in Rome had been caught out by Cicero with the aid of some Gallic envoys. After a fierce senate debate, they were executed without trial on 5 December. When news of their death arrived to Catiline's camp, much of his army melted away, leaving him with perhaps
20060-479: The standing court on assassinations. His willingness – along with Cato the Younger in the treasury demanding repayment of loans from the civil wars – to pursue the beneficiaries of the Sullan civil war may have swayed voters away from supporting Catiline. This may also have been reinforced by timely conviction of Catiline's maternal uncle on charges of murder during the proscriptions. After the consular elections, Catiline
20230-582: The start of the war, there were largely two theatres: a northern theatre from Picenum to the Fucine Lake and a southern theatre including Samnium. Sulla served as one of the legates in the southern theatre assigned to consul Lucius Julius Caesar . In the first year of fighting, Roman strategy was largely one of containment, attempting to stop the revolting allies from spreading their rebellion into Roman-controlled territory. Sulla, in southern Italy, operated largely defensively on Lucius Julius Caesar's flank while
20400-479: The state and weaken the plebeian tribunes by eliminating the comitia tributa as a legislative body and requiring that tribunes first receive senatorial approval for legislation; some scholars, however, reject Appian's account as mere retrojection of legislation passed during Sulla's dictatorship. He sent his army back to Capua and then conducted the elections for that year, which yielded a resounding rejection of him and his allies. His enemy, Lucius Cornelius Cinna ,
20570-490: The support of influential friends from across Roman politics , he twice stood for the consulship in 64 and 63 BC. Defeated in the consular comitia , he concocted a violent plot to take the consulship by force, bringing together poor rural plebs , Sullan veterans, and other senators whose political careers had stalled. Crassus revealed the coup attempt – which involved armed uprisings in Etruria – to Cicero , one of
20740-617: The time Sulla reached adulthood, Sulla found himself impoverished. He might have been disinherited, though it was "more likely" that his father simply had nothing to bequeath. Lacking ready money, Sulla spent his youth among Rome’s comedians, actors, lute players, and dancers. During these times on the stage, after initially only singing, he started writing plays, Atellan farces , a kind of crude comedy. Plutarch mentions that during his last marriage to Valeria , he still kept company with "actresses, musicians, and dancers, drinking with them on couches night and day". Sulla almost certainly received
20910-464: The time narrated in the poem, and like the earlier sources emphasizes that the Roman people were witnesses to the act. "We saw", the anonymous old man asserts, stepping out of the crowd to speak like the leader of a tragic chorus in cataloguing the dismemberment. The killing is presented unambiguously as a human sacrifice: "What should I report about the blood that appeased the spirits of Catulus' dead ancestors ( manes ... Catuli )? We watched when Marius
21080-441: The time of his birth. Publius Cornelius Rufinus , one of Sulla's ancestors and also the last member of his family to be consul, was banished from the Senate after having been caught possessing more than 10 pounds of silver plate. Sulla's family thereafter did not reach the highest offices of the state until Sulla himself. His father may have served as praetor, but details are unclear; his father married twice and Sulla's stepmother
21250-489: The time of the Second Triumvirate , painted Catiline as a thoroughgoing disrepute who had from an early time wanted to destroy his own country and symbolised the moral decline that Sallust identified as the cause of the republic's collapse: S. [Sallust] prefers to present Catiline as a through-going villain, the product of the corrupt age, who was bent on the destruction of the state from the very beginning... Livy used
21420-523: The two Late Republican accounts that are mutually exclusive or that exculpate Catiline. Later sources add the detail that Gratidianus was tortured at the tomb of the gens Lutatia , because his prosecution had prompted the suicide of Quintus Lutatius Catulus. Despite the strength and persistence of the tradition that Catiline took the lead role in the execution, the more logical instigator would have been Catulus' son , exhibiting pietas towards his father by seeking revenge as an alternative to justice. But
21590-468: The two men likely cooperated well. But Catulus' army was defeated in the eastern Alps and withdrew from Venetia and thence to the southern side of the river Po . At the same time, Marius had annihilated the Cimbri's allies, the Teutones, at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae . Marius, elected again to the consulship of 101, came to Catulus' aid; Sulla, in charge of supporting army provisioning, did so competently and
21760-451: The underworld by the Furies . Into the imperial period, Catiline's name was used as a derogatory nickname of unpopular ruling emperors. However, his reputation as an advocate for the dispossessed rural plebs seemed to carry to some degree in rural parts of northern Italy at least until the mediaeval period. In Tuscany, a mediaeval tradition had Catiline survive the battle and live out his life as
21930-409: The war started, several Roman commanders were bribed ( Bestia and Spurius ); and one ( Aulus Postumius Albinus ) was defeated. In 109, Rome sent Quintus Caecilius Metellus to continue the war. Gaius Marius , a lieutenant of Metellus, returned to Rome to stand for the consulship in 107 BC. Marius was elected consul and, through assignment by tribunician legislation, took over the campaign. Sulla
22100-399: The wealthy and exploitable province of Macedonia (which Cicero had been given) in exchange for cooperation; he therefore broke with Catiline early in the year. In early 63 BC, there were no indications that Catiline was involved in a conspiracy. He was still, however, nursing hopes of an eventual consulship that would be both his birth-right and necessary for his career. The events of
22270-788: The wholesale abolition of all existing debts ( tabulae novae ). At the electoral comitia , Cicero presided, surrounded by a bodyguard and wearing an ostentatious cuirass , to signal his belief that Catiline posed a threat to his person and public safety. Sallust reports that Catiline promised his supporters that he would kill the rich, but this supposed promise is likely ahistorical. No contemporary source indicates that Catiline supported land reform. The comitia returned as consuls-designate Decimus Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena. After his second defeat, Catiline seems to have run out of money and must have been abandoned by his former supporters such as Crassus and Caesar. On 18 or 19 October, Crassus and two other senators visited Cicero's house on
22440-408: The year 63 BC were not amenable for civil harmony, no matter how much Cicero as consul had been preaching it to the people. Early in the year, a proposal came before the plebs to redistribute lands; it was a proposal that would have alleviated great hardship in a time of economic hardship. Cicero spoke out against it, warning of tyrannical land commissioners and painting the project as selling out
22610-499: The years after his death. Sallust , in his monograph on the conspiracy, Bellum Catilinae , painted Catiline as a symbol of the Roman Republic 's moral decline, as much of a victim as a perpetrator, as his characterization of "a ravaged mind" ( vastus animus ) indicates. Catiline was a member of an ancient patrician family, the gens Sergia , who claimed descent from Sergestus , a Trojan companion of Aeneas. While Sallust says he
22780-424: The younger Marius and Gnaeus Papirius Carbo for the consulship of 82. Although his ambitions were known and his qualifications far exceeded those of his cousin, Gratidianus probably never made a formal announcement of his candidacy for the consulship, and is assumed to have stepped aside for the sake of the Cinnans' unity. The more likely candidates from their party would have been Gratidianus and Quintus Sertorius ;
22950-426: Was adopted by his uncle, Marcus Marius , whose name he then assumed according to Roman custom, becoming Marcus Marius Gratidianus. Gratidianus' aunt married Marcus Tullius Cicero, grandfather of the celebrated orator . Gratidianus was a close friend of his cousin, the young Cicero. He may also have had a particularly pungent relationship with his brother-in-law; there is reason to believe that his sister, Gratidia,
23120-416: Was "a demon breathing murder, rapine, and conflagration, with bloodshot eyes and pallid face, luring on weak and depraved young men to the damnation prepared for himself". Beesly's defences have been followed more recently by others, such as Waters 1970 and Seager 1973 . Waters' admittedly "largely hypothetical" narrative depicts the Catilinarian conspiracy largely as a Ciceronean fiction framing Catiline and
23290-402: Was a Roman praetor and supporter of Gaius Marius during the civil war between the followers of Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla . As praetor, Gratidianus is known for his policy of currency reform during the economic crisis of the 80s BC. Although this period of Roman history is marked by the extreme violence and cruelty practiced by partisans on each side, Gratidianus suffered
23460-407: Was a law transferring the command against Mithridates to Marius. Thus, Sulla was presented with a choice. He could acknowledge the law as valid. To do so would mean total humiliation at the hands of his opponents, the end of his political career, and perhaps even further danger to his life. Or he could attempt to reverse it and regain his command. He can hardly have been in any doubt. Like Caesar, he
23630-524: Was able to feed both armies. The two armies then crossed the Po and attacked the Cimbri. After the failure of negotiations, the Romans and Cimbri engaged in the Battle of the Raudian Field in which the Cimbri were routed and destroyed. Victorious, Marius and Catulus were both granted triumphs as the commanding generals. Refusing to stand for an aedileship (which, due to its involvement in hosting public games,
23800-572: Was also severely strained financially. While Rome was preparing to move against Pontus, Mithridates arranged the massacre of some eighty thousand Roman and Italian expatriates and their families – known today as the Asiatic vespers – and confiscated their properties. Mithridates' successes against the Romans incited a revolt by the Athenians against Roman rule. The Athenian politician Aristion had himself elected as strategos epi ton hoplon and established
23970-475: Was an outsider in politics, totally self-centred in pursuit of his ambitions, always ready to break the rules of the political game to achieve his objective... If Sulla hesitated it can only have been because he was not sure how his army would react. Speaking to the men, Sulla complained to them of the outrageous behaviour of Marius and Sulpicius. He hinted to them that Marius would find other men to fight Mithridates, forcing them to give up opportunities to plunder
24140-403: Was assassinated in 91 BC while trying again to pass a bill extending Roman citizenship, the Italians revolted. The same year, Bocchus paid for the erection of a statue depicting Sulla's capture of Jugurtha. This may have been related to Sulla's campaign for the consulship. Regardless, if he had immediate plans for a consulship, they were forced into the background at the outbreak of war. At
24310-404: Was assigned by lot to his staff. When Marius took over the war, he entrusted Sulla to organise cavalry forces in Italy needed to pursue the mobile Numidians into the desert. If Sulla had married one of the Julii Caesares, this could explain Marius' willingness to entrust such an important task to a young man with no military experience, as Marius too had married into that family. Under Marius,
24480-479: Was at Capua, but Norbanus refused to treat and withdrew to Praeneste as Sulla advanced. While Sulla was moving in the south, Scipio fought Pompey in Picenum but was defeated when his troops again deserted. For 82 BC, the consular elections returned Gnaeus Papirius Carbo , in his third consulship, with the younger Gaius Marius , the son of the seven-time consul, who was then twenty-six. The remainder of 83 BC
24650-411: Was banished. He was a legate that same year, probably the commander named Marius who was sent north by Cinna with the objective of seizing Ariminum and cutting off any reinforcements that might be sent to Sulla from Cisalpine Gaul . This Marius defeated Publius Servilius Vatia and took control of his army. By the end of 87, Gratidianus had returned to Rome with Cinna and Gaius Marius. He took on
24820-438: Was born no later than 108 BC, or 106 BC if patricians enjoyed a right to hold magistracies two years earlier than plebeians. Catiline's parents were Lucius Sergius Silus and Belliena. His father was poor by the standards of the aristocracy . His maternal uncle had served as praetor in 105 BC; earlier, Catiline's great-grandfather – Marcus Sergius Silus – had served with distinction as praetor in 197 BC during
24990-412: Was both necessary to ensure the survival of his army and also to relieve a brigade of six thousand men cut off in Thessaly. He declined battle with Pontus at the hill Philoboetus near Chaeronea before manoeuvring to capture higher ground and build earthworks. After some days, both sides engaged in battle. The Romans neutralised a Pontic charge of scythed chariots before pushing the Pontic phalanx back across
25160-401: Was brought up on charges of murdering people during the proscriptions, perhaps of Gratidianus. Prosecuted by Lucius Lucceius or possibly Caesar, Catiline was again acquitted when a number of former consuls spoke in his defence. There is no evidence that Caesar affected Catiline's acquittal. Antonius, Catiline's ally in the elections of 64 BC, joined with Cicero in a deal where he would take
25330-846: Was customary" – to Cilicia in Asia Minor . While governing Cilicia, Sulla received orders from the Senate to restore Ariobarzanes to the throne of Cappadocia . Ariobarzanes had been driven out by Mithridates VI of Pontus , who wanted to install one of his own sons ( Ariarathes ) on the Cappadocian throne. Despite initial difficulties, Sulla was successful with minimal resources and preparation; with few Roman troops, he hastily levied allied soldiers and advanced quickly into rugged terrain before routing superior enemy forces. His troops were sufficiently impressed by his leadership that they hailed him imperator . Sulla's campaign in Cappadocia had led him to
25500-551: Was dealt a blow when he was brought up on charges of extorting Ariobarzanes. Even though the prosecutor declined to show up on the day of the trial, leading to Sulla's victory by default, Sulla's ambitions were frustrated. Relations between Rome and its allies (the socii ), had deteriorated over the years up to 91 BC. From 133 BC and the start of Tiberius Gracchus ' land reforms, Italian communities were displaced from de jure Roman public lands over which no title had been enforced for generations. Various proposals to give
25670-411: Was decidedly anti-Sullan; many people feared Sulla's wrath and still held memories of his extremely unpopular occupation of Rome during his consulship. The Senate moved the senatus consultum ultimum against him and was successful in levying large amount of men and materiel from the Italians. Sulla, buoyed by his previous looting in Asia, was able to advance quickly and largely without the ransacking of
25840-548: Was dedicated to recruiting for the next year's campaign amid poor weather: Quintus Sertorius had raised a considerable force in Etruria, but was alienated from the consuls by the election of Gaius Marius' son rather than himself and so left to his praetorian province of Hispania Citerior ; Sulla repudiated recognition of any treaties with the Samnites, whom he did not consider to be Roman citizens due to his rejection of Marius and Cinna's deal in 87 BC. Marcus Marius Gratidianus Marcus Marius Gratidianus (c. 125 – 82 BC)
26010-407: Was elected consul for 87 BC in place of his candidate; his nephew was rejected as plebeian tribune while Marius' nephew was successful. Cinna, even before the election, said he would prosecute Sulla at the conclusion of the latter's consular term. After the elections, Sulla forced the consuls designate to swear to uphold his laws. And for his consular colleague, he attempted to transfer to him
26180-490: Was evident that Rome's relations with the Pontic king, Mithridates VI Eupator , were deteriorating and that the consuls of 88 would be assigned an extremely lucrative and glorious command against Pontus. Pompey Strabo may have coveted a second consulship for similar reasons. The question as to whom to send against Mithridates would be one of the sources of the following domestic crisis. Shortly after Sulla's election, probably in
26350-415: Was extremely expensive), Sulla became a candidate for the praetorship in 99 BC. He was, however, defeated. In memoirs related via Plutarch, he claimed this was because the people demanded that he first stand for the aedilate so – due to his friendship with Bocchus, a rich foreign monarch, – he might spend money on games. Whether this story of Sulla's defeat is true is unclear. Regardless, Sulla stood for
26520-540: Was fought in early summer around the same time the Athenian Acropolis was taken. The later battle of Orchomenus was fought in high summer but before the start of the autumn rains. The Pontic casualties given in Plutarch and Appian, the main sources for the battles, are exaggerated; Sulla's report that he suffered merely fifteen losses is not credible. Sulla decamped his army from Attica toward central Greece. Having exhausted available provisions near Athens, doing so
26690-404: 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. In Roman literature, Catiline's figure became often used as a byword for "villainy". Politicians quickly distanced themselves from his failed revolt; others tried to discredit rivals by linking them to Catiline's conspiracy after
26860-535: Was involved in Gratidianus' death except perhaps in an auxiliary role, placing blame instead on Catulus and attributing the story of Catiline's involvement to Ciceronean political slander. Regardless, Catiline did engage in profiteering from the Sullan proscriptions, likely purchasing estates for fractions of their true value, and by the end of Sulla's dictatorship, he had become a rich man. In 73 BC, he may have been prosecuted for adultery – apud pontifices (before
27030-427: Was likely never in doubt. Details vary and proliferate in their brutality over time. Cicero and Sallust offer the earliest accounts, but the works in which these survive are fragmentary. Cicero described his cousin's murder in a speech during his candidacy for the consulship in 64 BC, nearly two decades after the fact. He had been a young man in his twenties at the time of the killing, and possibly an eyewitness. What
27200-416: Was of considerable wealth, which certainly helped the young Sulla's ambitions. One story, "as false as it is charming", relates that when Sulla was a baby, his nurse was carrying him around the streets, until a strange woman walked up to her and said, " Puer tibi et reipublicae tuae felix ", which can be translated as, "The boy will be a source of luck to you and your state". After his father's death, around
27370-409: Was one of the nobiles , which implies a consular heritage, the specifics are unclear: no member of the gens Sergia had held the consulship since the second consulship of Gnaeus Sergius Fidenas Coxo in 429 BC; a few other Sergii had served in the consular tribunate , but the last was in 380 BC. The exact year of Catiline's birth is unknown. From the offices he held it can be deduced that he
27540-463: Was possible as long as Mithridates survived. However, this and Sulla's delay in Asia are "not enough to absolve him of the charge of being more concerned with revenge on opponents in Italy than with Mithridates". The extra time spent in Asia, moreover, equipped him with forces and money later put to good use in Italy. Sulla crossed the Adriatic for Brundisium in spring of 83 BC with five legions of Mithridatic veterans, capturing Brundisium without
27710-568: Was prosecuted, securing their acquittals. Catiline and Cicero "must have been relieved"; Catiline, for his part, regarded himself in Catulus' debt. Catiline served as praetor some time before 68 BC; T. R. S. Broughton in Magistrates of the Roman Republic dates the praetorship exactly to 68 BC. He then served as propraetorian governor of Africa for two years (67–66 BC). Some time in
27880-506: Was spared total destruction "in recognition of [its] glorious past" but the city was sacked. In need of resources, Sulla sacked the temples of Epidaurus , Delphi , and Olympia ; after a battle with the Pontic general Archelaus outside Piraeus, Sulla's forces forced the Pontic garrison to withdraw by sea. Capturing the city, Sulla had it destroyed. In the summer of 86 BC, two major battles were fought in Boeotia . The Battle of Chaeronea
28050-446: Was spared. Perceptions of the clemency of Augustus on this occasion vary wildly. Both Suetonius and Cassius Dio characterize the slaughter as a sacrifice, noting that it occurred on the Ides of March at the altar to the divus Julius , the victor's newly deified adoptive father. It can be difficult to discern whether such an act was intended to be a genuine sacrifice, or only to evoke
28220-405: Was strung up as a victim for the dreadful underworld rites, though the shades themselves may not have wanted it, a pious deed that should not be spoken of for a tomb that could not be filled". Lucan, however, diverts guilt from any individual by distributing specific mutilations among nameless multiple assailants: "This man slices off the ears, another the nostrils of the hooked nose; that man popped
28390-561: Was sued by the oyster-breeder and real-estate speculator Sergius Orata in a civil case involving the sale of a property on the Lucrine Lake . Orata was not without his own high-powered speaker, in the person of Lucius Licinius Crassus . Cicero says Orata was trying to force Gratidianus to buy back the property when Orata's business plan for farm-raised oysters fell through, perhaps because of unforeseen complications arising from water rights or fishing rights . Sometime before 91 BC,
28560-420: Was the first to provide lists of concrete and "horrific exempla ". Though documented, human sacrifice was rare in Rome during the historical period. Livy and Plutarch both considered it alien to Roman tradition . This aversion is asserted also in an aetiological myth about sacrifice in which Numa , second king of Rome , negotiates with Jupiter to replace the requested human victims with vegetables. In
28730-480: Was the first wife of Lucius Sergius Catilina , or "Catiline", who was later accused by Cicero of Gratidianus' torture and murder. Gratidius, his natural father, was a close friend of Marcus Antonius the orator and consul of 99 BC. He was killed circa 102 BC, while serving as a prefect under Antonius in Cilicia . In 92 BC, Antonius deployed his famed oratorical skills in defending his friend's son when Gratidianus
28900-410: Was wounded — systematically carved up his body inch by inch. Who was the henchman on command? Who else but Catilina, even then training his hands at every misdeed? In front of the tomb of Quintus Catulus, he took hold of Marius — a man who had set a bad precedent, but a champion of the people nonetheless, loved not so much undeservedly as too well — and with great seriousness of purpose toward the ashes of
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