Editing Catiline (section)

== Catilinarian conspiracy ==
{{see|Catilinarian conspiracy}}
[[File:Bust of Cicero (1st-cent. BC) - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016.jpg|thumb|1st century AD depiction of [[Cicero]], consul in 63&nbsp;BC with Antonius, today in the Capitoline Museum]]
Antonius, Catiline's ally in the elections of 64&nbsp;BC, joined with Cicero in a deal where he would take the wealthy and exploitable [[Roman province|province]] of [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Macedonia]] (which Cicero had been given) in exchange for cooperation; he therefore broke with Catiline early in the year.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=20}} In early 63&nbsp;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.

=== Consular elections ===
[[File:Cato and Catilina propaganda cups.jpg|thumb|right|Bowls containing food distributed in electoral canvasses. The bowl to the right was commissioned by [[Lucius Cassius Longinus (praetor 66 BC)|Lucius Cassius Longinus]] and distributed, filled with food, in support of Catiline's consular candidacy in 63&nbsp;BC. The bowl on the left was distributed by [[Cato the Younger|Marcus Porcius Cato]] in a coeval campaign for the plebeian tribunate. Giving food to voters was common as a means to build up goodwill.{{sfn|Berry|2020|pp=21–25}}]]

The events of the year 63&nbsp;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.{{sfnm|Gruen|1995|1p=426|Beard|2015|2pp=45–47}} Cicero spoke out against it, warning of tyrannical land commissioners and painting the project as selling out the people to the beneficiaries of the Sullan proscriptions.{{sfn|Wiseman|1992|p=351}} The failure of the land proposal contributed to the conspiracy's support among the people in the coming months.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=425}}

A trial that year for one [[Gaius Rabirius (senator)|Gaius Rabirius]] for the murder of [[Lucius Appuleius Saturninus]] in 100&nbsp;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 the consuls political cover to break laws in suppressing civil unrest).{{sfn|Wiseman|1992|p=352}} 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.{{sfn|Wiseman|1992|p=352}} 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 the men concerned into supporting Catiline" in his conspiracy.{{sfn|Wiseman|1992|p=353}}

That summer, Catiline stood again for the consulship for 62&nbsp;BC; his candidacy was accepted by Cicero. Against him were three other major candidates: [[Decimus Junius Silanus (consul)|Decimus Junius Silanus]], [[Lucius Licinius Murena (consul 62 BC)|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 the consulship.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=21}} 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.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=25}} 

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,{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=26}} advocating the wholesale abolition of all existing debts ({{lang|la|tabulae novae}}).{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=29}}

At the electoral ''[[Citizens' assemblies of the Roman Republic |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.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=31}} Sallust reports that Catiline promised his supporters that he would kill the rich, but this supposed promise is likely ahistorical.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=30}} No contemporary source indicates that Catiline supported land reform.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=429 n. 110}} The ''comitia'' returned as consuls-designate Decimus Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena.{{sfn|Broughton|1952|p=172}} 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.{{sfn|Berry|2020|pp=26, 30}}

=== Conspiracy ===
On 18 or 19 October, Crassus and two other senators visited Cicero's house on 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.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=31}} 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 the consulship had raised an army in Etruria.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=32}} 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.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=32}}

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 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.{{sfnm|Berry|2020|1p=32|Seager|1973|2pp=240–41|Waters|1970|3p=201}}

Catiline's indebtedness – if he was in fact indebted, there is little evidence one way or the other{{sfn|Waters|1970|p=213 n. 43}} – was not the sole cause of his conspiring: "wounded pride and fierce ambition" played a great role in his decision-making.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=420}} Many of 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).{{sfn|Gruen|1995|pp=417–19}} 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.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|pp=424–25}} Cicero, in his invectives, naturally focused on 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".{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=28}} Altogether, these men had mixed backgrounds and no "single-minded purpose [can] readily be ascribed" to them.{{sfn|Gruen|1995|p=422}}

=== Flight from the city ===
[[File:Cicero Denounces Catiline in the Roman Senate by Cesare Maccari.png|thumb|Cesare Maccari's famous 19th century depiction of Cicero denouncing Catiline before the senate. {{Harnvb|Beard|2015|pp=31–33}} notes that this idealised depiction is "no more than a seductive fantasy". Both men at the time were in their forties; the senate also was far larger and its building was more dull.]]

While the consuls fortified central Italy, reports also filtered in of slave revolts in the south. Two generals{{efn|The two generals were [[Quintus Marcius Rex (consul 68 BC)|Quintus Marcius Rex]] and [[Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus]]; they had served as consul in 68 and 69&nbsp;BC, respectively.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=33}} }} who were waiting for their triumphs to be approved were then dispatched with men to garrison the northern approaches to Rome and southern Italy.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=33}} Catiline for his part remained in Rome since the letters sent to Crassus were anonymous and thus insufficient to prove Catiline's involvement.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=33}} 

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 the city, and for two specific conspirators to assassinate Cicero the next morning.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=34}} 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<ref>{{harvnb|Berry|2020|p=34|ps=, citing Plut. ''Cic.'' 18.2, which reports a "not credible" scheme involving a hundred men to raze the whole city.}}</ref> – it is more likely that Catiline's fires were intended only to create exploitable confusion for his army.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=34}}

The next day, on 7 November, the assassins found Cicero's house shut against them and Cicero convened the senate later that day at the [[Temple of Jupiter Stator (3rd century BC)|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".<ref>{{harvnb|Berry|2020|p=36}}, citing {{harvnb|Sall. ''Cat.''|loc=31.7–8}}.</ref> He thereafter left the city, claiming that he was going into voluntary exile at [[Massalia|Massilia]] "to spare his country a civil war".{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=37}} On his departure, he sent a letter to his old friend and ally [[Quintus Lutatius Catulus Capitolinus]], which Sallust copied into ''Bellum Catilinae''.<ref>{{harvnb|Berry|2020|p=38}}, citing {{harvnb|Sall. ''Cat.''|loc=35}}.</ref> 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.{{sfn|Berry|2020|pp=38–41}}

He left 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 [[Hostis|''hostes'']] (public enemies) and dispatched Antonius at the head of an army to subdue him.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=42}}

=== Death ===
{{see|Battle of Pistoria}}
[[File:The discovery of the body of Catiline after the Battle of Pistoia (1871), by Alcide Segoni.jpg|thumb|right|[[Alcide Segoni]]'s ''Discovery of the Body of Catiline'' (1871). In the [[Palazzo Pitti#Gallery of Modern Art|Gallery of Modern Art]], [[Florence]].]]
[[File:Lucius Scribonius Libo, denarius, 62 BC, RRC 416-1a.jpg|thumb|right|Denarius minted by [[Lucius Scribonius Libo]] in 62&nbsp;BC. The portrayal of [[Bonus Eventus]] on the obverse likely commemorates the destruction of the Catilinarian rebels.{{sfnm|Crawford|1974|1pp=441–42|Berry|2020|2pp=52–53}}]]
[[File:Denarius of L. Aemilius Lepidus Paullus.jpg|thumb|right|Denarius minted by [[Lucius Aemilius Paullus (consul 50 BC)|Lucius Aemilius Paullus]] in 62&nbsp;BC depicting the goddess [[Concordia (goddess)|Concordia]]; {{harvnb|Berry|2020|p=54}} argues that Paullus viewed Catiline's defeat as "a restoration of national harmony". ]]
In late November, Antonius' forces approached from 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.{{sfn|Sumner|1963|p=215}}

Catiline's coconspirators in Rome had been caught out by Cicero with the aid of some Gallic envoys.{{sfn|Berry|2020|pp=42–46}} After a fierce senate debate, they were executed without trial on 5 December.{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=50}} When news of their death arrived to Catiline's camp, much of his army melted away, leaving him with perhaps 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]]{{sfn|Broughton|1952|p=176}} – garrisoned the Apennine passes near [[Bologna|Bononia]].{{sfn|Sumner|1963|pp=215–16}}

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 the heights, he offered battle to Antonius' army, possibly on 3 January 62&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|Sumner|1963|p=217}}

On the day of the battle, Antonius gave operational command to Marcus Petreius (Sallust claims he was stricken with gout{{sfn|Sall. ''Cat.''|loc=59.4}}), an experienced lieutenant,{{sfn|Wiseman|1992|p=360}} who broke through the Catilinarian centre with the praetorian cohort, forcing Catiline's men to flight.{{sfn|Sall. ''Cat.''|loc=60}} Catiline and his diehard supporters fought bravely and were annihilated:{{sfn|Berry|2020|p=52}} "they were desperate men who did not wish to survive their defeat".{{sfn|Wiseman|1992|p=360}}

Sallust's account reads:
{{quote|
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.{{sfn|Sall. ''Cat.''|loc=61}}
}}