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I've been on a bit of a roman history binge lately, fueled by the discovery of Mike Duncan's podcast, "The History of Rome" so I'm going to tell the story I und
by cowpig 6y ago
I've been on a bit of a roman history binge lately, fueled by the discovery of Mike Duncan's podcast, "The History of Rome" so I'm going to tell the story I understood from that here for context:
In his telling, the Catiline Conspiracy was a product of its time: Marius and Sulla showed the Roman aristocracy that if you just ignored the law and had popular support + an army, you could basically do whatever you want, and so that became the norm for the next generation.
At the time, Cicero was one of the two Consuls, the heads of state that were elected yearly by the senate. And Pompey, a charismatic and popular Roman general was in command of a large army and had just won some wars in the east. Cicero was afraid of what Pompey might do with all his popularity and legions (again, ambitious men taking what they wanted by flouting laws was all the rage).
So when Cicero learned of a (not very well-organized) coup was being organized by senator Catilina, he attempted to use it as a way to unite the Roman senate against treasonous behaviour.
Cicero convinced the senators, and Catilina was exiled, protesting that he'd been mistreated. But he went and joined the army of centurion Manlius, who was helping organize the rebellion.
The rebels then tried to get a Gallic tribe, the Allobroges, to join them, but were betrayed to the senate and letters they had sent were used by Cicero to convince them to sentence five of the conspirators to death without trial.
Julius Caesar, at this point just another politician, protested this "sentenced to death without trial" outcome loudly, seeing Cicero as an enemy of his own ambitions.
For the rest of his life, putting five men to death without trial would be brought to discredit Cicero again and again, including being used as an excuse to exile him.
@throwanem -- does that sound like a reasonable summary of the context of your comment?
- stanrivers 6y agoI would second Mike Duncan’s podcasts on Rome as being well worth your time. And that is how I recall that period of time. It’s one of those situations where you let the reality of the situation deviate you from your ideals, I think. @throwanem - have you ever read anything where he commented in hindsight that he still believed that he made the right choice? I’m newer to Roman history and sounds like you might have experience / background here.
- throwanem 6y agoNothing I've read from or of him has suggested that he ever felt other than that his action in the Catiline affair was the crowning moment of his public life. Perhaps he'd have changed his mind had he lived longer, but who can know? I struggle with the same question you raised in your other comment, and find it often difficult to credit ideals which even their own strongest proponents prove unable to uphold when it seems to matter most.