Chapters
Catilinarian conspiracy was the events of 63 BCE, when the impoverished politician Lucius Sergius Catilina tried to overthrow the rule of the consuls for a given year: Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida and seize power. The description of events has survived to our times due to numerous source texts, especially Cicero’s speeches.
Background of events
In 67-62 BCE, when Pompey gained great fame by conquering and plundering in the East, Marcus Crassus took advantage of his absence from Rome by manipulating the clientele and using all means to gain primacy in political life. Crassus tried to achieve his political goals in the absence of a rival, whose successes he was particularly jealous of.
At the end of 66 BCE, Crassus secretly supported a plot to remove the consuls midway through the term of office for 65 BCE, seeing it as an opportunity to gain some benefits. In the political mess that arose then, he tried to take over the full dictatorial power. The driving force behind the plot was Lucius Sergius Catilina, a member of an impoverished old patrician family who grew rich through the Sullian massacres and blackmail in the province of Africa. The conspiracy for their happiness did not have any major consequences, and this was because little information was released. And although the Senate supported the investigation, Crassus was able to discontinue it with his influence.
Plot of Catilina – coup attempt
Catilina’s attempts to take over consulship
In 64 BCE Catilina submitted her candidacy for the consulate of 63 BCE, with the support of Crassus. To ensure a favourable reception, he devised a reform program geared towards drastically reducing debts. Those interested in it were mainly noble patricians (including Catilina himself), fallen equites and people with big financial problems. The Senate, concerned about the radical reform plan and the first triumvirate between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus in 60 BCE, opposed Catilina’s candidacy Cicero. He was the so-called homo novus (“new man”), ie the first person in the family to sit in the Senate. Thanks to his oratory skills, eloquence and appropriate support, he obtained a political mandate and took the office of a consul. Cicero thus interrupted the multiple and continuous holding of the consul’s office, starting from 94 BCE, by nobles. During his tenure as Cicero’s consulate, Caesar and Crassus regularly hindered his political activity, putting forward many liberal reforms aimed at gaining popularity among the people.
Catilina did not give up the chance to take the highest office. Supported, as always out of hiding, by Caesar and Crassus, he again put forward his candidacy for the consulate, this time in 62 BCE. Again, his campaign was based on the complete cancellation of debts, seeking support among the poor, artisans and the particularly disadvantaged classes. People lacked water and bread, and there was no room for baking by hand in the apartments. However, Catilina again suffered a defeat with Cicero, who explained that the implementation of this social reform would violate traditional property relations. Once again, Cicero proved his genius and oratory skills and brought the centurial assembly (comitia centuriata) to his side.
