The Catiline Conspiracy: The most famous failed attempt to overthrow Rome

In the decades that led up to the conspiracy, the Roman Republic experienced repeated crises caused by economic disruption and military conflict that produced persistent inequality and weakened the authority of traditional institutions.

The civil wars between Marius and Sulla had not only left political scars on the Republic but had also produced a class of poor veterans, displaced landowners, and ambitious politicians whose paths to advancement had narrowed.

Rural landholdings had been swallowed up by powerful aristocrats, and many families, now burdened by debt or dispossession, moved into the capital, where overcrowding and joblessness worsened and instability increased. 

Catiline came from a once-prominent patrician family that had lost much of its political influence.

He had largely built his early career during Sulla’s dictatorship and had been accused of cruelty, particularly during the violent aftermath of the civil war.

Some later accounts suggest he had perhaps obtained wealth from the proscriptions, though ancient sources provide no definitive evidence for this.

He later served as praetor in 68 BCE and governed Africa, where his administration faced accusations of extortion.

After he had returned to Rome, he had sought the consulship twice, first in 64 BCE (for the office of 63 BCE) and again in 63 BCE (for 62 BCE), but failed in both attempts, and because each defeat increased his hostility toward the ruling elite, it pushed him toward radical promises and risky alliances. 

According to Sallust, Catiline had gathered support from a mixed group of disappointed men: disgraced nobles, equestirans in debt, soldiers without land, and the urban poor.

For example, many of his supporters had lost land after Sulla’s reforms or had been barred from office by senatorial censure.

His campaign platform was never formally preserved and reportedly included cancelling debts and redistributing land as measures that were largely intended to reduce aristocratic control.

As a result, those who had suffered under Rome’s rigid system saw Catiline as a potential agent of change, even if his methods carried risk. 

After he had failed to win the consulship in 63 BCE, Catiline had held a series of private meetings with associates who shared his grievances.

At that point, several ancient authors claimed that he had already begun to plan an uprising that involved arson, assassination and armed revolt.

Sallust recorded that Catiline intended to kill both consuls, set fires across Rome, and rely on an army in Etruria under the leadership of Gaius Manlius, a seasoned commander who had served under Sulla. 

As consul, Cicero described a plan in which different sectors of Rome would be attacked at the same time, with orders given to attack officials, burn homes, and spread chaos.

It was claimed that Catiline had also contacted foreign groups, including the Allobroges, a Gallic tribe unhappy with their treatment under Roman authority.

The Allobroges, who had travelled to Rome to seek relief from heavy taxes and corrupt officials, agreed to cooperate with Cicero after being approached by the conspirators.

So, the Senate suspected that the conspiracy had expanded well outside a simple political grudge and now posed a military threat. 

Catiline presented himself publicly as a reformer who opposed the corrupt ruling class.

When he appealed to the poor and those shut out, he offered an alternative vision of Rome’s future, where wealth and power were no longer confined to a narrow aristocracy.

For his allies, many of whom had been denied justice, the promise of action carried more weight than legality.

As a result, his campaign began to take on the tone of a social revolt rather than a personal vendetta. 

As consul, Cicero received information from multiple sources that revealed the scope of Catiline’s intentions.

First, he learned details from senators and magistrates who had heard rumours of violence.

More importantly, he received reports from Fulvia, the mistress of the conspirator Quintus Curius, who passed on secrets overheard during private meetings.

With this evidence, Cicero concluded that immediate action was necessary to prevent civil disorder. 

On 8 November 63 BCE, Cicero convened the Senate at the Temple of Jupiter Stator and delivered his First Catilinarian Oration.

In front of the assembled senators, he accused Catiline of plotting to destroy the Republic.

Then, rather than deny the charges, Catiline left the city and made his way to Etruria to join Manlius.

Now, with Catiline gone, Cicero focused on dismantling the remaining plotters in Rome. 

On 3 December, messengers from the Allobroges handed over letters from the conspirators, which included promises of military cooperation and identified key figures in the plot.

As a result, several senators were arrested, including Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura and Gaius Cethegus.

Lentulus had been a consul who had been expelled from the Senate for misconduct and had brought added scandal to the affair.

While the content of the letters supported Cicero's accusations, some modern historians remain divided on how strong the evidence was.

Two days later, the Senate met to decide their fate. 

During the debate, Julius Caesar warned against executing Roman citizens without trial, arguing that life imprisonment would punish the guilty without breaking the law.

Cato the Younger, however, demanded immediate execution. In the end, the Senate sided with Cato, and because of that, that evening Cicero ordered the prisoners taken to the Tullianum, the underground state prison located near the Roman Forum, where they were strangled one by one in the ancient underground chamber.

He justified his actions under the authority of the Senatus Consultum Ultimum, an emergency decree that allowed consuls to take all necessary steps to protect the state.

Afterwards, he told the people, "vixerunt", a single word implying that they had lived and were now dead, leaving Rome safe once more. 

After his departure from Rome, Catiline reached Faesulae in Etruria, where Gaius Manlius had already formed a makeshift army of veterans who had lost land and the rural poor.

Ancient sources vary, but most estimate that Catiline’s forces had numbered between roughly two and five thousand men, though Cicero claimed the figure was much higher to heighten the sense of danger.

He had tried to raise more support from nearby towns, though the news of executions and Senate action discouraged many, and as a result, local magistrates, now fearful of sharing the conspirators’ fate, declared loyalty to Rome. 

To counter the threat, the Senate sent Gaius Antonius Hybrida north. However, Antonius remained inactive, and he claimed illness, which allowed his legate Marcus Petreius to lead the army instead.

Then, in early January 62 BCE, the two sides met near Pistoria. Catiline refused both to retreat and to surrender, and gave a speech to his troops promising either victory or a noble death, and then they fought. 

Sallust described the battle as fierce and unrelenting. Catiline’s men, who were poorly equipped and who lacked cavalry, were aware that capture meant certain death, and refused to retreat.

According to ancient accounts, nearly all the rebels were killed in the engagement.

Catiline was found at the front line, his body pierced and surrounded by the dead.

His refusal to flee or hide confirmed his commitment to the cause, even as it collapsed around him. 

After the conspirators had been eliminated, the Senate acted swiftly to promote Cicero’s role as the Republic’s protector.

They awarded him the honorary title Pater Patriae and praised his actions in official decrees.

So, for the aristocracy, he had preserved the Roman state from internal ruin, and his speeches and letters effectively made certain that posterity would view him as the man who saved the Republic from destruction.

He delivered a total of four Catilinarian Orations between 8 November and 5 December, using them to form both public opinion and the historical record. 

Yet not everyone agreed. Executing Roman citizens without trial disturbed many observers, and Cicero’s critics soon seized upon the legality of the Senate’s emergency powers.

Due to this, in later years Publius Clodius Pulcher pushed a law that exiled Cicero for his role in the executions.

The Lex Clodia de capite civis specifically targeted Cicero’s decision to execute citizens without trial.

Although he eventually returned to Rome, the controversy damaged his reputation and exposed the tension between order and law that would soon destroy the Republic entirely. 

The Catiline affair showed how close Rome had come to civil war once more. For many, the fact that so many senators, equites, and common citizens had joined Catiline suggested that the Republic had failed to address its citizens’ needs.

Because the Senate relied on executions and military force, it avoided immediate collapse but created new precedents that would allow stronger men in future to justify greater violence. 

As a result of the lack of neutral sources, historians still debate whether the conspiracy was as large or dangerous as Cicero claimed.

His speeches clearly served political purposes, and he stood to benefit from exaggerating the danger.

Sallust, who had written decades later during Augustus’ rule, had accepted many of Cicero’s claims but had also suggested that the causes lay in senatorial failure and social collapse.

He framed the event as a symptom of Rome’s moral decay and the decline of civic values. 

Some scholars argue that Catiline never planned a full insurrection and that the entire affair grew from frustrated aims and loose talk.

Others believe he did intend to seize Rome by force and that his actions had been planned.

Sallust recorded that Catiline even addressed the Senate in his own defence, claiming that exclusion and injustice had left him no lawful path to pursue. 

Catiline’s appeal shows that dissatisfaction had reached every layer of Roman society.

His promises of debt relief and redistribution may have alarmed the rich, but they inspired hope among those left out.

As a result, the conspiracy revealed a Republic already breaking apart. 

Although Catiline died sword in hand on a distant battlefield, the crisis he caused did not vanish.

The Republic survived that moment, but because the deeper structural problems continued, it paved the way for later men, Caesar, Antony and Octavian, who would seize power as rulers rather than as conspirators.