"I do not intend... to make any formal defense of my new policy. I will however explain my point of view. What I am going to say implicates no consciousness of guilt, and upon my honor you can accept it as the truth. I was provoked by wrongs and insults, and robbed of the fruits of my painstaking industry, and I found myself unable to maintain a position of dignity. So I openly undertook the championship of the oppressed, as I had often done before... I saw unworthy men promoted to honorable positions [and] felt myself treated as an outcast on account of unjust suspicions. That is why I have adopted a course of action, amply justified in my present circumstances, which offers a hope of saving what is left of my honor. I intended to write a greater length, but news has come that they are preparing to use force against me. So for the present I commend Orestilla to you and entrust her to your protection. Shield her from wrong, I beg you in the name of your own children. Farewell."
If we are to believe Sallust, this is one man's final plea for understanding from a world that had already hardened its heart to him: a letter left by Lucius Sergius Catilina at the house of senator Catulus on the eve of his flight from Rome. Though Catilina speaks of force, what had in truth driven him from his city was words, the fiery allegations of the accomplished rhetorician Cicero, a man with incredible influence throughout history. The founding fathers studied his writings, and he was a role model for leading personalities in the french revolution.
Most if not all of what we know of Catilina comes from those speeches, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the image we are left of his is of a dangerous, possibly insane insurrectionary. In painting the portrait of Catilina, I intend to be as non-judmental as possible.
What do we know of Catilina? He was of the old but impoverished Sergius family. He posed as a radical politician, though this is debatable. When he speaks of taking up the "championship of the oppressed" he is referring to the main plank of his platform: complete cancellation of debts. This idea appealed to the poor, frightened the rich out of their wits, and was welcomed by young scions of the patrician classes who had squandered their money, as young men who take their wealth for granted are wont to do.
Catilina had been accused and acquitted of an astonishing array of crimes: murder, extortion, and corrupting a Vestal Virgin. He benifitted from the horrific proscriptions of Sulla. The court of slander charged him with many, many more: including marrying his daughter, killing his own son, and doing away with his brother in law. He had quite a reputation. Cicero informs us that "No one has ever had such a talent for seducing young men," and that he had "raped children in their smocks practically at their parent's knees."
Catilina's basis of support was mostly among the young. Cicero and others would like us to believe that every one of his followers was a hardened criminal, but this hardly seems likely at their age. Behind the scenes it is probable that he had the support of Julius Caesar and Marcus Crassus, at least for a little while.
Catilina was known for his physical strength and endurance. Apparently he had great military talent. He also had legendary charm and charisma. He was intelligent, politically passionate, but also, I think, politically naive. Against an astute politician like Cicero he stood little chance. Cicero understood this, and I believe this was partly the reason why he picked Catilina for his scapegoat.
Prior to the alleged "conspiracy," what was Cicero's relationship to Catilina? Well, the Vestal Catilina was accused of having sex with was the half-sister of Cicero's wife, Terentia. When Catilina was accused of extortion in 66 BC, Cicero had considered defending him. "We have the jury we want," he ironically wrote to his friend Atticus. He appears to have dropped the idea, and Catilina was got off anyway. When they were running against each other for consul in 64, he considered forging an alliance with Catilina against the third candidate, Gaius Antonius. This idea he also dropped in favor of working with Antonius, and it was Catilina who was left behind.
During the course of the "conspiracy," Cicero charged Catilina with crimes so diverse as to make one dizzy. Supposedly he planned to murder every one of the senators, burn Rome to the ground and enslave everyone. It isn't clear, of course, why Catilina would level the town which he desired for his domain. Evidence of the conspiracy is limited to some letters that could easily have been forged by Cicero, a stockpile of ornamental swords found at the house of Cethegus, one of the alledged conspirators, and confessions from some of Catilina's friends, possible extracted by threats and intimidaton. So it's possible though not probable, that Catilina might have been altogether innocent of wrong.
While Catilina lived, Cicero blackened his name with all manner of insults, accusations and slurs. But after his death, at the trial of his friend, Caelius, a former supporter of Catilina, he sang a different tune:
"Catilina had many excellent qualities... he undeniable possessed a gift for stimulating his associates into vigorous activity. Catilina was at one and the same time a furnace of inordinate sensual passions and a serious student of military affairs. I do not believe the world had ever seen such a portent of divergent, contrary, contradictory tastes and appetites."