Lucius Sergius Catiline

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Lucius Sergius Catiline (108 – 62 B.C.) Roman patrician of very noble birth, opposed oligarchic power to embrace the cause of the plebs, without repudiating his tie with the tradition and moral values of ancient republican nobility. Rome in his day was dominated by a corrupt ruling class, which protected its own interests, leaving it to be believed that it was protecting the common good.

He tried the legal way of the consulate, but he found it obstructed with tricks and intrigues. He decided then to take up arms against that ruling class that had trampled on all lawfulness. Heading a large group of conspirators, he planned a real coup d’état, perhaps the first revolution in history.

The consul Marcus Tullius Cicero, invested with full powers by the Senate, exposed the conspiracy, pronouncing theFirst Oration against Catiline. Lucius Sergius Catiline fled to Etruria, where Gaius Manlius, his deputy, had organised an army. In Rome, Lentulus, Caetegus, Statilius and other conspirators were arrested and executed in the Mamertine Prison, following a summary trial. Catiline was declared enemy of Rome.

Two armies marched against the rebel: the first, coming from the South, commanded by Antonius Ibrida, the second from Cisalpine Gaul, led by Quintus Metellus Celere.

Catiline was caught up with by the Ibrida’s army near Pistoia and took up fighting, lifting the eagle of Gaius Marius. He gave its left wing to Manlius and the right wing to an anonymous soldier remembered as “Faesulanus”.

The battle was uneven, but Catiline’s conspirators, only just three thousand of them, fought with extreme courage, without falling back nor deserting. Gaius Manlius and “Faesulanus” were the first to fall in battle. On the point of surrendering, Catiline threw himself in the thick of the fray, seeking death.

Sallust narrates that “… he was found far from his supporters among the bodies of the enemies; he was still breathing a little but on his face could be read the same expression of indomitable pride that he had when alive.”

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