Issues in Catiline: Rebel of the Roman Republic (Part 4 of 4)

Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2023
Click image to order the
book from Barnes & Noble

By James T. Carney

Catiline: Rebel of the Roman Republic suggests that the Republic fell because the members of the elite were unwilling to deal with the basic problems outlined in Part 3. The only issue that the elite did address was the need to expand Roman citizenship to all Italians, but it required the Social War to bring it about. 

    Solutions to any of these problems required the governing classes (and sometimes the citizenry as a whole) to give up some of their economic and social “goods” for the benefit of the Republic. The basic obstacle to any reform is that it requires sacrifices on the part of one or more groups of powerful citizenry.

Issues in Catiline: Rebel of the Roman Republic (Part 3 of 4)

Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2023
Click image to order the
book from Barnes & Noble

By James T. Carney

In our own time, Catiline has been featured in Richard Harris’ Cicero Trilogy as a bigger villain than even Cicero made him out to be. Perhaps the most realistic and intriguing modern picture of Catiline in novels appears in Steven Saylor’s Roma sub Rosa series, with one book – Catilina’s Riddle – devoted to him. Saylor depicts Catiline as a Bill Clinton made of sterner stuff.

    In the last fifty years, the Catilinarian conspiracy has attracted a great deal of attention from historians, prompting a number of ingenuous reinterpretations of Catiline’s story:

Issues in Catiline: Rebel of the Roman Republic (Part 2 of 4)

Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2023
Click image to order the
book from Barnes & Noble

By James T. Carney

The second issue that my book, Catiline: Rebel of the Roman Republic, addresses is what caused the Catilinarian conspiracy to fail. The book tells the stories of the almost comical mishaps that led to the failure of the conspiracy:

• the betrayal by Q. Curius,
• the swift action by the Roman senate to utilize the military forces available to it to squelch the conspirators’ efforts in various parts of Italy before their actions could prompt local insurgencies,
• and the incredible blunder of Lentulus in entrusting the secrets of the conspirators to the Gauls.

Issues in Catiline: Rebel of the Roman Republic (Part 1 of 4)

Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2023
Click image to order the
book from Barnes & Noble

By James T. Carney

[Editor’s Note: Columnist James T. Carney was asked by the editor of his book (see cover at the side) to write about it for Ancient Origins Magazine. The Wikipedia entry for the Catiline of the title identifies Catiline as

Lucius Sergius Catilina (c. 108 BC – January 62 BC), known in English as Catiline. He was a Roman politician and soldier, best known for instigating the Catilinarian conspiracy, a failed attempt to violently seize control of the Roman state in 63 BC.

I agreed to edit the magazine write-up for Jim if he’d let me serialize it here for your enjoyment and erudition. I’m grateful to him for agreeing to that arrangement. Perhaps he’ll even give me an autographed copy of the book….]