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As Rome’s power expanded in North Africa, the last Numidian and Mauritanian kings became inextricably linked to the Roman Empire. The Roman wars and political intrigues increasingly shaped the fate of the region. In this article, from our series on the last decades of the Roman Republic, we will discover the Catilinarian conspiracy, wrought by Catiline, a former governor of Roman Africa.
Catiline’s beginning
Lucius Sergius Catilina was born around 108 BCE, in an old Patrician family. During Sulla’s civil war, he joined Sulla’s side, and enriched himself a lot during his dictatorship, from the proscriptions.
In 67-66, he was the governor of the Roman province of Africa. After returning to Rome, African embassies arrived to protest against his administration. He wanted to stand for the consular elections in 65, but his candidacy was denied. He was judged for corruption during his time as a governor, but was acquitted thanks to his friends in high places. He then stood for the consular elections in 64 and 63, but wasn’t elected.
The Catilinarian conspiracy
After his last electoral defeat, he started plotting to take power by force, overthrowing the two consuls in 63: Cicero – the greatest orator in Roman history – and Gaius Antonius Hybrida. His conspiracy assembled a coalition of malcontents: corrupt senators, aristocrats who were unhappy about losing elections, veterans of Sulla’s dictatorship, etc.
The conspiracy was discovered by Cicero, who denounced Catiline and his accomplices to the Senate. Catiline fled Rome, but he was captured, sentenced to death, and executed.
It is possible that Cicero exaggerated the threat that the Catilinarian conspiracy represented for Rome, to promote his own political career.
Later on
For Roman historians, the Catilinarian conspiracy was a sign of the decline of the Roman Republic, which they believed was caused by the loss of traditional Roman values. Sallust describes the conspiracy as one of the main steps of this decline, together with the Jugurthine War, Sulla’s dictatorship, and the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. The Roman Empire would later be founded to restore those lost Roman values.
