Lucius Sergius Catilina (
108 BC–
62 BC), known in
English as Catiline, was a
Roman politician of the
1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline (or Catilinarian) conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the
Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the
aristocratic Senate. One of the most enigmatic figures of Roman history, Catiline has been obscured by the invective of his historians. The two chief sources for information on Catiline possessed numerous reasons to depict him in the worst possible light.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, his most bitter political enemy, spared no denunciation particularly in his
Catiline Orations, and
Gaius Sallustius attributed some of the vilest crimes to him in his moralistic monograph, Bellum Catilinae. Thus, many of the gravest accusations such as human sacrifice are likely fabrications employed to further their author's designs. However, Catiline's conspiracy is one of the most famous events of the turbulent final decades of the Roman Republic.
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