Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? (Cic. Catil. 1,1)
How much longer, Catilina, will you abuse our patience?
With these famous words, Marcus Tullius Cicero began his well-known speech against the politician Lucius Sergius Catilina almost 2100 years ago on November 7, 63 BC. These words were preceded by the planned assassination of Cicero by Catilina the night before, which, like many of Catilina's other plans, failed.
But first back to the beginning. According to the Roman historian Sallust, the Catilinarian conspiracy began three years earlier, when Catilina's candidacy for the consulship was rejected due to an ongoing trial for abuse of office, known as the repetition trial. Two years later, in 64 BC, Catilina's candidacy failed again, before he succeeded in 63 BC, but was defeated by his political opponent Cicero. The latter also prevented Catilina's admission to the consulship in the following year, thereby incurring Catilina’s wrath. In addition, the failed election campaigns led to financial difficulties, so Catilina decided to gain power in a different way and thus laid the foundations for the conspiracy.
Primarily in Etruria, Catilina planned to raise troops in 63 BC and send them to Rome to assassinate prominent figures and carry out attacks. He wanted to use the resulting chaos to seize power by force. However, his plans failed as Cicero was informed of Catilina's plan by letters from Fulvia, the mistress of a conspirator. Shortly afterwards, Cicero received further letters that provided evidence of the planned assassination attempts. At a senate meeting, Cicero presented the evidence he had gathered and had a state of emergency declared. As a result, the troops from Etruria were no longer able to move to Rome to carry out the assassination there and Catilina was impeached. As we owe most of the information to Cicero, it cannot be ruled out that he greatly exaggerated the case.
Catilina pretended to be innocent and (apparently) obligingly offered to go into private custody. However, he managed to escape and attempted to continue his conspiracy. Catilina sent a co-conspirator to Cicero to have him murdered on the night of November 7th and then to invade Rome with his troops and brutally seize power. However, this plan also failed, as Cicero was again warned by Fulvia's letters.
The first speech against Catilina, quoted at the beginning, followed the next day, in which Cicero reported Catilina's plans to the Senate. Catilina himself was present in the Senate, but fled the Senate before the end of the speech and left Rome.
Catilina, who was then declared an enemy of the state, asked the Allobroges for help, but they were allied with the Senate. This enabled the Senate to find out the names of the co-conspirators, who were subsequently arrested. After discussions in the Senate about how to deal with the conspirators, the execution was set, while
Catilina himself, however, managed to leave the city before the wave of arrests. With his army, he attempted to push through to Gaul, but was intercepted by a senator and died in the Battle of Pistoria in 62 BC, which marked the final end of the Catilinarian conspiracy.
Annalena Schwettlick