The Conspiracy of Catiline

The Conspiracy of Catiline, also known as The War of Catiline, (Latin: De coniuratione Catilinae or Bellum Catilinae) is the first history published by the Roman historian Sallust. It chronicles the attempted overthrow of the government by the bankrupt aristocrat Catiline in 63 BC in what has been usually called the Catiline conspiracy or Second Catilinarian conspiracy.

Probably written during the last half of the 1st century BC,[1] the history begins with a brief preface on the nature of man, history, and a brief autobiography of Sallust himself. Afterwards, Sallust launches into a character description of Catiline, who is portrayed as at once heroic and immoral, and then a description of Catiline's intention to gain kingship at any cost. However, Sallust tells his readership that Catiline's political ambitions were thwarted several times in his youth, and perhaps alludes to the First Catilinarian conspiracy, and he finally resorts to rebellion, during which attempts to recruit a number of bankrupt nobles and politically dissatisfied plebeians. The Senate eventually discovers the conspiracy, and attempts to put it down militarily. In the one and only battle of the rebellion Catiline is killed by the Roman army, which brings the rebellion to an end.

G. W. S. Barrow has shown that one passage in the Declaration of Arbroath was carefully written using different parts of The Conspiracy of Catiline as the direct source:[2]

...for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.