Catiline

c. 108–62 BCE

Catiline was a Roman aristocrat best known for the conspiracy against the Republic uncovered in 63 BC. After failed bids for the consulship, he gathered supporters around a programme of debt relief and armed revolt before dying in battle against government forces.

In Steven Saylor’s Catilina’s Riddle, a series of mutilated bodies and cryptic messages draws Gordianus into the struggle between Cicero and Catiline. In Steven Saylor’s The House of the Vestals, the stories also show how Gordianus meets important members of his household and encounters a young Julius Caesar, Catiline and Publius Clodius Pulcher.

In non-fiction, Catiline is discussed in Mary Beard’s Spqr, Sallust’s Catiline’s War, the Jugurthine War, Histories, Cicero’s In Defence of the Republic, Cicero’s Selected Political Speeches, and Cicero’s Selected Works. In Mary Beard’s Spqr, Mary Beard begins with Cicero’s confrontation with Catiline and then moves backwards and forwards through the evidence to explain republican institutions, military expansion, civil conflict and the creation of imperial government.

Historical context

Historical periods linked to Catiline

Catilinarian Conspiracy 63–62 BCE Late Roman Republic 133–27 BCE

Series

Series featuring Catiline (1 series)

Roma Sub Rosa in Order

by Steven Saylor 13 books 4.1

The Roma Sub Rosa series follows Gordianus the Finder through the last generation of the Roman Republic. His investigations begin in the aftermath of Sulla’s dictatorship and continue through slave revolt, aristocratic trials, Catiline’s conspiracy, Caesar’s civil war and the assassination of Julius Caesar. The series uses murder…

All books in this series