Books
5 Best Novels About the Catilinarian Conspiracy
Bestselling authors first, then star rating.
Phase
Catilinarian Conspiracy
63–62 BCE
The Catilinarian Conspiracy centred on Lucius Sergius Catilina, an aristocratic politician who had repeatedly failed to win the consulship. Cicero claimed that Catiline and his supporters intended to murder officials, cancel debts and seize power. Catiline left Rome to join an armed force in Etruria, while several allies were arrested in the city.
The Senate allowed Cicero to execute five alleged conspirators without trial, a decision that later damaged his own political position. Catiline died with his army at Pistoria in 62 BC. The episode became a lasting argument about emergency power, elite debt, political violence and whether Cicero exposed a genuine revolution or magnified a disorganised movement.
Steven Saylor’s Catilina’s Riddle places Gordianus between Cicero’s intelligence network and Catiline’s supporters, using murder and uncertainty to question both official claims and revolutionary promises. Robert Harris and Colleen McCullough also make the conspiracy central to fiction about the Republic’s breakdown.
Related people for Catilinarian Conspiracy
Aulus Gabiniusdied 47 BCE Catilinec. 108–62 BCE Cicero107 BCE–44 BCE Julius Caesar101 BCE–45 BCE Marcus Licinius Crassus116 BCE–54 BCE Mark Antony83–30 BCE Pompey106–48 BCE Ptolemy XII Auletesc. 117–51 BCE Publius Cornelius Lentulus Surac. 114–63 BCE Sallust87 BCE–36 BCE Serviliaborn 101 BCE Sullac. 138–78 BCE
Non Fiction
3 Non-Fiction Books About the Catilinarian Conspiracy
Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.
