Pro Cicerone: The Fourth Catilinarian

This chapter summarizes what is known about the debate in the senate on 5 December 63 BC on the fate of the arrested Catilinarian conspirators and attempts to identify which parts of the Fourth Catilinarian derive from the speeches made by Cicero on that occasion and which parts were added later by him in 60 BC. It argues that the speech in its current form could never have been delivered. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the purpose of the speech and of the success of all four of Cicero’s Catilinarians.

The Patrician and the New Man

This chapter provides the historical information necessary for the reader to understand the rest of the book. It compares the surviving character sketches of Catiline by Cicero and Sallust, and then compares the careers of Catiline and Cicero down to 59 BC. It describes the causes of the Catilinarian conspiracy. It includes a discussion (continued in Appendix 3) of two bowls inscribed with the names of Catiline and Cato that are in the possession of the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome. It also includes a discussion of three series of coins from 62 BC commemorating the defeat of Catiline.

Denouncing the Living/Dead Catiline: The First Catilinarian

This chapter considers how Cicero’s Catilinarians should be interpreted as literature, given that they are not accurate versions of the speeches Cicero originally delivered in 63 BC but contain substantial amounts of material added by Cicero in 60 BC. Piers Morgan’s diaries are cited as a modern example of a text describing historical events from the author’s viewpoint that purports to have been produced at a certain point in time but which was actually written some years afterwards. These diaries are used to help the reader understand the textual status of Cicero’s Catilinarians. Two approaches to the interpretation of the Catilinarians are formulated and then applied to the First Catilinarian. This enables the purposes of the First Catilinarian to be identified. An attempt is also made to identify the specific individuals who prompted Cicero to publish the speeches of his consulship. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the success of the First Catilinarian.

Catiline in the Underworld and Afterwards

This chapter reviews the reception of Cicero’s Catilinarians over the two millennia from Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae until the present day. Particular attention is paid to Virgil’s Aeneid, to Ben Jonson’s Catiline His Conspiracy (1611), and to Ibsen’s Catiline (1850). The chapter also surveys the influence of the Catilinarians on Roman poetry after Virgil, on Roman historiography after Sallust, and on Christian writers. The late antique, medieval, and renaissance declamations that draw on the Catilinarians (including two speeches each known as the Fifth Catilinarian) are discussed, as is the influence of Catiline on Florentine historiography. Plays and operas about Catiline by Voltaire, Salieri, Dumas, and others are included. Mention is made of the study of the Catilinarians undertaken by two American presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams. The chapter ends by showing how in the twentieth century these speeches first started the young Bill Clinton on his path toward the White House.

Persuading the People: The Second and Third Catilinarians

This chapter discusses Cicero’s skill in persuading the people, taking the extant De lege agraria 2 and the lost De Othone as examples of this skill. The chapter first identifies the purposes of the Second Catilinarian and the Third Catilinarian and then examines Cicero’s dissuasion of his audience from joining the conspiracy, his use of narration, and his exploitation of religion in the two speeches. It also contains a brief discussion of Cicero’s epic poem Consulatus suus in which the most famous fragment is reassigned to a new context, and it concludes with a consideration of the success of the Second and Third Catilinarians.

What Are the Catilinarians?

This chapter discusses the original publication by Cicero of Cicero’s speeches in general and of the Catilinarians in particular. It argues that some parts of the Catilinarians that survive today represent what Cicero actually said when he originally delivered the speeches in 63 BC and other parts are later revisions and additions made by Cicero when he published the speeches in 60 BC. The chapter attempts to establish which parts are original and which are Cicero’s later revisions and additions. It concludes that the Catilinarians were written to serve a range of purposes. In origin, they were an attempt to deal with Catiline and his supporters, and to win over public opinion in 63. But they also served, in 60, as a major exercise in self-justification, and as models of oratory for Cicero’s young admirers. Finally, they were an address to posterity, setting out for future generations how Cicero wished his consulship to be remembered.