The Catilinarian Conspiracy

3 units

In this course we will study one of the most fascinating and best documented episodes of the late Roman Republic, the Catilinarian Conspiracy of 63-62 BCE. The conspiracy, an attempted coup led by the apparently dissolute and certainly disaffected aristocrat Catiline, was uncovered and suppressed by the consul Marcus Tullius Cicero. We will read the main literary sources for the conspiracy in Latin (Cicero's first and third Catilinarian speeches; Sallust's Bellum Catilinae) or in English (Cicero's second and fourth Catilinarian speeches; Cicero's Pro Murena and Pro Sulla; short extracts from other texts). We will consider these texts both as historical sources and as works of literature.