How to stop a conspiracy with Sallust
Part XXIII of the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series
[Based on How to Stop a Conspiracy: An Ancient Guide to Saving a Republic, by Sallust, translated by Josiah Osgood. Full book series here.]
If you need a strong endorsement to move you to read the ancient Roman historian Sallust, here is one:
“You go on, I presume, with your Latin Exercises: and I wish to hear of your beginning upon Sallust who is one of the most polished and perfect of the Roman Historians, every Period of whom, and I had almost said every Syllable and every Letter is worth Studying.”
So wrote John Adams to his son, John Quincy, back in 1781. It may seem an odd way to introduce the new edition of The War Against Catiline, which concerns itself with momentous events that unfolded in the year 63 BCE in Rome, but translator Josiah Osgood knows what he is doing. He points out that the Founding Fathers of the American Republic were very much concerned with conspiracy theories and worried about an impending overthrow of the government, what sociologist Richard Hofstadter later referred to as the “paranoid style” in American politics.
I do not have to point out the obvious to you: once again that paranoid style is very much on display right now, during the third decade of the 21st century. Of course, as Hofstadter himself remarked, there is nothing paranoid if one worries about actual conspiracies, so the question becomes one of separating the factual from the fictional, the real from the imaginary.
Enter Gaius Sallustius Crispus, better known as Sallust, who lived from 86 to 35 BCE and was personally involved in the Roman civil war that ended the Republic, fighting under the banner of Julius Caesar. In the late 40s BCE Sallust wrote De Coniuratione Catilinae (On the Catiline Conspiracy), also known as Bellum Catilinae (Catiline’s War), newly translated by Osgood for the ongoing Princeton Press series, Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers.
Centering on the fascinating, if shadowy, figure of Lucius Sergius Catilina, Sallust’s book can be read as providing a warning for future generations about what happens when powerful people see politics primarily as a means to extend their own influence and prestige. Again, the parallels with currently unfolding events need not be spelled out.
Catiline came from one of Rome’s patrician families, which was now in decadence. He was determined to reverse the trend and to become Consul, the highest political office in Republican Rome. Before running for election in 64 BCE, Catiline had built a reputation for ruthlessness. After the previous civil war he had allied himself with the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla and had exploited his position to murder a number of rivals and confiscate their properties in order to begin to address the financially precarious family situation.
In 64 BCE there were, as usual, two slots for Consul, as the office—appointment to which lasted one year—was shared in order to minimize the chances that someone could achieve too much power, as it had happened in the case of Sulla. One of the two slots was won by Gaius Antonius, a friend of Catiline and a brutal fellow, with whom Catiline planned to share the benefits of supreme authority.
The surprise was that the second slot did not go to Catiline but to a “new man,” that is, someone who did not belong to the traditional Roman aristocracy and had become well known and influentials by the use of his intellect and wit: Marcus Tullius Cicero, the famous public advocate and later statesman and philosopher.
Catiline did not react well to the setback, but immediately started planning to run again the following year, 63 BCE. This time the stakes would be very high, since he was essentially bankrupt (then, as now, it was very costly to run a political campaign!). Just to make sure things would go his way in one fashion or another, Catiline also began to make plans to overthrow the government in case he were to loose a second time.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a major point of Catiline’s political platform was the cancellation of personal debt. That would have, in fact, helped a lot of Romans during that time, but of course it would have made a tremendous personal difference as well. As a result of his populist policies, Catiline began to gather a significant number of supporters, especially among financially destitute ex-soldiers. He organized this growing support into an unofficial army. A militia under his own control, we would say nowadays.
Cicero became aware of the conspiracy and launched a counter-conspiracy of sorts: he orchestrated a neutralizing plan behind the scenes, going so far as to entrap some of the conspirators by setting up a meeting under false pretenses with a group of Gauls that Catiline’s allies hoped to recruit to their cause.
The showdown between Cicero and Catiline took place at a meeting of the Senate on December 3, 63 BCE. Cicero accused his rival of conspiring against the legitimate Republican government, producing documents that incriminated Catiline and several others.
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