User:Catiline

Catiline (me)

A family tradition claims that my family are descendants of Lucius Sergius Catalina (born 108 BCE, died 62 BCE). Towards the end of the Roman Republic, Catiline was an aristocrat who turned revolutionary and made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the republic while Cicero was a Consul.

Earlier in his career, Catiline served under Pompey’s father in the Social War of 89 BCE and acquired a reputation as a zealous and often brutal participant in Sulla’s proscriptions, purportedly killing even his own son. Additional evidence suggests, however, that this killing was in response to his sons' threats to kill Catilines' current wife, who his son thought an inappropriate match for an aristocratic family.

He was acquitted of charges of fornication with a Vestal Virgin (which was punishable by death, and who also happened to be Cicero's sister-in-law) in 73 and afterward became praetor in 68 and governor of the province of Africa in 67–66. He stood for election to Consul (the highest Roman political office) several times over the next several years, but was defeated every time. The final defeat was conclusive in his mind, and he realized he would never be allowed to hold significant power and enact the reforms to the Roman political system he wished to. As the highest office in the State was not to be his by constitutional means, he realized that active revolution was the only was to change things, and began preparing a coup d' etat in Rome and a broader insurrection throughout Italy.

Word of his plots reached Cicero, now himself Consul, and the crimes with which Cicero prosecuted Catiline are preserved in several speeches. Many others over the years were severely critical of Catiline, most especially Sallust, a Roman historian, who appears to have sought to characterize Catiline as symptomatic of all that was evil in Rome, and a man foredoomed by the corruptness of society to a life of crime and violence. Eventually Catiline mounted an armed revolt, and lost, both the battles and his life. It was said, even by his detractors, that when Catiline saw that all was lost he charged in the direction where the enemy were thickest and there fell fighting to the end. His troops had held their ground almost to a man; even those who had been scattered were found with their wounds in front; not a single soldier was taken alive, and Catiline himself was found far in advance of his men, still breathing and with all his old spirit still showing upon his face.

My life has been far more sedate and boring (thankfully), with no expected revolutionary behavior on the horizon. I was born in New York City, moved to Florida where I grew up, became a forensic anthropologist, and eventually made it out west, were I reside today...