Catilina, Lucius Sergius

Born: 109-XX-XX BCE Rome, Italy

Died: 62-XX-XX BCE Italy

Alternate name: Catiline

Born approximately 109 BCE, Lucius Sergius Catilina, better known as Catiline, was Roman public official, politician, and military officer. Born into a wealthy and prominent family, Catiline developed a reputation as a profligate youth who reveled in wealth and luxury and used his privilege to flout social expectations and the law. Over time, he rose in the public and political ranks of Rome, earning a reputation as an unscrupulous man willing to utilize violence to attain his goals and eliminate enemies. Unsatisfied with his position and imbued with hatred for his political rivals, he conspired to massacre his opponents and seize military and political control of the Roman Republic. He was thwarted and killed by opponents of his conspiracy.

C. C. Sallust, The History of Catiline's Conspiracy, and the Jugurthine War (London: S. Hamilton, 1813), 5, 14-16, 17-24; The National Cyclopædia of Useful Knowledge (Boston: Little & Brown, 1853), 3:286-88.