Passages Flashcards
L. Catilina, born of a noble line, had great strength of both mind and body, but a wicked and crooked disposition. From adolescence, internal wars, slaughter, seizures and civil disharmony were welcome to him, and there he spent his young manhood. His body was tolerant of hunger, cold and wakefulness beyond the point which anyone finds credible; his mind was daring, cunning and versatile, capable of any simulation and dissimulation; acquisitive of another’s property, prodigal with his own; burning in desires; his eloquence was adequate, scant his wisdom. The enormity of his mind always desired the unrestrained, the incredible, the heights beyond reach
Depicts Catiline as always being bad even as a child– presents him as evil– biological positivist
Criminology is more about the criminal than the crime
He is evil but also awesome– presents him as the protagonist
Historical and political circumstances pushed him into criminality
Finally he was captivated by love for Aurelia Orestilla (in whom no good man ever praised anything but her appearance), but, because she hesitated to marry him through fear of a stepson of adult years, it is believed for certain that he killed his son, thereby ensuring an empty house for the criminal marriage. It is this affair above all which seems to me to have been his reason for speeding up the deed: for his vile spirit - hostile to gods and men - could not be calmed by wakefulness or repose: to such an extent was his conscience preying upon his unquiet mind. Hence his bloodless complexion and ugly eyes, and his walk alternating between fast and slow; in short, there was derangement in his demeanour and face
Explains why Catiline turned to crime- psychological reasons
Murder of his son drives further crime
He therefore referred the matter, already discussed beforehand in rumours amongst the public, to the senate. And so, as often happens in the case of some frightening business, the senate decreed that the consuls should do their utmost ‘to prevent the commonwealth from suffering any damage’. That is the greatest power allowed to a magistracy by the senate according to Roman custom: to prepare an army, to wage war, to coerce allies and citizens by every means, and to wield the highest command and jurisdiction at home and on campaign. (Otherwise a consul has the right to none of these things without an order from the people.)
Description of powers granted by senatus consultum ulitimum
Normally consuls are limited by provocatio but this allows them to coerce citizens by any means and use imperium
After the dominion of L. Sulla, he had been assailed by his greatest urge, to capture the commonwealth; and he attached no weight to the methods by which he might achieve it, provided he acquired kingship for himself. His defiant spirit was exercised increasingly each day by his lack of private assets and a consciousness of his crimes, both of which he had augmented by the qualities which I recalled above. He was incited, too, by the community’s corrupt morals, which were afflicted by those worst and mutually different maladies, luxury and avarice.
Cataline was inspired by Sulla and Sulla’s death drove him
Points out influences of Catiline’s environment and community- Sociological positivist
‘You have already heard before, separately, what I have pondered in my mind. Yet my spirit is kindled more and more each day when I reflect what the conditions of life will be if we do not assert our freedom ourselves. For, ever since the commonwealth passed to the jurisdiction of a powerful few, it has always been to them that the dues of kings and tetrarchs go, that the taxes of peoples and nations are paid; the rest of us- all the committed and good, noble and ignoble - have been simply “the masses”, denied favour, denied influence, beholden to those to whom, if the commonwealth thrived, we would be a source of fear. Hence all favour, power, honour and riches rest with them or are where they want them; to us they have left the dangers, rejections, lawsuits and destitution
Catiline’s explanation of his crime related to relative deprivation theory- powerful few have taken from the masses– about power and honour
But, when Tarquinius named Crassus, a noble man of the greatest riches and the utmost power, everyone cried that the informant was false and demanded a motion concerning the matter—some deeming the matter incredible, others because, though they reckoned it true, it seemed that at such a moment so strong a man should be mollified rather than provoked, while very many of them were beholden to Crassus through personal business. And so a crowded senate, when consulted by Cicero, decreed that Tarquinius’ information seemed false and he should be kept in chains and given no further opportunity of informing except concerning the person whose scheme it had been that he should lie about so great a matter
Somebody accuses Crassus of being a part of the conspiracy but apparently he is too big to fail
Wont convict him becuause he is too powerful so they put his accuser Tarquinius in chains
Conspirators were being held in house arrest but a better solution was needed
Sallust said that everyone agreed with the speeches of Caesar
Nevertheless he himself delayed for a few days at the house of C. Flaminius in the territory of Arretium, while he furnished arms to a neighbourhood which was already galvanized; then, with the fasces and other insignia of command, he marched to Manlius in his camp. When this was found out at Rome, the senate pronounced Catiline and Manlius enemies and appointed a day before which the rest of their crowd (apart from those condemned on capital charges) could put down their arms with impunity. Apart from that, it decreed that the consuls should hold a levy, that Antonius with an army should speedily pursue Catiline, and that Cicero should act as defender of the City
Brings up difference between citizens and enemy combatants
Citizens who committ crimes have rights, enemy combatants dont and can be subject to violence
Catiline and Manlius have taken up arms - criminals
If Cataline is the leader of a conspiracy then he is a criminal but if its a war then he is an enemy
But when he had sat down, Catiline, prepared as he was to dissemble everything, with face downcast and suppliant voice began to demand of the fathers that they should not believe rashly anything concerning him: he was sprung from such a family, and he had regulated his life from adolescence in such a way, that he had good prospects in every respect; they should not reckon that, as a patrician whose own and whose ancestors’ benefits to the Roman plebs were very numerous, he needed the destruction of the commonwealth–when it was being safeguarded by M. Tullius, an immigrant citizen of the City of Rome
Catiline was trying to say that he was a noble Roman from a good family and Cicero was a new man
Cicero was from a town near by so Calantine presented him as an outsider
Calantine avoided prosecution for so long because of his connections with consul families
Present himself as an insider
The Lacedaemonians imposed on the defeated Athenians thirty men to handle their commonwealth. At first they began to execute, without trial, all the worst individuals and those resented by all: the people were delighted and said it was deserved. But after, when their licence had gradually increased, they killed good and bad indifferently at whim and terrified the rest with dread. So a community which had been oppressed by slavery paid a heavy penalty for its foolish delight
Caesars speech– uses example of the Thirty Tyrants
Once you start executing the worst poeple, you will likely begin to execute people who dont deserve it as well
For that reason, when you decide about P. Lentulus and the others, be assured that at the same time you are issuing a decree about Catiline’s army and about all the conspirators. The more attentively you conduct these matters, the weaker the spirit in those quarters will be; but, if they see you wilt only a very little, all of them will soon make their defiant presence felt.
Cato says that if you deal with the conspirators you will weaken the spirits of their allies
Encourages Romans to be manly and take action
Such was the violence of the disease and the kind of rottenness which had attacked many of the citizens’ spirits. And not only was there the mental derangement of those who were accessories to the conspiracy, but the entire plebs, in its enthusiasm for revolution, approved completely of Catiline’s projects. That, indeed, it seemed to do from its own particular habit. For it is always those in a community who have no resources who resent the good and extol the wicked, who hate what is old and crave what is new, who in their hatred of their own circumstances are enthusiastic for everything to be changed, and who thrive on disruption and sedition with no concern, since destitution is a possession easily held without loss. But, in the case of the
City plebs, there were many reasons for its headlong plight.
Poor plebs supported Catiline– relative deprivation
Even though Catiline is an enemy, the majority of Romans supported him
Yet at that very same time, in imitation of Greek custom, they chastised citizens with lashes and exacted the ultimate reprisal from the condemned. But, after the commonwealth had matured and the number of citizens led to thriving factions and the innocent began to be entrapped and other things of this type to take place, then the Porcian Law and other laws were provided, laws by which exile was permitted to the condemned. This I think is, an especially good reason, conscript fathers, for our not adopting a new counsel. Naturally those who created so great an empire from small resources had better prowess and wisdom than there is in us, who scarcely retain what has been so well acquired.
Caesars speech– says that death penalty isnt legal
Stopped executing citizens and started exiling
Caesar says that conspirators should not be executed and proposes what should be done instead
‘Far different is my inclination, conscript fathers, when I contemplate the circumstances of our dangers and when I think over to myself the opinions of several of the members. They seem to me to have spoken about the punishment of men who prepared war against their own fatherland, parents, altars and hearths; but circumstances suggest that we should be wary of those men rather than that we should be deliberating what decision to take against them. Other misdeeds you pursue only when they have already been done but, unless you see to it that this one does not befall us, you will invoke the courts in vain when it has happened: when a city has been captured, the defeated have nothing left
Cato speaking– he disagrees with Caesar
Says Caesar is treating them as criminals but the crimes they have committed should be prevented and not punished
Conspirators bring war against Rome and threaten to bring war against state– must be punished beforehand even though the conspiracy has not yet happened
‘Should they therefore be discharged and Catiline’s army be increased? Not at all. But I do propose as follows: that their money should be confiscated and they themselves held in chains in the municipalities which have the most effective resources; that no one afterwards should bring a motion before the senate concerning them nor discuss them in front of the people; and that the senate thinks that whoever acts otherwise shall be acting against the commonwealth and the welfare of all
Caesar says that conspirators should be moved out of city and held prisoner– novel idea– no long term punishment
Sallust says everyone was in agreement
Citizens of the greatest nobility have conspired to burn their fatherland; they summon the Gauls, a people most hostile to the name of Rome, to war; the enemy leader and his army are poised over our heads: do you, then, still hesitate and doubt what to do with the enemies caught inside the walls? I propose that you take pity on them - mere young men who did wrong through ambition and discharge them still armed! Do not let your mercy and pity make you pitiable yourselves, should they take to arms! “Certainly the issue itself is harsh”, you say, but you “do not fear it.” Yet you do, and very greatly; but through idleness and soft-heartedness you hesitate, one waiting for another, evidently trusting in the immortal gods, who have often saved this commonwealth in its greatest dangers. Yet it is not by prayers and womanly supplications that the help of the gods is acquired; it is by watchfulness, action and good deliberation that everything ends successfully. When you submit to lethargy and apathy, you invoke the gods in vain: they are angry and hostile.
Cato presents conspirators as enemies
In war you need to take manly action and kill them
Agree with cato and execute conspirators
If you present them as enemies then no trial is necessary
