Catiline and the "Concordia Ordinum" - Historia Antigua

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CATILINE AND THE CONCORDIA ORDINUM 29 A word of caution is necessary here. Debt was not the cause of the conspiracy. It is true that heavy indebtedness made many favour drastic action; that it was those in financial distress to whom Catiline appealed for support; that among the conspirators themselves debt was one of the most urgent disabilities. But the initiation of action came from those who had been driven into a tight corner by the success of Cicero's efforts to maintain the concordia ordinum. That is to say, the economic situation provided the opportunity for rousing support for a protest movement, but it was the political situation that actually gave the impetus to the creation of the conspiracy. The development of the conspiracy can now be described with precision. Cicero's campaign to keep the financiers and the Family Compact together created a cleavage among the anti-optimates and forced Catiline into a position from which he could extricate himself only by strong measures. He found a number of those who had supported him in his second canvass willing to follow him. Debt and general discontent throughout Italy, which the repressive policies of the government had considerably augmented, made the occasion seem favourable. Initially, the conspiracy aimed merely at substituting an anti-optimate consul, Catiline, for the optimate one, Cicero. But, when Cicero was successful in rendering that plan impracticable, the conspirators were forced along the road to a general social upheaval. The decisive element throughout had been Cicero and his temporary alliance of the financiers with the optimates.64 V In its dinouement the conspiracy had an effect upon the concordia ordinum. Cicero in his Fourth Catilinarian states: "Brought back after years of disagreement with this order [the senatorial class] to alliance and harmony with it, they [the financiers] have been brought into union with you by this day and this affair."66 Strasburger gives content to this statement by showing that on this occasion, the fifth of December, the equites took up arms and registered as an emergency police force, indicating by this overt action their identification with the optimates.66 Atticus, incidentally, the one man most capable of bridging the gap between the two groups, was in command of this force.67 The revelations of the conspiracy, therefore, strengthened the concordia ordinumjust what Caesar and Crassus had been trying to prevent. The conspiracy also placed Crassus and Caesar in a somewhat dangerous position. The immediate political effect of the conspiracy, therefore, was to aid the optimates. 64The unknown author of a speech against Cicero puts forward much the same thought from a partisan point of view (In Ciceronem Declamatio, 2. 3). 61In Catilinam, Iv. 7. 15. 66Concordia Ordinum, 42. s6Ad Atticum, II. 1. 7.
30 THE PHOENIX The events of 63 B.C., however, were not without value to those engaged in ousting the Family Compact. It had been amply demonstrated that the publicani and Pompey had to be weaned away from the optimate side. This was speedily done, and, when Cicero continued his opposition, advantage was taken of the fact that in 63 B.C. he had put Roman citizens to death without a trial.68 In conclusion, it may be said that this investigation has demonstrated the necessity for taking social and economic groupings into account if the events of 63 B.C. are to be intelligible. It has shown that there was one political machine, the optimates or Family Compact, in existence and another one, the Caesarian party, in process of formation. The year opened with anti-optimates staging an offensive which was met by Cicero with a counter-offensive. The success of the latter was made possible by the coalition of the financiers and the Family Compact. The effect of the counter-offensive was to drive a wedge between those who could bide their time and those who could not, and, in consequence, a militant faction developed which had recourse to violence. That, in turn, strengthened the concordia ordinum and brought Caesar and Crassus into jeopardy. But they weathered the storm and took steps to break up the coalition. In short, the year 63 B.C. was one of outstanding significance in the political history of the late republic. 6sPlutarch, Pompeius, 46; Cicero, Ad Atticum, I. 17. 8 and 9, 11. 1. 8; Dio Cassius, xxxviii. 14. ANNOUNCEMENT The Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, compiled by the late Seymour De Ricci with the assistance of W. J. Wilson and published in two volumes in 1935 and 1937 (followed by the Index in 1940) is now outdated. A Supplement to the Census is now being prepared under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies with Professor C. U. Faye of the University of Illinois Library as editor. Inquiries should be addressed to him at P.O. Box 395, Champaign, Illinois. The Supplement will contain descriptions of manuscripts not listed in the Census and amplifications and emendations of entries in that publication. Like the Census, it will exclude Oriental manuscripts, manuscripts written after 1600, epigraphic material, and Greek and Latin papyri.
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Catiline and the "Concordia Ordinum" - Historia Antigua

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