Catiline and the "Concordia Ordinum" - Historia Antigua

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CATILINE AND THE CONCORDIA ORDINUM 21 is right in depicting Cicero's attitude. Cicero did not execute a political volte-face in 63 B.c. His policy and actions in that year were a logical consequence of his ties both with the tax-farmers and with a section of the nobility. If some of his pronouncements and actions had been "popular" in a limited sense, they had never been revolutionary. And to be elected consul, something that had not happened to a man without noble ancestors for a generation, it was absolutely essential that both tax-farmers and the ruling clique give him enthusiastic support.28 In his canvass for the consulship in 64 B.C. Cicero relied heavily on the advice and personal support of his good friend Atticus.29 Atticus, a business man primarily concerned with large loans and real estate, had left Rome years before to avoid entanglements in the political squabbles of his youth. He had, therefore, been able to maintain friendship not only with business people but also with powerful noble families, including members of the Family Compact. He was the ideal person to give Cicero advice and support. As has been pointed out, the importance of Atticus in determining Cicero's policy and success has often been overlooked.29 Atticus was with Cicero in Rome in 64 B.c., and must have been extremely helpful in winning for him the backing of the optimates. The political situation in 64 B.c., moreover, was in Cicero's favour. Intrigue by Crassus and Caesar against Pompey, and doubts about the political intentions of all three great leaders, brought the tax-farmers and the Family Compact very close together. The tax-farmers had succeeded in getting their man Pompey to work on opening up new areas for investment, and they feared that schemes which upset the organization of the state would interfere with the realization of the profits they were expecting. At the moment, therefore, they were conservative in outlook. The optimates naturally did not want the precedent set by Pompey's extraordinary powers to go any further. Thus it was not difficult for Cicero to unite the two groups and win their combined support. The fragments of his speech In Toga Candida show us how he did this. He attacked two of his competitors, Antonius and Catiline, and their backers, Caesar and Crassus, as revolutionaries bent on destroying the state.30 As champion of law and order it was a simple matter for him to head the polls. He was successful also in procuring the defeat of Catiline. Actually, although the fullest harmony of the orders-the most powerful sections of the equestrian and senatorial classes-was not reached until 63 B.C., Cicero's election was a symbol of the existence of that harmony as early as July, 64 B.c.3" There was nothing about Catiline prior to 63 B.C. to mark him off 28Strasburger, Concordia Ordinum, 13 ff. For the combined voting power of the two orders see Marsh, History of the Roman World, app. 2. 29Alice H. Byrne, Titus Pomponius Atticus (Lancaster, Pa., 1920), 1-4; 54 ff. 3oAsconius, In Orationem in Toga Candida, ed. A. C. Clark (Oxford, 1907), 93; cf. 83. 31Strasburger, Concordia Ordinum, 38. See Cicero, De Lege Agraria, 11. 3 ff.; In Pisonem, 3.
22 THE PHOENIX from the other aristocrats who were striving to establish themselves politically in the face of opposition from the Family Compact, and who were being used by Caesar and Crassus as shock troops in their attack on the optimates. Cicero at one time had thought of defending him in court and of making his canvass for the consulship in partnership with Catiline.32 Even after the events of 63 B.C. Cicero was able to say that prior to the conspiracy of that year many distinguished and law-abiding citizens had seen no harm in associating with Catiline.33 Sallust made much of the so-called First Catilinarian Conspiracy in 66-65 B.C., but John has put this in its proper perspective.34 It was Autronius and Sulla, the consuls-elect unseated on bribery charges, who were to take the place of the consuls-elect of the second election; Catiline was merely to assist in the assassination of the latter; Crassus and Caesar were the men behind the scenes who were using the dissatisfaction of Autronius and Sulla to further their own ends. In other words, it was not a Catilinarian conspiracy at all. As usual, Catiline was merely a tool in the hands of Caesar and Crassus. Bribery and collusion from friendly sources procured Catiline's acquittal in the extortion court in 65 B.C. In the canvass for the consulship in 64 B.c. Catiline combined with Antonius, another down-at-heel aristocrat, in order to defeat Cicero, and the pair were backed by Caesar and Crassus.35 Later in 64 B.c., when Catiline came before Caesar in the court trying assassins of the Sullan regime, he was acquitted although others no less guilty were convicted.36 The long-cherished lust for absolutism accredited to Catiline by Sallust has been shown to have been invented in order to provide adequate psychological motivation in what was primarily a moral treatise.37 Perhaps Sallust drew some inspiration from the highly coloured account given by Cicero in his Catilinarian orations. One thing Catiline did want, and that was the consulship.38 He had wanted it in 66 B.C., but opposition to his candidature in high circles had persuaded him to give up the idea. He ran in 64 B.C. and again in 63 B.C. When he left Rome on November 8, 63 B.c., his first act was to assume the insignia of consul.39 To understand this persistent personal desire, one must remember that the consulship gave not only financial but also social and political rewards. It is true that even before the elections in 64 B.C. Catiline was in straitened circumstances and that two successive defeats would make his creditors disinclined to wait any longer for repayment. 32Ad Atticum, I. 2. 1. 33Pro Caelio, 5. 12 ff. 34Sallust, De Catilinae Coniuratione, 18 f.; John, Die Entstehungsgesch. d. Cat. Verschw6rung, 706-26. uAsconius, In Orationem in Toga Cand., 83, 87 and 90. 36Asconius, ibid., 91; Dio Cassius, xxxvii. 10. 37John, Die Entstehungsgesch. d. Cat. Verschwbrung, 808. 38Ibid., 714. 39Dio Cassius xxxvin. 33; Sallust, De Catilinae Coniuratione, 36.
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Catiline and the "Concordia Ordinum" - Historia Antigua

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