Summary Of The Catilinarian Conspiracy

If the Catilinarian conspiracy was, what Gruen terms, an “aberration” within the intricate matrix of events precipitating the fall of the Republic; and one indeed that strongly expressed the plight of landless and dislocated farmers, insecure rural laborers, unsuccessful Sullan colonists, the fragility of the financial ecosystem, the oppressive pervasiveness of debt and the discontent of the urban mob; arguably the episode – rather than events surrounding it - may be treated as a reflection of the contemporary social and economic situation in Rome and Italy. Insofar as those events which we might identify as pivotal, Sulla’s reforms and dictatorship (proscriptions and agrarian reform), the conquest of the Oriens (debt) and the Social War (immigration), …show more content…
In the aftermath of the Social War (91-88 BC), Rome enfranchised all the Italian allies with the exception of the Samnites and Lucanians [App. CivilWars.1:49] - who had been involved in the conflict – substantially increasing the body of citizens. Indeed, former allied towns and Latin colonies now constituted the municipia populi Romani (Cic.Leg.2.5). Patterson highlights that to “reflect their new status” the elites of these municipia embarked on a process of investment, providing an array of previously inaccessible civic amenities. Towns which were identified with rebellion during the conflict, such as Pompeii, received Forum baths, an amphitheatre and a covered theatre soon after the Social War ; gestating a multiplier effect which catalysed a process of urbanisation that ultimately produced the “high rents, poor living conditions, and underemployment” characterising urban centres of the late Republic. Evidently, such development is only reflective of the contemporary socioeconomic factors at play during the Social War by contrast; the ubiquity of marginalised rural and urban areas in greater Italy suffering from a profound lack of amenities. Hence, that which “we see” is as retrospective now as it was to Appian for example who began writing his Histories (a major source for the Social War) around the middle of the second century AD. In that case, we should explore our understanding of contemporary events. Clearly, the prominent construction of wall-circuits, gates, and fortifications within this period strongly emphasises the disorder and instability of the Social War and following decades (partially as a result), hence was the Social War no less significant to stirring the whirlpool of socioeconomic discontent than the slave revolt fifteen years later? Potentially not. After all, Spartacus “did not lead a protest movement against slavery.” Gruen stresses that Spartacus sought to “cast a lurid light on the