Catiline and the "Concordia Ordinum"

Abstract

ANYONE who attempts to investigate political life in ancient Rome is faced with thorny problem at the very outset. Were there or were there not in ancient Rome political parties of the modern national type? Scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth century assumed without question that there were. But the recent trend has been to affirm that Roman politics amounted to nothing more than a nexus of personal obligations and many scholars adhere to this position.' It is the purpose of this investigation to consider the year 63 B.C., the year in which Cicero scored his greatest political triumphs, with this problem in mind. The period has been examined before, and with most success by John and Hardy.2 But the currents and cross-currents of political strife are so numerous and intermingled that no account has as yet succeeded in giving definitive interpretation of the events of the year. Two of the most interesting phenomena are the conspiracy of Catiline and the creation of unity between the financial interests and the governing oligarchy (the concordia ordinum). The major concern of this study is to determine the relationship of these phenomena to each other and to the political situation. It is advisable at the outset to understand clearly what constitutes modern national political party. Such parties may be regarded from several points of view. If attention is fastened on their organization, they appear as elaborate machines, with hierarchy of officers, with conventions and caucuses, with programme and slate of candidates for election. In modern states, where there is manhood suffrage and representative government, some such organization is needed to reduce the multifarious interests of individuals and groups to manageable number. The size of modern states makes it impossible for them to operate on the town hall principle. If the membership of modern political party is examined, however, it will be found to consist mainly of number of groups that consider their major interests to be identical. These groups usually have an economic or socio-economic basis, although regionalism, race, and religion play important roles.3 Moreover, usually