Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/647

Rh CATILINA. CASTRI'CIUS. 1. M. Castricius, the chief magistrate of Placemia, who refused to give hos- tages to Cn. Papirius Carbo, when he appeared before the tcwn in b. c. 84. (Val. Max. vi, 2. § 10.) 2. M. Castricius, a Roman merchant in Asia, who received a public funeral from the inhabitants of Smyrna. (Cic. pro Flacc. 23, 31.) He is pro- bably the same person as the M. Castricius men- tioned in the Verrine Orations (iii. 30), but must be different from the one spoken of in a c. 44 {ad Att. xii. 28), as the speech for Flaccus, in which the death of the former is recorded, was delivered as early as b. c. 59. 3. Castricius gave information to Augustus respecting the conspiracy of Murena. (Suet. Aug. 56.) 4. T. Castricius, a rhetorician at Rome, con- temporary with A. Gellius, by whom he is fre- quently mentioned. (GelL i. 6, xi. 13, xiii. 21 ; comp. Front. Epist. ii, 2, p. 210.) L. CASTRI'NIUS PAETUS. [Paetus.] L. CASTRO'NIUS PAETUS. [Paetus.] CATAE'BATES ( KarajgaTTjs), occurs as a surname of several gods. 1. Of Zeus, who is described by it as the god who descends in thuuder and lightning. Under this name he had an altar at Olympia. (Paus. v. 14. ^ 8; Lycophr. 1370.) Places which had been struck by lightning, i. e. on which Zeus Cataebates had descended, were sixcred to him. (Pollux, ix. 41 ; Suid. and Hesych. s. v.) 2. Of Acheron, being the first river to which the shades descended in the lower world. 3. Of Apollo, who was invoked by this name to grant a iiappy return home (KaToiSacris) to those who were travelling abroad. (Eurip. Bucch. 1358; Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 1416.) 4, Of Hermes, who con- ducted the shades into Hades. {^cio. ad Aristo}yh. Pac. 649.) [L. S.] CATAMANTA'LEDES, king of the Sequani in the former half of the first century B. c, had received the title of friend from the senate mid tlie Roman people. (Caes. B. CI. i. 3.) CATAMITUS, the Roman name for Gany- medes, of which it is only a corrupt form. (Plaut. Menaech. i. 2. 34 ; Fest. s. t Ckitamitum.) [L. S.] CATHA'RSIUS (Ka0op(no$), the purifyer or atoner, a surname of Zeus, under which he in con- junction with Nice had a temple at Olympia. (Paus. v. 14. $ 6.) [L. S.] T. CATIE'NUS, described by Cicero as a low and mean fellow, but of equestrian rank, who was angry with Q. Cicero. ( Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. 2. § 2.) CATILI'NA, L. SE'RGIUS, the descendant of an ancient patrician fanuly which had sunk into poverty, first appears in history as a zealous piirtizan of Sulla. During the horrors of the great proscription, among many other victims, he killed, with his own liand, his brother-in-law, Q. Caecilius, described as a quiet inoffensive man, and having seized and tortured the well-known and popular M. Marius Gratidianus, the kinsman and fellow- townsman of Cicero, cut off his head, and bore it in triumph through the city. Plutarch accuses him in two places (.y«//. 32, Cic. 10) of having mur- dered his own brother at the same period, under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, but there is pro- bably some confusion here between the brother and tlie brother-ir.-law, for Sallust, when enumerating the crimes of Catiline, would scarcely have failed tu add such a monstrous deed as this to the black CATILINA. 629 catalogue. Although his youth was spent in the most reckless extravagance, and in the open indul- gence of every vice ; although he was known to have been guilty of various acts of the foulest and most revolting debauchery ; although he had incurred the suspicion of an intrigue with the Vestal Fabia, sister of Terentia; and although it was said and be- lieved that he had made away with his first wife and afterwards with his son, in order that he might wed the fair and rich but worthless Aurelia Ores- tilla, who objected to the presence of a grown-up step-child, yet this complicated infamy appears to have formed no bar to his regular political advance- ment, — for he attained to the dignity of praetor in B. c. 68, was governor of Africa during the follow- ing year, and returned to Rome in 66, in order to press liis suit for the consulship. The election for 65 was carried by P. Autronius Paetus and P. Cornelius Sulla, both of whom were soon after convicted of bribery, and theii* places supplied by their competitors and accusers, L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus, Catiline, who was desirous of becoming a candidate, having been disqualified in consequence of an impeachment for oppression in his province, preferred by P. Clodius Pulcher, afterwards so celebrated as the implacable enemy of Cicero. Exasperated by their disappoint- ment, Autronius and Catiline forthwith formed a project along with a certain Cn. Calpumius Piso, a young man of high family, but turbulent, needy, and profligate, to murder the new consuls upon the first of January, when offering up their vows in the Capitol, after which Autronius and Catiline were to seize the fasces, aiid Piso was to be des- patched with an army to occupy the Spains. Some rumours of what was in contemplation having been spread abroad, such precautions were taken that the conspirators were induced to delay the execu- tion of their plan until the 5th of Februarj', re- solving at tiie same time to include many of the leading men of the state in the proposed massacre. This extraordinary design is said to have been frustrated solely by the impatience of Catiline, who, upon the appointed day, gave the signal pre- maturely, before the whole of the armed agents had assembled, and thus confounded the preconcerted combinations. The danger being past, certain re- solutions v/ere proposed in the senate with regard to the authors of this abortive attempt ; but the proceedings were quashed by the intercession of a tribune. The plot was, however, a matter of com- mon discussion, and no one seems to have enter- tiiined any doubt of its reality, while many did not scruple to assert that M. Crassus, and Julius ( 'aesar, who was then aedile, were deeply involved. (Q. Cic. t/e pet. Com. 2, &c. ; Asconius in Tog. cand. and in Cornel; Sail. Caiif. 15 — 18 ; Li v. Epit. 101 ; Dion Cass, xxxvi. 27 ; Siietou. Jul. 9 ; Cic. pro Snlluy 1 — 24, /)ro Muren. 38, /)ro Cael. 4, in Caiil. i. 6.) [Comp. p. 540, b.] Encouraged rather than disheartened by a failure which had so nearly proved a triumph, and which had so distinctly demonstrated the practicability of such a project, if conducted with common prudence and caution, Catiline was soon after (b. c 65), left completely unfettered by his acquittal upon trial for extortion, a result secured, it was alleged, by the liberal bribes administered to the accuser as well as to the jury. From this time he seems to have determined to proceed more systematically ; to en- list a more numerous body of supporters ; to extend