Summary

Chapter 1 opens in 63 BCE, more than 600 years after Rome was founded, with the story of Cicero and Catiline. Catiline was a disgruntled and bankrupt aristocrat who devised a terrorist plot to overthrow the government and perhaps even burn down the city, which had grown by this time to a vast metropolis of more than a million inhabitants. Cicero was one of two Roman consuls, an important elected position of leadership in Roman government, who uncovered Catiline’s plot and denounced him in the senate. Catiline was forced out of the city and killed in the ensuing battle. Cicero was also responsible for executing Catiline’s co-conspirators without trial, a decision that violated their rights as Roman citizens. While many supported Cicero as a hero, others denounced him and he fell from popularity; ultimately he had to leave the city and spend...