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Group: Khotan, Kingdom of
People: John Wycliffe
Topic: Catilene, Revolt of

Catilene, Revolt of

Years: 63BCE - 62BCE

Lucius Sergius Catilina (108 BCE–62 BCE), known in English as Catiline, is a Roman politician of the 1st century BCE who is best known for the Catiline (or Catilinarian) conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.One of the most enigmatic figures of Roman history, Catiline has been obscured by the invective of his historians.

The two chief sources for information on Catiline possessed numerous reasons to depict him in the worst possible light.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, his most bitter political enemy, spared no denunciation particularly in his Catiline Orations, and Gaius Sallustius attributed some of the vilest crimes to him in his moralistic monograph, Bellum Catilinae.

Thus, many of the gravest accusations such as human sacrifice are likely fabrications employed to further their author's designs.

However, Catiline's conspiracy is one of the most famous events of the turbulent final decades of the Roman Republic.

"History should be taught as the rise of civilization, and not as the history of this nation or that. It should be taught from the point of view of mankind as a whole, and not with undue emphasis on one's own country. Children should learn that every country has committed crimes and that most crimes were blunders. They should learn how mass hysteria can drive a whole nation into folly and into persecution of the few who are not swept away by the prevailing madness."

—Bertrand Russell, On Education (1926)