Catiline

American  

[kat-l-ahyn] / ˈkæt lˌaɪn /

noun

1. Lucius Sergius Catilina, 108?–62 b.c., Roman politician and conspirator.

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Catiline British  

/ ˈkætɪˌlaɪn, ˌkætɪlɪˈnɛərɪən /

noun

1. Latin name Lucius Sergius Catilina. ?108–62 _bc , Roman politician: organized an unsuccessful conspiracy against Cicero (63–62)

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Other Word Forms

• Catilinarian adjective

Example Sentences

Randall name-checks philosophers — Hegel, Kant, Nietzsche, Plato, Marcus Aurelius — he misunderstands to his advantage and drops references to the Catiline Conspiracy and the Battle of Actium to make base actions sound important and dignified.

From Los Angeles Times

This mention of Catiline is worth a momentary pause, in part because the reference is so unfamiliar to modern ears as to seem meaningless, and also because it was so familiar to the leaders of the revolutionary generation as to require no further explanation.

From Literature

No one in the political leadership of the early American republic needed to be reminded who Catiline was.

From Literature

If each member of the revolutionary generation harbored secret thoughts about being the modern incarnation of a classical Greek or Roman hero—Washington was Cato or Cincinnatus, Adams was Solon or Cicero—no one aspired to be Catiline.

From Literature

This was the decision that caused Hamilton to repeat his earlier characterizations of Burr as the unprincipled American Catiline, which in turn generated the newspaper reports containing the offensive word “despicable.”

From Literature