A significant decrease in trade and the resulting loss of tax revenue resulted in an increase in debt among many of the more affluent Romans. Unemployment in the city was high. The Roman Senate stood silent, unable or unwilling to come to a solution. The people longed for a hero, namely the ever-popular Pompey, to return and bring a remedy. In the meantime, however, there was serious - or so it appeared - unrest, an unrest that led to a conspiracy, a supposed conspiracy that threatened not only the lives of the people who lived within the walls of Rome but also the city itself.

Catiline versus Cicero.

At the center of this turmoil were two men - Lucius Sirgius Catiline and Marcus Tullius Cicero. Catiline was a near bankrupt aristocrat, while Cicero, his most outspoken adversary, was a renowned orator and statesman as well as a philosopher and poet. Catiline was from a distinguished patrician family - his great-grandfather had fought against Hannibal in the Second Punic War - whereas Cicero came from a wealthy landed family outside Rome, Arpinum, a small city southeast of the capital. He had had a brilliant career in law where he was able to use his famed skills as an orator. It was said that people would stop what they were doing to hear Cicero speak.

The two men clashed after Cicero uncovered a plot, a plot conceived by Catiline, that called for the assassination of several elected officials and the burning of the city itself. The purpose of this supposed assault on the city, or so it was later revealed, would be the elimination of debt for all --- the poor as well as the wealthy (Catiline included). Some believe that the resulting chaos would also allow Catiline to assume the leadership role he so passionately desired. The uncovering of the conspiracy would bring what historian Mary Beard in her book SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome called a clash between “ideology and ambition.” The discovery of the alleged conspiracy would be the pinnacle of Cicero’s long distinguished career in politics. It would bring him praise from some but condemnation from others.

https://www.ancient.eu/article/861/cicero--the-catiline-conspiracy/