Are they and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a Roman history podcast from Latrobe University.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Rianna Evans, an associate professor

in classics and ancient history at Latrobe University.

This is episode C.C.X.I. and part 7 of the Catalan conspiracy, the reputation of

Catalan.

Catalan's name is often used as a byword for villainy, and over the years his story has been told and

re-told by different authors with different agendas. To some he is a villain a

traitor to the state to the others he's a hero standing up for the little guy. Here's

Rhianna Evans.

Caroline immediately becomes a kind of shorthand for somebody who rebels a traitor, somebody who rebells a traitor,

somebody who usurps power.

So that aspect of him, I guess Cicero has won on that score largely.

So in, for example, the lives of the emperors, Historia Augusta, the Augustine history,

there's a couple of very short-lived emperors who are really just usurpers of Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus, they are compared to Catiline.

So we have, for example, a man called Clodius albinus who tried to steal the throne from Septimius Severus,

and in his life, he was called the Catalan of his age says the

Historia Augusta Clodius 13.2 so it is that sort of this equals going against the state, this equals betrayal of your

emperor.

And unsuccessfully maybe?

Yeah, yeah, exactly so, yeah, because there are, I guess there are emperors who take the position by force

and they're not compared to Catalan because they succeed. Septimius severus yes exactly

Yeah so it very much comes down to how you were at it and how much parallels they can draw.

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