The history of Rome is perhaps best known and most famous for its days as a vast empire, the largest of the Ancient World. But before Augustus Caesar declared himself its first emperor, it was a republic and had been for some five centuries. Though it served its people well, it soon became steeped in corruption and political turmoil, perhaps none more so than in the subject of this week's episode. Join me for the first part of a two-parter all about the greatest political event of the Roman Republic...the notorious Cataline Conspiracy!