It was written during winter 1848–49[1] and first performed under Ibsen's name on 3 December 1881 at the Nya Teatern (New Theater), Stockholm, Sweden.
The first performance of Catilina in Norway not under Ibsen's pseudonym (Brynjolf Bjarme) was at Det Nye Teater in Oslo on 24 August 1935.
Ibsen expresses in the prologue to the second edition (1875) that he was profoundly inspired by the contemporary political situation of Europe, and that he favored the Magyar uprising against the Habsburg empire.
Catilina, full of doubts and torn between love and duty, is similar to protagonists in John Gabriel Borkman and The Master Builder.
I) claims that Ibsen relied on Friedrich Schiller's The Robbers (1781/82) and on Henrik Wergeland's tragedy Sinklars Død.