[citation needed] Like many other youthful profligates, he joined Catiline's conspiracy in the hope of getting his debts cancelled.
When Catiline left Rome in 63 BC, Cethegus remained behind as leader of the conspirators with Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura.
He himself undertook to murder Cicero and other prominent men, but was hampered by the dilatoriness of Sura, whose age and rank entitled him to the chief consideration.
[2] On 3 December 63 BC, the consul Cicero made public several letters from the conspirators inciting the Gallic Allobroges to revolt.
[4] A debate in the Senate as to whether to execute the conspirators ended in the decision to do so; and Cethegus and the others were strangled in the Tullianum prison on 4 December.