The second historical monograph in Latin literature,[1] it chronicles the attempted overthrow of the government by the aristocrat Catiline in 63 BC in what has been usually called the Catilinarian conspiracy.

However, Sallust tells his readership that Catiline's political ambitions were thwarted several times in his youth, and perhaps alludes to the First Catilinarian conspiracy, and he finally resorts to rebellion, during which attempts to recruit a number of bankrupt nobles and politically dissatisfied plebeians.

[2] After writing it, Sallust went on to author Bellum Jugurthinum, a historical account of the Jugurthine War.

G. W. S. Barrow has shown that one passage in the Declaration of Arbroath was carefully written using different parts of Bellum Catilinae as the direct source:[3] ...for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule.

It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.The following are some translations of Bellum Catilinae, sorted reverse chronologically.