Hello, I have been assigned to play the role of Gaius Cornelius Cethegus at an upcoming Model UN conference, but I haven't really found much information on him.
On the Wikipedia page for the Cethegus family, he has a blurb. However, he does not have his own article, and it does not go into much specifics: > the boldest and most dangerous of Catiline's associates. Like many other youthful profligates, he joined the conspiracy in the hope of getting his debts cancelled. When Catiline left Rome in 63 BC, after Cicero's first speech, Cethegus remained behind as leader of the conspirators with 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. The discovery of arms in Cethegus's house, and of the letter which he had given to the ambassadors of the Allobroges, who had been invited to cooperate, led to his arrest. He was condemned to death, and executed, with Sura and others, on the night of 5 December.
I would greatly appreciate any information about any of his offices held, or any further insight into his character.
That's...about all we know about C. Cethegus...We only know of C. Cethegus' existence through his connection to Catiline, and though our major sources for Catiline's conspiracy in 63 all mention him they say pretty much nothing about him. He was of senatorial stock (Sallust mentions him among the senators, not the equites Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, Lucius Statilius, Publius Gabinius Capito, and Gaius Cornelius)--given that this is the post-Sullan senate he almost certainly had held at least a quaestorship, unless he was appointed to the senate by Sulla (unlikely, given his family). Sallust describes Cethegus as being among the inner circle of the conspirators, along with Lentulus, and testifies that he was a rash and violent man, although that's the standard language of invective. Appian claims that he was, along with Lentulus, the urban praetor. Appian is certainly wrong, however. Sallust specifically mentions only Lentulus as being the praetor among the conspirators, and in a classic example of Appian's incompetence he seems to have misunderstood a source and assumed that both of Catiline's right-hand men must have been praetors--this is contradicted by the other sources, and notably, though Lentulus' magistracy was of some important during the discussion of what to do with the conspirators, Cethegus is not mentioned. The speech that Sallust has Caesar deliver at the temple of Concord has the puzzling remark "Ignoscite Cethegi adulescentiae, nisi iterum patriae bellum fecit!" That should probably be taken as something like "Forgive Cethegus' youth, unless he has made war against his fatherland again!" although I've seen at least one translator (incorrectly in my opinion) turn the nisi clause into an "if...not." Presumably then Cethegus was not involved in Sulla's civil war, or had little role in it, possibly because of his youth. But other than that and the few tidbits we get as to Cethegus' activity during the actual conspiracy from Cicero, Plutarch, and the rest we know pretty much nothing about him