 While studying, he found himself passionately drawn into the "Catiline orations", famous speeches by Cicero against the elected questor Catiline and his conspiracy to overthrow the republic.Ibsen chose this conspirator as the subject for his initial effort, finishing "Catiline" in 1849.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.