Each page of Gramsci’s work delivers a space for reflection that is never dogmatic. Gramsci reconstructs the long process of formation of the Italian national story, advancing with a theory of the nation that presents original traits with respect to the better known 19th and early 20th century doctrinal elaborations. Theory that places its foundations in ancient history. In the following pages, we will limit ourselves to returning to the often overlooked figure of Catiline, central to the Roman political panorama of the first century BC. We will focus on some passages of the Quaderni in which the rigorously historicized dialectic between nation and cosmopolitanism, between Italy and the Empire. Within this theoretical polarity, for the Sardinian thinker, Catalina represented one of the Italian national pioneers: the present contribution aims to take notes to advance further study hypotheses on the nucleus image that Gramsci made of the conspirator.