Against Catiline, Second Speech
In Catilinam II
Headnote
The second Catilinarian, delivered on the day after the first — a contio in the Forum announcing Catiline’s flight from Rome the previous night and explaining to the people what had happened in the Senate.
The opening peals out the news in four near-synonymous verbs and gives the speech its mood: “He has gone, he has departed, he has escaped, he has burst out” (abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit). Catiline is gone; the open war is the war we wanted; the dagger is no longer at our ribs in the Senate-house. The body of the speech is the famous typology of the conspirators left behind, sorted into six classes: the heavily indebted but well-landed who would rather sacrifice the commonwealth than mortgage an estate; the would-be dictators who think a chance of rule is worth the city’s ash; the bankrupted Sullan settlers who would have to raise Sulla from the dead to be solvent; the chronic defaulters; the parricides and cut-throats Cicero says he does not bother to summon back; and last, peculiar to Catiline, the “praetorian cohort of harlots” — combed, glossy, scented, draped in long-sleeved tunics and gauze veils, tutored to brandish daggers and scatter poisons, who will (Cicero asks) presumably bring their little women along with them to the Apennine snows. The closing pivot is the oratorical antithesis of the speech: on this side modesty, purity, faith, piety, constancy, honour, continence, equity, temperance, courage, prudence; on the other wantonness, debauchery, fraud, crime, madness, baseness, lust, iniquity, luxury, sloth, recklessness. Even if men’s zeal should fail, the gods themselves would compel so many vices to be overcome by these virtues.
The promise that closes the speech — that no good man shall perish, that, by the punishment of a few, all may be safe — will be tested twenty-six days later, when the arrest of the Allobroges’ envoys at the Mulvian Bridge brings the conspirators in the city into Cicero’s hand and forces the question of their punishment.
At long last, citizens, Lucius Catiline — raging with audacity, panting crime, contriving wickedly the ruin of his country, threatening you and this city with sword and fire — we have either cast out, or sent forth, or, as he was leaving of his own motion, accompanied with parting words. He has gone, he has departed, he has escaped, he has burst out. No ruin will any longer be prepared by that monster and prodigy of a man within the walls against the very walls. And this man, the one undisputed leader of this domestic war, we have without contention defeated. For now that dagger of his shall not turn between our ribs; not in the Field of Mars, not in the Forum, not in the Senate-house, not finally within our own walls shall we tremble. He was moved from his ground when he was driven from the city. Openly, now, with no one in the way, we shall wage a regular war against an enemy. Without doubt we have undone the man and conquered him magnificently, when we have flung him out of his hidden ambush into open brigandage.
tandem aliquando, Quirites, L. L ucium Catilinam, furentem audacia, scelus anhelantem, pestem patriae nefarie molientem, vobis atque huic urbi ferro flammaque minitantem ex urbe vel eiecimus vel emisimus vel ipsum egredientem verbis prosecuti sumus. abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit. nulla iam pernicies a monstro illo atque prodigio moenibus ipsis intra moenia comparabitur. atque hunc quidem unum huius belli domestici ducem sine controversia vicimus. non enim iam inter latera nostra sica illa versabitur, non in campo, non in foro, non in curia, non denique intra domesticos parietes pertimescemus. loco ille motus est, cum est ex urbe depulsus. palam iam cum hoste nullo impediente bellum iustum geremus. sine dubio perdidimus hominem magnificeque vicimus, cum illum ex occultis insidiis in apertum latrocinium coniecimus.
But because he did not, as he wished, carry forth his blade bloody, because he came forth while we yet lived, because we wrenched the steel from his hands, because he left the citizens unharmed and the city standing — with how great a grief, then, do you suppose he is afflicted and brought low? He lies prostrate now, citizens, and feels himself struck down and abject; and he turns his eyes again and again, no doubt, toward this city which he mourns has been snatched from his jaws — which seems to me to rejoice that it has vomited out so foul a plague and cast it forth.
quod vero non cruentum mucronem, ut voluit, extulit, quod vivis nobis egressus est, quod ei ferrum e manibus extorsimus, quod incolumis civis, quod stantem urbem reliquit, quanto tandem illum maerore esse adflictum et profligatum putatis? iacet ille nunc prostratus, Quirites, et se perculsum atque abiectum esse sentit et retorquet oculos profecto saepe ad hanc urbem quam e suis faucibus ereptam esse luget: quae quidem mihi laetari videtur, quod tantam pestem evomuerit forasque proiecerit.
And if there is any such man as all should have been, who in this very thing in which my speech exults and triumphs vehemently accuses me — because I did not arrest so capital an enemy rather than let him go — the fault is not mine, citizens, but the times’. Lucius Catiline ought long ago to have been put to death and visited with the heaviest punishment, and this our ancestral custom and the severity of this empire and the commonwealth demanded of me. But how many do you suppose there were who would not believe what I reported, how many who from folly thought it not so, how many who would even defend him, how many who from wickedness favoured him? And if I had judged that with him removed every danger could be driven from you, I should long since have removed Lucius Catiline at the risk not only of odium against me but even of my life.
ac si quis est talis qualis esse omnis oportebat, qui in hoc ipso in quo exsultat et triumphat oratio mea me vehementer accuset, quod tam capitalem hostem non comprehenderim potius quam emiserim, non est ista mea culpa, Quirites, sed temporum. interfectum esse L. L ucium Catilinam et gravissimo supplicio adfectum iam pridem oportebat, idque a me et mos maiorum et huius imperi severitas et res publica postulabat. sed quam multos fuisse putatis qui quae ego deferrem non crederent, quam multos qui propter stultitiam non putarent, quam multos qui etiam defenderent, quam multos qui propter improbitatem faverent? ac si illo sublato depelli a vobis omne periculum iudicarem, iam pridem ego L. L ucium Catilinam non modo invidiae meae verum etiam vitae periculo sustulissem.
But when I saw that, with not even all of you yet then convinced, if I had visited him as he deserved with death, I should be unable, crushed by odium, to pursue his confederates, I led the matter to this point: that you might be able to fight openly when you saw the enemy openly. Just how vehemently this enemy must, in my judgment, be feared abroad, you may understand from this — that I take it amiss even that he has gone out of the city with too small a following. Would that he had taken with him all his forces! Tongilius he took out for me, with whom he had begun a love-affair when the boy still wore the praetexta; Publicius and Minucius, whose debt incurred in a tavern could bring no commotion to the commonwealth. He left behind — what men, with how much debt, how strong, how noble!
sed cum viderem, ne vobis quidem omnibus etiam tum re probata si illum, ut erat meritus, morte multassem, fore ut eius socios invidia oppressus persequi non possem, rem huc deduxi ut tum palam pugnare possetis cum hostem aperte videretis. quem quidem ego hostem, Quirites, quam vehementer foris esse timendum putem, licet hinc intellegatis, quod etiam illud moleste fero quod ex urbe parum comitatus exierit. Vtinam ille omnis secum suas copias eduxisset! Tongilium mihi eduxit quem amare in praetexta coeperat, Publicium et Minucium quorum aes alienum contractum in popina nullum rei publicae motum adferre poterat: reliquit quos viros, quanto aere alieno, quam valentis, quam nobilis!
And so I despise that army of his, set against the Gallic legions and against this levy which Quintus Metellus has held in the Picene and Gallic country, and against these forces which are being daily prepared by us — gathered as it is from desperate old men, from rustic luxury, from country bankrupts, from those who have preferred to default on their bail-bonds rather than that army of his. To these, if I show not the line of our army but even the praetor’s edict, they will collapse. These men whom I see flitting in the Forum, standing at the Senate-house, even coming into the Senate, who shine with ointments, who glitter in purple — I would rather he had taken his own soldiers with him: who, if they remain here, remember it is not so much that army that we must fear as these men who have deserted that army. And these men are the more to be feared because they perceive that I know what they are planning, and yet they are not at all moved.
itaque ego illum exercitum prae Gallicanis legionibus et hoc dilectu quem in agro Piceno et Gallico Q. Q uintus Metellus habuit, et his copiis quae a nobis cotidie comparantur, magno opere contemno, conlectum ex senibus desperatis, ex agresti luxuria, ex rusticis decoctoribus, ex eis qui vadimonia deserere quam illum exercitum maluerunt; quibus ego non modo si aciem exercitus nostri, verum etiam si edictum praetoris ostendero, concident. hos quos video volitare in foro, quos stare ad curiam, quos etiam in senatum venire, qui nitent unguentis, qui fulgent purpura, mallem secum suos milites eduxisset: qui si hic permanent, mementote non tam exercitum illum esse nobis quam hos qui exercitum deseruerunt pertimescendos. atque hoc etiam sunt timendi magis quod quid cogitent me scire sentiunt neque tamen permoventur.
I see to whom Apulia has been allotted, who has Etruria, who the Picene country, who the Gallic, who has demanded for himself this work of urban plot, of slaughter and of fires. They perceive that all the plans of last night have been brought to me; I laid them open in the Senate yesterday; Catiline himself was struck with terror and fled. These men — what are they waiting for? They greatly err if they hope that former mildness of mine will be perpetual. What I have waited for I have already attained — that you all should see openly that a conspiracy has been made against the commonwealth; unless of course there is anyone who thinks that men like Catiline do not feel with Catiline. There is no place now for mildness; the matter itself demands severity. One concession even now I shall make: let them go, let them set out, let them not allow Catiline to waste away in misery from longing for them. I shall point out the road: he has set out by the Aurelian Way; if they wish to hurry, they will catch him by evening.
video cui sit Apulia attributa, quis habeat Etruriam, quis agrum Picenum, quis Gallicum, quis sibi has urbanas insidias caedis atque incendiorum depoposcerit. omnia superioris noctis consilia ad me perlata esse sentiunt; patefeci in senatu hesterno die; Catilina ipse pertimuit, profugit: hi quid exspectant? ne illi vehementer errant, si illam meam pristinam lenitatem perpetuam sperant futuram. quod exspectavi, iam sum adsecutus ut vos omnes factam esse aperte coniurationem contra rem publicam videretis; nisi vero si quis est qui Catilinae similis cum Catilina sentire non putet. non est iam lenitati locus; severitatem res ipsa flagitat. unum etiam nunc concedam: exeant, proficiscantur, ne patiantur desiderio sui Catilinam miserum tabescere. demonstrabo iter: Aurelia via profectus est; si accelerare volent, ad vesperam consequentur.
O fortunate commonwealth, if it shall have cast out this bilge of the city! With Catiline alone drawn off, by Hercules, the commonwealth seems to me lightened and refreshed. For what evil or crime can be imagined or conceived which he has not contrived? What poisoner in all Italy, what gladiator, what brigand, what cut-throat, what parricide, what forger of wills, what swindler, what glutton, what spendthrift, what adulterer, what woman of ill fame, what corrupter of youth, what corrupted, what abandoned man can be found, who would not confess he has lived with Catiline on terms of the closest intimacy? What slaughter through these years has been done without him, what unspeakable lust not through him?
O fortunatam rem publicam, si quidem hanc sentinam urbis eiecerit! uno me hercule Catilina exhausto levata mihi et recreata res publica videtur. quid enim mali aut sceleris fingi aut cogitari potest quod non ille conceperit? quis tota Italia veneficus, quis gladiator, quis latro, quis sicarius, quis parricida, quis testamentorum subiector, quis circumscriptor, quis ganeo, quis nepos, quis adulter, quae mulier infamis, quis corruptor iuventutis, quis corruptus, quis perditus inveniri potest qui se cum Catilina non familiarissime vixisse fateatur? quae caedes per hosce annos sine illo facta est, quod nefarium stuprum non per illum?
What enticement to youth was ever in any man so great as in him? who himself loved some most basely, served the love of others most scandalously, promised some the fruit of their lusts, others the death of their parents — not only urging it but even helping to it. Now indeed how suddenly he had collected, not from the city only but even from the country, a vast number of lost men! No one weighed down by debt, not only at Rome but in any corner of all Italy, has there been whom he has not enrolled into this incredible league of crime.
iam vero quae tanta umquam in ullo iuventutis inlecebra fuit quanta in illo? qui alios ipse amabat turpissime, aliorum amori flagitiosissime serviebat, aliis fructum libidinum, aliis mortem parentum non modo impellendo verum etiam adiuvando pollicebatur. nunc vero quam subito non solum ex urbe verum etiam ex agris ingentem numerum perditorum hominum conlegerat! nemo non modo Romae sed ne ullo quidem in angulo totius Italiae oppressus aere alieno fuit quem non ad hoc incredibile sceleris foedus asciverit.
And that you may perceive his diverse pursuits in their unlike methods — there is no one in the gladiators’ school somewhat readier for crime than the rest who does not confess himself an intimate of Catiline; no one on the stage more frivolous and worthless who does not recall having been almost a comrade of his. And the same man, accustomed by the practice of debaucheries and crimes to the bearing of cold and hunger and thirst and sleeplessness, was praised by these men as “hardy” — when he was using up the supports of industry and the instruments of virtue on his lust and audacity.
atque ut eius diversa studia in dissimili ratione perspicere possitis, nemo est in ludo gladiatorio paulo ad facinus audacior qui se non intimum Catilinae esse fateatur, nemo in scaena levior et nequior qui se non eiusdem prope sodalem fuisse commemoret. atque idem tamen stuprorum et scelerum exercitatione adsuefactus frigore et fame et siti et vigiliis perferendis fortis ab istis praedicabatur, cum industriae subsidia atque instrumenta virtutis in libidine audaciaque consumeret.
If, indeed, his comrades shall follow him, if these scandalous herds of desperate men shall go out of the city — O happy us, O fortunate commonwealth, O distinguished praise of my consulship! For these men’s lusts are not now middling, their audacity not human and bearable; they think of nothing but slaughter, but fires, but plunder. They have squandered their patrimonies, they have mortgaged their fortunes; their property long since, their credit lately, has begun to fail them. Yet that same lust which there was in their abundance remains. If in their drink and dice they sought only feasts and harlots, they would indeed be men to be despaired of, but yet to be borne. But who could bear this — that idle men should plot against the bravest, the most foolish against the most prudent, the drunken against the sober, the sleeping against the waking? who, reclining at my banquets, embracing shameless women, languid with wine, stuffed with food, garlanded with wreaths, smeared with ointments, weakened by debauches, belch out in their conversations the slaughter of loyal men and the burning of the city.
hunc vero si secuti erunt sui comites, si ex urbe exierint desperatorum hominum flagitiosi greges, o nos beatos, o rem publicam fortunatum, o praeclaram laudem consulatus mei! non enim iam sunt mediocres hominum libidines, non humanae et tolerandae audaciae; nihil cogitant nisi caedem, nisi incendia, nisi rapinas. patrimonia sua profuderunt, fortunas suas obligaverunt; res eos iam pridem, fides nuper deficere coepit: eadem tamen illa quae erat in abundantia libido permanet. quod si in vino et alea comissationes solum et scorta quaererent, essent illi quidem desperandi, sed tamen essent ferendi: hoc vero quis ferre possit, inertis homines fortissimis viris insidiari, stultissimos prudentissimis, ebrios sobriis, dormientis vigilantibus? qui mihi accubantes in conviviis, complexi mulieres impudicas, vino languidi, conferti cibo, sertis redimiti, unguentis obliti, debilitati stupris eructant sermonibus suis caedem bonorum atque urbis incendia.
Whom I am confident that some doom hangs over, and that the punishment owed long since to wickedness, worthlessness, crime, and lust is now plainly upon them or certainly draws near. Whom if my consulship, since it cannot heal them, shall have removed — it shall have prolonged for the commonwealth not some short time but many ages. For there is no nation we should fear, no king who can make war upon the Roman people. All abroad has been pacified by one man’s courage, by land and sea: there remains domestic war, the snares are within, within is the danger enclosed, within is the enemy. With luxury, with madness, with crime we must contend. To this war I declare myself the leader, citizens; I take up the enmities of lost men. What can be cured I shall cure by any method; what must be cut away I shall not allow to remain to the ruin of the city. So let them either go out, or be quiet, or, if they remain in the city and in the same mind, let them expect what they deserve.
quibus ego confido impendere fatum aliquod et poenam iam diu improbitati, nequitiae, sceleri, libidini debitam aut instare iam plane aut certe appropinquare. quos si meus consulatus, quoniam sanare non potest, sustulerit, non breve nescio quod tempus sed multa saecula propagarit rei publicae. nulla enim est natio quam pertimescamus, nullus rex qui bellum populo Romano facere possit. omnia sunt externa unius virtute terra marique pacata: domesticum bellum manet, intus insidiae sunt, intus inclusum periculum est, intus est hostis. cum luxuria nobis, cum amentia, cum scelere certandum est. huic ego me bello ducem profiteor, Quirites; suscipio inimicitias hominum perditorum; quae sanari poterunt quacumque ratione sanabo, quae resecanda erunt non patiar ad perniciem civitatis manere. proinde aut exeant aut quiescant aut, si et in urbe et in eadem mente permanent, ea quae merentur exspectent.
But there are still those who say, citizens, that Catiline was cast out by me. If I could attain it by a word, I would cast out those very men who say this. For evidently the timid or even very modest man could not bear the consul’s voice; as soon as he was bidden to go into exile, he obeyed. Why, even yesterday, when I had nearly been killed at home, I called the Senate to the temple of Jupiter Stator and laid the whole matter before the senators. When Catiline came there, what senator addressed him, who saluted him, who at last so much as looked at him as a lost citizen and not rather as a most dangerous enemy? — nay, even the leaders of that order left bare and empty that part of the benches to which he had drawn near.
at etiam sunt qui dicant, Quirites, a me eiectum esse Catilinam. quod ego si verbo adsequi possem, istos ipsos eicerem qui haec loquuntur. homo enim videlicet timidus aut etiam permodestus vocem consulis ferre non potuit; simul atque ire in exsilium iussus est, paruit. quin hesterno die, cum domi meae paene interfectus essem, senatum in aedem Iovis Statoris convocavi, rem omnem ad patres conscriptos detuli. quo cum Catilina venisset, quis eum senator appellavit, quis salutavit, quis denique ita aspexit ut perditum civem ac non potius ut importunissimum hostem? quin etiam principes eius ordinis partem illam subselliorum ad quam ille accesserat nudam atque inanem reliquerunt.
Then I, that vehement consul who casts out citizens into exile by a word, asked Catiline whether he had been at the night-meeting at Marcus Laeca’s or no. When that most audacious man, convicted by his conscience, was at first silent, I laid open the rest: what he had done that night, where he had been, what he had appointed for the next, in what way the plan of the entire war had been laid out for him — I expounded all. When he hesitated, when he was caught, I asked what he hesitated to set out where he had long been preparing, when I knew that arms, axes, fasces, trumpets, military standards, and that silver eagle for which he had even set up a shrine in his house — had been sent ahead.
hic ego vehemens ille consul qui verbo civis in exsilium eicio quaesivi a Catilina in nocturno conventu ad M. M arcum Laecam fuisset necne. cum ille homo audacissimus conscientia convictus primo reticuisset, patefeci cetera: quid ea nocte egisset, ubi fuisset, quid in proximam constituisset, quem ad modum esset ei ratio totius belli descripta edocui. cum haesitaret, cum teneretur, quaesivi quid dubitaret proficisci eo quo iam pridem pararet, cum arma, cum securis, cum fascis, cum tubas, cum signa militaria, cum aquilam illam argenteam cui ille etiam sacrarium domi suae fecerat scirem esse praemissam.
Was I casting into exile the man whom I had seen had already entered upon war? For, I suppose, that centurion Manlius who pitched camp in the Faesulan country has on his own authority declared war on the Roman people, and that camp is not now expecting Catiline as its leader, and the man cast into exile is taking himself, as they say, to Massilia, not to that camp. O wretched condition not only of administering but even of preserving the commonwealth! Now if Lucius Catiline, hemmed in and weakened by my counsels, my labours, my dangers, shall suddenly take fright, change his mind, desert his men, abandon the design of war, and from this course of crime and war turn his way to flight and exile, he will not be said to have been stripped of the arms of his audacity by me, not stupefied and terrified by my diligence, not driven from his hope and his attempt; he will be said to have been cast into exile, uncondemned and innocent, by force and threats of the consul: and there will be those who, if he does this, would have him reckoned not wicked but wretched, and me reckoned not the most diligent consul but the cruellest tyrant!
in exsilium eiciebam quem iam ingressum esse in bellum videram? etenim, credo, Manlius iste centurio qui in agro Faesulano castra posuit bellum populo Romano suo nomine indixit, et illa castra nunc non Catilinam ducem exspectant, et ille eiectus in exsilium se Massiliam, ut aiunt, non in haec castra confert. O condicionem miseram non modo administrandae verum etiam conservandae rei publicae! nunc si L. L ucius Catilina consiliis, laboribus, periculis meis circumclusus ac debilitatus subito pertimuerit, sententiam mutaverit, deseruerit suos, consilium belli faciendi abiecerit, et ex hoc cursu sceleris ac belli iter ad fugam atque in exsilium converterit, non ille a me spoliatus armis audaciae, non obstupefactus ac perterritus mea diligentia, non de spe conatuque depulsus, sed indemnatus innocens in exsilium eiectus a consule vi et minis esse dicetur: et erunt qui illum, si hoc fecerit, non improbum sed miserum, me non diligentissimum consulem sed crudelissimum tyrannum existimari velint!
It is worth as much to me, citizens, to undergo the storm of this false and unjust odium, provided only that the danger of this dreadful and wicked war be turned aside from you. By all means let it be said that he was cast out by me, provided only that he go into exile. But, believe me, he will not go. Never, citizens, shall I pray to the immortal gods, for the relief of my odium, that you should hear of Lucius Catiline leading an army of enemies and flitting about in arms; yet within three days you will hear it. And I am much more afraid of this — that it may yet be invidious against me that I let him out rather than cast him out. But when there are men who say that, since he set out, he was cast out — the same, if he had been killed, what would they say?
est mihi tanti, Quirites, huius invidiae falsae atque iniquae tempestatem subire, dum modo a vobis huius horribilis belli ac nefarii periculum depellatur. dicatur sane eiectus esse a me, dum modo eat in exsilium. sed mihi credite, non est iturus. numquam ego ab dis immortalibus optabo, Quirites, invidiae meae relevandae causa ut L. L ucium Catilinam ducere exercitum hostium atque in armis volitare audiatis, sed triduo tamen audietis; multoque magis illud timeo ne mihi sit invidiosum aliquando quod illum emiserim potius quam quod eiecerim. sed cum sint homines qui illum, cum profectus sit, eiectum esse dicant, idem, si interfectus esset, quid dicerent?
And those who keep saying that Catiline is on his way to Massilia complain of it less than they fear it. There is no one of them so merciful as not to prefer that he go to Manlius rather than to the Massilians. As for him, by Hercules, even if he had never before thought of what he is now doing, yet he would prefer being killed in his brigandage to living in exile. Now, indeed, since nothing has so far befallen him beyond his own will and design, except that he set out from Rome while we yet lived, let us rather hope that he go into exile than complain.
quamquam isti qui Catilinam Massiliam ire dictitant non tam hoc queruntur quam verentur. nemo est istorum tam misericors qui illum non ad Manlium quam ad Massiliensis ire malit. ille autem, si me hercule hoc quod agit numquam antea cogitasset, tamen latrocinantem se interfici mallet quam exsulem vivere. nunc vero, cum ei nihil adhuc praeter ipsius voluntatem cogitationemque acciderit, nisi quod vivis nobis Roma profectus est, optemus potius ut eat in exsilium quam queramur.
But why do we speak so long of one enemy — and of one enemy who now confesses he is an enemy, and whom, since (what I always wished) a wall stands between us, I do not fear? — and say nothing of those who dissemble, who remain at Rome, who are with us? whom indeed I, if it can in any way be done, am eager not so much to punish as to heal — to themselves, to placate to the commonwealth; nor do I see why this could not be done, if they are willing now to hear me. For I shall set out for you, citizens, of what kinds of men these forces are gathered; then to each I shall apply the medicine of my counsel and my speech, if I can.
sed cur tam diu de uno hoste loquimur et de eo hoste qui iam fatetur se esse hostem, et quem, quia, quod semper volui, murus interest, non timeo: de his qui dissimulant, qui Romae remanent, qui nobiscum sunt nihil dicimus? quos quidem ego, si ullo modo fieri possit, non tam ulcisci studeo quam sanare sibi ipsos, placare rei publicae, neque id qua re fieri non possit, si iam me audire volent, intellego. exponam enim vobis, Quirites, ex quibus generibus hominum istae copiae comparentur; deinde singulis medicinam consili atque orationis meae, si quam potero, adferam.
One kind is of those who, with a great debt, have yet greater holdings, and from love of which they cannot in any way bring themselves to come loose. The look of these men is most respectable — for they are well-off — but their will and motive are most shameless. You are equipped and rich in lands, in buildings, in silver, in slaves, in everything; and yet you hesitate to take from your holding to add to your credit? For what are you waiting? War? What then? — in the laying-waste of all things do you suppose your own holdings will be sacrosanct? Or do you wait for new account-books? They err who expect such from Catiline: by my kindness new account-books are set up — but auctioneer’s books; for these men who have holdings can in no other way be safe. If they had been willing to do it earlier, and not (which is most foolish) to fight the interest with the produce of their estates, we should be using them as both wealthier and better citizens. But these men I think least to be feared, because they can either be drawn off from their resolve, or, if they remain in it, seem to me likelier to make vows against the commonwealth than to bear arms.
Vnum genus est eorum qui magno in aere alieno maiores etiam possessiones habent quarum amore adducti dissolvi nullo modo possunt. Horum hominum species est honestissima — sunt enim locupletes — voluntas vero et causa impudentissima. tu agris, tu aedificiis, tu argento, tu familia, tu rebus omnibus ornatus et copiosus sis, et dubites de possessione detrahere, adquirere ad fidem? quid enim exspectas? bellum? quid ergo? in vastatione omnium tuas possessiones sacrosanctas futuras putes? an tabulas novas? errant qui istas a Catilina exspectant: meo beneficio tabulae novae proferuntur, verum auctionariae; neque enim isti qui possessiones habent alia ratione ulla salvi esse possunt. quod si maturius facere voluissent neque, id quod stultissimum est, certare cum usuris fructibus praediorum, et locupletioribus his et melioribus civibus uteremur. sed hosce homines minime puto pertimescendos, quod aut deduci de sententia possunt aut, si permanebunt, magis mihi videntur vota facturi contra rem publicam quam arma laturi.
The second kind is of those who, although weighed down by debt, yet expect domination, wish to seize on power, think they can attain in a disturbed commonwealth the offices they despair of in a quiet one. To these the same precept seems to be given as to all the rest — that they despair of attaining what they attempt: first of all, that I myself keep watch, am present, am providing for the commonwealth; then, that there are great spirits in good men, great concord of the orders, the greatest multitude, great forces of soldiers besides; that the immortal gods, finally, will bring to this unconquered people, this most distinguished empire, this most beautiful city, present help against so great a force of crime. But if they were now to attain that which in the highest madness they desire — in the ash of the city and in the blood of the citizens, which they have, in their criminal and unspeakable mind, longed for, do they hope to be consuls or dictators or even kings? Do they not see that they desire what, if they attained it, they must of necessity yield up to some runaway slave or gladiator?
alterum genus est eorum qui, quamquam premuntur aere alieno, dominationem tamen exspectant, rerum potiri volunt, honores quos quieta re publica desperant perturbata se consequi posse arbitrantur. quibus hoc praecipiendum videtur, unum scilicet et idem quod reliquis omnibus, ut desperent id quod conantur se consequi posse: primum omnium me ipsum vigilare, adesse, providere rei publicae; deinde magnos animos esse in bonis viris, magnam concordiam ordinum, maximam multitudinem, magnas praeterea militum copias; deos denique immortalis huic invicto populo, clarissimo imperio, pulcherrimae urbi contra tantam vim sceleris praesentis auxilium esse laturos. quod si iam sint id quod summo furore cupiunt adepti, num illi in cinere urbis et in sanguine civium, quae mente conscelerata ac nefaria concupiverunt, consules se aut dictatores aut etiam reges sperant futuros? non vident id se cupere quod, si adepti sint, fugitivo alicui aut gladiatori concedi sit necesse?
The third kind is of men now affected by age, but yet sturdy by exercise; of which kind is that Manlius, whose place Catiline is now taking. These are men from those colonies which Sulla established, which I see as wholes to be of the best citizens and bravest men; but yet they are colonists who threw themselves about, in moneys unhoped for and sudden, more lavishly and more insolently than was decent. While they build like men of fortune, while they delight in choice estates, large households, fitted-out banquets, they fell into so great a debt that, if they wished to be safe, Sulla would have to be raised for them from the dead. They have even driven some country-folk, slender and needy, into that same hope of the old plunder. Both of these I place in the same kind of plunderers and despoilers; but I warn them: let them cease to rage and to think of proscriptions and dictatorships. For so great a sorrow of those times has been seared into the state that not only men but not even, it seems to me, beasts will now bear them.
Tertium genus est aetate iam adfectum, sed tamen exercitatione robustum; quo ex genere iste est Manlius cui nunc Catilina succedit. hi sunt homines ex eis coloniis quas Sulla constituit; quas ego universas civium esse optimorum et fortissimorum virorum sentio, sed tamen ei sunt coloni qui se in insperatis ac repentinis pecuniis sumptuosius insolentiusque iactarunt. hi dum aedificant tamquam beati, dum praediis lectis, familiis magnis, conviviis apparatis delectantur, in tantum aes alienum inciderunt ut, si salvi esse velint, Sulla sit eis ab inferis excitandus: qui etiam non nullos agrestis homines tenuis atque egentis in eandem illam spem rapinarum veterum impulerunt. quos ego utrosque in eodem genere praedatorum direptorumque pono, sed eos hoc moneo, desinant furere ac proscriptiones et dictaturas cogitare. tantus enim illorum temporum dolor inustus est civitati ut iam ista non modo homines sed ne pecudes quidem mihi passurae esse videantur.
The fourth kind is mixed indeed, and motley, and turbulent: those who have long been weighed down, who never come to the surface, who partly through laziness, partly by mismanaging their business, partly by their expenses, totter in old debt, who, worn out by bail-bonds, by trials, by the proscription of their goods, are very many, and are said to be betaking themselves both from the city and from the country to that camp. These I think are not so much keen soldiers as slow defaulters. Let these men, the sooner the better, if they cannot stand, fall — but in such a way that not only the state but not even their nearest neighbours feel it. For this I do not understand: why, if they cannot live honourably, they would wish to perish basely; or why they think they shall perish with less pain in company with many than if they perish alone.
quartum genus est sane varium et mixtum et turbulentum; qui iam pridem premuntur, qui numquam emergunt, qui partim inertia, partim male gerendo negotio, partim etiam sumptibus in vetere aere alieno vacillant, qui vadimoniis, iudiciis, proscriptione bonorum defetigati permulti et ex urbe et ex agris se in illa castra conferre dicuntur. hosce ego non tam milites acris quam infitiatores lentos esse arbitror. qui homines quam primum, si stare non possunt, conruant, sed ita ut non modo civitas sed ne vicini quidem proximi sentiant. nam illud non intellego quam ob rem, si vivere honeste non possunt, perire turpiter velint, aut cur minore dolore perituros se cum multis quam si soli pereant arbitrentur.
The fifth kind is of parricides, of cut-throats, in short of every kind of criminal. These I do not call back from Catiline; for neither can they be torn loose from him, and let them die, by all means, in their brigandage, since they are so many that the prison cannot hold them. The last kind, however, is one peculiar to Catiline — not in numbers only but in its very kind and manner of life — chosen out of his levy, no, drawn from his very embrace and bosom; whom you see with combed hair, glossy, either beardless or well-bearded, in long-sleeved and floor-length tunics, draped not in togas but in veils; whose whole industry of life and labour of waking is poured out at midnight dinners.
Quintum genus est parricidarum, sicariorum, denique omnium facinerosorum. quos ego a Catilina non revoco; nam neque ab eo divelli possunt et pereant sane in latrocinio, quoniam sunt ita multi ut eos carcer capere non possit. postremum autem genus est non solum numero verum etiam genere ipso atque vita quod proprium Catilinae est, de eius dilectu, immo vero de complexu eius ac sinu; quos pexo capillo, nitidos, aut imberbis aut bene barbatos videtis, manicatis et talaribus tunicis, velis amictos, non togis; quorum omnis industria vitae et vigilandi labor in antelucanis cenis expromitur.
In these herds move all the gamblers, all the adulterers, all the impure and shameless. These boys, so charming and dainty, have learned not only to love and be loved, not only to dance and to sing, but even to brandish daggers and to scatter poisons. Who, unless they leave, unless they perish — even if Catiline shall perish — be assured this in the commonwealth will be the seed-bed of new Catilines. But what do these wretches mean by themselves? Are they to take their little women with them into camp? But how shall they manage without them, especially at this season of nights? In what manner shall those men endure the Apennine and those frosts and snows? unless they think they will the more easily bear the winter because they have learned to dance naked at banquets.
in his gregibus omnes aleatores, omnes adulteri, omnes impuri impudicique versantur. hi pueri tam lepidi ac delicati non solum amare et amari neque saltare et cantare sed etiam sicas vibrare et spargere venena didicerunt. qui nisi exeunt, nisi pereunt, etiam si Catilina perierit, scitote hoc in re publica seminarium Catilinarum futurum. verum tamen quid sibi isti miseri volunt? num suas secum mulierculas sunt in castra ducturi? quem ad modum autem illis carere poterunt, his praesertim iam noctibus? quo autem pacto illi Appenninum atque illas pruinas ac nivis perferent? nisi idcirco se facilius hiemem toleraturos putant, quod nudi in conviviis saltare didicerunt.
O war greatly to be feared, when Catiline is to have this praetorian cohort of harlots! Marshal now, citizens, against these so distinguished forces of Catiline your guards and your armies. And first, against that broken-down and wounded gladiator put your consuls and your generals; then, against that tossed-out and weakened band of wrecks, lead out the flower and strength of all Italy. The cities of the colonies and municipalities will answer to Catiline’s woody hillocks. Nor ought I to compare your other forces, ornaments, garrisons, with that brigand’s poverty and want.
O bellum magno opere pertimescendum, cum hanc sit habiturus Catilina scortorum cohortem praetoriam! instruite nunc, Quirites, contra has tam praeclaras Catilinae copias vestra praesidia vestrosque exercitus. et primum gladiatori illi confecto et saucio consules imperatoresque vestros opponite; deinde contra illam naufragorum eiectam ac debilitatam manum florem totius Italiae ac robur educite. iam vero urbes coloniarum ac municipiorum respondebunt Catilinae tumulis silvestribus. neque ego ceteras copias, ornamenta, praesidia vestra cum illius latronis inopia atque egestate conferre debeo.
But if, leaving aside those things in which we abound and he is wanting — the Senate, the Roman knights, the city, the treasury, the revenues, all Italy, all the provinces, the foreign nations — if, leaving these aside, we wish to weigh the very causes which clash with each other, from this very thing we may understand how prostrate they lie. For on this side fights modesty, on that wantonness; here purity, there debauchery; here good faith, there fraud; here piety, there crime; here constancy, there madness; here honour, there baseness; here continence, there lust; here, in short, equity, temperance, courage, prudence — all the virtues contend with iniquity, luxury, sloth, recklessness, with all the vices; lastly, abundance contends with want, sound reason with reason ruined, sound mind with madness, in fine good hope with the despair of all things. In a contest and battle of this kind, surely, even if men’s zeal should fail, the immortal gods themselves would compel so many and so great vices to be overcome by these most distinguished virtues?
sed si, omissis his rebus quibus nos suppeditamur, eget ille, senatu, equitibus Romanis, urbe, aerario, vectigalibus, cuncta Italia, provinciis omnibus, exteris nationibus, si his rebus omissis causas ipsas quae inter se confligunt contendere velimus, ex eo ipso quam valde illi iaceant intellegere possumus. ex hac enim parte pudor pugnat, illinc petulantia; hinc pudicitia, illinc stuprum; hinc fides, illinc fraudatio; hinc pietas, illinc scelus; hinc constantia, illinc furor; hinc honestas, illinc turpitudo; hinc continentia, illinc libido; hinc denique aequitas, temperantia, fortitudo, prudentia, virtutes omnes certant cum iniquitate, luxuria, ignavia, temeritate, cum vitiis omnibus; postremo copia cum egestate, bona ratio cum perdita, mens sana cum amentia, bona denique spes cum omnium rerum desperatione confligit. in eius modi certamine ac proelio nonne, si hominum studia deficiant, di ipsi immortales cogant ab his praeclarissimis virtutibus tot et tanta vitia superari?
Since these things are so, citizens, do you, as I have said before, defend your roofs by watches and guards; for me, that the city should have a sufficient garrison without your fear and without any uproar, has been provided and looked to. All your colonists and townsmen, informed by me of this nightly excursion of Catiline, will easily defend their cities and territories. The gladiators, whom he thought would be his most certain band, although they are of better mind than a part of the patricians, will yet be held back by our power. Quintus Metellus, whom I, foreseeing this, sent ahead into the Gallic and Picene country, will either crush the man or cut off all his motions and attempts. As for the rest of the matters to be settled, hastened, set on foot, I shall now refer to the Senate, which you see is being summoned.
quae cum ita sint, Quirites, vos, quem ad modum iam antea dixi, vestra tecta vigiliis custodiisque defendite; mihi ut urbi sine vestro metu ac sine ullo tumultu satis esset praesidi consultum atque provisum est. coloni omnes municipesque vestri certiores a me facti de hac nocturna excursione Catilinae facile urbis suas finisque defendent; gladiatores, quam sibi ille manum certissimam fore putavit, quamquam animo meliore sunt quam pars patriciorum, potestate tamen nostra continebuntur. Q. Q uintus Metellus quem ego hoc prospiciens in agrum Gallicum Picenumque praemisi aut opprimet hominem aut eius omnis motus conatusque prohibebit. reliquis autem de rebus constituendis, maturandis, agendis iam ad senatum referemus, quem vocari videtis.
Now those who have remained in the city, and indeed those who have been left in the city by Catiline against the safety of the city and of you all, although they are enemies, yet, because they were born citizens, I want them again and again warned. If my mildness has hitherto seemed too lax to anyone, it has waited for this — that what was lying hid might burst out. As for what remains, I cannot now forget that this is my country, that I am their consul, that I must either live with these or die for these. There is no guard at the gates, no plotter on the road; if any wish to go out, I can wink. But whoever shall stir himself in the city, whose deed (or even any beginning, any attempt against his country) I shall have caught — he will know that there are vigilant consuls in this city, distinguished magistrates, a brave Senate, that there are arms, that there is a prison which our ancestors wished to be the avenger of unspeakable and manifest crimes.
nunc illos qui in urbe remanserunt atque adeo qui contra urbis salutem omniumque vestrum in urbe a Catilina relicti sunt, quamquam sunt hostes, tamen, quia nati sunt cives, monitos etiam atque etiam volo. mea lenitas adhuc si cui solutior visa est, hoc exspectavit ut id quod latebat erumperet. quod reliquum est, iam non possum oblivisci meam hanc esse patriam, me horum esse consulem, mihi aut cum his vivendum aut pro his esse moriendum. nullus est portis custos, nullus insidiator viae: si qui exire volunt, conivere possum; qui vero se in urbe commoverit cuius ego non modo factum sed vel inceptum ullum conatumve contra patriam deprehendero, sentiet in hac urbe esse consules vigilantis, esse egregios magistratus, esse fortem senatum, esse arma, esse carcerem quem vindicem nefariorum ac manifestorum scelerum maiores nostri esse voluerunt.
And all these things shall be so handled that the greatest matters be settled with the least commotion, the gravest dangers with no uproar, an internal and domestic war (the cruellest and the greatest within the memory of mankind) be quenched under me alone as togate leader and commander. Which I shall so administer, citizens, that, if it can in any way be done, not even any wicked man in this city shall undergo the penalty of his crime. But if the violence of manifest audacity, if the danger hanging over our country shall of necessity have led me from this mildness of mind, I shall surely accomplish what in so great and so insidious a war scarcely seems to be wished for — that no good man perish, and that by the punishment of a few you all may be safe.
atque haec omnia sic agentur ut maximae res minimo motu, pericula summa nullo tumultu, bellum intestinum ac domesticum post hominum memoriam crudelissimum et maximum me uno togato duce et imperatore sedetur. quod ego sic administrabo, Quirites, ut, si ullo modo fieri poterit, ne improbus quidem quisquam in hac urbe poenam sui sceleris sufferat. sed si vis manifestae audaciae, si impendens patriae periculum me necessario de hac animi lenitate deduxerit, illud profecto perficiam quod in tanto et tam insidioso bello vix optandum videtur, ut neque bonus quisquam intereat paucorumque poena vos omnes salvi esse possitis.
These things I promise you, citizens, trusting neither in my own prudence nor in human counsels, but in many and undoubted indications of the immortal gods, under whose lead I have entered upon this hope and this opinion — gods who now not from afar, as they once were wont, against an external and distant enemy, but here, present, by their divinity and their aid defend their own temples and the houses of the city. Whom you, citizens, ought to entreat, to venerate, to implore, that the city which they wished to be the most beautiful, the most flourishing, the most powerful, this same, with all the forces of the enemy on land and sea overcome, they may defend from the unspeakable crime of the most lost citizens.
quae quidem ego neque mea prudentia neque humanis consiliis fretus polliceor vobis, Quirites, sed multis et non dubiis deorum immortalium significationibus, quibus ego ducibus in hanc spem sententiamque sum ingressus; qui iam non procul, ut quondam solebant, ab externo hoste atque longinquo, sed hic praesentes suo numine atque auxilio sua templa atque urbis tecta defendunt. quos vos, Quirites, precari, venerari, implorare debetis ut, quam urbem pulcherrimam florentissimam potentissimamque esse voluerunt, hanc omnibus hostium copiis terra marique superatis a perditissimorum civium nefario scelere defendant.