Against Catiline, Fourth Speech
In Catilinam IV
Headnote
The fourth Catilinarian, delivered in the Senate on 5 December 63 BC — the famous Nones of December debate on the punishment of the conspirators in custody (Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius, Ceparius). Cicero presides as consul. The Senate is divided. Decimus Silanus, the consul-designate who is asked first, has spoken for death; Tiberius Nero has spoken for postponing the question; Gaius Caesar, when his turn came, has spoken for the alternative of confiscation of goods and life imprisonment apportioned among the Italian municipalities, with no possibility of subsequent remission either by the Senate or by a popular assembly. Cicero rises to expound the two opinions and let the Senate choose, but it is plain from the speech which he prefers and why. The Sallustian record makes the next speakers Lutatius Catulus and Cato; Cato will speak next for death, the Senate will follow him, and that night the prisoners will be taken by Cicero in person to the Tullianum and strangled in turn.
Cicero’s argument is the consul’s. The opening disclaimer of personal danger and concern for his family (§1–3) sets up the moral position from which the rest is spoken; the analysis of the two opinions in §7–11 is one of the most exact pieces of parliamentary politics in the corpus. Caesar’s opinion is generously described — a hostage of his perpetual goodwill toward the commonwealth, a true mind popularis distinguished from the levity of mob-orators — but Cicero points out, by way of asking how Caesar can hold the conspirators not citizens for the purposes of the Lex Sempronia, that the consequence of Caesar’s own reasoning is that the death penalty is licit, since the conspirators are no longer citizens at all. The roll-call of the orders (§14–17) is a portrait of the city standing together: the Roman knights, the tribunes of the treasury, the scribes, the freeborn of every grade, the freedmen, the shopkeepers (whose “stock-in-trade is sustained by a throng of citizens, is nourished by quiet”), even the slaves of any tolerable condition. The consular pivot is the closing section’s catalogue of what Cicero has refused on behalf of the city: the army, the province, the triumph, the badges of praise; in return he asks only the memory of his consulship, and commends to the Senate his little son.
The conspirators were executed that night — vixerunt, “they have lived,” was Cicero’s word to the crowd as he came down from the Tullianum. The execution without trial of Roman citizens by senatorial decree, on the authority of the senatus consultum ultimum, would five years later furnish Clodius the pretext for Cicero’s exile. The voice that closes this speech — “you have a consul who will not hesitate either to obey your decrees and to defend, as long as he lives, what you shall have decided” — was hearing in the same room, on this same night, the steps of the same future.
I see, senators, that the faces and eyes of you all are turned upon me; I see that you are anxious not only about your own danger and that of the commonwealth but, if that be put aside, also about mine. Your goodwill toward me is, in evil times, pleasing, and in pain, welcome; but, by the immortal gods, lay it aside, and forgetting my safety think of yourselves and of your children. If this condition of the consulship has been given me, that I should bear all bitterness, all pains and torments, I shall bear them not only bravely but also gladly — provided only that by my labours dignity and safety be brought to you and to the Roman people.
video, patres conscripti, in me omnium vestrum ora atque oculos esse conversos, video vos non solum de vestro ac rei publicae verum etiam, si id depulsum sit, de meo periculo esse sollicitos. est mihi iucunda in malis et grata in dolore vestra erga me voluntas, sed eam per deos immortalis! deponite atque obliti salutis meae de vobis ac de vestris liberis cogitate. mihi si haec condicio consulatus data est ut omnis acerbitates, omnis dolores cruciatusque perferrem, feram non solum fortiter verum etiam libenter, dum modo meis laboribus vobis populoque Romano dignitas salusque pariatur.
I am that consul, senators, for whom not the Forum, in which all equity is contained, not the Field of Mars, consecrated by the consular auspices, not the Senate-house, the supreme refuge of all nations, not my house, the common refuge, not the bed given for rest, not, in short, this seat of office, has ever been free from the danger and snares of death. I have kept silent on many things, borne many, conceded many, healed many — with some pain to myself — in your fear. Now if the immortal gods have willed this end to my consulship, that I should snatch you and the Roman people from a most wretched slaughter, your wives and children and the Vestal virgins from a most bitter outrage, the temples and shrines and this most beautiful country of us all from a most foul flame, all Italy from war and devastation — whatever fortune is set before me alone, let it be undergone. For if Publius Lentulus, drawn on by soothsayers, thought his name fated to the ruin of the commonwealth, why should I not rejoice that my consulship has come to be almost fated to the safety of the Roman people?
ego sum ille consul, patres conscripti, cui non forum in quo omnis aequitas continetur, non campus consularibus auspiciis consecratus, non curia, summum auxilium omnium gentium, non domus, commune perfugium, non lectus ad quietem datus, non denique haec sedes honoris umquam vacua mortis periculo atque insidiis fuit. ego multa tacui, multa pertuli, multa concessi, multa meo quodam dolore in vestro timore sanavi. nunc si hunc exitum consulatus mei di immortales esse voluerunt ut vos populumque Romanum ex caede miserrima, coniuges liberosque vestros virginesque Vestalis ex acerbissima vexatione, templa atque delubra, hanc pulcherrimam patriam omnium nostrum ex foedissima flamma, totam Italiam ex bello et vastitate eriperem, quaecumque mihi uni proponetur fortuna subeatur. etenim si P. P ublius Lentulus suum nomen inductus a vatibus fatale ad perniciem rei publicae fore putavit, cur ego non laeter meum consulatum ad salutem populi Romani prope fatalem exstitisse?
Therefore, senators, take counsel for yourselves, look out for the country, save yourselves, your wives, your children, your fortunes; defend the name and safety of the Roman people; cease to spare me and to think of me. For first I ought to hope that all the gods who preside over this city will return thanks to me as I deserve; then, if anything happens, I shall die with an even and prepared mind. For neither can a base death befall a brave man, nor an untimely one a consular, nor a wretched one a wise man. And yet I am not so iron as not to be moved by the grief of my dearest and most loving brother who is here, and by the tears of all those by whom you see me beset. Nor does my mind fail to call me back home — by my wife, undone, my daughter cast down with fear, and my little son, whom the commonwealth seems to me to embrace as a hostage of my consulship; nor by him who, awaiting the end of this day, stands in my sight, my son-in-law. I am moved by all these things, but only that they may be safe with you, even if some violence shall crush me, rather than that both they and we together perish in the ruin of the commonwealth.
qua re, patres conscripti, consulite vobis, prospicite patriae, conservate vos, coniuges, liberos fortunasque vestras, populi Romani nomen salutemque defendite; mihi parcere ac de me cogitare desinite. nam primum debeo sperare omnis deos qui huic urbi praesident pro eo mihi ac mereor relaturos esse gratiam; deinde, si quid obtigerit, aequo animo paratoque moriar. nam neque turpis mors forti viro potest accidere neque immatura consulari nec misera sapienti. nec tamen ego sum ille ferreus qui fratris carissimi atque amantissimi praesentis maerore non movear horumque omnium lacrimis a quibus me circumsessum videtis. neque meam mentem non domum saepe revocat exanimata uxor et abiecta metu filia et parvolus filius, quem mihi videtur amplecti res publica tamquam obsidem consulatus mei, neque ille qui exspectans huius exitum diei stat in conspectu meo gener. moveor his rebus omnibus, sed in eam partem uti salvi sint vobiscum omnes, etiam si me vis aliqua oppresserit, potius quam et illi et nos una rei publicae peste pereamus.
For which reason, senators, lean to the safety of the commonwealth, look around at all the storms which hang over you unless you provide. It is not Tiberius Gracchus, because he wished to be made tribune of the plebs a second time, not Gaius Gracchus, because he tried to stir up the agrarian party, not Lucius Saturninus because he killed Gaius Memmius, who is being brought into some peril and into the judgment of your severity: those are held who remained at Rome to burn the city, to slaughter you all, to receive Catiline; the letters are held, the seals, the hands, in short the confession of each. The Allobroges are solicited, the slaves stirred up, Catiline summoned — that is, the design has been entered upon that, with all killed, no one should be left even to lament the name of the Roman people and to bewail the calamity of so great an empire.
qua re, patres conscripti, incumbite ad salutem rei publicae, circumspicite omnis procellas quae impendent nisi providetis. non Ti. T iberius Gracchus quod iterum tribunus plebis fieri voluit, non C. G aius Gracchus quod agrarios concitare conatus est, non L. L ucius Saturninus quod C. G aium Memmium occidit, in discrimen aliquod atque in vestrae severitatis iudicium adducitur: tenentur ei qui ad urbis incendium, ad vestram omnium caedem, ad Catilinam accipiendum Romae restiterunt, tenentur litterae, signa, manus, denique unius cuiusque confessio: sollicitantur Allobroges, servitia excitantur, Catilina arcessitur, id est initum consilium ut interfectis omnibus nemo ne ad deplorandum quidem populi Romani nomen atque ad lamentandam tanti imperi calamitatem relinquatur.
All these things the informers have brought, the accused have confessed, you have already by many judgments judged: first, in that you returned thanks to me in singular words and decreed that by my courage and diligence the conspiracy of lost men had been brought to light; then in that you compelled Publius Lentulus to abdicate the praetorship; then in that you decreed that he and the rest concerning whom you had judged be given over into custody; and most of all in that you decreed a thanksgiving in my name — which honour has been granted to no togate citizen before me; finally, yesterday, you gave the most ample rewards to the envoys of the Allobroges and to Titus Volturcius. All which things are of such a kind that those who have been delivered into custody by name seem without any doubt to have been condemned by you.
haec omnia indices detulerunt, rei confessi sunt, vos multis iam iudiciis iudicavistis, primum quod mihi gratias egistis singularibus verbis et mea virtute atque diligentia perditorum hominum coniurationem patefactam esse decrevistis, deinde quod P. P ublium Lentulum se abdicare praetura coegistis; tum quod eum et ceteros de quibus iudicastis in custodiam dandos censuistis, maximeque quod meo nomine supplicationem decrevistis, qui honos togato habitus ante me est nemini; postremo hesterno die praemia legatis Allobrogum Titoque Volturcio dedistis amplissima. quae sunt omnia eius modi ut ei qui in custodiam nominatim dati sunt sine ulla dubitatione a vobis damnati esse videantur.
But I have determined to refer the matter to you, senators, as if untouched, both as to what you judge of the deed and what you decide on for the punishment. Those things I shall set forth which are the consul’s. I have long seen that a great frenzy was abroad in the commonwealth, and that some new evils were being mixed and stirred up; but I never thought that a conspiracy this great, this ruinous, was being held by citizens. Now, whatever it is, in whatever direction your minds and opinions incline, you must decide before nightfall. How great a crime has been brought before you, you see. To it, if you think few are accessory, you are vehemently mistaken. This evil has been disseminated more widely than is supposed; it has flowed not only through Italy but has even crossed the Alps, and creeping in obscurity has now seized many provinces. To suppress it by holding off and putting it off cannot in any way be done; in whatever way it pleases you, it must be quickly punished by you.
sed ego institui referre ad vos, patres conscripti, tamquam integrum, et de facto quid iudicetis et de poena quid censeatis. illa praedicam quae sunt consulis. ego magnum in re publica versari furorem et nova quaedam misceri et concitari mala iam pridem videbam, sed hanc tantam, tam exitiosam haberi coniurationem a civibus numquam putavi. nunc quicquid est, quocumque vestrae mentes inclinant atque sententiae, statuendum vobis ante noctem est. quantum facinus ad vos delatum sit videtis. huic si paucos putatis adfinis esse, vehementer erratis. Latius opinione disseminatum est hoc malum; manavit non solum per Italiam verum etiam transcendit Alpis et obscure serpens multas iam provincias occupavit. id opprimi sustentando et prolatando nullo pacto potest; quacumque ratione placet celeriter vobis vindicandum est.
I see that there are so far two opinions: one of Decimus Silanus, who decrees that those who tried to destroy these things should be visited with death; the other of Gaius Caesar, who removes the punishment of death and embraces all the bitterness of the other punishments. Each, both for his own dignity and for the magnitude of affairs, moves in the highest severity. The one judges that those who tried to deprive us all and the Roman people of life, who tried to destroy the empire, to extinguish the name of the Roman people, ought not to enjoy a single moment of life and this common breath; and he recalls that this kind of punishment has often been used against wicked citizens in this commonwealth. The other understands that death has been set up by the immortal gods not for the sake of punishment, but as either the necessity of nature or the rest from labours and miseries. So the wise have never met it unwillingly, the brave often even gladly. But chains — and those everlasting — have certainly been devised as a singular punishment of unspeakable crime. He orders them to be apportioned among the municipalities. The thing seems to have an unfairness in it, if you should wish to command; a difficulty, if you should ask.
video duas adhuc esse sententias, unam D. Silani qui censet eos qui haec delere conati sunt morte esse multandos, alteram C. G aii Caesaris qui mortis poenam removet, ceterorum suppliciorum omnis acerbitates amplectitur. Vterque et pro sua dignitate et pro rerum magnitudine in summa severitate versatur. alter eos qui nos omnis, qui populum Romanum vita privare conati sunt, qui delere imperium, qui populi Romani nomen exstinguere, punctum temporis frui vita et hoc communi spiritu non putat oportere atque hoc genus poenae saepe in improbos civis in hac re publica esse usurpatum recordatur. alter intellegit mortem a dis immortalibus non esse supplici causa constitutam, sed aut necessitatem naturae aut laborum ac miseriarum quietem. itaque eam sapientes numquam inviti, fortes saepe etiam libenter oppetiverunt. vincula vero et ea sempiterna certe ad singularem poenam nefarii sceleris inventa sunt. municipiis dispertiri iubet. habere videtur ista res iniquitatem, si imperare velis, difficultatem, si rogare.
Yet let it be decreed, if it pleases. For I shall undertake it, and, as I hope, shall find men who think it not against their dignity to refuse what for the safety of all you shall have decided. He adds a heavy penalty for the municipalities, if any of these prisoners shall break his chains; he sets dreadful guards around them, worthy of the crime of lost men; he provides that no one should be able to lighten the punishment of those whom he condemns either through the Senate or through the people; he takes away even hope, which alone is wont to console a man in his miseries. Besides, he orders the goods to be made public; he leaves to wicked men life alone — which if he had taken away, he would have removed many miseries of mind and body in one pang, and all the punishments of crimes. So that some terror might be set before the wicked in life, the ancients of old wished such punishments to be set up among the dead for the impious, because, you see, they understood that, with these removed, death itself would not be greatly to be feared.
decernatur tamen, si placet. ego enim suscipiam et, ut spero, reperiam qui id quod salutis omnium causa statueritis non putent esse suae dignitatis recusare. adiungit gravem poenam municipiis, si quis eorum vincula ruperit; horribilis custodias circumdat et dignas scelere hominum perditorum; sancit ne quis eorum poenam quos condemnat aut per senatum aut per populum levare possit; eripit etiam spem quae sola hominem in miseriis consolari solet. bona praeterea publicari iubet; vitam solam relinquit nefariis hominibus: quam si eripuisset, multas uno dolore animi atque corporis miserias et omnis scelerum poenas ademisset. itaque ut aliqua in vita formido improbis esset proposita, apud inferos eius modi quaedam illi antiqui supplicia impiis constituta esse voluerunt, quod videlicet intellegebant his remotis non esse mortem ipsam pertimescendam.
Now, senators, I see what is to my interest. If you shall have followed the opinion of Gaius Caesar, since he has followed in the commonwealth that path which is held to be popular, perhaps with this sponsor and witness of the opinion popular outbreaks against me will be less to be dreaded; but if the other, I do not know whether more trouble may not be brought upon me. Yet let the interest of the commonwealth conquer the reckoning of my dangers. For we have from Caesar, as both his own dignity and the greatness of his ancestors demanded, an opinion that is, as it were, a hostage of his perpetual goodwill toward the commonwealth. It has been understood what is the difference between the levity of mob-orators and a mind truly popular providing for the safety of the people.
nunc, patres conscripti, ego mea video quid intersit. si eritis secuti sententiam C. G aii Caesaris, quoniam hanc is in re publica viam quae popularis habetur secutus est, fortasse minus erunt hoc auctore et cognitore huiusce sententiae mihi populares impetus pertimescendi; sin illam alteram, nescio an amplius mihi negoti contrahatur. sed tamen meorum periculorum rationes utilitas rei publicae vincat. habemus enim a Caesare, sicut ipsius dignitas et maiorum eius amplitudo postulabat, sententiam tamquam obsidem perpetuae in rem publicam voluntatis. intellectum est quid interesset inter levitatem contionatorum et animum vere popularem saluti populi consulentem.
I see that of those who wish to be held popular some are absent, lest, of course, they cast a vote on the life of Roman citizens. The same man both two days ago gave Roman citizens into custody, and decreed a thanksgiving for me, and yesterday rewarded the informers most amply. To no one is it now a doubt what he, who decreed custody for the accused, congratulation for the inquirer, reward for the informer, judged about the whole matter and case. But Gaius Caesar understands that the lex-sempronia-de-capite-civium/">Lex Sempronia was set up about Roman citizens; that whoever is an enemy of the commonwealth can in no way be a citizen; finally, that the very mover of the Lex Sempronia paid the penalty to the commonwealth at the people’s order. The same man does not think that Lentulus, that lavish prodigal, even can be called popular, since he has so bitterly, so cruelly thought about the ruin of the Roman people, the destruction of this city. So this most mild and most gentle man does not hesitate to commit Publius Lentulus to everlasting darkness and chains, and provides for the future that no one may afterwards be able to vaunt himself by lightening this man’s punishment, and to be “popular” in the ruin of the Roman people. He adds the confiscation of the goods, that every torment of mind, and want and beggary of body besides, may follow.
video de istis qui se popularis haberi volunt abesse non neminem, ne de capite videlicet civium Romanorum sententiam ferat. is et nudius tertius in custodiam civis Romanos dedit et supplicationem mihi decrevit et indices hesterno die maximis praemiis adfecit. iam hoc nemini dubium est qui reo custodiam, quaesitori gratulationem, indici praemium decrerit, quid de tota re et causa iudicarit. at vero C. G aius Caesar intellegit legem Semproniam esse de civibus Romanis constitutam; qui autem rei publicae sit hostis eum civem esse nullo modo posse: denique ipsum latorem Semproniae legis iussu populi poenas rei publicae dependisse. idem ipsum Lentulum, largitorem et prodigum, non putat, cum de pernicie populi Romani, exitio huius urbis tam acerbe, tam crudeliter cogitarit, etiam appellari posse popularem. itaque homo mitissimus atque lenissimus non dubitat P. P ublium Lentulum aeternis tenebris vinculisque mandare et sancit in posterum ne quis huius supplicio levando se iactare et in pernicie populi Romani posthac popularis esse possit. adiungit etiam publicationem bonorum, ut omnis animi cruciatus et corporis etiam egestas ac mendicitas consequatur.
For which reason, whether you decide on this, you will have given me a comrade for the assembly dear and pleasant to the people, or whether you prefer to follow Silanus’s opinion, the Roman people will easily free me and you of any reproach of cruelty, and I shall maintain that it was much the gentler. And yet, senators, what cruelty can there be in punishing the savagery of so great a crime? For I judge from my own feeling. So may it be permitted me to enjoy with you the commonwealth saved, as I, in being more vehement in this case, am moved not by atrocity of mind — for who is gentler than I? — but by a singular humanity and mercy. For I seem to myself to see this city, the light of the world and the citadel of all nations, suddenly falling in one fire. I see in mind the wretched and unburied heaps of citizens in a buried country; before my eyes turns the look of Cethegus and his frenzy revelling in your slaughter.
quam ob rem, sive hoc statueritis, dederitis mihi comitem ad contionem populo carum atque iucundum, sive Silani sententiam sequi malueritis, facile me atque vos crudelitatis vituperatione populus Romanus liberabit, atque obtinebo eam multo leniorem fuisse. quamquam, patres conscripti, quae potest esse in tanti sceleris immanitate punienda crudelitas? ego enim de meo sensu iudico. nam ita mihi salva re publica vobiscum perfrui liceat ut ego, quod in hac causa vehementior sum, non atrocitate animi moveor — quis enim est me mitior? — sed singulari quadam humanitate et misericordia. videor enim mihi videre hanc urbem, lucem orbis terrarum atque arcem omnium gentium, subito uno incendio concidentem. cerno animo sepulta in patria miseros atque insepultos acervos civium, versatur mihi ante oculos aspectus Cethegi et furor in vestra caede bacchantis.
When I have set before me Lentulus reigning, as he himself has confessed he had hoped from the fates, Gabinius beside him in purple, Catiline come with his army — then the lamentation of mothers of households, then the flight of girls and boys, and the outrage of the Vestal virgins make me shudder. And because these things seem to me vehemently wretched and pitiable, on that account I shall show myself severe and vehement against those who wished to bring them to pass. For I ask: if any father of a household, with his children killed by a slave, his wife killed, his house burned, did not visit upon the slaves the most bitter punishment, would he seem merciful and pitying, or most inhuman and most cruel? To me, indeed, the man would seem dangerous and iron who did not soften his own pain and torment by the pain and torment of the guilty. So we, in the case of these men who wished to butcher us, our wives, our children, who tried to destroy the houses of each one of us and this universal dwelling-place of the commonwealth, who set on foot to settle the Allobrogan nation in the traces of this city and on the ash of an empire burned away — if we shall be most vehement, we shall be held merciful; but if we shall wish to be more remiss, the report of supreme cruelty in the ruin of country and citizens must be undergone by us.
cum vero mihi proposui regnantem Lentulum, sicut ipse se ex fatis sperasse confessus est, purpuratum esse huic Gabinium, cum exercitu venisse Catilinam, tum lamentationem matrum familias, tum fugam virginum atque puerorum ac vexationem virginum Vestalium perhorresco, et, quia mihi vehementer haec videntur misera atque miseranda, idcirco in eos qui ea perficere voluerunt me severum vehementemque praebebo. etenim quaero, si quis pater familias, liberis suis a servo interfectis, uxore occisa, incensa domo, supplicium de servis non quam acerbissimum sumpserit, utrum is clemens ac misericors an inhumanissimus et crudelissimus esse videatur? mihi vero importunus ac ferreus qui non dolore et cruciatu nocentis suum dolorem cruciatumque lenierit. sic nos in his hominibus qui nos, qui coniuges, qui liberos nostros trucidare voluerunt, qui singulas unius cuiusque nostrum domos et hoc universum rei publicae domicilium delere conati sunt, qui id egerunt ut gentem Allobrogum in vestigiis huius urbis atque in cinere deflagrati imperi conlocarent, si vehementissimi fuerimus, misericordes habebimur; sin remissiores esse voluerimus, summae nobis crudelitatis in patriae civiumque pernicie fama subeunda est.
Unless to anyone Lucius Caesar, that bravest and most loyal man, seemed two days ago crueller, when he said that the husband of his own sister, that most select woman — present and listening — ought to be deprived of life; when he said that his own grandfather had been killed by a consul’s order, and his grandfather’s son, an underage boy, sent as legate by his father, had been killed in prison. What, of these, was a like deed; what design entered upon to destroy the commonwealth? The will to bounty was then abroad in the commonwealth, and a kind of contention of parties. And at that time the grandfather of this Lentulus, a most distinguished man, armed, pursued Gracchus. He even at that time received a heavy wound, that nothing of the sum of the commonwealth might be diminished; this man, to overthrow the foundations of the commonwealth, summons the Gauls, stirs up the slaves, calls Catiline, allots us to be butchered to Cethegus and the rest of the citizens to be killed to Gabinius, the city to be burnt to Cassius, all Italy to be wasted and despoiled to Catiline. I think you should fear less to seem to have decided some severer thing in this so monstrous and unspeakable crime: much more is it to be feared that by remission of penalty we shall seem cruel toward our country than that by severity of chastisement we shall seem too vehement against the bitterest enemies.
Nisi vero cuipiam L. L ucius Caesar, vir fortissimus et amantissimus rei publicae, crudelior nudius tertius visus est, cum sororis suae, feminae lectissimae, virum praesentem et audientem vita privandum esse dixit, cum avum suum iussu consulis interfectum filiumque eius impuberem legatum a patre missum in carcere necatum esse dixit. quorum quod simile factum, quod initum delendae rei publicae consilium? largitionis voluntas tum in re publica versata est et partium quaedam contentio. atque illo tempore huius avus Lentuli, vir clarissimus, armatus Gracchum est persecutus. ille etiam grave tum volnus accepit, ne quid de summa rei publicae minueretur; hic ad evertenda fundamenta rei publicae Gallos arcessit, servitia concitat, Catilinam vocat, attribuit nos trucidandos Cethego et ceteros civis interficiendos Gabinio, urbem inflammandam Cassio, totam Italiam vastandam diripiendamque Catilinae. vereamini minus censeo ne in hoc scelere tam immani ac nefando aliquid severius statuisse videamini: multo magis est verendum ne remissione poenae crudeles in patriam quam ne severitate animadversionis nimis vehementes in acerbissimos hostis fuisse videamur.
But what I overhear, senators, I cannot dissemble. For voices are thrown about which come to my ears, of those who seem to fear that I have not enough protection for what you decide today must be carried out. Everything, senators, has been provided and prepared and set in order, both with my supreme care and diligence and much more even with the will of the Roman people to keep the supreme empire and to preserve the common fortunes. All men of all orders are present, of every kind, in short of every age; the Forum is full, the temples around the Forum are full, all the approaches to this temple and place are full. For this is the only cause that has been found, since the founding of the city, in which all felt one and the same thing — except those who, when they saw they must perish themselves, wished to perish with all rather than alone.
sed ea quae exaudio, patres conscripti, dissimulare non possum. iaciuntur enim voces quae perveniunt ad auris meas eorum qui vereri videntur ut habeam satis praesidi ad ea quae vos statueritis hodierno die transigenda. omnia et provisa et parata et constituta sunt, patres conscripti, cum mea summa cura atque diligentia tum multo etiam maiore populi Romani ad summum imperium retinendum et ad communis fortunas conservandas voluntate. omnes adsunt omnium ordinum homines, omnium generum, omnium denique aetatum; plenum est forum, plena templa circum forum, pleni omnes aditus huius templi ac loci. causa est enim post urbem conditam haec inventa sola in qua omnes sentirent unum atque idem praeter eos qui, cum sibi viderent esse pereundum, cum omnibus potius quam soli perire voluerunt.
These men I except and willingly set apart; nor do I think they are to be counted in the number of wicked citizens but of the bitterest enemies. The rest, however, immortal gods! with what throng, what zeal, what courage do they agree for the common safety and dignity! Why should I here recall the Roman knights? who yield to you the supreme rank in counsel in such a way as to contend with you in love of the commonwealth; whom this day, called back from many years of dissension with this order to partnership and concord, joins with you and with this case. Which conjunction, if confirmed in my consulship, we shall keep perpetual in the commonwealth, I assure you that no civil and domestic evil shall hereafter come to any part of the commonwealth. With like zeal for defending the commonwealth I see the tribunes of the treasury, those bravest men, have come together; and the scribes likewise as a body, whom, though by chance this day had brought them together at the treasury, I see turned from the expectation of the lot to the common safety.
hosce ego homines excipio et secerno libenter, neque in improborum civium sed in acerbissimorum hostium numero habendos puto. ceteri vero, di immortales! qua frequentia, quo studio, qua virtute ad communem salutem dignitatemque consentiunt! quid ego hic equites Romanos commemorem? qui vobis ita summam ordinis consilique concedunt ut vobiscum de amore rei publicae certent; quos ex multorum annorum dissensione huius ordinis ad societatem concordiamque revocatos hodiernus dies vobiscum atque haec causa coniungit. quam si coniunctionem in consulatu confirmatam meo perpetuam in re publica tenuerimus, confirmo vobis nullum posthac malum civile ac domesticum ad ullam rei publicae partem esse venturum. Pari studio defendendae rei publicae convenisse video tribunos aerarios, fortissimos viros; scribas item universos quos, cum casu hic dies ad aerarium frequentasset, video ab exspectatione sortis ad salutem communem esse conversos.
The whole multitude of the freeborn is present, even of the slenderest. For who is there to whom these temples, the look of the city, the holding of liberty, this very light, in short, and the common soil of country are not both dear and indeed sweet and pleasant? It is worth while, senators, to know the zeal of the freedmen, who, having attained by their own courage the fortune of this state, judge this truly to be their country, when certain men born here, and born of the highest place, have judged it to be not their country but the city of enemies. But why do I recall these orders and men, whom private fortunes, the common commonwealth, the liberty (which is sweetest of all things) have stirred up to defend the safety of the country? There is no slave, who is only of a tolerable condition of slavery, who does not shudder at the audacity of citizens, who does not desire these things to stand, who does not contribute as much will as he dares and can to the common safety.
omnis ingenuorum adest multitudo, etiam tenuissimorum. quis est enim cui non haec templa, aspectus urbis, possessio libertatis, lux denique haec ipsa et commune patriae solum cum sit carum tum vero dulce atque iucundum? operae pretium est, patres conscripti, libertinorum hominum studia cognoscere qui, sua virtute fortunam huius civitatis consecuti, vere hanc suam patriam esse iudicant quam quidam hic nati, et summo nati loco, non patriam suam sed urbem hostium esse iudicaverunt. sed quid ego hosce ordines atque homines commemoro quos privatae fortunae, quos communis res publica, quos denique libertas ea quae dulcissima est ad salutem patriae defendendam excitavit? servus est nemo, qui modo tolerabili condicione sit servitutis, qui non audaciam civium perhorrescat, qui non haec stare cupiat, qui non quantum audet et quantum potest conferat ad salutem voluntatis.
For which reason if any of you is by chance moved by what has been heard — that some pander of Lentulus’s is running about among the shops, hoping that for a price the minds of the needy and unschooled can be solicited — this thing has indeed been begun and tried, but no men were found so wretched in fortune or so lost in will as not to wish that the very place of their seat and work and daily gain, that the bed and their little couch, that this quiet course of their life, be safe. Indeed by far the greatest part of those who are in the shops, no, the whole class — for that should rather be said — is most loving toward quiet. For all their stock-in-trade, all their work and gain, are sustained by a throng of citizens, are nourished by quiet; whose gain, if it tends to be diminished by the closing of shops, what would happen if they were burned?
qua re si quem vestrum forte commovet hoc quod auditum est, lenonem quendam Lentuli concursare circum tabernas, pretio sperare sollicitari posse animos egentium atque imperitorum, est id quidem coeptum atque temptatum, sed nulli sunt inventi tam aut fortuna miseri aut voluntate perditi qui non illum ipsum sellae atque operis et quaestus cotidiani locum, qui non cubile ac lectulum suum, qui denique non cursum hunc otiosum vitae suae salvum esse velint. multo vero maxima pars eorum qui in tabernis sunt, immo vero — id enim potius est dicendum — genus hoc universum amantissimum est oti. etenim omne instrumentum, omnis opera atque quaestus frequentia civium sustentatur, alitur otio; quorum si quaestus occlusis tabernis minui solet, quid tandem incensis futurum fuit?
Since these things are so, senators, the protection of the Roman people is not lacking to you: see to it that you not seem to be lacking to the Roman people. You have a consul reserved out of many dangers and snares and out of the midst of death not for his own life but for your safety. All orders agree in mind, will, voice for the saving of the commonwealth. Beset by the firebrands and weapons of an impious conspiracy, the common country stretches out her hands as a suppliant to you; to you she commits herself, to you the lives of all her citizens, to you the citadel and the Capitoline, to you the altars of the Penates, to you that everlasting fire of Vesta, to you the temples and shrines of all the gods, to you the walls and houses of the city. Besides, on your own life, on the souls of your wives and children, on the fortunes of all, on your seats and hearths, you must judge today.
quae cum ita sint, patres conscripti, vobis populi Romani praesidia non desunt: vos ne populo Romano deesse videamini providete. habetis consulem ex plurimis periculis et insidiis atque ex media morte non ad vitam suam sed ad salutem vestram reservatum. omnes ordines ad conservandam rem publicam mente, voluntate, voce consentiunt. obsessa facibus et telis impiae coniurationis vobis supplex manus tendit patria communis, vobis se, vobis vitam omnium civium, vobis arcem et Capitolium, vobis aras Penatium, vobis illum ignem Vestae sempiternum, vobis omnium deorum templa atque delubra, vobis muros atque urbis tecta commendat. praeterea de vestra vita, de coniugum vestrarum atque liberorum anima, de fortunis omnium, de sedibus, de focis vestris hodierno die vobis iudicandum est.
You have a leader who remembers you and forgets himself — which is not always given; you have all the orders, all men, the entire Roman people, what we see today for the first time in a civil case, feeling one and the same thing. Consider what labours founded the empire, what courage made liberty firm, what kindness of the gods increased and heaped up these fortunes — all that one night might have nearly destroyed. That this can never hereafter not only not be carried through but even thought of by citizens, must be provided this day. And these things I have spoken not to rouse you, who almost outrun me in zeal, but that my voice, which ought to be in the commonwealth foremost, might seem to have discharged its consular duty.
habetis ducem memorem vestri, oblitum sui, quae non semper facultas datur; habetis omnis ordines, omnis homines, universum populum Romanum, id quod in civili causa hodierno die primum videmus, unum atque idem sentientem. cogitate quantis laboribus fundatum imperium, quanta virtute stabilitam libertatem, quanta deorum benignitate auctas exaggeratasque fortunas una nox paene delerit. id ne umquam posthac non modo non confici sed ne cogitari quidem possit a civibus hodierno die providendum est. atque haec, non ut vos qui mihi studio paene praecurritis excitarem, locutus sum, sed ut mea vox quae debet esse in re publica princeps officio functa consulari videretur.
Now, before I return to your opinion, I shall say a few words about myself. I see that, as great as is the band of the conspirators, which you see is very great, I have brought upon myself a multitude of enemies of like size; but I judge that multitude base and weak and abject. But if at some time, stirred up by anyone’s frenzy and crime, that band shall prevail more than your dignity and that of the commonwealth, yet, senators, I shall never repent of my deeds and counsels. For death, with which they perhaps threaten me, is prepared for all; the praise of life as great as you have honoured me with by your decrees, no man has attained: for to others you have always decreed congratulation for affairs well managed; to me alone for the commonwealth saved.
nunc ante quam ad sententiam redeo, de me pauca dicam. ego, quanta manus est coniuratorum, quam videtis esse permagnam, tantam me inimicorum multitudinem suscepisse video; sed eam turpem iudico et infirmam et abiectam. quod si aliquando alicuius furore et scelere concitata manus ista plus valuerit quam vestra ac rei publicae dignitas, me tamen meorum factorum atque consiliorum numquam, patres conscripti, paenitebit. etenim mors, quam illi fortasse minitantur, omnibus est parata: vitae tantam laudem quanta vos me vestris decretis honestastis nemo est adsecutus; ceteris enim semper bene gesta, mihi uni conservata re publica gratulationem decrevistis.
Let that famous Scipio be distinguished, by whose counsel and courage Hannibal was compelled to return to Africa and to depart from Italy; let the other Africanus be adorned with surpassing praise, who destroyed two cities most hostile to this empire, Carthage and Numantia; let that Paulus be reckoned a distinguished man, whose chariot the most powerful and most noble king Perseus once honoured; let Marius be in everlasting glory, who twice freed Italy from siege and from the fear of slavery; let Pompey be set before all, whose deeds and virtues are bounded by the same regions and limits as the sun’s course: there will surely be among the praises of these some place for our glory — unless perhaps it is more to throw open to us provinces whither we may go than to take care that even those who are absent should have a place to which to return as victors.
sit Scipio clarus ille cuius consilio atque virtute Hannibal in Africam redire atque Italia decedere coactus est, ornetur alter eximia laude Africanus qui duas urbis huic imperio infestissimas Karthaginem Numantiamque delevit, habeatur vir egregius Paulus ille cuius currum rex potentissimus quondam et nobilissimus Perses honestavit, sit aeterna gloria Marius qui bis Italiam obsidione et metu servitutis liberavit, anteponatur omnibus Pompeius cuius res gestae atque virtutes isdem quibus solis cursus regionibus ac terminis continentur: erit profecto inter horum laudes aliquid loci nostrae gloriae, nisi forte maius est patefacere nobis provincias quo exire possimus quam curare ut etiam illi qui absunt habeant quo victores revertantur.
Although in one point the condition of foreign victory is better than of domestic — because foreign-born enemies, when crushed, either serve, or, when received, count themselves bound by the kindness; but those who from the number of citizens, depraved by some madness, have once begun to be enemies of country — these, when you have driven them off from the ruin of the commonwealth, you can neither coerce by force nor placate by kindness. For which reason I see that with lost citizens an everlasting war has been undertaken by me. That war I trust can easily be warded off from me and from mine, by your help and that of all loyal men, and by the memory of so great dangers, which not only in this people which has been saved but in the conversations and minds of all nations will always cling. Nor will any force be found so great that can break and shake your conjunction with the Roman knights, and so great a conspiring of all loyal men.
quamquam est uno loco condicio melior externae victoriae quam domesticae, quod hostes alienigenae aut oppressi serviunt aut recepti beneficio se obligatos putant, qui autem ex numero civium dementia aliqua depravati hostes patriae semel esse coeperunt, eos, cum a pernicie rei publicae reppuleris, nec vi coercere nec beneficio placare possis. qua re mihi cum perditis civibus aeternum bellum susceptum esse video. id ego vestro bonorumque omnium auxilio memoriaque tantorum periculorum, quae non modo in hoc populo qui servatus est sed in omnium gentium sermonibus ac mentibus semper haerebit, a me atque a meis facile propulsari posse confido. neque ulla profecto tanta vis reperietur quae coniunctionem vestram equitumque Romanorum et tantam conspirationem bonorum omnium confringere et labefactare possit.
Since these things are so, in return for my command, for my army, for my province which I neglected, for my triumph and the rest of the badges of praise which by me, on account of the guarding of the city’s and your safety, have been refused, in return for my provincial clientships and friendships — which yet I keep up by my urban resources with no less labour than I procure — in return, then, for all these things, in return for my singular zeal toward you, and in return for this diligence in saving the commonwealth, which you see, I ask of you nothing but the memory of this time and of my whole consulship. So long as that shall be fixed in your minds, I shall consider myself fenced in by the safest wall. But if the violence of the wicked shall disappoint and overcome my hope, I commend to you my little son, for whom there will assuredly be sufficient protection not only for safety but even for dignity, if you remember that he is the son of him who at his sole risk has saved all these things.
quae cum ita sint, pro imperio, pro exercitu, pro provincia quam neglexi, pro triumpho ceterisque laudis insignibus quae sunt a me propter urbis vestraeque salutis custodiam repudiata, pro clientelis hospitiisque provincialibus quae tamen urbanis opibus non minore labore tueor quam comparo, pro his igitur omnibus rebus, pro meis in vos singularibus studiis proque hac quam perspicitis ad conservandam rem publicam diligentia nihil a vobis nisi huius temporis totiusque mei consulatus memoriam postulo: quae dum erit in vestris fixa mentibus, tutissimo me muro saeptum esse arbitrabor. quod si meam spem vis improborum fefellerit atque superaverit, commendo vobis parvum meum filium, cui profecto satis erit praesidi non solum ad salutem verum etiam ad dignitatem, si eius qui haec omnia suo solius periculo conservarit illum filium esse memineritis.
For which reason concerning the supreme safety of yourselves and of the Roman people, concerning your wives and children, concerning your altars and hearths, concerning the shrines and temples, concerning the houses and seats of the whole city, concerning the empire and liberty, concerning the safety of Italy, concerning the entire commonwealth, decide diligently, as you have begun, and bravely. You have a consul who will not hesitate either to obey your decrees and, what you shall have decided, to defend it as long as he lives, and to make it good by himself.
quapropter de summa salute vestra populique Romani, de vestris coniugibus ac liberis, de aris ac focis, de fanis atque templis, de totius urbis tectis ac sedibus, de imperio ac libertate, de salute Italiae, de universa re publica decernite diligenter, ut instituistis, ac fortiter. habetis eum consulem qui et parere vestris decretis non dubitet et ea quae statueritis, quoad vivet, defendere et per se ipsum praestare possit.