The 2nd Catilinarian of Marcus Tullius Cicero,
given on the Rostra in the Roman Forum before the People on the 9th of November, 63 B.C. (published
in 60 B.C.)
Background
The First Catilinarian did its job: Catiline had been clearly angered. Though all the ancient sources, including Cicero, agree that Catiline said nothing in response, that he was struck dumb, it was clear that the accused had spoken up at least once (maybe twice), only to be shut down by the voice of the orator damning him.Then:
When Cicero sat down, Catiline, being prepared to pretend ignorance of the whole matter, entreated, with downcast looks and suppliant voice, that "the Conscript Fathers would not too hastily believe any thing against him;" saying "that he was sprung from such a family, and had so ordered his life from his youth, as to have every happiness in prospect; and that they were not to suppose that he, a patrician, whose services to the Roman people, as well as those of his ancestors, had been so numerous, should want to ruin the state, when Marcus Tullius, a mere adopted citizen of Rome, was eager to preserve it."
-Sallust, Bellum Catilinae XXXI
But he was unable to continue speaking with tranquility, and so, before he could engage in further insults on the character of his recent assailant, he was drowned out by the Senators who shouted words like “Traitor!” and “Enemy!” It can be said that it was Cicero’s style and speaking ability, rather than any ironclad accusations in his speech, by which he persuaded the Senators to turn against Catiline.
Unable to do anything, Catiline then shouted exasperatedly:
"Since I am encompassed by enemies," he exclaimed,"and driven to desperation, I will extinguish the flame kindled around me in a general ruin."
-Ibid.
Therefore, Catiline decided to set out from the city in the dead of night with “a few” (“paucis” Ibid. XXXII) attendants. He left Lentulus Sura and Cethegus in charge of furthering the murder, fire, and chaos of the city, promising them that he would return with an army at his back.
While on his departure, Catiline penned letters to leading citizens of the Republic and men of Consular rank, which read:
"[A]s he was beset by false accusations, and unable to resist the combination of his enemies, he was submitting to the will of fortune, and going into exile at Marseilles; not that he was guilty of the great wickedness laid to his charge, but that the state might be undisturbed, and that no insurrection might arise from his defense of himself."
-Ibid. XXXIV
It is here we should pause to speak of these two men whom Catiline had left in charge before he departed.
Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura - 114 - 63 B.C.
Popularly known as Lentulus or Sura or a combination of both, this Roman patrician belonged to the ancient Cornelian House. He fought for Sulla in the Mario-Sullan Civil Wars and served as a Quaestor under him in 81 B.C. While having access to the Public Purse, he squandered public funds with such shamelessness that when an investigative body asked to see his ledgers, he insolently offered the calf of his leg (sura) to them instead: this is akin to asking for a slap on the wrist, for the calf was where boys were smacked when committing a foul at ball. Today, he would be nicknamed, "The Wrist". He apparently used this money to keep a rather ostentatious lifestyle, perhaps modeling himself after Lucullus.He served as Praetor for 75 B.C., Propraetor of Sicily in the year following, and Consul for 71.
It was after his Consulship that Lentulus Sura married Julia Antonia, widower of the late Marcus Antonius Creticus. Creticus had been charged with cleaning the Mediterranean of pirates but had died at Crete in 71 B.C. having made no significant progress; he was survived by his wife and only son, Marcus Antonius (yea, that very one, the Triumvir, who was an infant in the Mario-Sullan Civil War).
The following year, Lentulus Sura was expelled from the Senate on charges of immorality. He then threw in his lot with Catiline, for not only did he seek a high place in office in the new regime, but he was continually in debt due to the extravagance of his surroundings. Further bolstered by a Sibyline prophecy naming three Cornelians the rulers of Rome, Lentulus decided that he was to be the third, given that two had already preceded him: Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Dictator, and Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Marius' second.
Gaius Cornelius Cethegus - ??? - 63 B.C.
Described as the most violent, rash, and bloodthirsty of Catiline's gang, this Cethegus, a member of the Cornelian House, planned to himself murder Cicero and other leading men. He grew impatient with what he considered to be the slow and overly cautious incompetence of Lentulus Sura, who outranked him in seniority and forbade him from taking action.November 9th, 63 B.C.
When sunlight broke over a Rome without Catiline, Cicero, along with his friends and clients, made his way to the Roman Forum. He was to exercise one of his magisterial rights, which was to summon to People for a contio, a council. In the Forum, he would ascend the Rostra ("The Beaks"), the famous speaker's platform upon which site the Roman forebearers had held councils of the People in the Comitium ("The Assembly Place") in times of war and peace. Cicero probably never imagined that his head and right hand would be nailed to this very Rostra twenty years hence.
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| http://condor.depaul.edu/sbucking/296A05_over14.htm |
The People crowded together to hear their supreme executive magistrate, who, having been invested with Dictatorial-esque powers granted by a Senatorial Decree, was rumored to have ordered Lucius Sergius Catilina into banishment. Compounded to this were further rumors of an army encamped under rebel standards in Etruria, plots of fire and murder, unconfirmed reports that the Consul was nearly slain at his own home, and general news of unrest throughout the countryside; in a city hardly larger than 5.5 square miles yet having a population of c. 900,000, news required no social media to travel so quickly.
The Senators had become convinced (for the most part) of the need to stop Catiline and his associates, and the madman himself was gone; but the People needed to be told, convinced, and on the Consul's side. This was the easy part: who in the city remained who could or would dare to refute him? Anyone with intimate knowledge of the plot was involved in it and depended on secrecy to keep the conspiracy alive.
Cicero, standing unopposed and unchallenged on the greatest soap box the Empire had, set out to demonstrate to the remaining conspirators that the People were united against them and they were being watched.
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At last, O Quirites, we have cast out from the city L. Catilina as he raged in violence, as he was breathlessly panting for crime, plotting an unholy plague for our nation, threatening both all of you and this city! Or, if you prefer to say, we sent him off; or, we harried him with reproaches while he left! But he has gone. He has left. He has escaped. He has broken out.
Now shall no destruction be plotted against this city from within these very walls by that unnatural and monstrous creature. And this man, Catilina, the single leader of this domestic war, we have vanquished without dispute. For no longer shall his dagger hover about our flanks -- not in the Field, not in the Forum, not in the Senate-house, and finally, we shall no longer be afraid within the walls of our own homes! He lost his chance when he was cast out from the city. Now we shall wage a just war openly with no enemy hindering us. Without a doubt we landed a finishing blow and won a splendid victory over the man when we cast him from his hidden plots into open brigandage!
But, because he did not take his gore-spattered blade as he wished, because we are all alive, because we have ripped his blade from his hands, because the citizens are unharmed, because he left the city still standing -- oh, because of all these reasons, how much do all of you think that he is afflicted and tormented by grief? He lies now thrown upon the ground, O Quirites, and he himself realizes that he has been stricken and cast out, and so now he turns back his eyes (often, I assure you) to this city which he laments has been snatched from his jaws! Indeed, the city seems to me to be glad, given that such a plague she has retched up and cast out outside her doors.
And yet if there be any man of the sort of disposition all men ought to have, who in this very thing of which my speech boasts and triumphs doth ardently accuse me that I did not arrest an enemy-of-the-state so worthy of execution, but rather sent him away -- that is not my fault, O Quirites, but the fault of the times. That slain L. Catilina be, and having the gravest punishment undergone is something which long since ought to have happened, and this outcome was the custom of our ancestors, and the severity of my office, and the Republic demanding of me. But how many were there do ye think who, when those sorts of things I was reporting, did not believe them? How many, who because of foolishness did not think so of him? How many who even defended him? How many who on account of their own dishonesty favored him? And so, if, after he had been removed, that kept off from ye I thought every danger, long since would I have removed L. Catilina not only at the expense of ill will toward me, but even at risk to my life.
But because I saw that not even to all of ye had then the facts been proved, that if I would have then punished Catilina -- as he had deserved -- with death, then it would happen that his allies would I, having become overwhelmed by ill will, not be able to follow up on. So these events I have to this point dragged on so that when the time came, publicly ye would be able to fight, when this enemy-of-the-state ye could openly see. By the way, O Quirites, please understand hence how passionately I think this enemy-of-the-state must yet be feared even when cast out-of-doors, for also I am vexed that from the City he less-accompanied did leave. Would that the man had all of his forces led out with him! Tongilius, I note, he led out, whom he had started to befriend in his boyhood, as well as Publicius and Minucius, whose trifling debts drawn up in a taverns were in no way able to be a blow to the Republic -- he left behind men with such trifling debt, men who are so powerful, men who are of such good breeding!
And thus do I condemn that army of his -- which will stand before our Gallic legions, and the contingent levied here which in Picenum and Gallic territory Q. Metellus hath raised and kept, and these forces which by us daily are being prepared -- yes, greatly do I condemn that army, made up of hopeless old men, rural opulence, country bankrupts, and those who preferred to abandon their debts than abandon that enemy army! If to these men I will not only have shown the battle array of our army, but merely a Praetor's draft of stricter reformation of the debtors' courts, they will all fall to shambles. These men, whom I see flitting about the Forum, whom I see standing near the Senate-House, whom I see even into the Senate are come, yea these men who glisten with perfumes, who shine in purple -- I would more that the man had led them out as soldiers. If any of them yet remain here, be ye then mindful that not so much must we fear that army, but these men who have not joined the army -- these men must be feared. And because of this they ought to be feared more: that I know what they plot. They realize this; however, they are not stirred.
I have seen to whom Apulia has been gifted, who should possess Etruria, who gets Picenum territory, who shall have the Gallic territory, who asked for himself the City's ambushes of slaughter and fires. All the plots of the previous night have to me been relayed -- this they realize. I laid them bare in the Senate yesterday. Catilina himself was terrified -- he ran off in flight! For what do these men wait? Most assuredly, they greatly mistake if that former leniency of mine they are hoping will be never-ending. I have awaited this moment, and now I am arrived to it, where ye all might see this conspiracy made openly against the Republic. Unless, of course, if there is anyone who does not think that those who are like unto Catilina do think along Catilina's lines. No -- there is no time now for leniency; severity is what this very matter calls for. Yet even now one thing shall I grant: let them leave, let them depart, let them not suffer the wretched Catilina to waste away with longing for them. I shall point out to them the road: he went along the Aurelian Way. If to hasten to him they will wish, they shall catch up to him by evening.
O how fortunate shall be the Republic, if yea these dregs of the city she shall have cast out! By Hercules, once that one man, that Catilina, was drawn out, then relieved and restored doth the Republic to me seem to be! For what evil or wickedness can be formed or plotted which that man hath not formed? In all of Italy, what poisoner, what gladiator, what brigand, what assassin, what parricide, what forger of wills, what swindler, what glutton, what spendthrift, what adulterer, what woman of ill-repute, what corrupter of the youth, what corrupted man, what lost wretch can be found who cannot say that he or she hath not with Catilina been most close and friendly? What butchery hath been throughout these last years committed without that man? What impious disgrace hath not been committed through his agency?
But at what time hath ever such an enticement in any of the youth been as great as it hath been in that man? What man himself hath ever most shamefully loved others, and to the love of others he was most disgracefully catering, while to some he was promising the enjoyment of lust, and to others the death of their parents not only by urging them on, but even by aiding them. But now, how all of a sudden not only from the City but even from the farmlands had he gathered a huge number if lost men? There is no one not only at Rome but not even in any corner of the whole of Italy who hath been up till now been overwhelmed by debt and he hath not enlisted in this unbelievable alliance of wickedness.
Additionally, so that the various pursuits which occupy the opposing lines of Catilina's thinking ye may fully be able to see, there is no one in any gladiator training school any more recklessly inclined to criminality who says that he is not a close friend of Catilina, while there is no one on the actors' stage more trifling and base who does not recall himself being nigh-on a kindred spirit of the man. Nevertheless, in the same way that this man hath to shame and wickedness become inured, hath become used to cold, and hunger, and thirst, and serving through his night-duty -- strong he hath for a long time now been spoken of, a strong man by those creatures, although the gifts of hard work and the tools of valor he doth in lust and recklessness squander.
Ah, but Catilina -- if they will have followed him, they his friends, if from the City they will have left, they that shameful sheepfold of hopeless men, then how blessed shall we be, how fortunate the Republic, how eminent shall be the praise for my Consulship! For not here are middling lusts of men, not human and endurable is this reckless behavior: on nothing do they think apart from slaughter, apart from fires, apart from rapine. Their inheritances they hath run dry, their fortunes they hath mortgaged. Money hath long since failed them, credit hath begun to fail them more recently; nevertheless, that selfsame lust which they had in their time of plenty still remains. But if in their wine and dice they only had drinking parties sought, and whores too, then they would be hopeless indeed -- but nevertheless they must be endured. But this -- who is able to endure this? That lazy people should against the bravest men plot? The stupidest plot against the wisest? The drunk against the sober? The sleepers against the watchful? Those men who, I suppose, lie passed out at feasts, take unchaste women into their embrace, with wine they hath become dull, gorged on food, crowned with chaplets, besmeared with oils, crippled by their base acts, they belch forth in their shouts the slaughter for good citizens and fires for the City!
O'er these I do indeed fully trust hangeth some fate. And the punishment hath been long owed for wickedness, for negligence, for criminality, for lust -- and it either be already openly at hand, or to be assuredly on its way. Ah, these men -- if it were within my Consular power, since it be not able to cure them, which could have removed them -- I know not how brief the time, but many ages would such a power bestow upon the Republic. None is the nation which we are to fear -- none the king who would war upon the Roman People make. All foreign affairs are by the valor of one man made peaceful on the land and sea, while this domestic war remains -- within are plots, within is danger enclosed, within is the enemy. With opulence, with madness, with criminality we must fight -- to this war, I offer myself as a general, Quirites. I take up the hatred of lost men. What can be healed, by whatever reason I shall heal it. What will have to be cut away, I shall not allow to remain to the ruination of the state. Thence, either let them leave, or be at rest, or, if both in the City they remain and the same disposition they keep, let them then await what they deserve.
But yet, even are there those who may say, Quirites, that by own doing was Catilina cast out. But if I were with a word able to drive them forth, then those very bastards who would say these things I would have cast out. Indeed, forsooth is that man so fearful or even so shy that he cannot the voice of the Consul bear. Yea, as soon as he was into banishment bid to go, he obeyed. Nay, in fact, on the day before yesterday, when at my home I was nearly murdered, I then the Senate to the Temple of Jove The Stayer summoned, and the entire ordeal I explained to the Fathers and Enrolled. When hither Catilina came, what senator called him? Who hailed him? At last, who espied him thusly as the lost citizen he is and not rather the most savage enemy-of-the-state? Yet in fact, the leading men of this rank left bare that part of the benches to which Catilina had approached. It was here that I, yes that violent Consul, who with a word doth cast out citizens into banishment, asked of Catilina whether at a nightly gathering at M. Laeca's home he had been or not. When that man, that most insolent man, undone by guilt, at first had been silent, I laid bare the rest -- , what on the night in question he had done, where had he been, what had he decided to do next, how the reason for the whole war he had written down -- I revealed all. When he hesitated, when he was held fast, I asked why hesitate he to set out thither whither long since he was preparing, since his arms, his axes, his rods, his trumpets, his military standards, and that silver eagle of his -- which he even had as an idol at the shrine in his home! -- since all these things I knew had been sent forward!
Into banishment was I casting a man whom I already had seen leave for war? For truly, I believe, that damn Manlius, that Centurion -- who in the region of Faesulae hath a camp pitched -- hath upon the Roman People in his own name declared war; and that camp now doth not await Catilina, its general, but that same man -- the cast-out! -- into banishment at Massilia, as they say, now betaketh himself -- no, not to his camp! O, how wretched be the charge of not only running the Republic, but also of saving it! Now, if L. Catilina hath been by my plans, my tools, my risks surrounded and weakened, he suddenly shall have become scared and changed his mind, and his men he will have left, his plan for making war he will have thrown aside, and from this course of wickedness and this route to war he will have to flight and banishment altered, then not hath he been deprived by me of his arms of violence, not hath he been dumbfounded and alarmed by my diligence, not hath he been from hope and attempt beaten back, but accused -- innocent! -- he hath been cast out into banishment by the Consul by force and threats -- that is how the story shall be told. And there shall be those who may wish to esteem Catilina, if he will have changed his ways, that he be not wicked, but wretched! And me, not the most diligent Consul, but the most cruel tyrant!
It is so much for me, Quirites, to undergo a storm of this ill-will, both false and unfair, as long as from ye may the peril of this horrible and godless war be kept off. Let it be said rightly that cast out was he by me, as long as he may go into banishment. But believe ye me that he intends not to go. Never from the deathless gods shall I wish, Quirites, that, for the sake of lessening the ill-will upon me, ye may hear of L. Catilina leading an army of the enemy and flitting about in arms, but nevertheless in three-days' time ye shall hear it. Much more I fear that, lest someone bearing me ill-will might at the last say that I let him off rather than cast him out. But since there are men who may say that Catilina, though he left on his accord, was cast out -- what would the same men say if he had been killed?
Although those bastards who repeat o'er and again that Catilina to Massilia is gone, not so much do they complain of the thing -- they instead fear it. No man of those wretches is so merciful as to prefer that Catilina not to Manlius, but to Massilia go. Moreover, if he never would have thought of this thing -- by Hercules! -- which he is doing, nevertheless to be slain as a bandit he would prefer rather than to live as an exile. But now, since nothing to that bastard has occurred apart from his own wish and design -- except that we were alive when he left from Rome -- let us wish rather that he goeth into banishment rather than we complain of it.
But why for so long are we concerning a single enemy speaking, and why speak concerning that enemy, which now announces that it is an enemy, and why speak concerning this enemy, which I do not fear, because, as I have always wished, there is a wall between us? But concerning these men who are disguised, who stay at Rome, who are with us -- do we say nothing? Yea, these men I am not, if by any means it were able to be, eager so much for vengeance than to heal them, to befriend them to the Republic. Nor do I am to understand that this thing could not happen by some means, if now they will wish to harken to me -- for I shall explain to ye, Quirites, of what kinds of men are those damned forces composed, and then to each man shall I the medicine of my advice and my speech administer, if I can any such medicine apply.
There is one kind composed of those men who are in great debt even though greater ownings they have, of which, while influenced by love of these ownings, are in no way able to be parted from them. The appearance of these men is most honest, for they are rich in land-holdings, but their desire and claim is most reckless. Wouldst thou in farmlands, wouldst thou in real estate, wouldst thou in silver, wouldst thou in thy household, wouldst thou in all finery be decked out and wealthy, and yet dost thou hesitate to withdraw from thine ownings? To add to thy credit? For what wast thou expecting? War? What! Why? In the destruction of everything, wouldst thou think thine own ownings be held sacred? Or what of a cancellation of debts? They mistake they who await such legislation from Catilina! If it were my kindness at work, thy bills would be replaced by auctioneers' cards, for not they who have ownings are by any other means able to be saved. But if more willing they would have wished to do so and not -- something so foolish -- to fight with the interest of their debts by using the earnings of their farms, both wealthier and better citizens we might find them. But these very men I think least of all must be feared, given that either they can be persuaded about their opinions, or, if they remain fixed in their resolve, more do they seem to me to be making vows against the Republic than bearing arms against her.
There is a second kind composed of those men who, although weighed down by debt, nevertheless await complete control -- to win the government they wish! The offices of which in a calm Republic they despair, while in a chaotic one they think themselves able to obtain. And these men must be warned of this beforehand, methinks, forsooth the one and the same thing which has been told to everyone else: that they ought to despair of doing that which they are attempting to do. First, that of all I myself have been watchful, present, and foresightful for the Republic; second, great are the hearts which are in good men, great the harmony of this rank, largest is this crowd, great especially shall be the forces of our soldiery; and at last, the deathless gods shall to this unconquered People, to the most famous state, to the most beautiful City against the such violence of present wickedness bear aid. But if then they shall gain that which they desire in the peak of their madness, would they not o'er the ash-heap of the City and in the blood of citizens, which with such wickedness and ungodliness they have greatly desired, that Consuls, or Dictators, or even Kings they hope themselves to be? They do not see that they desire something which, if they gain it, then to some runaway slave or gladiator it must be yielded?
There is a third kind, afflicted by age, but nevertheless due to training still strong. Of this kind is that bastard Manlius to whom now Catilina withdraws. These are men from those colonies which Sulla established, which I, as a whole, think them to be the best and bravest of citizens -- but yet there are those colonists who have into unexpected and sudden monies thrown themselves too extravagantly and recklessly. These are men who while they build as if wealthy, while in farms, in litters, in great numbers of slaves, in luxurious feasts they are made happy, in such debt they hath fallen that, if they are to be saved, then Sulla must be roused from the lands below. These are men who even hath no small number of countryside men, meager and in want, compelled to that same hope of former rapine. These and either former men in the same category of robbers and plunderers I place, but them I advise in the following way: let them cease from raging and on proscriptions and Dictatorial edicts think. For such is the pain of those times burned into the citizenry that not only such things will men not endure, but not even would the sheep, methinks.
There is a fourth kind, and fittingly is it mixed and mingled and thrown patchwork together: for these are those who long since are weighed down by debt, who never rose out of it, who in part because of laziness, and in part because of conducting business badly, and in part yet because of expenses, are embarrassed by old debt. These are those who by bail money, law courts, and the confiscation of goods are wearied, and very many of them both from the City and from the fields are said to gather in that camp. These men -- well, I think them not so much hardened soldiers as ditherers of debt. These are men who as soon as possible, if they are not able to stand, may fall to ruin such that not only the state, but not even their closest neighbors may realize it. For I do not understand on account of what would people, if unable to live honestly, wish to die off shamefully? Or, why would they imagine that with less pain they would die if they were to perish in the company of many rather than alone?
There is a fifth kind composed of parricides, assassins, and finally, criminals of all colors. These I do not from Catilina call back -- for not from him are they able to be separated and may they fittingly perish in brigandage, since there are so many that the prison cannot hold them.
Besides, there is a last kind, not only in number, but likewise in the very style and life close to Catilina, of his own choosing -- nay even more so! those who are in his embrace and bosom. They are those with combed hair, oily, either beardless or well bearded -- ye have seen them, their tunics long-sleeved and to the ankles; with veils they are girded, not togae. Every industry of life and toil of wakefulness is spent in dinners lasting till dawn.
In these gangs are all the dice-throwers, all the adulterers, all the unclean and shameless are accounted for. These boys are so witty and delicate that not only how to love and be loved, but nay, how to dance and to sing, but also how to brandish daggers and administer poisons -- all these things they have learned. Unless they leave, unless they die, even if Catilina will have died, know ye that here in this Republic shall be a training school of Catilinae! But yet, what do those wretched bastards want for themselves? What of their wives? -- do they intend to take them with them into the camp? Besides, how will they be without them, especially during the nights which are already here? Moreover, by what design shall they bear the Apennines, and those frosts, and snowfalls? Unless -- I have it: they think themselves to be more easily tolerate of the winter, because naked in their feastings hath they learned to prance about!.
O, what a war to be so greatly feared, since Catilina intends to have a Praetorian Cohort of prostitutes! Draw up into battle-array, Quirites, against these so famous forces of Catilina your own guards and your own armies. And first, against that gladiator, worn-out and wounded, set your Consuls and commanders. Then, against that cast-away and weakened band of men, who like unto sailors after a shipwreck, lead ye out the bloom and strength of all Italia! Already the cities of the colonies and the municipia will answer Catilina's rude walls, his forested earthen mounds. And not ought I to compare the rest of your forces, decorations, and guards with the lack and want of that bandit.
But yet, if, when omitting the ways in which we are richly furnished, then he will lack the Senate, the Roman Knights, the City, the Treasury, the revenues, the whole of Italia, all the provinces, foreign nations -- yes, if with these things omitted, we should wish to calculate the very ways in which we oppose each other, then from this very exercise we can understand how very much they lie beaten on the ground. For, on this side, Shame fighteth -- there, Impudence; here, Chastity, there Whoreishness; here Trust, there Deceit; here Piety, there Wickedness; here, Temperance, there Rage; here Honesty, there Baseness; here Abstinence, there Lust; and finally here Equality, Moderation, Bravery, Prudence, all virtues which battle with Inequality, Opulence, Sloth, Rashness, with all the vices; finally, Bounty opposes Want, Reason with Confusion, a healthy mind with insanity, and at last, good hope with universal despair. In a contest and battle of this kind, would not, if the good efforts of men should fail, the very deathless gods themselves compel these so many and so terrible vices to be overcome by these exceedingly illustrious virtues?
Since these things are so, O Quirites, ye, how beforehand I said, your homes defend with watches and guards; as for me, I have advised and foreseen that there be enough of a guard for the City without your fear and without any uproar. All the colonists and your towns' citizens, now that they hath been informed by me concerning a nighttime raid of Catilina, easily their own cities and territories they shall defend. The gladiators, which band he thought would be most resolute, although they are in a better mind than part of the Patricii, shall nevertheless by our power be held in check. Q. Metellus, whom I, as I foresaw this thing, into Gallic territory and Picenum sent on ahead, will either overwhelm the man or the man's movements and sorties he will hold off. Moreover, concerning stratagem to be decided, debated, carried out, now we shall put forth the motion to the Senate, which ye see being called.
Now those who in the City have yet remained and yea, even those who against the well-being of the City and all of ye left behind by Catilina, although they are enemies, nevertheless, because they were born citizens, warned again and again I wish them to be. If my leniency hath to anyone seemed more loose, then this he hath expected, so that what he was hiding, hath broke out. As to what is left -- I am not now able to forget that this is my country, that I am the Consul of these people, that either I must live with them or in front of them I must die. There is no guard at the gates, no plotter of the road -- if any wisheth to go, I can agree with that decision; but any who will hath stirred himself in the City, of not only whose deed, but either any plot or attempt against the fatherland I catch wind, shall realize in this City there are watchful Consuls and there are outstanding magistrates, there is a strong Senate, there are arms, there is a prison which to be as an avenger of ungodly and convicted crimes our ancestors wished.
And all these things shall thus be carried out as greatly as possible with the least movement, the highest risk with no uproar, a civil and domestic war beyond the memory of men the most cruel and greatest shall be quieted by me alone, as a toga-ed general and commander. Given that I shall administrate thus, O Quirites, so that, if it were by any means able to be so, not even any wicked man in this City should suffer punishment for his crime. But if the violence of clear and present lawlessness, if hanging o'er this City is danger, then me shall necessity lead from this leniency of my disposition, and forthwith shall I perform that which in such and so great an evil war -- scarcely to be wished for doth it seem -- that neither any good man should fall, and by the punishment of a few, all ye are able to be saved. Indeed, these things do I, full of neither my prudence, nor my civilized advice, promise to ye, O Quirites, but many and not doubtful signs of the deathless gods, with which as guides I set upon this hope and plan. They are not now at a distance, as once they were wont to be, from a foreign and far-off enemy, but here, among us, by their own divine power and aid do their temples and the houses of the City defend. They are the ones to whom ye, O Quirites, ought to pray, revere, beg, so that as very beautiful as this City, and flowering, and powerful they wished it to be, this City, with all enemy forces conquered on land and sea, they defend from the ungodly wickedness of her most lost citizens.
In Catilinam Orationes - The Catilinarian Orations
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