In Catilinam Orationes - The Catilinarian Orations

Cicero Denounces Catiline by Cesare Maccari 1888

The Catilinarian Orations (especially the First) are perhaps among the most famous speeches ever delivered.
Their backstory is the stuff of a stage drama; their contents are the sort trashy gossip one first reads of in a tabloid only to later realize that the same story has been picked up in the New York Times because its lurid contents involve a United States Senator; and their opening lines, biting rhetorical questions to which all already know the answer, are legendary:

“Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiem furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? ”
“Up to what point will thou abuse, Catiline, our patience? For how long yet will that damnable rage of thine make of us fools? To what end shall thine unbridled recklessness cast itself about?”

It is important to keep in mind that people lost their lives because of these speeches: the ramifications of their events would reverberate throughout Route man politics for decades. Citizens would be executed without trial because of the persuasive power of these words. Legends of Catiline's violent and bloodthirsty personality, immortalized in Sallust's account (Bellum Catilinae - "The War of Catiline") and Cicero' damning invectives, would crystallize horrors and crimes so perverse that unsubstantiated rumors and reports of Catiline's wickedness persist to this very day. He would become a boogey-man as feared and hated as Hannibal, for these anti-Catilinarian pens were so effective that the man would, in later centuries, be even accused of human sacrifice and cannibalism:

"For [Catiline] sacrificed a boy, and after administering the oath [to overthrow the Republic] over his vitals, ate these in company with the others." 

- Cassius Dio, XXXVII.30

Wow. Surely Nixon or John Wilkes Booth have been accused of the same, yes? Cheney?

Our hero Cicero would earn the title, Pater Patriae, "The Father of the Country" for his efforts in exposing the crimes and evils of a personal enemy and for quelling a dangerous revolution against the Republic.


One can sense the anger in Cicero’s Latin - his use of anaphora, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, preterition, tricolon, and crescendo are especially striking in these speeches - I only hope it comes through in the English translation. If the reader finishes these orations with the clear-headed, ironclad, firm belief that Catiline was guilty and should have been put to death long since, then Cicero performed his task well.
Speaking of, first a little about the man to whom these orations owe their name:

Lucius Sergius Catilina - 108 B.C. - 63 B.C. 

Lucius Sergius Catilina was a Roman patrician, a member of the exceedingly ancient House of Sergius. Like the Julians, the Sergians had fallen on financial and political woes, but at least they had their name: the name of Sergius had decorated the Consular lists in Rome’s earlier centuries, and Catiline sought to add his own to that august tally. Born in 108 B.C. (two years before Cicero and eight before Caesar), Catiline was described by the historian Sallust (and obliquely in the following speech by Cicero) as a violent, bloodthirsty man who committed many crimes but had escaped prosecution several times.
He had served under Strabo in the Social War (91 - 88 B.C.) alongside both Pompey Magnus and Cicero, where he showed a knack for soldiering and leadership. He later supported Sulla and the Optimate (Patrician) Party when Sulla seized the city a second time in 84 B.C. According to reports, during the Sullan proscriptions, Catiline had chased his brother-in-law, Marcus Marius Gratidianus, though not a marked man, through the streets until tackling him at the tomb of 
where he tortured and decapitated him; carrying the severed head through the streets, Catiline took it to Sulla and convinced the Dictator to add Gratidianus’ name to the hit-lists, thus making the murder ostensibly legal. Cicero, who claimed to have witnessed this firsthand, would later retell the tale as smear campaign against his political opponent.
Catiline was later accused of murdering his wife and son so that he could carry on an affair with the rich and beautiful Aurelia Orestilla - he was acquitted.
He later was accused of committing adultery with a Vestal Virgin, Fabia, the half-sister of Cicero’s wife, Terentia. A guilty verdict in this instance would have cost the Vestal her life (Vestals who broke their vows of chastity were lowered, while alive, into a vault under the Campus Sceleratus, "The Defiled Plain", near the Colline Gate and left there with only a few days' rations;), and possibly his as well (the offending partner could be scourged at the discretion of Pontifex Maximus and by his own hand in public cf. Livy XXII.57) - he was acquited.
After serving as Praetor in 68 B.C., he then served for two years as Propraetor of Africa. Intending to run for Consul upon his return, Catiline found his plan impeded by a embassage of Africans who appealed to the Senate with complaints of his conduct while governor of Africa; the Consuls terminated his candidacy on these charges and brought him to trial. He, of course, was acquitted, with Quintus Cicero (the orator’s brother), noting that Catiline left court poorer than some of the judges had been before the trial.
Catiline tried again, running for Consul for the year 63 B.C. against Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida (the uncle of Caesar’s second and triumvir, Mark Antony); he lost, with Cicero and Hybrida gaining the office. Cicero’s victory was particularly stinging, as this novus homo (“new man”) was descended a little-renowned business-class family from Arpinum, nearly a hundred miles outside of Rome; how could this common born, ethnically Samnite compete with a pure-blooded Roman patrician?
Catiline tried again, running for Consul for 62 B.C. - due to Cicero's meddling in his affairs, he attempted to murder him. The plot failed, Catiline lost again and he realized that his chances of winning the office were over unless he took drastic action: revolution.


So much for the target of the speeches - what of their author?

Cicero was not far into his forties and had become the first member of his family to achieve the high office of Consul (making him a novus homo - "a newbie"). Renowned in Rome as her best orator, Cicero turned his sharp tongue (and sometimes even sharper pen) against Catiline when the latter turned had violent against him and had threatened the wellbeing of the Republic.
It is because of these speeches and Cicero’s actions which saved the Republic which awarded him the title, Pater Patriae - it was probably the most exciting and high point of the orator’s life.

The reader is to keep the following in mind throughout: what actual, physical evidence does Cicero present to the Senate as proof of Catiline’s guilt in plotting a conspiracy and fomenting a revolution? “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, may I present Exhibit A: gossip and unverified word-of-mouth reports of the defendant’s sexual liaisons and other crimes of which he has all been acquited. Exhibit B: the fact that the defendant doesn’t like me and may have attempted to murder me a few times. Exhibit C: the fact that no one likes the defendant. Exhibit D: the mistress of a Senator who told me these things.”
How well would such a proceeding hold up in the Senate today?

M. TVLLI CICERONIS IN CATILINAM ORATIO PRIMA - The First Catilinarian Oration

M. TVLLI CICERONIS IN CATILINAM ORATIO SECUNDA - The Second Catilinarian Oration