Cicero

Question 1

1. Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populi, nihil concursus bonorum omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus, nihil 5 horum ora voltusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia non sentis, constrictam iam horum omnium scientia teneri coniurationem tuam non vides? Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris, ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris?

Answer 1

How long, Catiline, will you abuse our patience? How long, still, will that madness of yours mock us? To what end will your unbridled audacity flaunt itself? Do the nightly guards of the Palatine, the watches of the city, the fear of the people, the gathering of all good men, this most fortified place for holding the Senate, do none of these mouths and faces move you? Do you not feel that your plans lie exposed? Do you not see that your conspiracy is already held in check by the knowledge of all these men? What you did last night or the night before last, where you were, whom you summoned to the meeting, what decision you reached, who among us do you think does not know about these things?

Question 2

2. O tempora, o mores! Senatus haec intellegit. Consul videt; hic tamen vivit. Vivit? immo vero etiam in senatum venit, fit publici 10 consilii particeps, notat et designat oculis ad caedem unumquemque nostrum. Nos autem fortes viri satis facere rei publicae videmur, si istius furorem ac tela vitemus. Ad mortem te, Catilina, duci iussu consulis iam pridem oportebat, in te conferri pestem, quam tu in nos omnes iam diu machinaris.

Answer 2

O the times, o the customs! The Senate understands these things. The consul sees them; and yet he lives. Lives? Not only this but he comes to the Senate, participating in public deliberation/debate, he marks and designates with his eyes each one of us for slaughter. And we, however, brave men as we are, think that we are doing our duty to the Republic if only we avoid his frenzy and weapons. You, Catiline, should have been led to your death on a consul’s orders long ago, upon you the destruction/ruin which you have long been planning for all of us should have been turned.

Question 3

3. An vero vir amplissumus, P. Scipio, pontifex maximus, Ti. Gracchum
   15 mediocriter labefactantem statum rei publicae privatus interfecit; Catilinam orbem terrae caede atque incendiis vastare cupientem nos consules perferemus? Nam illa nimis antiqua praetereo, quod C. Servilius Ahala Sp. Maelium novis rebus studentem manu sua occidit. Fuit, fuit ista quondam in hac re publica virtus, ut viri fortes acrioribus suppliciis civem perniciosum quam acerbissimum hostem 20 coercerent. Habemus senatus consultum in te, Catilina, vehemens et grave, non deest rei publicae consilium neque auctoritas huius ordinis; nos, nos, dico aperte, consules desumus.

Answer 3

Publius Scipio, truly the the most distinguished man, pontifex maximus/chief priest, as a private citizen killed Tiberius Gracchus , who was moderately shaking/weakening the constitution of the Republic. Shall we the consuls, then tolerate Cataline who is desiring to lay waste to the whole world with slaughter and fire? For i pass over those things too ancient, that Gaius Servilius with his own hand killed Spurius Maelius, who was striving for new things. There was, there was once such virtue in this Republic, that brave men restrained a destructive citizen with harsher punishments than for the bitterest enemy. We have a Senate decree against you, Cataline, strong and serious, the Republic’s counsel is not lacking nor the authority of this order;
we, we, I say openly, the consuls are failing.

Question 4

4. Decrevit quondam senatus, ut L. Opimius consul videret, ne quid res publica detrimenti caperet; nox nulla intercessit; interfectus est propter quasdam
   25 seditionum suspiciones C. Gracchus, clarissimo patre, avo, maioribus, occisus est cum liberis M. Fulvius consularis. Simili senatus consulto C. Mario et L. Valerio consulibus est permissa res publica; num unum diem postea L. Saturninum tribunum plebis et C. Servilium praetorem mors ac rei publicae poena remorata est? At vero nos vicesimum iam diem patimur hebescere aciem horum 30 auctoritatis. Habemus enim huiusce modi senatus consultum, verum inclusum in tabulis tamquam in vagina reconditum, quo ex senatus consulto confestim te interfectum esse, Catilina, convenit. Vivis, et vivis non ad deponendam, sed ad confirmandam audaciam. Cupio, patres conscripti, me esse clementem, cupio in tantis rei publicae periculis me non dissolutum videri, sed iam me ipse inertiae 35 nequitiaeque condemno.

Answer 4

Once the Senate passed a decree that the consul Lucius Opimius should see that the Republic suffered no harm; no night intervened; Gaius Gracchus, with a most illustrious father, grandfather, and ancestors, was killed because of certain suspicions of treason, Marcus Fulvius, a former consul was also killed with his children. By a similar Senate decree, the Republic was entrusted to the consuls, Gaius Marius and Lucius Valerius: did the death of tribune of the plebs, Lucius Saturninus and the praetor Gaius Servilius and the punishment of the Republic get delayed even a single day afterward? But indeed for twenty days now we have been allowing the edge of this authority to grow dull. For we have a decree of the Senate like this, indeed, but it is enclosed in the records as if hidden in a sheath, by which decree it would have been proper for you, Catiline, to be immediately killed. You live, and you live not to lay down your audacity but to strengthen it. I desire, Conscript fathers, to be merciful, i desire in so great dangers to the Republic not to appear reckless, but now i condemn myself for my own inaction and negligence.

Question 5

6. Quamdiu quisquam erit,
   45 qui te defendere audeat, vives, et vives ita, ut nunc vivis, multis meis et firmis praesidiis obsessus, ne commovere te contra rem publicam possis. Multorum te etiam oculi et aures non sentientem, sicut adhuc fecerunt, speculabuntur atque custodient. Etenim quid est, Catilina, quod iam amplius expectes, si neque nox tenebris obscurare coetus nefarios nec privata domus parietibus continere voces 50 coniurationis tuae potest, si illustrantur, si erumpunt omnia? Muta iam istam mentem, mihi crede, obliviscere caedis atque incendiorum. Teneris undique; luce sunt clariora nobis tua consilia omnia; quae iam mecum licet recognoscas.

Answer 5

As long as there remains a man who dares to defend you, you will live, and you will live just as you live now, hemmed in by all my stout guards to prevent you making a move against the Republic. Even the eyes and ears of many men will watch and guard you without you perceiving it just as they have done until now. For what more, Cataline, do you wait for, if neither night can with its darkness conceal your nefarious meetings nor a private house contain the voices of your conspirators, if they are made clear, if everything bursts forth? Change now that mind of yours, trust me, forget slaughter and burnings. You are held fast on every side; all your plans are clearer to us than light; plans which now it is permitted to go through with me.

Question 6

5. Castra sunt in Italia contra populum Romanum in Etruriae faucibus conlocata, crescit in dies singulos hostium numerus; eorum autem castrorum imperatorem ducemque hostium intra moenia atque adeo in senatu videtis intestinam aliquam cotidie perniciem rei publicae molientem. Si te iam, Catilina, comprehendi, si
   40 interfici iussero, credo, erit verendum mihi, ne non potius hoc omnes boni serius a me quam quisquam crudelius factum esse dicat. Verum ego hoc, quod iam pridem factum esse oportuit, certa de causa nondum adducor ut faciam. Tum denique interficiere, cum iam nemo tam inprobus, tam perditus, tam tui similis inveniri poterit, qui id non iure factum esse fateatur.

Answer 6

There is in Italy a camp, against the Roman people, placed in the passes of Etruria, and the numbers of enemies is increasing daily; but the commander of that camp and the leader of the enemy you see within the city walls and even indeed in the Senate, plotting daily some internal destruction of the Republic. If i should now order you, Catiline, to be arrested, if i should order you to be killed, I suppose i shall have to fear not that all good citizens shall say that it was done too late by me but that someone will say that i have acted too harshly. Truly there is one particular reason why i cannot induce myself to do this thing which i ought to have done long ago. Then and only then, will you be put to death, when no one can be found so wicked, so abandoned so like yourself as to say it was an act of injustice.

Question 7

7. Meministine me ante diem XII Kalendas Novembris dicere in senatu fore in armis certo die, qui dies futurus esset ante diem VI Kal. Novembris, C. Manlium, 55 audaciae satellitem atque administrum tuae? Num me fefellit, Catilina, non modo res tanta, tam atrox tamque incredibilis, verum, id quod multo magis est admirandum, dies? Dixi ego idem in senatu caedem te optumatium contulisse in ante diem V Kalendas Novembris, tum cum multi principes civitatis Roma non tam sui conservandi quam tuorum consiliorum reprimendorum causa profugerunt.

Answer 7

Do you remember that I said in the Senate on the twelfth day before the Kalends of November, that on a fixed day, which was the sixth day before the Kalends of November, Gaius Manlius a follower and agent of your audacity would take up arms? Was i mistaken, Cataline, both about a matter so great, so dreadful, so unbelievable, but , what is much more remarkable, the very day? I also said in the Senate that you had set the slaughter of the optimates for the fifth day before the Kalends of November, at the time when many of the leading men of the state fled from Rome not so much for the sake of preserving themselves as for the sake of thwarting your plans.