Chapter I. 1. I ask you, Catiline, how far will you abuse our patience? For how much longer still will that madness of yours mock us? To what limit will that unrestrained audacity of yours display itself? Hasn’t the nightly garrison on the Palatine moved you at all, nor the patrols of the city, nor the fear of the people, nor the gatherings of all good men, nor this most fortified place for holding the senate, nor the faces and expressions of these men? Do you not realize that your plans lie exposed?
Do you not see that your conspiracy is already being kept restricted by the knowledge of all these men? Which of us do you think does not know what you did last night, what you did the night before, where you were, whom you assembled and what plan you adopted? 2. O what times! O what conduct! The senate understands these things; the consul sees him; still this man lives: He lives? On the contrary, in truth, he even comes into the senate, he takes part in the public meeting, he notes and singles out with his eyes each one of us for death.
On the other hand, we brave men, seem to be doing enough for the republic if we simply avoid the madness and missiles of that man. Catiline, you ought to have been led to death by the order of the consul a long time ago and the destruction, which you are contriving against us, ought to be brought against you. 3. And in truth, a very distinguished man, Publius Scipio, the Pontifex Maximus, as a private man, killed Tiberius Gracchus who was only slightly shaking the state of the republic. Shall we the consuls prefer Catiline, who desires to destroy the world with slaughter and conflagrations?
For I pass over those excessively old events, such as Gaius Servilius Ahala, who killed with his own hand Spurius Maelius, as he was eager for revolution. There existed, there once existed in this republic such virtue that brave men would restrain a dangerous citizen with harsher punishments than their bitterest enemies. We have a decree of the senate against you, Catiline, a strong and serious one; it is not the advice or authority of this institution which is failing the republic, we, I say it openly, we the consuls are failing the republic. Chapter II. 4.
The senate once decreed that Lucius Opimius the consul should see to it, lest the republic come to any harm. No night intervened; Gaius Gracchus, from a very famous father, grandfather and ancestors, was murdered on account of certain suspicions of treason. Marcus Fulvius the consul was murdered with his children. By a similar decree of the senate the republic was entrusted to the consuls Gaius Marius and Lucius Valerius. Surely death and the punishment of the republic did not keep waiting Lucius Saturninus, tribune of the Plebians, and Gaius Servilius, the praetor, for one day afterwards.
But, indeed, for the twentieth day now we have allowed the sharpness of these men’s authority to grow blunt. For we have a decree of the senate of this kind truly closed away in public records, as though buried in a scabbard. From which decree of the senate it is appropriate, Catiline, that you be put to death at once! You live, and you live not to put aside your audacity, but to strengthen it. I desire, senators, that I be merciful. I desire in such great dangers to the republic that I do not seem neglectful, but now I myself condemn myself for my inactivity and negligence. . There is a camp in Italy against the Roman people located in the narrow passes of Eturia and the number of enemy grows ever single day, moreover, you see the general of that camp and the leader of the enemy within the city walls and actually in the senate, devising every day some internal destruction for the republic. If now Catiline I order you to be arrested, if I order you to be killed, I believe I shall have to fear, not that all good men may say that this was done to late by me, rather than someone say it was done too cruely.
Truly I, for a certain reason, am not yet inclined to do this thing which ought to have been done a long time ago now. Then at last you will be killed, when, at that time, no one so immoral, so worthless, so similar to you can be found, who would claim that it hadn’t been done justly. 6. As long as there will be anyone who dares to defend you, you will live, but you will live in such a way as you are living (now), besest by my many strong guards, so that you cannot make any move against the republic.
The eyes and ears of many men will still be watching you and guarding you without you realizing it, just as they have done til now. Chapter III. For what is it, Catiline, which now you are further waiting for, if neither night, with its darkness can conceal you wicked meetings, nor can a private house with its walls contain the voices of your conspiracy? What if everything is brought to light, if everything burst forth? Now change that mind, trust me; forget the slaughter and the fires.
You are restrained on all sides, all your plans are clearer to us than light, which now you may review with me. 7. Do you remember me saying in the senate twelve days before the Kalends of November (21st of October) that Gaius Manlius, the associate and servant of your audacity, would be under arms on a certain day, and that would be six days before the Kalends of November, Surely, not only, did so great a matter, Catiline, not escape my notice, so savage and so extraordinary a matter escape my notice, truly that which is much more amazing, the day did not escape my notice.
I said the same thing in the senate, that you had assigned the slaughter of the nobles for the 5 days before the Kalends of November at a time when many leading citizens fled from Rome, not so much for the sake of saving themselves, as for the sake of suppressing your plans. Surely you cannot deny that on that very day, entrapped by my guards by my diligence you were not able to make a move against the republic, when you were saying on the departure of the rest that, nevertheless, you were content with the slaughter of us, who had stayed behind. . What? When you were confident that you would seize Praeneste on the very first of November with a night attack, did you realize that that settlement on my order had been fortified with my garrisons, guards and patrols? You do nothing, you contrive nothing, you think nothing. Which I only don’t hear, but also see and clearly understand. Chapter IV. Finally, review with me that night before last; now you will understand that I am much more keenly vigilant towards the safety of the republic than you (are) towards its destruction.
I assert that you, on the night before last, went to the sicklemaker street – I won’t be vague- into the house of Marcus Laeca; that there assembled at that place several companions of the same criminal madness. Surely you don’t dare to deny it? Why are you silent? I shall prove you wrong, if you do deny it. For I see that there are here in the senate certain men who were together with you. 9. Oh immortal gods! Where in the world are we? In what city do we live? What republic do we have? There are here, here in our number, senators, in this the most sacred and venerable council of the world [Men] who think about the destruction of s all, about the ruin of this city and, indeed, of the whole world. As consul, I see these men and I ask their opinion about the republic and those who ought to have been put to death by the sword, I do not yet wound with my voice. Therefore, you were at the house of Laeca on that night, Catiline; you divided up the parts of Italy, you decided to where it please you that each man set out, you selected those whom you were leaving behind at Rome, and whom you were leading out with you. You assigned parts of the city to fires, you declared that you yourself would now go out. You said you had to still now delay a little, because I was alive.
Two Roman knights were procured to free you from that worry and they promised that on that very night, a little before dawn, they would kill me in my bed. 10. I found out all these things with your meeting just scarcely having; been dismissed; I fortified and strengthened my house with greater guards; I shut those men out whom you had sent to greet me early in the morning, since those very men had arrived whom I had already predicted, to many very important gentlemen, would come to me at that time. Chapter V. Since these things are thus, proceed to where you began. Now at last go out from the city; the gates are open; set out!
That Manlian cmp of yours has been longing for you, its general for an excessively long time. Also, lead out with you all your mean, if less, as many as possible. Cleanse the city. You will free me from a great fear, provided that only a wall sits between me and you. You cannot dwell with us, now, any longer, I will not bear it, I will not endure it, I will not allow it. 11. Great thanks must be given to the immortal gods and to this Jupiter Stator himself, the most ancient guardian of this city, because we have already so often escaped from this so foul, so dreadful and so hostile a scurge to the republic.
The utmost safety of the republic must not be so often put in danger by one man. Catiline, as long as you plotted against me, the consul elect, I defended myself not with a public garrison, but with my private diligence. When, at the most recent consular elections, you wished to kill me the consul and your fellow candidates on the plain of mars, I suppressed your wicked attempts with a garrison of friends and with my troops, with no riot publically instigated. In short, as often as you attacked me, I prevented you, through my own eans, even though I saw that my destruction was linked with the great downfall of the republic. *Now you are already openly attacking the entire republic, you are calling for the destruction and devastation of the temples of the immortal gods, the building of the city and the lives of all the citizens and the whole of Italy. Therefore, seeing that I do not yet dare to do that which is more important and which is characteristic of this supreme authority and the training of our ancestors. I shall do that which is more ancient regarding severity and more useful, regarding common safety.
For if I shall order you to be killed, there shall remain behind in the republic the rest of the band of conspirators, but, if you go out which I have been urging you to do for a long time now, the great dangerous scum (bilge water) to the republic, consisting of your companions, will be drained out of the city. What is it, Catiline, surely you are not hesitating to do that thing, at my order which you were already doing of your own accord? The consul orders the enemy to go out of the city. You put the question to me; surely into exile?
I do not order it, but, if you ask my advice, I advise it. Chapter VI For what is it, Catiline, which can now give you pleasure in this city, in which there is no-one outside that conspiracy of worthless human beings who does not fear you, no-one who does not hate you. What mark of domestic turpitude has not been branded on your life? What disgrace of your private matters does not cling to your reputation? What lust was absent from your eyes, what criminal deed was ever absent from your hands, what outrage was absent from your whole body?
For which youth whom you had ensnared with the enticements of corrupt influences did you not carry ahead either the sword for an act of daring or the torch for an act of lust? What indeed? Recently, when you had made your house empty for a new marriage with the death of your previous wife did you not also surely add to this crime with another extraordinary crime? I make no mention of this crime and readily allow it to be passed over in silence, lest in this state the enormity of so great a crime either seems to have existed or not to have been punished.
I make no mention of the complete ruin of your financial affairs which you will realize is hanging over you at the next Ides (nov. 13). I now come to those matters which relate not to the private disgrace of your vices, not to your domestic difficulties and turpitude, but rather to the highest interest of the republic and to the life and safety of us all. Can this light be pleasing to you Catiline, or the air of this sky when you know that there is no-one of these men that doesn’t know that you stood in the “commitium” on the day before the Kalends of January in the consulship of Lepidus and Tullius with a weapon?
That you prepared a gang for the sake of murdering the consuls and the leading citizens of the state.? That if wasn’t some mindset or fear on your part that prevented your crime and madness, but the good luck of the Roman people. But now, I pass over the matters- for they are not unknown and many things were committed by you later- how often you tried to kill me as consul elect, how often, indeed, you tried to kill me as consul. How many of your thrusts that were so directed that they did not seem able to be avoided did I escape from by a certain slight swerve of the body, as they say!
You do nothing, you accomplish nothing, nevertheless, you don’t stop trying and wishing. How often already has the dagger been twisted out of your hands? How often has it fallen by some mishap and slipped out. I don’t know with what sacred rights it has been consecrated and dedicated by you, that you think it’s necessary to thrust within the body of the consul. Chapter Vii Now, truly, what is that life of yours? For now I shall speak with you in such a way that I am not seen to be influenced by hatred, by which I ought to be moved, but so that I might seem to be moved by pity, none of which is owed to you.
You came a little earlier into the senate. Who out of this so great a gathering out of many of your friends and relatives greeted you? If this has happened to no-one in the memory of men, are you waiting for the abuse of a voice when you have been crushed by the most severe judgment of silence? What of the fact that at your arrival those benches (seats) were vacated, that all the ex-consuls who very often have been marked down for death by you, as soon as you sat down, they left (behind) that part of the benches bare and empty, in short, with what state of mind do you think that you must [should] endure this?
By Hercules, if my slaves were to fear me in that way, as all your fellow citizens fear you, I would consider that I should leave my house: for your past, don’t you think that you should leave the city? And if I saw that I was, even unjustly, so seriously suspected by my fellow citizens I would prefer that I be deprived the sight of those citizens rather than be looked at by the hostile eyes of all: you, since you recognize with a clear knowledge of your crimes, that the hatred of all is just and has been owed to you for a long time now.
Are you hesitating to avoid their gaze and presence whose minds and feelings you assault? If your parents feared and hated you and you couldn’t please them by any means, you would be withdrawing to some place away from their eyes: now the fatherland, which is the common parent of us all, hates and fears you and for a long time now has judged that you are thinking about nothing except its patricide: will you neither fear its authority, not follow its judgment, nor be frightened of its power? Thus she deals with you, Catiline, and though silent, she speaks with you in a certain way.
For some years now no crime has existed, except through you, no shameful deed without you. The deaths of many citizens are due to you alone. The harassment and plundering of out allies by you went unpunished and unchecked; you had the power of not only ignoring the laws and the courts, but also, indeed, of overthrowing and destroying them! Those earlier deeds, although they were not to be endured, nevertheless, I did endure them as far as I could; But now, in truth, that I am in a total state of fear on account of you alone, that Catiline, is to be feared, at whatever makes a sounds.
That no plan against me can seem to perpetrated which is not linked to your criminality – this must not be endured. For this reason, leave, and take away this fear from me: if it is true, so that I may not be crushed, if it’s false, so that at last, on day, I would cease to be afraid. Chapter VIII If the fatherland, as I said, were to thus speak these things with you, Surely it deserve to obtain its request, even if it cannot apply force? What of the fact that you yourself gave yourself up into custody? That for the sake of avoiding suspicion you said that you were willing to live at the house of Manius Lepidus?
When you were not received by him, you even dared to come to me, and you asked me to watch over you at my house and when you had obtained that reply also from me, that in no way could I be safe within the same walls with you, I who was already in great danger because we were contained by the same city walls, you went to the Praetor Quintus Metellus; having been rejected by him, you moved onto your close friend, that excellent gentleman, Marcus Metellus, whom you obviously thought would be most diligent at guarding and most wise at suspecting and most brave at punishing you.
What of the fact that, at your arrival those benches were vacated, that all the ex-consuls, who were very often What of the fact that at your arrival those benches (seats) were vacated, that all the ex-consuls who very often have been marked down for death by you, as soon as you sat down, they left (behind) that part of the benches bare and empty, in short, with what state of mind do you think that you must [should] endure this?
By Hercules, if my slaves were to fear me in that way, as all your fellow citizens fear you, I would consider that I should leave my house: for your past, don’t you think that you should leave the city? And if I saw that I was, even unjustly, so seriously suspected by my fellow citizens I would prefer that I be deprived the sight of those citizens rather than be looked at by the hostile eyes of all: you, since you recognize with a clear knowledge of your crimes, that the hatred of all is just and has been owed to you for a long time now.
Are you hesitating to avoid their gaze and presence whose minds and feelings you assault? If your parents feared and hated you and you couldn’t please them by any means, you would be withdrawing to some place away from their eyes: now the fatherland, which is the common parent of us all, hates and fears you and for a long time now has judged that you are thinking about nothing except its patricide: will you neither fear its authority, not follow its judgment, nor be frightened of its power?
Thus she deals with you, Catiline, and though silent, she speaks with you in a certain way. For some years now no crime has existed, except through you, no shameful deed without you. The deaths of many citizens are due to you alone. The harassment and plundering of out allies by you went unpunished and unchecked; you had the power of not only ignoring the laws and the courts, but also, indeed, of overthrowing and destroying them!
Those earlier deeds, although they were not to be endured, nevertheless, I did endure them as far as I could; But now, in truth, that I am in a total state of fear on account of you alone, that Catiline, is to be feared, at whatever makes a sounds. That no plan against me can seem to perpetrated which is not linked to your criminality – this must not be endured. For this reason, leave, and take away this fear from me: if it is true, so that I may not be crushed, if it’s false, so that at last, on day, I would cease to be afraid. v
