7. Quae cum ita sint, Catilina, perge quo
coepisti: egredere aliquando ex urbe; patent portae; proficiscere.
Since these things are so, Catiline, continue
on the path you have begun: leave the city at last; the gates are
open—depart.
Nimium diu te imperatorem tua illa Manliana
castra desiderant.
Your Manlian camp has been longing for you as
its commander far too long.
Educ tecum etiam omnis tuos, si minus, quam
plurimos; purga urbem.
Take all your men with you—if not all, then as
many as possible; purge the city.
Magno me metu liberaveris, modo inter me atque
te murus intersit.
You will have freed me from great fear, so
long as a wall stands between you and me.
Nobiscum versari iam diutius non potes; non
feram, non patiar, non sinam.
You can no longer live among us; I will not
endure it, I will not permit it, I will not allow it.
Magna dis immortalibus habenda est atque huic
ipsi Iovi Statori, antiquissimo custodi huius urbis, gratia, quod hanc tam
taetram, tam horribilem tamque infestam rei publicae pestem totiens iam
effugimus.
Great thanks must be given to the immortal
gods, and to this very Jupiter Stator, the most ancient guardian of this city,
because we have now escaped so many times this plague so foul, so horrible, and
so dangerous to the republic.
Non est saepius in uno homine summa salus
periclitanda rei publicae.
The republic’s supreme safety must not be put
at risk repeatedly for the sake of one man.
Quam diu mihi consuli designato, Catilina,
insidiatus es, non publico me praesidio, sed privata diligentia defendi.
As long as you plotted against me when I was
consul-elect, Catiline, I defended myself not with public force but with my own
vigilance.
Cum proximis comitiis consularibus me consulem
in campo et competitores tuos interficere voluisti, compressi conatus tuos
nefarios amicorum praesidio et copiis nullo tumultu publice concitato; denique,
quotienscumque me petisti, per me tibi obstiti, quamquam videbam perniciem meam
cum magna calamitate rei publicae esse coniunctam.
When at the last consular elections you tried
to kill me, the consul, in the Campus Martius, along with your competitors, I
crushed your wicked attempts by the help and forces of friends, without causing
any public uproar; and finally, whenever you attacked me, I blocked you myself,
even though I saw that my death would bring great disaster to the republic.
Nunc iam aperte rem publicam universam petis,
templa deorum immortalium, tecta urbis, vitam omnium civium, Italiam totam ad
exitium et vastatem vocas.
Now you openly assail the entire republic: you
summon to ruin the temples of the immortal gods, the homes of the city, the
lives of all citizens, the whole of Italy.
Qua re, quoniam id quod est primum, et quod
huius imperi disciplinaeque maiorum proprium est, facere nondum audeo, faciam
id quod est ad severitatem lenius, ad communem salutem utilius.
Therefore, since I do not yet dare to do what
is first and most proper to this government and our ancestral discipline, I
will do what is milder in severity and more useful to the common good.
Nam si te interfici iussero, residebit in re
publica reliqua coniuratorum manus; sin tu, quod te iam dudum hortor, exieris,
exhaurietur ex urbe tuorum comitum magna et perniciosa sentina rei
publicae.
For if I order your execution, the rest of the
conspirators will remain in the state; but if you depart—as I’ve long urged—a great
and noxious bilge of the republic, your associates, will be drained out of the
city.
8. Quid est, Catilina?
What is it, Catiline?
Num dubitas id me imperante facere quod iam
tua sponte faciebas?
Do you hesitate to do, at my command, what you
were already doing of your own accord?
Exire ex urbe iubet consul hostem.
The consul orders the enemy to leave the
city.
Interrogas me, num in exsilium?
Do you ask me, “To exile?”
Non iubeo, sed, si me consulis, suadeo.
I do not command it, but if you ask my advice,
I recommend it.
Quid est enim, Catilina, quod te iam in hac
urbe delectare possit?
For what, Catiline, can still delight you in
this city?
In qua nemo est extra istam coniurationem
perditorum hominum qui te non metuat, nemo qui non oderit.
Where no one outside that gang of ruined men
fails to fear you, and no one fails to hate you.
Quae nota domesticae turpitudinis non inusta
vitae tuae est?
What mark of domestic disgrace has not been
branded upon your life?
Quod privatarum rerum dedecus non haeret in
fama?
What shame from your private affairs does not
cling to your reputation?
Quae libido ab oculis, quod facinus a manibus
umquam tuis, quod flagitium a toto corpore afuit?
What lust has ever been absent from your eyes,
what crime from your hands, what outrage from your entire body?
Cui tu adulescentulo quem corruptelarum
illecebris inretisses non aut ad audaciam ferrum aut ad libidinem facem
praetulisti?
To what young man whom you had ensnared with
the lures of corruption did you not offer either a dagger for boldness or a
torch for lust?
Quid vero?
What then?
Nuper cum morte superioris uxoris novis
nuptiis locum vacuefecisses, nonne etiam alio incredibili scelere hoc scelus
cumulavisti?
Lately, when by the death of your former wife
you had made room for a new marriage, did you not even heap this crime on with
another beyond belief?
Quod ego praetermitto et facile patior sileri,
ne in hac civitate tanti facinoris immanitas aut exstitisse aut non vindicata
esse videatur.
This I pass over and willingly allow to be
hushed, lest in this city such monstrous crime seem either to have existed or
to have gone unpunished.
Praetermitto ruinas fortunarum tuarum quas
omnis proximis Idibus tibi impendere senties: ad illa venio quae non ad
privatam ignominiam vitiorum tuorum, non ad domesticam tuam difficultatem ac
turpitudinem, sed ad summam rem publicam atque ad omnium nostrum vitam
salutemque pertinent.
I pass over the wreckage of your fortune, all
of which you will feel pressing upon you this coming Ides; I turn to those
things which concern not your private shame or household disgrace, but the
highest affairs of the republic and the life and safety of us all.
Potestne tibi haec lux, Catilina, aut huius
caeli spiritus esse iucundus, cum scias esse horum neminem qui nesciat te
pridie Kalendas Ianuarias Lepido et Tullo consulibus stetisse in comitio cum
telo, manum consulum et principum civitatis interficiendorum causa paravisse,
sceleri ac furori tuo non mentem aliquam aut timorem tuum sed Fortunam populi
Romani obstitisse?
Can this daylight or the breath of this sky be
pleasant to you, Catiline, when you know that there is no one here who does not
know that on December 31st, under the consuls Lepidus and Tullus, you stood in
the Comitium armed, having prepared a band to kill the consuls and leading men
of the state—and that it was not any restraint or fear of yours, but the
Fortune of the Roman people that blocked your crime and madness?
Ac iam illa omitto – neque enim sunt aut
obscura aut non multa commissa postea – quotiens tu me designatum, quotiens
vero consulem interficere conatus es!
And I pass over those later events—for they
are neither obscure nor few—how often you attempted to murder me as
consul-elect, and then as consul in office!
Quot ego tuas petitiones ita coniectas ut
vitari posse non viderentur parva quadam declinatione et, ut aiunt, corpore
effugi!
How many of your attacks, so aimed as to seem
unavoidable, did I escape with a slight sidestep and, as they say, by moving my
body!
Nihil agis, nihil adsequeris, neque tamen
conari ac velle desistis.
You accomplish nothing, you gain nothing, and
yet you never stop trying and wanting.
Quotiens iam tibi extorta est ista sica de
manibus, quotiens excidit casu aliquo et elapsa est!
How many times has that dagger of yours been
wrenched from your hands, how many times has it slipped by chance and fallen
away!
Quae quidem quibus abs te initiata sacris ac
devota sit nescio, quod eam necesse putas esse in consulis corpore
defigere.
By what rites and to what gods that blade has
been consecrated and vowed by you I do not know—but you seem to think it must
be planted in the consul’s body.
Nunc vero quae tua est ista vita?
And now—what kind of life is yours?
Sic enim iam tecum loquar, non ut odio
permotus esse videar, quo debeo, sed ut misericordia, quae tibi nulla
debetur.
I shall speak with you not as though moved by
hatred—which I ought to feel—but by pity, which you in no way deserve.
Venisti paulo ante in senatum.
You came into the senate just a little while
ago.
Quis te ex hac tanta frequentia, tot ex tuis
amicis ac necessariis salutavit?
Who among this great assembly, among all your
friends and acquaintances, greeted you?
Si hoc post hominum memoriam contigit nemini,
vocis exspectas contumeliam, cum sis gravissimo iudicio taciturnitatis
oppressus?
If this has never happened to anyone in living
memory, do you wait for a verbal insult, when you are already crushed by the
most serious judgment of silence?
Quid, quod adventu tuo ista subsellia
vacuefacta sunt, quod omnes consulares qui tibi persaepe ad caedem constituti
fuerunt, simul atque adsedisti, partem istam subselliorum nudam atque inanem
reliquerunt, quo tandem animo tibi ferendum putas?
What about the fact that your arrival cleared
those benches? That all the consulars—whom you had so often marked for
murder—got up the moment you sat down and left that section empty and
deserted—how do you think you should take that?
Servi mehercule mei si me isto pacto metuerent
ut te metuunt omnes cives tui, domum meam relinquendam putarem: tu tibi urbem
non arbitraris?
By Hercules, if my slaves feared me the way
all your fellow citizens fear you, I would think I should leave my house—do you
not think you should leave the city?
Et si me meis civibus iniuria suspectum tam
graviter atque offensum viderem, carere me aspectu civium quam infestis omnium
oculis conspici mallem: tu, cum conscientia scelerum tuorum agnoscas odium
omnium iustum et iam diu tibi debitum, dubitas quorum mentis sensusque
vulneras, eorum aspectum praesentiamque vitare?
And if I saw that I had earned the grave and
widespread suspicion of my fellow citizens without cause, I would rather avoid
their sight than be stared at with the hostile gaze of all—do you, knowing the
just and long-deserved hatred that your crimes have won, hesitate to shun the
eyes and presence of those whose hearts and minds you wound?
Si te parentes timerent atque odissent tui
neque eos ratione ulla placare posses, ut opinor, ab eorum oculis aliquo
concederes.
If your own parents feared and hated you and
you could in no way win them over, I suppose you would withdraw from their
sight.
Nunc te patria, quae communis est parens
omnium nostrum, odit ac metuit et iam diu nihil te iudicat nisi de parricidio
suo cogitare: huius tu neque auctoritatem verebere nec iudicium sequere nec vim
pertimesces?
But now your country—our common parent—hates
and fears you, and has long believed that you think of nothing but its
destruction: will you not respect its authority, follow its judgment, fear its
force?
Quae tecum, Catilina, sic agit et quodam modo
tacita loquitur: «nullum iam aliquot annis facinus exstitit nisi per te, nullum
flagitium sine te; tibi uni multorum civium neces, tibi vexatio direptioque
sociorum impunita fuit ac libera; tu non solum ad neglegendas leges et
quaestiones verum etiam ad evertendas perfringendasque valuisti.
It addresses you, Catiline, and in some sense
silently speaks: “For several years no crime has occurred except through you,
no disgrace without you; to you alone has the slaughter of citizens and the
abuse and plundering of allies been granted without punishment; you had
strength not only to ignore the laws and trials but to shatter and destroy
them.
Superiora illa, quamquam ferenda non fuerunt,
tamen ut potui tuli; nunc vero me totam esse in metu propter unum te, quicquid
increpuerit, Catilinam timeri, nullum videri contra me consilium iniri posse
quod a tuo scelere abhorreat, non est ferendum.
Those earlier things, although they ought not
to have been endured, I bore as I could; but now, when I am wholly in fear on
your account, when any slight noise is feared as Catiline, and no plan against
me can seem untouched by your wickedness—this cannot be endured.
Quam ob rem discede atque hunc mihi timorem
eripe; si est verus, ne opprimar, sin falsus, ut tandem aliquando timere
desinam.»
Therefore depart and take this fear away from
me—if it is real, so I may not be destroyed; if false, so I may at last cease
to fear.”
9. Haec si tecum, ut dixi, patria loquatur,
nonne impetrare debeat, etiam si vim adhibere non possit?
If the fatherland, as I said, were to speak
thus with you, should it not prevail—even if it cannot use force?
Quid, quod tu te in custodiam dedisti, quod
vitandae suspicionis causa ad M. Lepidum te habitare velle dixisti?
What of the fact that you placed yourself in
custody, that you claimed you wished to live at the house of Marcus Lepidus in
order to avoid suspicion?
A quo non receptus etiam ad me venire ausus
es, atque ut domi meae te adservarem rogasti.
When he refused to receive you, you even dared
to come to me and asked that I guard you in my house.
Cum a me quoque id responsum tulisses, me
nullo modo posse isdem parietibus tuto esse tecum, quia magno in periculo essem
quod isdem moenibus contineremur, ad Q. Metellum praetorem venisti.
When you got the same reply from me—that I
could by no means be safely housed with you under the same roof, since I would
be in great danger if we were enclosed within the same walls—you went to the
praetor Quintus Metellus.
A quo repudiatus ad sodalem tuum, virum
optimum, M. Metellum demigrasti, quem tu videlicet et ad custodiendum te
diligentissimum et ad suspicandum sagacissimum et ad vindicandum fortissimum
fore putasti.
When he rejected you, you withdrew to your
associate, the excellent Marcus Metellus, whom you evidently judged to be the
most diligent in guarding you, the most perceptive in suspecting you, and the
boldest in punishing you.
Sed quam longe videtur a carcere atque a
vinculis abesse debere qui se ipse iam dignum custodia iudicarit?
But how far from chains and prison can he
deserve to be who has already judged himself worthy of custody?
Quae cum ita sint, Catilina, dubitas, si emori
aequo animo non potes, abire in aliquas terras et vitam istam multis suppliciis
iustis debitisque ereptam fugae solitudinique mandare?
Since this is so, Catiline, do you hesitate—if
you cannot die with equanimity—to depart to some foreign land and entrust that
life of yours, snatched from many just and deserved punishments, to exile and
solitude?
"Refer" inquis "ad senatum"; id enim postulas
et, si hic ordo placere sibi decreverit te ire in exsilium, obtemperaturum te
esse dicis.
“You should put it to the senate,” you say;
that is what you demand—and you say that if this body decrees you ought to go
into exile, you will obey.
Non referam, id quod abhorret a meis moribus,
et tamen faciam ut intellegas quid hi de te sentiant.
I will not put it to the vote, which would be
contrary to my character—but I will nonetheless make sure you understand how
these men feel about you.
Egredere ex urbe, Catilina, libera rem
publicam metu, in exsilium, si hanc vocem exspectas, proficiscere.
Leave the city, Catiline—free the republic
from fear. Into exile—if it is this word you wait for—go.
Quid est?
What is it?
Ecquid attendis, ecquid animadvertis horum
silentium?
Do you pay attention—do you notice their
silence?
Patiuntur, tacent.
They let you go—they say nothing.
Quid exspectas auctoritatem loquentium, quorum
voluntatem tacitorum perspicis?
Why do you wait for the authority of words,
when you see the will of their silence?
At si hoc idem huic adulescenti optimo P.
Sestio, si fortissimo viro M. Marcello dixissem, iam mihi consuli hoc ipso in
templo senatus iure optimo vim et manus intulisset.
But if I had said the same to this fine young
man, Publius Sestius, or to that most courageous man, Marcus Marcellus, the
senate here and now, in this very temple, would rightly have laid violent hands
on me, the consul.
De te autem, Catilina, cum quiescunt, probant,
cum patiuntur, decernunt, cum tacent, clamant, neque hi solum quorum tibi
auctoritas est videlicet cara, vita vilissima, sed etiam illi equites Romani,
honestissimi atque optimi viri, ceterique fortissimi cives qui circumstant
senatum, quorum tu et frequentiam videre et studia perspicere et voces paulo
ante exaudire potuisti.
But as for you, Catiline—when they are silent,
they approve; when they tolerate you, they pass judgment; when they are quiet,
they cry out. And not only those men whose authority you allegedly value—though
you scorn their lives—but also the Roman knights, those most upright and
honorable men, and all the brave citizens who surround the senate, whose
numbers you saw, whose zeal you observed, and whose voices you heard a little
while ago.
Quorum ego vix abs te iam diu manus ac tela
contineo, eosdem facile adducam ut te haec quae vastare iam pridem studes
relinquentem usque ad portas prosequantur.
Whose hands and weapons I have for some time
barely held back from you—I shall easily persuade them to escort you, as you
leave behind the things you’ve long sought to destroy, all the way to the city
gates.
10. Quamquam quid loquor?
Yet, what am I saying?
Te ut ulla res frangat, tu ut umquam te
corrigas, tu ut ullam fugam meditere, tu ut ullum exsilium cogites?
That anything might break you, that you might
ever reform yourself, that you might contemplate flight, that you might
consider exile?
Utinam tibi istam mentem di immortales
duint!
Would that the immortal gods would give you
such a mind!
Tametsi video, si mea voce perterritus ire in
exsilium animum induxeris, quanta tempestas invidiae nobis, si minus in
praesens tempus recenti memoria scelerum tuorum, at in posteritatem
impendeat.
Even so, I see that if, frightened by my
words, you resolve to go into exile, what a storm of unpopularity will hang
over me—if not now, with your crimes still fresh, then at least in the
future.
Sed est tanti, dum modo tua ista sit privata
calamitas et a rei publicae periculis seiungatur.
But it is worth it—so long as your ruin
remains private and is separated from the danger to the republic.
Sed tu ut vitiis tuis commoveare, ut legum
poenas pertimescas, ut temporibus rei publicae cedas non est postulandum.
But to expect that you would be shaken by your
vices, or fear the penalties of the laws, or yield to the crisis of the state,
is not to be hoped for.
Neque enim is es, Catilina, ut te aut pudor a
turpitudine aut metus a periculo aut ratio a furore revocarit.
For you are not the sort of man, Catiline,
whom either shame could recall from disgrace, or fear from danger, or reason
from madness.
Quam ob rem, ut saepe iam dixi, proficiscere
ac, si mihi inimico, ut praedicas, tuo conflare vis invidiam, recta perge in
exsilium; vix feram sermones hominum, si id feceris, vix molem istius invidiae,
si in exsilium iussu consulis iveris, sustinebo.
Therefore, as I have often said, depart—and if
you wish to stir up unpopularity against me, your enemy, as you claim, go
straight into exile; I will scarcely endure the talk of men if you do so, and
scarcely bear the weight of that resentment if you go by the consul’s
order.
Sin autem servire meae laudi et gloriae mavis,
egredere cum importuna sceleratorum manu, confer te ad Manlium, concita
perditos civis, secerne te a bonis, infer patriae bellum, exsulta impio
latrocinio, ut a me non eiectus ad alienos, sed invitatus ad tuos isse
videaris.
But if you prefer to serve my praise and
glory, go out with your monstrous band of criminals, join Manlius, rouse the
ruined citizens, separate yourself from the good, wage war on your country,
revel in impious brigandage—so that it may seem not that you were driven out by
me to strangers, but rather summoned to your own.
Quamquam quid ego te invitem, a quo iam sciam
esse praemissos qui tibi ad forum Aurelium praestolarentur armati, cui sciam
pactam et constitutam cum Manlio diem, a quo etiam aquilam illam argenteam quam
tibi ac tuis omnibus confido perniciosam ac funestam futuram, cui domi tuae
sacrarium sceleratum constitutum fuit, sciam esse praemissam?
And yet, why should I invite you—when I
already know that men have been sent ahead by you to wait for you armed at the
Forum Aurelium, when I know that a day has been agreed and fixed with Manlius,
when I know that the silver eagle—destined, I believe, to be fatal and deadly
to you and all your followers—which had a shrine of evil in your house, has
already been sent ahead?
Tu ut illa carere diutius possis quam venerari
ad caedem proficiscens solebas, a cuius altaribus saepe istam impiam dexteram
ad necem civium transtulisti?
Can you do without that eagle for long, which
you used to worship when setting out to kill, from whose altar you so often
extended that murderous right hand against your fellow citizens?
Ibis tandem aliquando quo te iam pridem tua
ista cupiditas effrenata ac furiosa rapiebat; neque enim tibi haec res adfert
dolorem, sed quandam incredibilem voluptatem.
You will at last go where that unbridled and
frenzied lust of yours has long been dragging you; for this brings you not
sorrow, but a strange, perverse pleasure.
Ad hanc te amentiam natura peperit, voluntas
exercuit, fortuna servavit.
Nature bore you for this madness, your will
trained you in it, and fortune preserved you for it.
Numquam tu non modo otium sed ne bellum quidem
nisi nefarium concupisti.
Never have you desired not only peace but not
even war—unless it was wicked.
Nactus es ex perditis atque ab omni non modo
fortuna verum etiam spe derelictis conflatam improborum manum.
You have assembled a gang of scoundrels made
up of those abandoned not only by all fortune, but even by all hope.
Hic tu qua laetitia perfruere, quibus gaudiis
exsultabis, quanta in voluptate bacchabere, cum in tanto numero tuorum neque
audies virum bonum quemquam neque videbis!
How you will delight, how you will exult, how
you will revel in that pleasure—when among so many of your own, you will
neither hear nor see a single honest man!
Ad huius vitae studium meditati illi sunt qui
feruntur labores tui, iacere humi non solum ad obsidendum stuprum verum etiam
ad facinus obeundum, vigilare non solum insidiantem somno maritorum verum etiam
bonis otiosorum.
Those famous hardships of yours were
rehearsals for this sort of life: lying on the ground not only to lie in wait
for adultery, but also to commit crimes; staying awake not only to ambush
sleeping husbands, but to rob peaceful men of their goods.
Habes ubi ostentes tuam illam praeclaram
patientiam famis, frigoris, inopiae rerum omnium quibus te brevi tempore
confectum esse senties.
Now you have the place to display that famous
endurance of yours—of hunger, cold, and utter want—by which you will feel
yourself broken in a short time.
Tantum profeci, cum te a consulatu reppuli, ut
exsul potius temptare quam consul vexare rem publicam posses, atque ut id quod
esset a te scelerate susceptum latrocinium potius quam bellum nominaretur.
I achieved this much when I blocked your
consulship: that you should try to harm the state as an exile rather than
torment it as consul—and that what you wickedly began should be called
banditry, not war.
11. Nunc, ut a me, patres conscripti, quandam
prope iustam patriae querimoniam detester ac deprecer, percipite, quaeso,
diligenter quae dicam, et ea penitus animis vestris mentibusque mandate.
Now, Conscript Fathers, that I may avert and
ward off a certain complaint of the fatherland, almost justified, listen
carefully to what I am about to say, and impress it deeply upon your minds and
hearts.
Etenim si mecum patria, quae mihi vita mea
multo est carior, si cuncta Italia, si omnis res publica loquatur: «M. Tulli,
quid agis?
For if the fatherland—which is far dearer to
me than my own life—if all Italy, if the whole republic were to speak to me:
“Marcus Tullius, what are you doing?
Tune eum quem esse hostem comperisti, quem
ducem belli futurum vides, quem exspectari imperatorem in castris hostium
sentis, auctorem sceleris, principem coniurationis, evocatorem servorum et
civium perditorum, exire patiere, ut abs te non emissus ex urbe, sed immissus
in urbem esse videatur?
Will you allow him—whom you have found to be
an enemy, whom you see is going to be the leader of war, whom you know is
awaited as commander in the enemy’s camp, the architect of crime, the head of
the conspiracy, the recruiter of slaves and ruined citizens—to go forth, so
that it seems not that he was driven out of the city by you, but released into
it?
Nonne hunc in vincla duci, non ad mortem rapi,
non summo supplicio mactari imperabis?
Will you not order this man to be led to
prison, dragged to execution, and punished with the utmost penalty?
Quid tandem te impedit?
What, pray, is stopping you?
Mosne maiorum?
Is it the custom of the ancestors?
At persaepe etiam privati in hac re publica
perniciosos civis morte multarunt.
But very often even private citizens in this
republic have punished dangerous men with death.
An leges quae de civium Romanorum supplicio
rogatae sunt?
Or is it the laws that have been passed
concerning the punishment of Roman citizens?
At numquam in hac urbe qui a re publica
defecerunt civium iura tenuerunt.
But never in this city have men who betrayed
the republic retained the rights of citizenship.
An invidiam posteritatis times?
Or do you fear the unpopularity of future
generations?
Praeclaram vero populo Romano refers gratiam
qui te, hominem per te cognitum, nulla commendatione maiorum tam mature ad
summum imperium per omnis honorum gradus extulit, si propter invidiam aut
alicuius periculi metum salutem civium tuorum neglegis.
A fine return indeed you give to the Roman
people, who raised you—a man known only by your own merit, without any
ancestral distinction—so early to the highest command through all the ranks of
office, if for fear of unpopularity or some danger you neglect the safety of
your fellow citizens.
Sed si quis est invidiae metus, non est
vehementius severitatis ac fortitudinis invidia quam inertiae ac nequitiae
pertimescenda.
But if there is any fear of unpopularity, the
kind arising from firmness and courage should be feared far less than that
which comes from inaction and cowardice.
An, cum bello vastabitur Italia, vexabuntur
urbes, tecta ardebunt, tum te non existimas invidiae incendio conflagraturum?»
Or, when Italy is ravaged by war, cities
plundered, and rooftops aflame, do you not think then you will be consumed by
the fire of public outrage?
12. His ego sanctissimis rei publicae vocibus
et eorum hominum qui hoc idem sentiunt mentibus pauca respondebo.
To these most sacred voices of the republic,
and to the minds of those men who feel the same, I will offer a brief
reply.
Ego, si hoc optimum factu iudicarem, patres
conscripti, Catilinam morte multari, unius usuram horae gladiatori isti ad
vivendum non dedissem.
If I judged it best, Conscript Fathers, that
Catiline be put to death, I would not have granted that gladiator a single
hour's enjoyment of life.
Etenim si summi viri et clarissimi cives
Saturnini et Gracchorum et Flacci et superiorum complurium sanguine non modo se
non contaminarunt sed etiam honestarunt, certe verendum mihi non erat ne quid
hoc parricida civium interfecto invidiae mihi in posteritatem redundaret.
Indeed, if the greatest and most illustrious
citizens did not only avoid disgrace but even won honor by shedding the blood
of Saturninus, the Gracchi, Flaccus, and many others, then surely I had no
reason to fear that any unpopularity might fall upon me with posterity for
executing this parricide of citizens.
Quod si ea mihi maxime impenderet, tamen hoc
animo fui semper ut invidiam virtute partam gloriam, non invidiam putarem.
But even if such unpopularity were to hang
over me, I have always held the view that unpopularity earned through virtue is
glory, not disgrace.
Quamquam non nulli sunt in hoc ordine qui aut
ea quae imminent non videant aut ea quae vident dissimulent; qui spem Catilinae
mollibus sententiis aluerunt coniurationemque nascentem non credendo
conroboraverunt; quorum auctoritate multi non solum improbi verum etiam
imperiti, si in hunc animadvertissem, crudeliter et regie factum esse
dicerent.
Although there are some in this body who
either do not see the danger looming or pretend not to see it; who have fed
Catiline’s hopes with soft resolutions and have strengthened the growing
conspiracy by their disbelief; by whose authority many, not only scoundrels but
also the ignorant, would have claimed, had I acted against him, that it was
done with cruelty and tyranny.
Nunc intellego, si iste, quo intendit, in
Manliana castra pervenerit, neminem tam stultum fore qui non videat
coniurationem esse factam, neminem tam improbum qui non fateatur.
Now I realize: if that man reaches Manlius’s
camp as he intends, no one will be so foolish as not to see that a conspiracy
exists, and no one so wicked as not to admit it.
Hoc autem uno interfecto intellego hanc rei
publicae pestem paulisper reprimi, non in perpetuum comprimi posse.
But with this one man put to death, I
understand that this plague threatening the republic can only be suppressed for
a while—not eradicated forever.
Quod si sese eiecerit secumque suos eduxerit
et eodem ceteros undique conlectos naufragos adgregarit, exstinguetur atque
delebitur non modo haec tam adulta rei publicae pestis verum etiam stirps ac
semen malorum omnium.
But if he throws himself out, taking his men
with him, and joins there the rest of the wrecks collected from all sides, then
not only this full-grown plague upon the republic will be extinguished and
destroyed, but even the root and seed of all evils.
13. Etenim iam diu, patres conscripti, in his
periculis coniurationis insidiisque versamur, sed nescio quo pacto omnium
scelerum ac veteris furoris et audaciae maturitas in nostri consulatus tempus
erupit.
Indeed, Conscript Fathers, we have long been
living amid the dangers and snares of conspiracy, but somehow the ripeness of
all crimes, of long-standing madness and audacity, has burst forth in the time
of my consulship.
Nunc si ex tanto latrocinio iste unus
tolletur, videbimur fortasse ad breve quoddam tempus cura et metu esse
relevati, periculum autem residebit et erit inclusum penitus in venis atque in
visceribus rei publicae.
Now if that one man is removed from so vast a
band of brigands, we shall perhaps seem, for a short time, to be relieved of
care and fear, but the danger will remain, buried deep in the veins and vitals
of the republic.
Ut saepe homines aegri morbo gravi, cum aestu
febrique iactantur, si aquam gelidam biberunt, primo relevari videntur, deinde
multo gravius vehementiusque adflictantur, sic hic morbus qui est in re publica
relevatus istius poena vehementius reliquis vivis ingravescet.
Just as men gravely ill, tossed by heat and
fever, seem at first to gain relief when they drink cold water, only to suffer
more violently and severely afterwards—so too this political disease in the
republic, relieved for a time by that man’s punishment, will worsen with the
rest still alive.
Qua re secedant improbi, secernant se a bonis,
unum in locum congregentur, muro denique, quod saepe iam dixi, secernantur a
nobis; desinant insidiari domi suae consuli, circumstare tribunal praetoris
urbani, obsidere cum gladiis curiam, malleolos et faces ad inflammandam urbem
comparare; sit denique inscriptum in fronte unius cuiusque quid de re publica
sentiat.
Therefore let the wicked withdraw, let them
separate themselves from the good, let them gather in one place—let them at
last, as I have often said, be walled off from us; let them cease plotting
against the consul in his house, surrounding the urban praetor’s bench,
besieging the senate house with swords, preparing firebrands and torches to
burn the city; let it finally be written on each man’s forehead what he thinks
of the republic.
Polliceor hoc vobis, patres conscripti, tantam
in nobis consulibus fore diligentiam, tantam in vobis auctoritatem, tantam in
equitibus Romanis virtutem, tantam in omnibus bonis consensionem ut Catilinae
profectione omnia patefacta, inlustrata, oppressa, vindicata esse
videatis.
I promise you this, Conscript Fathers: there
will be such diligence in us consuls, such authority in you, such valor in the
Roman knights, such unity among all good citizens, that by Catiline’s departure
everything will seem revealed, brought to light, crushed, and avenged.
Hisce ominibus, Catilina, cum summa rei
publicae salute, cum tua peste ac pernicie cumque eorum exitio qui se tecum
omni scelere parricidioque iunxerunt, proficiscere ad impium bellum ac
nefarium.
With these omens, Catiline—with the republic’s
supreme safety, with your own ruin and destruction, and with the downfall of
those who have joined you in every crime and act of treason—go forth to your
impious and nefarious war.
Tu, Iuppiter, qui isdem quibus haec urbs
auspiciis a Romulo es constitutus, quem Statorem huius urbis atque imperi vere
nominamus, hunc et huius socios a tuis ceterisque templis, a tectis urbis ac
moenibus, a vita fortunisque civium omnium arcebis et homines bonorum inimicos,
hostis patriae, latrones Italiae scelerum foedere inter se ac nefaria societate
coniunctos aeternis suppliciis vivos mortuosque mactabis.
You, Jupiter, who under the same auspices as
this city were established by Romulus, whom we rightly name the Stayer of this
city and empire—you shall drive this man and his allies from your temples and
all others, from the roofs and walls of the city, from the lives and fortunes
of all citizens, and you shall punish, both living and dead, with everlasting
torments, these enemies of the good, enemies of the fatherland, plunderers of
Italy, joined together by a pact of crime and a wicked alliance.
