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 5 omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus, nihil 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, 10 ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris? O tempora! O mores! Senatus haec intellegit; consul videt: hic tamen vivit. Vivit? immo vero etiam in senatum venit: fit publici consilii particeps; notat at designat 15 oculis ad caedem unum quemque nostrum. . . . Castra sunt in Italia contra rem publicam in Etruriae faucibus collocata: crescit in dies singulos hostium numerus; eorum autem castrorum imperatorem ducemque hostium intra moenia atque 20 adeo in senatu videmus intestinam aliquam cotidie perniciem rei publicae molientem. Si te iam, Catilina, eomprehendi, si interfici iussero, credo, erit verendum mihi ne non hoc potius omnes boni serius a me quam quisquam crudelius factum esse dicat. 25
Cicero, in Catilinam, i. §§ 1, 2, 5.
1 Quo usque tandem abutere = how long, pray, will you presume upon? Catiline had been declared hostis patriae, and yet dared to appear in the Senate.
4 praesidium Palati: in the case of any threatening danger the Mons Palatinus was occupied as one of the most important military points in the city.
6-7 senatus locus, i.e. the temple of Jupiter Stator, on the N. slope of the Palatine, chosen as the safest meeting-place, and near Cicero’s house.
17-18 castra . . . collocata, the camp of Manlius (one of the veteran centurions of Sulla) was planted at Faesulae (Fiesole), a rocky fastness three miles N.E. of Florence.
19 imperatorem: ironical, as though Catiline were the legally appointed general of the Republic.
In L. Catilinam Oratio i. ‘This splendid oration, in its fiery vigour and mastery of invective, is unsurpassed except by the Second Philippic.’—Cruttwell.
Its effect on Catiline. Tum ille furibundus ‘quoniam quidem circumventus’ inquit ‘ab inimicis praeceps agor, incendium meum ruina restinguam.’ Sall. Catil. 31. That night Catiline left Rome for the camp of Manlius.