[§4].
cum viderem, etc. 'Re probata' is ablative absolute; not 'approved by you,' but 'proved, demonstrated to you.' 'Since I saw that the facts were even then not fully established to the satisfaction of all of you,' (much less to those inclined to sympathize with Catilina; this is the force of 'quidem,') 'and that, if I punished him as he deserved, I should not, under the burden of the unpopularity of that act, be able to attack his associates, I brought the matter to this point,' etc. The direct form of the conditional sentence would have been 'si multavero, non potero'; this becomes in Oratio Obliqua 'cum viderem, si multassem, fore ut non possem' (periphrasis being necessary because 'possum' has no future participle).
quam vehementer, ironical. foris is emphatic; once outside the city he does not fear him at all, as the context shows.
exierit, subjunctive, because the whole sentence stands as the object of 'fero.'
mihi, the so-called 'Ethic' dative; 'Tongilius, I see, he has taken with him.' The use of 'me' in the same sense is frequent in Shakespeare, as in the phrases 'Knock me on this door,' 'he steps me to her trencher,' etc., but is becoming obsolete in modern English.
praetexta (sc. 'toga'), the purple-edged 'toga' worn by boys up to the age of sixteen, when they assumed the 'toga virilis,' which was plain white.
[§5].prae, 'in comparison with.'
Gallicanis legionibus, the regular troops stationed in Cisalpine Gaul. The coast district of Umbria from the Rubicon to the Aesis was known as 'ager Gallicus,' having been originally the home of the Senonian Gauls. The praetor Q. Metellus had been ordered by the senate to levy troops in this district and Picenum for the defence of the government.
agresti luxuria, abstract for concrete. He is thinking particularly of the Sullan colonists. See [Introduction p. 9], and [§20 below].
decoctoribus, 'bankrupts.' Decoquo, lit. 'to boil down,' so to squander one's property, become bankrupt. Cf. Cic. Phil. 2. ch. 18 'Tenesne memoria, te praetextatum decoxisse?'