secures . . . fasces, etc. Catilina meant to assume all the insignia of a consul commanding an army in the field.
sacrarium, see [on 1. 24].
fecerat, indic., because the sentence is a parenthesis added by Cicero here for the information of his hearers. It is not a quotation from his speech to the senate, for this would have required fecisset.
credo, strongly ironical.
suo is emphatic; 'in his own name'; (Catilina, you ask us to believe, had nothing to do with it.)
condicionem, the external circumstances, given conditions under which a thing must be done. Here perhaps 'task' gives the meaning best; but it may also be rendered by 'lot,' 'position,' 'terms,' according to the context. Cf. 'nascendi condicio' [3. 2], 'consulatus condicio' [4.1] and [3. 27].
vi et minis, hendiadys.
tyrannum. Cf. 'regie factum' [1. 30].