possessiones, of landed property exclusively ('estates'); maiores, i.e. more than enough to pay their debts, if they were sold.
dissolvi, in a kind of middle sense, 'free themselves'; 'solvo' is the technical word for payment of debts. Cf. the English 'liquidate.'
species, 'outward appearance.'
voluntas et causa, 'intentions and position.'
tu . . . sis, etc., dubitative subjunctive, implying incredulous astonishment. 'Can you be?' 'is it possible that you are?' It is the ordinary potential subj., ('velim,' 'I could wish,' etc.) thrown into an interrogative form. Cf. Cic. ad Q. F. 1. 3 'Ego tibi irascerer, mi frater?' 'I, angry with you, my brother?' and pro Sulla 44 'Tu tantam rem ementiare?' 'You to utter such a falsehood?' Also Virg. Aen. 12. 947 'Tunc hinc spoliis indute meorum | Eripiare mihi?' Translate here, 'You to be luxuriously and abundantly supplied with estates and houses, silver plate and slaves, everything in short that you can wish for, and yet to hesitate, by sacrificing a part of your estate, to gain in respect of credit?' For ad, 'with respect to,' cf. [1. 12] 'ad severitatem lenius.' He wishes them to sell some of their land and pay their debts with the proceeds; this, though apparently a sacrifice, would really be a gain, because by restoring their solvency it would improve their credit.
tabulas novas, lit. 'clean tablets,' 'new account books'; a phrase implying a general cancelling of all debts, which Catilina promised.
meo beneficio, etc., 'thanks to me, there shall be an issue of new tablets, but (they shall be) those of the auctioneers.' He means that he would propose a law, compelling those debtors who had land to sell it by auction, and pay with the proceeds. The necessary catalogues of sale ('auctionariae tabulae') would be 'novae tabulae' in a double sense, (1) because such a law would be a novelty; (2) because it would lead to freedom from debt, only by legal methods, instead of arbitrary repudiation of the creditor's claims.
salvi, 'solvent.'
certare cum usuris, etc., 'instead of matching the produce of their estates against the interest' (on their loans). They had borrowed largely, and tried to pay the interest on the loans with the income derived from their land. It was a contest ('certare') between the two, in which the interest to be paid tended constantly to outstrip their income.
uteremur, 'we should find them.' Cf. Gk. χρῶμαι in the same sense.