'Haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat
Res angusta domi.'

vetere, 'long-standing.'

vadimoniis, etc, alludes to the three stages of legal proceedings against a debtor. Vadimonium, security given for appearance in court; iudicium, the trial and legal decision; proscriptio bonorum, the confiscation of the property for the benefit of the creditors.

infitiator is one who denies his legal obligations; 'lentos' is added to point the antithesis to 'acres'; 'not so much keen soldiers as shirking defaulters.'

non modo, sc. 'non sentiat.'

[§22].

carcer. The 'Tullianum' under the Capitol was the only public prison in Rome.

postremum, 'the last,' i.e. 'the lowest,' both in point of number and morality.

proprium, 'Catilina's particular favourites; his special choice,—let me say rather his most cherished and bosom friends.'

immo vero, see [on 1. 2].