M. Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 1.7

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[7] Do you recollect that on the 21st of October I said in the senate, that on a certain day, which was to be the 27th of October, C. Manlius, the satellite and servant of your audacity, would be in arms? Was I mistaken, Catiline, not only in so important, so atrocious, so incredible a fact, but, what is much more remarkable, in the very day? I said also in the senate that you had fixed the massacre of the nobles for the 28th of October, when many chief men of the senate had left Rome , not so much for the sake of saving themselves as of checking your designs. Can you deny that on that very day you were so hemmed in by my guards and my vigilance, that you were unable to stir one finger against the republic; when you said that you would be content with the flight of the rest, and the slaughter of us who remained?

In Catilinam. M. Tullius Cicero. Charles Duke Yonge (Translator). London. 1856.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by National Endowment For The Humanities (NEH).

Current edition Perseus

Against L. Catiline (English) (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 2. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.)

Editions (1)

In L. Catilinam Perseus (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Volume 1. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.) — 1.7 focus

[7] meministine me ante diem xii Kalendas Novembris dicere in senatu fore in armis certo die, qui dies futurus esset ante diem vi¹ Kal. Novembris, C. G aium Manlium, audaciae satellitem atque administrum tuae? num me fefellit, Catilina, non modo res tanta tam atrox² tamque incredibilis, verum, id quod multo magis est admirandum, dies? dixi ego idem in senatu caedem te optimatium contulisse in ante diem v Kalendas Novembris, tum cum multi principes civitatis Roma non tam sui conservandi quam tuorum consiliorum reprimendorum causa profugerunt. num infitiari potes te illo ipso die meis praesidiis, mea diligentia circumclusum commovere te³ contra rem⁴ publicam non potuisse, cum tu discessu ceterorum nostra tamen qui remansissemus caede contentum te⁵ esse dicebas?

Commentary

Commentary on First Oration against Catiline (Select Orations of Cicero (Allen and Greenough's Edition). Greenough, James Bradstreet; Kittredge, George Lyman, editors. Boston, London: Ginn & Company, 1897.) focus

dicere : for tense, see § 584 , a and N. (336 A, N.1); G. 281, 2, N. H. 618, 2 (537, I); H.-B. 593, b.

futurus esset : subord. clause in md. disc.

num , etc., was I mistaken in, etc. (lit. did the fact escape me).

idem (nom.) has the force of also.

optimatium , i.e. of the Senatorial party.

in ante diem : § 424 , g (259, e); B. 371, 6; G. p.491; H .754, 3 (642, 4); H-B. 668.

sui conservandi . . . causa : § 504 , b, c (298, a, c); B. 339, 5, 338, I, c; G. 428, a.1 and R.2; H. 626, 3 (542, N.1); H.-B. 614. This passage is neatly turned so as to save their self-respect by attributing their flight to that discretion which is the better part of valor.

cum . . . dicebas : we should expect diceres; the imperf. indic. is probably an archaic survival; cf. § 471 , e and N. (277, e and. N.).

tamen : opposed to discessu ("though the rest were gone, yet," etc.).

M. Tullius Cicero In Catilinam 1.7

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Commentary

Stable identifiers