M. Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 2.15

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[15] I am not unwilling, O Romans, to endure this storm of false and unjust unpopularity as long as the danger of this horrible and nefarious war is warded off from you. Let him be said to be banished by me as long as he goes into banishment; but, believe me, he will not go. I will never ask of the immortal gods, O Romans, for the sake of lightening my own unpopularity, for you to hear that Lucius Catiline is leading an army of enemies, and is hovering about in arms; but yet in three days you will hear it. And I much more fear that it will be objected to me some day or other, that I have let him escape, rather than that I have banished him. But when there are men who say he has been banished because he has gone away, what would these men say if he had been put to death?

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

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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.) — 2.15 focus

[15] est mihi tanti, Quirites, huius invidiae falsae atque iniquae tempestatem subire, dum modo a vobis huius horribilis belli ac nefarii periculum depellatur. dicatur sane eiectus esse a me, dum modo eat in exsilium. sed mihi credite, non est iturus. numquam ego ab¹ dis immortalibus optabo, Quirites, invidiae meae relevandae² causa ut L. L ucium Catilinam ducere exercitum hostium atque in armis volitare audiatis, sed triduo tamen audietis; multoque magis illud timeo ne mihi sit invidiosum aliquando quod illum emiserim potius³ quam quod eiecerim. sed cum sint homines qui illum, cum profectus sit, eiectum esse dicant, idem, si interfectus esset, quid dicerent?

Commentary

Commentary on Second 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

est mihi tanti , it is worth my while: § 417 (252, a); cf. B. 203, 3; G. 380, I, R.; H. 448 (404); H.-B. 356, I.

depellatur : § 528 (314); B. 310,ii; G.573; H. 587(313,i); H.-B. 529.

sane (concessive), f you like (see Vocab.).

invidiae , etc.: rather than have his predictions verified in this way, Cicero prefers the unjust odium of having arbitrarily driven Catiline to exile.

aliquando , some day.

quod. . . emiserim : § 592 , 3 (341, d); B. 323; G. 541; H. 588, ii (516, ii); H-B. 535, 2, a.

emiserim ,

eiecerim , let him go... drove him out

si interfectus , etc.: he thus adroitly excuses himself to those who would have preferred harsher measures. Notice the identity in sound in profectus , interfectus, and observe how the argument a fortiori is brought out by the exact antithesis.

M. Tullius Cicero In Catilinam 2.15

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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