M. Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 4.19

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[19]
You have a leader mindful of you, forgetful of himself—an opportunity which is not always given to men; you have all ranks, all individuals, the whole Roman people, (a thing which in civil transactions we see this day for the first time,) full of one and the same feeling. Think with what great labour this our dominion was founded, by what virtue this our liberty was established, by what kind favour of the gods our fortunes were aggrandized and ennobled, and how nearly one night destroyed them all. That this may never hereafter be able not only to be done, but not even to be thought of you must this day take care. And I have spoken thus, not in order to stir you up who almost outrun me myself but that my voice, which ought to be the chief voice in the republic, may appear to have fulfilled the duty which belongs to me as consul.

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.) — 4.19 focus

[19] habetis ducem memorem vestri, oblitum sui, quae non semper facultas datur; habetis omnis ordines, omnis homines, universum populum Romanum, id quod in civili causa hodierno die primum videmus, unum atque idem sentientem. cogitate quantis laboribus fundatum imperium, quanta virtute stabilitam libertatem, quanta deorum benignitate auctas exaggeratasque fortunas una nox paene¹ delerit. id ne umquam posthac non modo non² confici sed ne cogitari quidem possit a civibus hodierno die providendum est³. atque haec, non ut vos qui mihi studio paene praecurritis excitarem, locutus sum, sed ut mea vox quae debet esse in re publica princeps officio functa consulari videretur.

Commentary

Commentary on Fourth 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

quae facultas : § 307 , e (201, d); cf. B. 251, 4, b; G. 616, 2; H.-B. 327.

in civili causa , on a political question.

quantis . . . delerit : this clause will be best turned into English by translating the participles

fundatum , etc., as verbs, and

delerit as a relative clause, — with how great toil this empire was established, which one night, etc. In Latin the question is contained in the interrogative modifiers of imperium and not in the main clause.

M. Tullius Cicero In Catilinam 4.19

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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