M. Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 1.16

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[16] quotiens¹ iam tibi² extorta est ista sica de manibus, quotiens excidit casu aliquo et elapsa est!³ quae quidem quibus abs te initiata sacris ac⁴ devota sit nescio, quod eam necesse putas esse in consulis corpore defigere. 7 nunc vero quae tua est ista vita? sic enim iam tecum loquar, non ut odio permotus esse videar, quo debeo, sed ut misericordia, quae tibi nulla debetur. venisti paulo ante in senatum. quis te ex hac tanta frequentia, tot ex⁵ tuis amicis ac necessariis salutavit? si hoc post hominum memoriam contigit nemini, vocis exspectas contumeliam, cum sis gravissimo iudicio taciturnitatis oppressus? quid, quod adventu tuo ista subsellia vacuefacta sunt, quod omnes consulares qui tibi persaepe ad caedem constituti fuerunt, simul atque adsedisti, partem istam subselliorum nudam atque inanem reliquerunt, quo tandem animo tibi⁶ ferendum putas?

In Catilinam. M. Tullius Cicero. ed. Albert Curtis Clark. Oxford. 1908.

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

Current edition Perseus

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

Translations (1)

Against L. Catiline Perseus (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 2. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.) — 1.16 focus

[16] How often already has that dagger of yours been wrested from your hands? how often has it slipped through them by some chance, and dropped down? and yet you cannot any longer do without it; and to what sacred mysteries it is consecrated and devoted by you I know not, that you think it necessary to plunge it in the body of the consul. 7
But now, what is that life of yours that you are leading? For I will speak to you not so as to seem influenced by the hatred I ought to feel, but by pity, nothing of which is due to you. You came a little while ago into the senate in so numerous an assembly, who of so many friends and connections of yours saluted you? If this in the memory of man never happened to any one else, are you waiting for insults by word of mouth, when you are overwhelmed by the most irresistible condemnation of silence? Is it nothing that at your arrival all those seats were vacated? that all the men of consular rank, who had often been marked out by you for slaughter, the very moment you sat down, left that part of the benches bare and vacant? With what feelings do you think you ought to bear this?

Notes on the current edition

In Catilinam

1. quotiens α h: quotiens vero cett.

2. tibi iam ah

3. elapsa est tamen ea carere diutius non potes add. codd. ( ex § 24), del. Heumann

4. ac aut (ut V) AV

5. totque ex a

6. tibi α h: hoc tibi αβγ

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 1.16

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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