M. Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 2.3

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[3] 2 ac si quis est talis qualis esse omnis oportebat, qui in hoc ipso in quo exsultat et triumphat oratio mea me vehementer accuset, quod tam capitalem hostem non comprehenderim potius quam emiserim, non est ista mea culpa, Quirites¹, sed temporum. interfectum esse L. L ucium Catilinam et gravissimo supplicio adfectum iam pridem oportebat, idque a me et mos maiorum et huius imperi severitas et res publica postulabat. sed quam multos fuisse putatis qui quae ego deferrem non crederent, quam multos qui propter stultitiam non putarent², quam multos qui etiam defenderent, quam multos qui propter improbitatem faverent³? ac si illo sublato depelli a vobis omne periculum iudicarem, iam pridem ego L. L ucium Catilinam non modo invidiae meae verum etiam vitae periculo sustulissem.

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.) — 2.3 focus

[3]
But if there be any one of that disposition which all men should have, who yet blames me greatly for the very thing in which my speech exults and triumphs,—namely, that I did not arrest so capital mortal an enemy rather than let him go,—that is not my fault, O citizens, but the fault of the times. Lucius Catiline ought to have been visited with the severest punishment, and to have been put to death long since; and both the customs of our ancestors, and the rigour of my office, and the republic, demanded this of me; but how many, think you, were there who did not believe what I reported? how many who out of stupidity did not think so? how many who even defended him,—how many who, out of their own depravity, favoured him? If, in truth, I had thought that, if he were removed, all danger would he removed from you, I would long since have cut off Lucius Catiline, had it been at the risk, not only of my popularity, but even of my life.

Notes on the current edition

In Catilinam

1. Quirites α ht: om. cett.

2. quam... putarent post defenderent hab. CAVh, om. a ( cf. Zielinski p. 202): del. Halm

3. quam... faverent del. Bloch

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

quod . . . extulit etc. : § 572 , b (333, b); B. 331, V, a; G. 542; H. 588, i (540, iv, N.); H.-B. 594, c.

cruentum (pred.), reeking with blood.

vivis nobis (abl. abs.), leaving us alive.

civis : acc. plur.

jacet , etc., lies prostrate, etc.

retorquet oculos begins the figure of a wild beast, which is continued in

faucibus .

profecto , no doubt.

quae quidem , which really.

quod . . . projecerit : see note on

quod extulit , 1.9, above; for mood, see § 592 ,3 (341, d); B. 323; G. 541; H. 588, ii (516, ii); H.-B. 535, 2, a. 2

M. Tullius Cicero In Catilinam 2.3

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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