M. Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 4.12

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[12] cum vero mihi proposui regnantem Lentulum, sicut ipse se¹ ex fatis sperasse confessus est, purpuratum esse huic² Gabinium, cum exercitu venisse Catilinam, tum lamentationem matrum familias, tum fugam virginum atque puerorum ac vexationem³ virginum Vestalium perhorresco, et, quia mihi vehementer haec videntur misera atque miseranda, idcirco in eos qui ea perficere voluerunt me severum vehementemque praebebo⁴. etenim quaero, si quis pater familias, liberis suis a servo interfectis, uxore occisa, incensa domo, supplicium de servis⁵ non quam⁶ acerbissimum sumpserit, utrum is clemens ac misericors an inhumanissimus et crudelissimus esse videatur? mihi vero importunus ac ferreus qui non dolore⁷ et cruciatu nocentis suum dolorem cruciatumque⁸ lenierit. sic nos in his hominibus qui nos, qui coniuges, qui liberos nostros trucidare voluerunt, qui singulas unius cuiusque nostrum domos et hoc universum rei publicae domicilium delere conati sunt, qui id egerunt ut gentem Allobrogum in vestigiis huius urbis atque in cinere deflagrati imperi conlocarent, si vehementissimi fuerimus, misericordes habebimur; sin remissiores esse voluerimus, summae⁹ nobis crudelitatis in patriae civiumque pernicie fama subeunda est.

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.) — 4.12 focus

[12] But when I have set before myself Lentulus reigning, as he himself confesses that he had hoped was his destiny, and this Gabinius arrayed in the purple and Catiline arrived with his army, then I shudder at the lamentation of matrons, and the flight of virgins and of boys and the insults of the vestal virgins; and because these things appear to me exceedingly miserable and pitiable, therefore I show myself severe and rigorous to those who have wished to bring about this state of things. I ask, forsooth, if any father of a family, supposing his children had been slain by a slave, his wife murdered, his house burnt, were not to inflict on his slaves the severest possible punishment would he appear clement and merciful or most inhuman and cruel? To me he would seem unnatural and hard-hearted who did not soothe his own pain and anguish by the pain and torture of the criminal. And so we, in the case of these men who desired to murder us, and our wives, and our children,—who endeavoured to destroy the houses of every individual among us, and also the republic, the home of all,—who designed to place the nation of the Allobroges on the relics of this city, and on the ashes of the empire destroyed by fire;—if we are very rigorous, we shall be considered merciful; if we choose to be lax, we must endure the character of the greatest cruelty, to the damage of our country and our fellow-citizens.

Notes on the current edition

In Catilinam

1. se om. ah, post fatis hab. αβ

2. huic CAab1: hunc cett.

3. vexationem CV: vexantium Aahls: vexantiam bu

4. praebeo b ( contra Arusian. K. vii. 486)

5. servis servo cod. Paris. 6602, Lactantius, de ira Dei 1. 17

6. non quam Lambinus: numquam Lactantius: quam codd.

7. dolore ac (et edd.) cruciatu nocentis suum b2 shl2: dolore nocentis suum o: om. cett.

8. cruciatumque ( om. que V) ahlo: ac cruciatum b2 s: cruciatu tu

9. summae l1 αγ: summa cett.

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

cum vero :

vero introduces (as often) the most striking point. The other conspirators are bad enough, but when, etc.

Vestalium : see note on p. 130, l. 19 .

si quis : for form, see § 148 , b, N. (104, a, N.); G. 106, R.; H. 512, I (454, I); cf. H-B. 141, a.

sumpserit : see note on dependisse, p. 146, l. 7 ; for tense, see note on statueritis, p. 146, l. 17 .

ut . . . conlocarent : purp. clause in appos. with id .

M. Tullius Cicero In Catilinam 4.12

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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