M. Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 4.18

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[18] quae cum ita sint, patres conscripti, vobis populi Romani praesidia non desunt: vos ne populo Romano deesse videamini providete. 9 habetis consulem ex plurimis periculis et insidiis atque ex media morte non ad vitam suam sed ad salutem vestram reservatum. omnes ordines ad conservandam rem publicam mente, voluntate¹, voce consentiunt. obsessa facibus et telis impiae coniurationis vobis supplex manus tendit patria communis, vobis se, vobis vitam omnium civium, vobis arcem et Capitolium, vobis aras Penatium, vobis illum ignem Vestae sempiternum, vobis omnium deorum templa atque delubra, vobis muros atque urbis tecta commendat. praeterea de vestra vita, de coniugum vestrarum atque liberorum anima, de fortunis omnium², de sedibus, de focis vestris hodierno die vobis iudicandum 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.) — 4.18 focus

[18] And, as this is the case, O conscript fathers, the protection of the Roman people is not wanting to you; do you take care that you do not seem to be wanting to the Roman people. 9
You have a consul preserved out of many dangers and plots, and from death itself not for his own life, but for your safety. All ranks agree for the preservation of the republic with heart and will, with zeal, with virtue, with their voice. Your common country, besieged by the hands and weapons of an impious conspiracy, stretches forth her hands to you as a suppliant; to you she recommends herself to you she recommends the lives of all the citizens, and the citadel, and the Capitol, and the altars of the household gods, and the eternal inextinguishable fire of Vesta, and all the temples of all the gods, and the altars and the walls and the houses of the city. Moreover, your own lives, those of your wives and children, the fortunes of all men, your homes, your hearth; are this day interested in your decision.

Notes on the current edition

In Catilinam

1. voluntate voluntate studio virtute αβ x

2. omnibus x

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

mea : § 355 ,a (222,a); B. 211, i,a; G.381; H. 449, I (408, t 2); H.-B. 345.

popularis , not popular but devoted to the people, democratic: Caesar was now the recognized leader of this party.

auctore (abl. abs.), proposer ;

cognitore , sponsor (a legal term).

majorum : none of Caesar 5 ancestors were men of any distinction, although some distant relatives were prominent in public affairs in the time of Sulla; see note on p. 137, l. 23 . He belonged, however, to one of the oldest patrician families.

obsidom , i.e. he is pledged at all events to defend the state as against the conspirators.

interesset : for tense, see § 485 , d (287, d); H.-B. 482, I. levitatem, want of principle, i.e. of the steady purpose, or stability of character, implied in gravitas.

saluti , i.e. not voluntati: their interests, not their capricious wishes. >

M. Tullius Cicero In Catilinam 4.18

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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