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Wherefore-- As I have already said many times, set forth--
and if you wish to fuel hatred against me, your enemy-- as you assert,
then go straight-away into exile!
I shall scarcely endure the rumors of men if you will do that.
I shall scarcely sustain the weight of your damned plotting if you will go into exile at the consul's command.
But if, on the other hand, you would rather be of service to my praises and glory,
then set forth also with that troublesome band of wicked men,
Take yourself to Manlius, stir up those abandoned citizens! Separate yourself from the good!
Bring war upon your fatherland!
Triumph in your unholy brigandage,
so that you are seen to have gone out NOT evicted by me unto foreigners, but INVITED to be among your own kind!
Although why would I invite you? You, for whom I know armed men have been sent to the Forum Aurelium,
You, for whom I know that a date has been bargained and fixed with Manlius,
You, for whom I know that even that silver eagle, which I trust will be fatal to you and your friends,
for which a shrine of your crimes, established at your house, I know has already been sent in-advance?
But can you be any longer without that eagle, Which you were accustomed to worship when going out to ***,
from whose alter you have often raised that impious right hand of yours for the slaughter of your countrymen?
You will go, finally, to some place where that madness of yours, unrestrained and furious, was long-ago hurrying you!
Nor does this fact bring pain to you, Cataline, but a certain incredible pleasure!
Nature gave you birth for this ***, your will has served you and fortune has saved you.
Not only have you never desired rest, nor even war-- except a wicked one.
You were born from and have obtained a group of wicked ruined men,
abandoned by all things: not only fortune, but even hope.
What happiness will you enjoy with them!? In what delights will you exult?
In what pleasures will you revel, when in so great a number of your friends
you will neither see nor hear any good man, who would bear your labors,
to lay on the ground not only to be ***, but even to accomplish a crime!?
Or who would keep awake at night, not only plotting against the sleep of men,
but even against the good of those you have slain!?
You have an opportunity where you may show that particular endurance of yours for hunger, cold, and the want of all things--
by which in a short time you will feel you are done for.
I succeeded so far at the time, when I rejected you from the consulship,
in order that you should be able to make attempts on the republic as an exile,
rather than to harass it as consul.
And so that wickedness which has been undertaken by you may rightly be called "brigandage" rather than "war".
Now conscript fathers, so that I may denounce and deprecate from myself a certain complaint of my country which is almost well-founded,
Attend diligently, I ask, to the words which I will speak,
and commit them deeply into your hearts and minds.
For truly if my country, which is much dearer to me than my life, if all of Italy, if the entire republic were to speak with me thus:
"MARCUS TULLIUS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
WILL YOU NOT SUFFER THAT MAN TO GO FORTH,
WHOM YOU HAVE DISCOVERED TO BE AN ENEMY,
WHO IS EXPECTED IN THE CAMP OF THE ENEMY, WHOM YOU SEE ABOUT TO BE THE LEADER OF A WAR,
THE AUTHOR OF THE WICKED DEED, THE CHIEF OF THE CONSPIRACY,
THE CALLER-OUT OF THE SLAVES AND ABANDONED CITIZENS,
WILL YOU SUFFER HIM TO GO FORTH THAT HE SEEMS NOT TO HAVE BEEN SENT OUT OF THE CITY, BUT LET OUT OF THE CITY??
WON'T YOU ORDER HIM TO BE LED OUT IN CHAINS, TO BE DRAGGED TO DEATH,
WON'T YOU ORDER HIM TO BE SLAIN BY THE MOST SEVERE PUNISHMENT?
WHAT, AT LENGTH, HINDERS YOU? IS IT THE CUSTOMS OF OUR ANCESTORS?
BUT EVEN PRIVATE MEN IN THIS REPUBLIC HAVE VERY OFTEN PUNISHED MISCHIEVOUS CITIZENS WITH DEATH.
OR PERHAPS IT IS THE LAWS WHICH HAVE BEEN ENACTED REGARDING THE PUNISHMENT OF ROMAN NOBILITY?
BUT THOSE WHO HAVE REVOLTED FROM THE STATE HAVE NEVER HELD THE RIGHTS OF EVEN ORDINARY CITIZENS IN THIS CITY!
OR DO YOU FEAR THE CONTEMPT OF POSTERITY?
YOU ARE REPAYING TRULY NOBLE GRATITUDE TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE,
YOU, A MAN KNOWN ONLY THROUGH YOURSELF, WITHOUT THE COMMENDATIONS OF ANCESTORS, RAISED ALONE THROUGH THE HIGHEST GRADES OF HONOR,
AND, ON ACCOUNT OF DANGER OR FEAR OF CONTEMPT OF POSTERITY YOU NEGLECT THE SAFETY OF YOUR COUNTRYMEN!!!???
BUT IF THERE BE ANY FEAR OF CONTEMPT,
IS NOT THE CONTEMPT OF SEVERITY AND STRENGTH MORE GREATLY TO BE FEARED THAN THAT OF INACTION AND CULPABLE REMISSNESS?
OR DO YOU THINK THAT WHEN ITALY IS LAID WASTE WITH WAR,
ITS CITIES VEXED, ITS HOUSES IN FLAMES, THAT YOU WILL NOT THEN ALSO BURN IN A FIRE OF PUBLIC CONTEMPT?
To these hallowed words of the republic, and to the minds of men who might think the same, I will respond with a few words:
If I thought it best, conscript fathers, that Cataline should be punished with death,
I would not have given a single day to that gladiator to live!
but even if the greatest and most noble men, by the blood of the Saturnini and Grachhi and Flacci and others,
NOT ONLY did not contaminate themselves, but even made themselves more honorable,
Surely it will not be an object of fear to me, that any contempt should be remiss for me among posterity for the slaying of this man, murderer of his countrymen.
But even if that contempt were hanging over me to the utmost,
However, I have always been of this disposition:
as to think that hatred is rightly obtained by merit and glory, not by contempt.
Although there are those in this order who either do not see those things which are impending, or dissemble that which they see,
who might have nourished the hope of Cataline by mild sentiments,
and by not believing the growing conspiracy- have strengthened it.
These men, whose authority following many not only bad men, but also ignorant men,
they would say that if I inflicted punishment on him that it was done cruelly and tyrannically.
Now I know that if that one shall arrive in that Manlian camp where he has set out,
there will be NO ONE so stupid as to not see that a conspiracy has been made.
No one so dishonest as to not admit it.
But with he alone having been put to death, I see that this pest of the republic will be checked for a while, but not crushed forever.
But if he shall cast himself out and lead with him all his companions, the other shipwrecked sailors assembled in the same place from all sides,
It will be extinguished and destroyed-- Not only this pest to the republic, so full-grown,
but also the root and seed of all these evils.
For also, conscript fathers, we have now been long-amid these perils of conspiracy and plotting;
but I know not in what manner the fullness of all crimes and of ancient madness has burst forth upon the time of our consulship.
But if he alone shall be taken away from this great set of brigands,
we shall seem, perhaps, to have been freed from care and fear for a certain short time,
but the danger will rise up and will be enclosed more deeply in the bowels and veins of the republic,
Often as men sick of a severe disease, when they are tossed about by heat and fever,
If they are given cold water to drink, they seem at first to be relieved,
but are then afflicted much more seriously and violently.
Thus this disease which is in the republic, lightened by the punishment of that man,
will press down more weightily if the others are alive.
Wherefore, conscript fathers, let the bad men withdraw, let them separate themselves from the good,
let them be congregated into one place-- in-short, a thing which I have said many times already:
Let them be separated from us by the city-walls,
let them cease to plot against the consul at his own house,
let them cease to stand around the tribunal of the city praetor,
to besiege the senate-house with swords,
to prepare brushwood and torches to burn the city
Lastly, let it be inscribed on the forehead of each one just what he thinks about the republic.
I promise this to you all, conscript fathers:
That there will be such great diligence in us the consuls, such great authority in you, such great virtue in the Roman Knights, such great consent in all good men,
that you will see, by the departure of Cataline, that all things have been laid open, brought to light, crushed, and vindicated!
With these omens, Cataline, with the general safety of the state and with plague and destruction to yourself
and to all those who have joined with you, in every kind of wickedness and felony,
set forth to your impious and wicked war.
Then thou, Jupiter, who was established by Romulas by the same auspices of this city,
whom we truly name the protector of this city and empire,
thou shalt forbid him and his allies from thy altars and the other temples,
from the houses and walls of this city, from the life and fortunes of all citizens,
and for the enemies of all good men, enemies of their country, robbers of Italy, leagued among themselves in a confederacy of crime and an infamous alliance,
thou shalt pursue them all, alive and dead, with everlasting punishment.