Speeches against Catilina
In 63 BC, with Rome simmering beneath conspiracy, the consul Marcus Tullius Cicero rose in the Senate to expose Lucius Sergius Catilina, a ruined patrician plotting to seize power by force, cancel debts, and put the city to fire and sword. Across four orations Cicero confronts Catilina to his face, drives him from Rome, rallies the wavering Senate and people, unmasks his fellow conspirators, and argues for the punishment that follows. These are speeches of crisis, delivered as armed revolt gathered in the Italian countryside.
The Catilinarian orations are among the most celebrated examples of Latin rhetoric, models of persuasion, invective, and moral argument that have been studied for two thousand years. They dramatize the tension between public safety and the rule of law, the duties of a magistrate, and the fragility of a republic threatened from within by ambition and discontent.
How it begins
The text adopted in the following Orations is that of Halm (11th Edition, Berlin, 1882), from whose notes I have derived much help. I have also consulted the English edition of the Speeches, based on that of Halm, by Mr. A. S. Wilkins. My best thanks are due to Mr. Evelyn Abbott, Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, the Editor of the Series, for his kind assistance in superintending the printing of the book. E. A. U. Wellington College , June, 1887. INTRODUCTION. The four speeches against Catilina were delivered during the latter part of the year b.c. 63, when Cicero was Consul. L. Sergius Catilina, the author of the conspiracy against which they were directed, was descended from one of the oldest patrician families of Rome, though for many years no one of his house had held any public office. He was a man of ambitious and energetic disposition, distinguished among his contemporaries for great powers both of mind and body, which enabled him to exercise a remarkable degree of influence over others [1] . At the same time he was notorious for the dissoluteness and extravagance of his life, which were excessive even in an age when such characteristics were common; he was, moreover, suspected of grave crimes, such as the murder of his wife and son.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain.