First Oration of Cicero Against Catiline with Notices, Notes and Complete Vocabulary
CHAPTER V.
§ 11.--
1: _quae--sint_: “since these facts are so:” often used to sum up a chain of facts founded on evidence.
2: _perge quo coepisti_, scil. _pergere_: “proceed as you have begun.” Conjugate _pergere_.
_desiderant_: “feel the loss of.” _desiderare_, to feel the loss of an object of love or sympathy: hence “to yearn after;” _requirere_: to feel the loss of a thing, as an act of the understanding.
3: _si minus_ = _si non_. Construe: _si minus (educis omnes, educ) quam plurimos (educere potes)_.
4: _dummodo--intersit_: cp. Plutarch (Cicero 16): “and Cicero arising ordered him to leave the city; for while he himself carried on his political contest by words and Catiline by arms, there must needs be a city wall between them.”
5: _non--sinam_: note the _anaphora_. Cicero uses three synonymous verbs to express the thought that he will not endure the conduct of Catiline under any circumstances. We may translate: “I cannot, will not, shall not endure it.”
6: _magna--urbis_: “much gratitude is due to the immortal gods and especially (_atque_) to this Juppiter Stator, the most ancient guardian of our city.” Distinguish _gratiam habere_, to feel thankful: _gratias agere_, to return thanks in words: _gratiam referre_, to show oneself thankful by deeds. Juppiter obtained the name Stator because he is said to have stayed the flight of the Romans when they were hard pressed by the Sabines. The place where the flight was arrested was marked by a temple vowed by Romulus at the foot of the Palatine (Livy I. 12).
7: _quod--effugimus_: “because we have already escaped so often a pest so cruel, so dreadful, so dangerous to the state” --_toties_: referring to the earlier conspiracy of Catiline which failed.
8: _non--reipublicae_: “it must not again and again depend on one man that the existence of the state should be in peril:” or, “the safety of the state must not be often exposed to danger by one man.” A similar expression is found: Cic. Pro. Rosc. Amer. 51. 148: _summa res publica in hujus periculo tentatur_.
9: _consuli designato_: in the days of Cicero the consuls were elected on the 22nd October, but did not formally enter upon their office till January 1st. Between the time of their election and entering upon office they were called _consules designati_. --_proximis comitiis consularibus_: referring to Oct. 22nd.
10: _in campo_, scil. _Martio_: the consular elections were held in the Campus Martius, a plain between the city and the Tiber.
11: _competitores_: D. Junius Silanus and L. Licinius Murena.
12: _compressi--copiis_: on the day of the consular elections, we are told by Plutarch, Cicero put on a coat of mail and was attended by the chief men of Rome and a great number of youths to the Campus Martius. He there threw off his _toga_ and displayed his coat of mail to show the danger to which he was exposed. The people were so angry with Catiline that they chose Murena and Silanus as consuls.
13: _quotiescumque--obstiti_: “as often as you aimed at my life, by my own resources did I oppose you:” _petere_ is a gladiatorial term, “to aim a blow at an opponent.”
14: _quamquam videbam_: distinguish _quamquam_, introducing a conceded fact and in good authors used with the indicative from _quamvis_ introducing a purely hypothetical case and used with the subjunctive. H., 516, I. and II.
15: _perniciem--conjunctum_: “that my destruction was linked with the signal downfall of the state” --_pernicies_: from _per-_ root _nec_: cp. _nex_, _noceo_, hence utter destruction --_calamitas_: another form is _cadamitas_: from _cado_, to fall: for the interchange of _d_ and _l_: cp. _odere_, _olere_: _dingua_, _lingua_.
§ 12.--
1: _nunc jam_: emphatically, “now” --_jam nunc_: is “even now” (i.e., before the regular time), or “now at last.”
2: _denique_: “in a word.”
3: _quare--audeo_: “wherefore since I do not yet dare to pursue that course which first presents itself and which is in accordance with the power (I hold) and the principles of our ancestors” --_imperii_ genitive after _proprium_. What cases may _proprius_ govern? _imperii_ refers to the extraordinary power which he had by the decree _videant consules ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat_. This decree (_decretum ultimum_) armed the consuls with civil and military authority. Others say _imperii proprium_ means, “in accordance with this government.”
4: _ad--lenius_: “milder as regards severity,” or “in point of severity.” _Ad_ = _quoad, quoad attinet ad, si spectes_. He uses _ad communem salutem utilius_ to balance _ad severitatem lenius_.
5: _reliqua--manus_: “a remnant of the conspirators.” Ernesti reads _aliqua_ for _reliqua_.
6: _sin_: “if, on the other hand.”
7: _exhaurietur--reipublicae_: “there shall be drained off from the city a great and destructive refuse of the state composed of your comrades.” _Exhaurio_: cp. ἀντλέω properly to drain the bilge water (ἄντλος _sentina_) out of the hold of a vessel. --_tuorum comitum_: this secondary genitive is one of explanation (_expexegetical_).
§ 13.--
1: _imperante me_: abl. absolute.
2: _faciebas_ = _facere volebas_: Madvig, § 337, obs. I.
3: _consul hostem_: note the emphatic juxtaposition of these words.
4: _num--exilium_, scil. _jubes me exire_: “You do not order me to go into exile, do you?” Distinguish _exilium_, _deportatio_, and _relegatio_: see Antiquities.
5: _me consulis_: distinguish _me consulit_, _mihi consulit_, _in me consulit_.