CHAPTER VI.

6: _quod--possit_: H., 503, I.

7: _extra--hominum_: “unconnected with that band of conspirators composed of worthless men” --_conjuratio_: used in a concrete sense: cp. _advocatio_, _servitium_. For subjunctive: H., 500, I.

8: _quae--est?_ “what stain of domestic infamy has not been branded on your life?” Distinguish: _nŏtă, nōtă, nŏtā_. The expression _nota domesticae turpitudinis_ differs in meaning from _privatarum rerum dedecus_: the former relates to moral or immoral domestic life, the latter to all private actions as opposed to those that affect a man’s public character. _Nota_ is applied (1) to the brand on cattle; Virg. Georg. 3, 158: (2) to the mark placed on a fugitive slave when retaken: (3) to the mark placed by the censor (_nota censoria_) on revising the list of citizens, opposite the name of the person degraded. According to Plutarch, Catiline had slain his own brother and murdered his own son that there might be no obstacle to his marrying Aurelia Orestilla.

9: _quod--fama_: “what scandal in private life does not cling to your notorious acts?” Some read _infamiae_, a dat, after _haeret_, which is sometimes found. Give the different constructions of _haerere_.

10: _quae--afuit_: “what act of impurity ever was strange to your eyes, what enormity to your hands, what pollution to your whole body?” --_libido_; licentiousness, in a general sense; _facinus_, a bold, daring deed, in a bad sense, unless justified by some favourable epithet: _flagitium_, a disgraceful, lustful excess.

11: _cui--praetulisti?_ “to what youth, after you had once entangled him by the allurements of vice, did you not hand either a dagger to commit some daring deed, or a torch to inflame his passion?” --_adulescentulo_: the diminutive is used in a depreciatory sense, since many a weak youth was misled by Catiline (Sallust Cat., c. 14). --_facem_: the figure refers to the nightly revels and debauches of Catiline. Slaves carried torches before their masters at night to show the way. The torch of Catiline not merely showed the way to crimes, but served to inflame the passions of lust.

§ 14.--

1: _quid vero?_ scil. _dicam_; “further:” lit. “what, indeed, shall I say?”

2: _nuper--cumulasti?_ “When lately by the death of your first wife you had rendered your home empty to contract a new marriage, did you not aggravate this crime by committing another incredible act of guilt?” It is said that Catiline poisoned his first wife and murdered his own son, to marry Aurelia Orestilla.

3: _patior_: “I suffer myself:” a kind of middle form: cp. _glorior_, _vescor_, _vertor_, _lavor_.

4: _tanti--immanitas_: “so enormous a crime.”

5: _quas--senties_: “which you will find wholly threaten you on the next Ides.” On the _ides_ it was usual to pay interest on borrowed money, cp. Hor. Ep. 2. The _ides_ (_idus_, from _iduare_, to divide) were on the 13th of each month, except in March, May, July, October, when they fell on the 15th. As this oration was delivered on the 8th, Catiline had only five days to prepare against bankruptcy. Decline _idus_? What words are fem. of 4th decl.?

6: _ad--pertinent_: “to these I come, which concern not the personal disgrace which attaches to your vices, (which concern) not the embarassment and scandal of your home, but (which concern) the welfare of the state and the life and safety of us all.” --_ignominiam_: referring to his personal crimes. --_difficultatem_: his financial difficulties.

§ 15.--

1: _cum scias_: for subjunctive: H. 522, II. 2.

2: _neminem_: decline this word.

3: _pridie--Januarias_: scil _ante_: “on the day before the Kalends of January,” i.e. December 31st, Sallust gives an account of this earlier conspiracy. The plan was to murder the consuls in the capitol, then Catiline and Autronius were to seize the consular power. Suetonius says that both Crassus and Caesar were partners in guilt, and that the scheme failed because Crassus did not appear at the proper time. A second time (5th February) an attempt was made, but this also failed in consequence of Catiline having given the signal too soon before a sufficient number of followers had arrived.

4: _Lepido et Tullo consulibus_: M. Aemilius Lepidus and L. Volcatius Tullus were consuls 66 B.C. The _consules designati_ were P. Autronius Paetus and P. Cornelius Sulla: but these were disqualified for bribery and L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatius (their accusers) obtained the consulship.

5: _comitio_: distinguish _comitium_ and _comitia_. Where was the _comitium_? --_manum--paravisse?_ scil. _potestne--scias_: “that you collected a gang to slay the consuls and leading men of the state?”

6: _sceleri--obstitisse?_ “that no reflection or fear of yours, but the good luck of the state thwarted your wicked and frenzied attempt!” Is _aliquis_ commonly used in negative clauses?

7: _neque--postea_: i.e., _nam quae post a te commissa sunt, ea neque obscura sunt, neque panca_.

8: _Consulem designatum_: see note 9, § 11.

9: _petitiones_: see note 7, § 11.

10: _ita--effugi_: “aimed in such a way that they seemed impossible to be parried have I avoided by a slight side movement, and, as they term it, by (a deflection of) the body.” --_petitio_, _declinatio_, _corpus_, _effugio_, are terms of the fencing school purposely used by Cicero to show that Catiline was no better than a gladiator: cp. Cic. Cat. II. 2. --_ut aiunt_: cp. ὡς ϕασί: “as the saying is.”

§ 16.--

1: _tibi_: ethical dative: H. 389. --_jam_: “ere now.” --_de manibus_ is explanatory (_epexegetical_) to _tibi_.

2: _excidit_, distinguish _excīdit_, _excĭdit_.

3: _quae--defigere_: the position of the relative and the indirect interrogation is foreign to our idiom, and must be avoided in translation: _quae_ = _et haec_, scil. _sica_: “and I know not by what (unhallowed) rites it has been consecrated and devoted to its purpose by you that you deem it necessary to plunge it in the body of the consul.” Cicero here refers to the fact that a human sacrifice took place at the house of Catiline, and that the dagger used on that occasion was dedicated to the purpose of slaying the consuls: cp. Sallust, Cat. C. 23.