My Cicero excerpt is an excerpt from his First Catilinarian Oration, which is a speech he gave as consul of the Republic of Rome in 63 BC against a man named Cataline, who he claimed was conspirating against Rome (he probably was). Cicero put on quite an act - he made the speech wearing an armored breastplate to protect himself from Cataline's supposed assassins. He even called the senate assembly to which he was giving the speech in a temple for Jupiter which was atop the Palatine hill, making it more easily defendable than the less strategically positioned Curia. Cicero's speech opens with:
Quo usque tandem abutere, Catalina, patienta nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populi, nihil concurus bonorum omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus, nihil horum ora vultusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia non sentis, constrictam iam horum omnium scientia teneri coniurationem tuam non vides? Quid promixa, quid superiore nocte egeris, ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, quid consili ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris?
This all roughly translates to:
How long, Cataline, how long will you abuse our patience? How much longer will that madness of yours mock us still? To what limit will he boast with unrestrained audacity? In no way at all did the nocturnal defense of the Palatine, in no way at all did the night watches of the city, in no way at all did the fear of the people, in no way at all did the gathering of all good, in no way at all did the most fortified place of the senate's hold, in no way at all did the faces and wounds of all these move you? Can you not perceive to be obvious in your plan, can you you not see that your plot is choked off and is being held back with the knowledge of all these men? What you did last night, what you did the night before, where you were, who you called together, what plan you adopted, whom of us did you suppose to be ignorant of these things?
Saturday, February 21, 2009
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