Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics) (36 page)

[5] When I think of our legions in Gaul, and the levy which Quintus Metellus
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has held in Picenum and on the Umbrian coast, and also of the forces that we are building up day by day, I feel such contempt for that army of his, made up as it is of superannuated no-hopers, prodigal farmers, rural bankrupts, and men who would rather jump bail than desert his ranks. I need not go so far as to present such people with our army’s line of battle: all I will have to do is to show them the praetor’s edict
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and they will fall to the ground!

As for those I notice rushing around the forum, standing in front of the senate-house, even coming into the senate, gleaming with lotions, resplendent in purple—I would rather he had taken these with him as his soldiers. But they are still here; and we should remember that it is not so much his army that we should be afraid of as those who have deserted it. In fact, we should be all the more alarmed by their behaviour, because they are aware that I know what they are up to, but they are not bothered by it. [6] I see who has been allotted Apulia, who has Etruria, who Picenum, who the Umbrian
coast, and who has demanded responsibility for Rome itself, with the plans for assassination and arson. They are aware that all their plans of the night before last have been reported to me. I revealed them in the senate yesterday. Catiline himself took fright and fled. These men, on the other hand—what are they waiting for? They are gravely mistaken if they suppose that the leniency I have shown hitherto will last for ever.

I have now achieved my objective, to make all of you see that a conspiracy has been openly formed against the state—unless, of course, there is anyone who thinks that people of Catiline’s ilk will not share his views! Leniency, then, is no longer appropriate: the situation demands firmness. But even at this late hour, I shall make one concession: they can still leave, still depart—so as to prevent poor Catiline pining away because he misses them so much! I shall even show them the way: he took the Via Aurelia, and if they get a move on, they will catch him up by this evening.

[7] How lucky Rome would be, if it could indeed get rid of this urban trash! By Hercules, with Catiline alone flushed away, our country already seems refreshed and restored! Or can you think up or invent any evil or crime that he has not conceived of himself? What poisoner anywhere in Italy, what gladiator, what brigand, what cut-throat, what assassin, what forger of wills, what swindler, what glutton, what spendthrift, what adulterer, what loose woman, what corrupter of the young, what corrupt man himself, what degraded individual can be found who does not admit to having lived on the closest terms with Catiline? For years now, what murder has been committed without his involvement, what disgusting sexual outrage without his participation? [8] What other man has ever presented such great temptations to young men as he? Some of them he had sex with in the most disgraceful way, while with others he scandalously submitted himself to their own sexual impulses.
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To some he promised whatever it was they hankered after, to others the death of their parents
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—and not merely by urging them on, but by giving active help. And how quickly he succeeded in assembling a vast crowd of the worst of society—not only from the city, but from the countryside as well! Not only at Rome, but even in the furthest corners of Italy, there was not a single debtor whom he failed to recruit to this extraordinary criminal alliance. [9] So that you can appreciate the diversity of his interests and the full range of his
activities, there is no gladiator in a training school who inclines ever so slightly to crime who does not also boast of his close relationship with Catiline—and, on the other hand, there is no actor
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at all fickle and useless who does not also claim to be just about his dearest friend. Catiline himself, as a result of his repeated sexual misconduct and criminal activities, had acquired the ability to endure cold, hunger, thirst, and lack of sleep, and was therefore hailed as a hero by people of this sort. However, his sexual excess and criminal behaviour actually tended to dissipate his physical energy and mental power.

[10] If his companions follow where he has gone, if those herds of desperate criminals clear out of the city, how happy we will be, how lucky Rome will be, how highly praised my consulship will be! For theirs is no ordinary depravity, their boldness not natural or tolerable. They think of nothing except murder, except arson, except pillage. They have squandered their inheritances, mortgaged their properties. Their money ran out long ago, and now their credit has begun to run out as well; but those tastes they had in their days of plenty remain the same. If, in all their drinking and gambling, they were concerned only with revelling and prostitutes, they would indeed be beyond hope, but we could put up with them. But who could possibly put up with cowards plotting against men of courage, fools against the wise, drunks against the sober, sluggards against the wakeful? Reclining at their banquets, embracing their whores, heavy with wine, stuffed with food, wreathed with flowers, drenched with perfume, and worn out by illicit sex, they belch out their plans for the massacre of decent citizens and the burning of Rome.

[11] For my part, I am certain that these men are going to meet their doom, that the punishment long due for their treachery, wickedness, criminality, and self-indulgence is either imminent or at the very least on its way. My consulship cannot cure these men; but if it removes them, it will have extended the life of our state not for some short period, but for many centuries to come. There is no foreign people we need be afraid of, no king capable of making war on the Roman people: on land and sea, one man’s valour
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has brought universal peace. The internal war is all that remains: the plots are within, the danger is within, the enemy is within! Our struggle is against decadence, against madness, against crime. Let me tell you, citizens, I am assuming the leadership of this war. I am taking on the
hostility of these criminals myself. Whatever can be cured, I will somehow cure; but whatever has to be cut out, I will not allow to remain as a cancer within our state. So let them either leave or stay in peace—or, if they stay but keep their present intentions, let them expect what they deserve!

[12] But there are some who say, citizens, that I have forced Catiline into exile. But if I could produce that effect with just a word, I would do the very same to those who are accusing me of this. Of course, Catiline was so timid or even bashful that he could not endure the consul’s voice, and as soon as he was ordered to go into exile, off he went! But yesterday,
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citizens, when I had narrowly escaped being assassinated in my own home, I summoned the senate to the temple of Jupiter Stator and put the entire matter before the conscript fathers. After Catiline had arrived, what senator spoke to him? Who greeted him? Who even looked on him as merely a bad citizen, and not as the deadliest of enemies? In fact they went further: the leading senators moved away from the area of benches where he had taken his place, and left it empty and unoccupied.
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[13] Then I, the stern consul who forces citizens into exile with a mere word, asked Catiline whether or not he had spent the night in a meeting at the house of Marcus Laeca. To begin with, the criminal, aware of his guilt, declined to answer: so I revealed further details. I explained what he had done during the night, where he had been, what he had planned for the following night, and how he had drawn up his strategy for the entire war. He hesitated: he was trapped. I therefore went on to ask him what was keeping him from setting out on the journey for which he had long prepared—since I had information that he had sent ahead arms, axes, rods of office,
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trumpets, military standards, and also that silver eagle
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to which he had even dedicated a shrine at his house. [14] So how could I be said to be forcing into exile a man whom I saw had already entered upon war? Manlius, the centurion who has set up a military camp in the territory of Faesulae, was, I suppose, acting on his own authority when he declared war on the Roman people;
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and that camp is not in fact waiting at this very moment for Catiline to join it as its leader; and Catiline himself—forced into exile!—has actually taken himself off to Massilia, as is claimed, and not to this camp!

What a wretched business it is, not simply running the country, but even saving it. For suppose that Lucius Catilina, trapped and
thwarted by the measures I have taken, the labours I have undergone, and the risks I have run, now suddenly takes fright, changes his mind, abandons his supporters, gives up his plans for war, and turns from the path of crime and war to flight and exile. In that case, people will say not that I have torn from him the arms of criminality, or that my precautions have paralysed him with terror, or that he has been forced to give up his hopes and his attempt, but that an innocent man has been driven into exile without trial by the violent threats of the consul. And if he does follow that path, there will be people who will regard him not as criminal but as pitiable, and will regard me not as an exceptionally diligent consul, but as the cruellest of tyrants! [15] But it will still be worth my while, citizens, to brave the storm of this false and unjust calumny, just so long as you are spared the danger of this horrifying, unspeakable war. So by all means let it be said that I have forced him into exile—just so long as that is where he goes.

But, trust me, he will not go there. Never, citizens, for the sake of being spared hostility, will I pray to the immortal gods for you to receive news that Lucius Catilina is at the head of an enemy army and is mobilizing his troops. But I am afraid this is indeed the news you will be hearing within three days
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—and I am much more concerned about possible future criticism for having let him go than for having driven him out. As for those who claim that he was driven out, when in fact he left by his own choice, just think what they would be saying if I had executed him! [16] Yet those who keep saying that Catiline is on his way to Massilia are not so much aggrieved that he is doing this as afraid in case he is. None of them is so kind-hearted that they really wish him to go to Massilia rather than to Manlius. And as for Catiline himself, even if—by Hercules!—he had never previously contemplated what he is now doing, he would still prefer to be killed in brigandage than live in exile. As it is, everything has gone for him exactly as he wished and planned, except that he did not manage to assassinate me before he left Rome. We ought therefore to hope that he is going into exile rather than complain that he is.

[17] But why have I been talking for so long about a single enemy, an enemy who now admits that he is an enemy, and one whom I have no fear of, because, as I have always hoped, the city wall now lies between us? And why am I saying nothing about those who conceal
the fact that they are enemies, who have not left Rome, and who are here in our midst? I should prefer not to have to punish these men if I can help it, but instead cure them and reconcile them with their country—something which should not be impossible, so long as they are prepared to listen to what I have to say. Let me set out for you, citizens, the types of men from which these forces are drawn; I will then give each group, if I can, the medicine of my advice and persuasion.

[18] The first group consists of people who have large debts and more than enough property to pay them off, but who are so attached to that property that nothing can set them free. They have every appearance of respectability, because they are in fact rich, but their intentions and principles are utterly scandalous. Do you really think you can be wealthy and well provided with land, properties, silver, slaves, and everything else, and yet hold back from selling some of your possessions to improve your credit? What, then, are you waiting for? War? Really? And do you seriously imagine that amidst the general devastation your own property will be sacrosanct? New books,
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then? Those who expect that from Catiline are mistaken. By my generosity, new books will indeed be provided—auctioneers’ catalogues! That, I tell you, is the only thing that is going to save those who do have property. Indeed, if they had been prepared to do this earlier, instead of stupidly trying to pay the interest on their debts with the income from their estates, they would today be both richer and better citizens. But this is actually the group we need be frightened of least, because either they can be persuaded to change their views or, if they do not, they will be more likely, I think, simply to say prayers against their country than to take up arms against it.

[19] The second group consists of those who, despite being overwhelmed with debt, look forward to ruling, are hungry for power, and think that with the country in turmoil they will be able to obtain offices they have no hope of obtaining when the country is at peace. To these people, I think I should give this advice—the same advice, in fact, as I give to all the others—that they should abandon all hope of attaining their goal. First of all, they need to be aware that I am keeping watch over the country, am on hand to defend it, and am looking out for it. Secondly, the loyal citizens are showing great courage; the populace, vast as it is, is showing complete unity; and on top of this, our military forces are strong. Finally, the immortal gods
will bring help in person to this unconquered people, this glorious empire, and this fairest of cities against the terrible criminal violence that we face. But imagine that these men achieve what they so furiously desire. Surely, amid the ashes of the city and the blood of citizens, which in their wicked and criminal hearts they long for, they will not aspire to become consuls, dictators, even kings? Surely they must see that, if they succeed in obtaining the offices they covet, they will only end up having to hand them over to some runaway slave or gladiator?

[20] The third group consists of men who are quite old now, but who have kept fit and are still strong. Manlius, the man Catiline is taking over from, is a member of this group. They are the men from the colonies Sulla founded. Now I recognize that in the main these colonies consist of loyal, courageous men; but all the same there are some colonists who, on suddenly being given money they never expected to have, have been throwing it around in a prodigal and high-handed manner. Building as if they were aristocrats, delighting in coaches, litters, armies of servants, and sumptuous banquets, they have fallen so deeply into debt that, if they are ever to become solvent again, Sulla would have to be brought back from the dead! They have also driven quite a few poor and needy farmers into hoping, as they do, that the plundering of former times
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is going to be repeated. Both these classes of people I treat as belonging to the same group—plunderers and thieves—but I advise them to give up their insane thoughts of proscriptions and dictatorships. The horror of that time is branded so deeply on our national psyche that today not only men but even, I think, dumb animals would refuse to countenance its return.