The First Catilinarian is the most famous speech in Latin literature.[25] It is still widely remembered and used after 2000 years:[26]
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Quō ūsque tandem abūtere, Catilīna, patientiā nostrā? Quam diū etiam furor iste tuus nōs ēlūdet? Quem ad fīnem sēsē effrēnāta iactābit audācia? |
When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?[27] |
Also remembered is the famous exasperated exclamation, O tempora, o mores!, used as an exclamation of outrage or indignation as to the state of the republic in Cicero's days.[28]
Structure and context
The First Catilinarian is a denunciation of Catiline, delivered before the Senate in the Temple of Jupiter Stator on 7 or 8 November 63 BC. The Senate met to discuss an attempt on Cicero's life. Whether the speech is entirely historical is not entirely clear: the Second Catilinarian depicts Cicero's first speech as a simple interrogatory rather than the extended denunciation that survives. Unlike the other speeches, most of the speech is directed to Catiline personally with concluding remarks addressed to the Senate.[29]
Categorisation of the speech into one of the genres of ancient rhetoric is difficult. The denunciatory aspects of the speech are couched in the framework of a senatorial address while also largely being delivered to Catiline's person. Scholars disagree as to whether it should be seen as a speech in the genre of the law courts (forensic or prosecutorial) or otherwise in the genre of senatorial rhetoric (deliberative).[30] This difficulty may be due to its original extemporaneous nature, delivered not in as part of a structured meeting but rather on the Catiline's arrival to the senate.[31]
The oration's arguments, somewhat cloudy and meandering, are intended more to influence senatorial opinion than argue in favour of any specific course of action or actually advise Catiline. Cicero, in a letter, later described it as a farewell; Berry, in Cicero's Catilinarians, argues that Cicero had to dress up inaction since, within the bounds of the law, he had limited authority to act against Catiline proactively. A more retrospective interpretation of how it would have played c. 60 BC would instead emphasise how Cicero chose to act slowly and deliberatively rather than, as alleged by his political enemies, cruelly and autocratically.[32]
Content
Cicero starts the speech by informing Catiline that the conspiracy is revealed and that Cicero would be within his rights as consul and justified by precedent to have Catiline killed as a threat to the state.[33] Cicero then connects Catiline to the rebels in Etruria, against which the Senate had already mobilised men; Cicero also disclaims any intention to have Catiline killed since it would be controversial, something possibly inserted in 60 BC to paint Cicero as merciful and rebut allegations of cruelty.[34] Cicero then describes at length the conspiracy before urging Catiline to leave the city with his followers to take command of the Etrurian rebels, something which Cicero asserts Catiline was to do shortly regardless. Catiline likely asked whether Cicero's advice was a command for him to go into exile – the power to exile citizens, relegatio, was within consular authority – but Cicero in the speech insists that he is merely advising Catiline to leave.[35]
Insisting that Catiline is not detained by any business in Rome due to his poor reputation, Cicero then engages in invective, indirectly accusing Catiline of a variety of sexual crimes, imminent bankruptcy, and past plots against the state.[36] Drawing attention to how other senators moved away from Catiline when he entered the senate, Cicero argues then that no formal senatorial vote on Catiline's exile – which Catiline demanded; if it had passed it would have cast Catiline as a victim of senatorial overreach; if it had failed it would have undermined Cicero's position in the senate – was necessary due to the senate's obvious displeasure. This political isolation is then emphasised when Cicero relates that Catiline sought to place himself into voluntary custody to service his reputation but found nobody willing to take him. Such isolation is further illustrated noting how the Senate's did not voice any immediate objections to the idea of exiling Catiline.[37]
Switching tact, Cicero then tells Catiline that if he leaves the city but, contrary to Catiline's existing plans, does not join the rebels in Etruria, Cicero would be seen as having forced an innocent man to go into exile. This argument was meant to paint Cicero in an unselfish light.[38] An outburst of invective against Catiline and his followers, who Cicero brands as corrupt and bankrupt political failures, then follows. The conclusion of the speech notes that Cicero intends to do nothing compulsory at the moment, justified by rejection of arguments to have Catiline summarily executed (placed in the mouth of an abstract personification of Rome). Cicero instead seeks a longer term goals of ensuring that – by allowing Catiline to join the Etrurian rebels – the whole Senate is convinced of Catiline's guilt and that, when the rebels are defeated with Catiline and followers among them, the body politic is improved by their absence.[39] The speech finally concludes with a prayer to Jupiter Stator that Catiline and his followers be defeated.[40]
