[9]
O ye immortal gods, where on earth are we? in what city are we living? what constitution is
ours? There are here,—here in our body, O conscript fathers, in this the most holy
and dignified assembly of the whole world, men who meditate my death, and the death of all of
us, and the destruction of this city, and of the whole world. I, the consul see them; I ask
them their opinion about the republic, and I do not yet attack, even by words, those who
ought to be put to death by the sword. You were, then, O Catiline, at Lecca's that night; you
divided Italy into sections; you settled where every
one was to go; you fixed whom you were to leave at Rome, whom you were to take with you; you portioned out the divisions of the
city for conflagration; you undertook that you yourself would at once leave the city, and
said that there was then only this to delay you, that I was still alive. Two Roman knights
were found to deliver you from this anxiety, and to promise that very night, before daybreak,
to slay me in my bed.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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