[78]
Oh, but it is the interest of the republic that has induced you to become a prosecutor. I do
believe, O Cato, that you have come forward under the influence of those feelings and of that
opinion. But you err out of ignorance. That which I am doing, O judges, I am doing out of
regard to my friendship for Lucius Murena and to his own worth, and I also do assert and call
you all to witness that I am doing it for the sake of peace, of tranquillity, of concord, of
liberty, of safety,—yes, even for the sake of the lives of us all. Listen, O judges,
listen to the consul,—I will not speak with undue arrogance, I will only say, who
devotes all his thoughts day and night to the republic. Lucius Catiline did not despise and
scorn the republic to such a degree as to think that with the forces which he took away with
him he could subdue this city. The contagion of that wickedness spreads more widely than any
one believes: more men are implicated in it than people are aware of. It is within the
city,—the Trojan horse, I say, is within the city; but you shall never be surprised
sleeping by that while I am consul.
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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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