[84]
Believe me, O judges, in
this case you are deciding not only about the safety of Lucius Murena, but also on your own.
We are in a situation of extreme danger; there is no means now of repairing the losses which
we have already, sustained, or of recovering the ground which we have lost. We must take care
not only not to diminish the resources which we still have, but to provide ourselves with
additional ones if that be possible. For the enemy is not on the Anio, which in the time of
the Punic war appeared a most terrible thing, but he is in the city, in the forum; (O ye
immortal gods! this cannot be said without a groan;) there are even some enemies in this
sacred temple of the republic, in the very senate-house itself. May the gods grant that my
colleague, that most gallant man, may be able in arms to overtake and crush this impious
piratical war of Catiline's. I, in the garb of peace, with you and all virtuous men for my
assistants, will endeavour by my prudence to divide and destroy the dangers which the republic
is pregnant with and about to bring forth.
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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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