IV.8-10 Notes

Recognosce: After the mocking questions of section 7, Cicero turns now to the more imperious mode of the imperative.

tandem:  Another echo of quo usque tandem.  Some manuscripts, and Clark's OCT, read recognosce mecum tandem; this word-order, however, would be emphatic for mecum and is, therefore, wrong.  Evidence:  see me tandem and tandem me in Cicero; me tandem is always emphatic for me.

mecum:  not only are the oblique cases of the pronoun enclitic, but pronomial prepositional phrases assume enclitic position as well. 

superiorem: That night, night before last is Nov. 6, the night before the murderers appeared at Ciceros door in the morning.

multo:  Ablative of degree of difference with acrius.  This degree of difference sets up the quam comparison:  multo acrius quam

ad salutem:  a purpose construction.

[*] In the outline above the dots indicate what needs to be supplied from above or below.  Parallelism is used to indicate what has been ellipted.

venisseInfinitive in indirect discourse; note the tense.

inter falcarios:  The street of the scythe-makers. 

convenisse: Note the verbal play:  te venisse convenisse complures socios.

eodem: adverbial, as if eodem loco.

eiusdem amentiae: The genitive of description requires a noun with an adjective.  Allies equally mad = eiusdem amentiae socii; mad allies = amentes socii.

Num:  The interrogative particle marks the question as expecting a negative answer.

convincam: Cicero pretends that his display in the temple of Jupiter is an open debate during which Catiline could actually respond.  convincam = I will win the point at debate; I will defeat your claim. This strategy displays Catiline as unable to respond and is an early echo of the gladiatorial theme that is occasionally present in this speech:  Cicero dodges Catiline's attacks with a "slight move of his body"; Catiline captures the youths with his net.

  enim:  Enim is a post-positive particle indicating that this sentence will explain something about the prior claim.  In this case, video enim offers the ground upon which Cicero will defeat any denial by Catiline, but it is almost paradoxical:  I can prove what I say because I see your fellow traitors here in the Senate, but I wont yet name them.

hc, the ablative of hic, haec, hoc, meaning here.  Likewise below.

quosdam:  The prejudicial use of quidam to mean certain persons whom you and I know, and they know who they are, but we arent going to mention names" is common in rhetorical contexts.  It's primary function is to postpone further details, either because they are superfluous (as in the apology for a metaphor) or because they are too dangerous to mention; the secondary function is to appeal to the common understanding of speaker and audience, thereby creating a community of "insiders" who believe they share the same knowledge.

una: adverb, redundant but common with the preposition cum.

O di immortales! This is the nominative of exclamation.  In fact, any case can be used in exclamation; it all depends upon what verb is felt to be ellipted.

gentium:  gentium is a partitive genitive with the notion of place in the adverb where; we say where in the world, the Romans said where of the world

[*] Some editors write these three sentences as question.   Consider:  how are questions related to exclamations?  Why do they use the same form of the interrogative pronouns?.  See also below on qua urbe.

qua may mean what kind of; the interrogative functions as a blank and the audience is asked to supply the appropriate adjective that aptly describes the city:  In what kind of city do we live? express aporia about being able to find the right adjective:  in a wicked city? in a ruined city? in a dangerous city? in what kind of city!!

orbis terrae = the world, the globe.  Genitives turn nouns into adjectives and, while they can often be translated with of ..., you are frequently smarter to come up with another prepositional phrase that more accurately or precisely describes how the adjectival genitive is working.  Here, perhaps, in the world, taken closely with sanctissimo sounds most idiomatic.

[*] Notice how the second parallel prepositional phrase expands the meaning of the first.  Often, as here, one finds that the first is literal and the second ethical, telling you how you should feel about the place.  

nostro omnium: noster, nostra, nostrum means of or belonging to us; omnium is in agreement with that virtual genitive plural of us which is part of the meaning of noster.  Note that one can similarly say tuus istius or meus ipsius.  What kind of genitive is nostro omnium?

[**] The repetitions of prepositional phrases is not an elaboration of the meaning of the first, as above, but a substantive crescendo:  from the senatorial order to the city of Rome to the whole world.

cogitent:  The subjunctive here suggests a problem that is much deeper that the goes much deeper than the fact that there are present individuals who were part of the conspiracyl

consul: We have heard a variation on this before, in section 2. Consul is in apposition to the subject of video and is separated from ego; this indicates that it is in predicative position, that is, it is making a further statement that modifies the predicate.  Here, consul is equivalent to saying although I am the consul or even something like:  I see these people and I am the consul and I ask them for their vote.

rogo:  That is, hos de re publica sententiam rogo.  In senatorial debate, the presiding magistrate (either consul or tribrune) asked the members to speak their opinion.  They were asked in order of seniority.

quos:  When a relative clause precedes its antecedent, it is common to signal both the beginning of (or return to) the main clause and the antecedent with a demonstrative.  Here the relative clause runs from quos to the verb of the clause oportebat, and then eos refers to the antecedent of quos.  It is often easiest in English to translate the main clause first.

fuisti: Cicero returns to a narrative of events after his digression of outrage.

igitur is not a logical connective in this context; there is no logical therefore to the argument.  Rather, it marks Ciceros posture as one who is now going to lay the facts out; it is more like the emotional conclusion to his outrage.

distribuisti: The string of main verbs in short parallel sentences is typical of the narrative style of Roman oratory.  Just the facts, maam. is the posture.

statuisti:  You determined; statuo may take an infinitive in indirect discourse (you decided that something is true.), or it may take an indirect question (you decided [the answer to the question] where people should go.), or it may take an indirect command (you decided that they should do it.).

Quemque is the subject accusative of proficisci and the infinitive phrase, quemque proficisci, is the subject of placeret:  What was pleasing?  quo quemque proficisci was pleasing.

relinqeres: Subjunctive in an indirect question; since the question was probably one about duty (who should he leave at Rome?) the subjunctive is a jussive subjunctive.

ad incendia:  ad + accusative is used for purpose (it is a metaphorical extension of the idea of end or goal of motion)

paulum is an indeclinable that takes a partitive genitivepaulum morae = a little delay.

quod = the fact that; the subjunctive, viverem, indicates that the quod-clause is withing indirect discourse.  Translate:  You said that the fact that I was alive was a small delay for you.

duo equites: We know from other sources that these were C. Cornelius and L. Vargunteius.  Equites were the wealthy non-senatorial class that included business men and land owners.  The major actors and alliances in public policy in Rome sought the favor of either the Senate or the Plebs.  The Equites sided at times with one group; at other times with the other.  Ciceros Concordia omnium aspired to unite these three classes into a stable government.

ista curaablative of separation after libero

liberarent: The subjunctive indicates that the relative clause is a purpose clause:  two knights were found to free you .

[*] The relative clause has a simple core which is expanded by prepositional phrases of time and place.  If you bracket out all the temporal and spatial phrases, you can see the core:  qui sese [illa ipsa nocte][paulo ante lucem] me [in meo lectulo] interfecturos esse pollicerentur.

interfecturos esse:  verbs of hoping and promising in Latin generally require the future infinitive because hopes and promises are for the future.

coetu vestro dimisso This phrase is an ablative absolutecoetu dimisso.

comperi: Cicero was noted and often mocked for saying too often, omnia comperi:  I know [or have discovered] everything.

maioribus:  more secure than usual

firmavi:  Observe that the core of the clause is simple:  domum munivi.

salutatum: The supine is used with verbs of motion (including verbs of sending) to indicate the purpose of the motion.  The social custom that these equites were participating in was the salutatio, a kind of reception at the house of important citizens each morning when their clients and friends would arrive to escort them to the forum.

illi: Cicero is illustrating his prescience and so he emphasizes that he excluded the men whom he had already predicted would arrive. 

venissent: The subjunctive in a cum-clause is a characterizing subjunctive.  Literally it means little more than at a time when, but this generalization about the time is often felt to be causal, as here.

id temporis is a common Latin idiom composed of an accusative of time + a partitive genitive: at that point in time.