Etenim: At the end of paragraph 30 above Cicero had formulated his reply to the Patria as Wait, so that the remedy may be in perpetuum. The strength of this position depends entirely upon Ciceros prudential wisdom about the likely course of events. For that reason, Cicero must contextualize the current dangers (in his periculis) in terms of alternative responses (quod si .... Qua re ....).
iam diu: Although, the deliberative issue has been answered in the preceding section (verum etiam stirps ac semen malorum omnium), since Cicero is really positioning himself in terms of the body politic, it is important that his policy be aligned with history as well as prudence. For that reason, he now locates the present moment within a long history of dangers and treachery which have singled him out as ille unus vir. It is important to notice that the impatience with which Cicero began, quo usque tandem, has now modulated a long history for which Cicero will be the answer.
coniurationis: Probably best thought of as a genitive of material: dangers that consist in the conspiracy. However, since the Genitive Case turns any noun into an adjective, you might want to find an appropriate adjective: conspiratorial dangers.
Versamus: Review translation of an adverb of duration with the present tense of the verb.
nescio: This word is taken closely with the following as an indefinite adjective; if it were the verb, nescio, it would have to be followed by a subjunctive verb in an indirect question.
nescio quo pacto: While this may seem to be modest in that it expresses ignorance about how things happen, it is also proud in that it implies confidence in Ciceros ability to respond.
omnium: Note the emphasis: omnium; the ethical import of this emphasis is repeated in veteris.
furoris et audaciae: audacia was introduced in paragraph 1 and furor in paragraph 2: the themes have been at work since the beginning of the speech.
maturitas: the full grown impact; this continues the metaphor of growth with which Cicero ended the last section.
nostri: The emphasis of this word in this position responds precisely to the emphasis of omnium and veteris: all the old [problems] have come to us.
erupit: The metaphor suits Ciceros view that the problems, which have been suppressed and hidden until they finally burst forth, constitute a danger in the future unless they are wholly eradicated.
latrocinio: Latin is usually more concrete or particular than English, but this time it uses the abstract (from such a large violent robbery) to refer to the particulars: from so many bandits.
tolletur: Logical, factual future condition.
ad tempus: The same point was made at V.12: si te interfici iussero, residebit . One answer, then, to the question quo usque tandem is cum in perpetuum, non cum ad breve tempus....
cura et metu: ablatives of separation with relevati.
relevati: Cicero is setting up the medical metaphor which he will soon developed around the image of fever and thirst. Here, however, there is not yet a substantial medical metaphor; in fact, even with in venis atque in visceribus we are not necessarily in the presence of a developed metaphor. However, by the time we reach aegri morbo gravi we feel that we are already in the presence of the metaphor, and in the hands of the doctor.
residebit: See again V.12.
penitus: Compare the earlier expression: quae dicam ... penitus animis vestris mentibusque mandate at XI. 27. In a sense Cicero has been offering his speek (in general and including his ideas about virtus and consensio, not just this particular speech) as the cure for what ails the republic.
venis atque in visceribus: It is hard to say exactly where the medical metaphor takes over, but here it is being developed. The image of the philosopher-king as doctor goes back to Plato. Cicero is reaching into this set of associations to strengthen further his claim to be the one man capable of healing the societys ills.
ut saepe: introduces the analogy. As in section XII Ciceros style became hypotactic and periodic (a reflection of his posture as a thoughtful counselor and prudent statesman, so here the development of an analogy (especially an medical analogy) portrays the consul as one who has thought long and carefully about how matters of public health and safety should be handled.
aegri morbo grave: Here, clearly, we are in the presence of the doctor-politician. This is the first closural role that Cicero will play. This justification for his actions is partially rational, partly ethical: that is, it captures the ethos (or character) of the doctor, the man who understands disease even when the laymen do not. This role sequesters authority.
gelidam: The metaphor is, to my mind, a very gentle way of saying, you want what is bad for you; trust me, I know. Whatever political evaluation we may want to make of Ciceros tactics and his assumption of power, the rhetoric has, and is meant to have, a palliative effect.
relevari: The infinitive recalls relevati above and the repetition helps enhance the impression that the analogy is apt.
gravius: Responding morbo gravi, but also allowing and prompting vehementius, which is the term that applies more literally to Catiline.
morbus: The analogy began as an explanation for how to cure the republics ills; it very conveniently develops into a discription of Catiline and his allies as a disease. From robber to disease, such is the rhetoric of political violence.
relevatus: The third repetition of this term helps to resituate the analogy as metaphor by taking us back to cura et metu esse relavati.
vehementius: Here the term paired with gravius above and introduced by gravius supplants the more common adjective.
ingravescet: Cicero does not lose track of his original description, morbo gravi: ingravescit.
Qua re: This introduces the conclusion that Cicero has circled around and returned to again and again in this speech.
secedant: Jussive subjunctive: Let them. Since Cicero is speaking to the Senators at this point, he uses the third person jussive; compare proficiscere ... perge ... egredere ... secerne ... at 23, and proficiscere at 33.
Improbi: substantival use of the adjective. At moments like this it is disturbing that political rhetoric has little to offer except the truism: bad people should go away. The real political issue, however, cannot at this point be stated. Improbi depends, for Cicero, upon the effectiveness of his speech: if the audience is convinced that the Catilinarians are the improbi, then it works; if not, it is empty rhetoric.
bonis: See note above. It is, of course, assumed that the audience is the boni (with certain exceptions).
congregentur: Cicero wants the conspirators concentrated like a herd (grex) in a single place; this he finds more secure than the dangers represented by the fact that this single place is Manlius' hostile camp. This is the last clause in a tri-colon crescendo.
denique: The particle allows the tri-colon to spill over into yet another clause.
quod: The antecedent is the tone and content of the entire utterance including what follows: muro discernantur a nobis; at paragraph 10 he did not say exactly this, but the content was the same. Literally: a thing which.; idiomatically, as.
insidiari: Treachery is the essence of Catilines attack. This infinitive and the following three are good examples of the infinitive being used as a neuter noun and as the object of a verb: "let them stop [it]."
circumstare: When did Catiline or his followers stand threateningly about the praetor urbanus? The facts are no longer in issue; he could have and so he can be charged with having done it.
obsidere: Again (cf. note above) note that the rhetoric takes certain liberties with the facts.
comparare: Closure to this list comes, not with an historical fact, but with the exact and precise substance of Ciceros accusations against Catiline since paragraph 9.
inscriptum in fronte unius cuiusque: This is the most disturbing moment in the speech for modern democratic sensibilities. Only slaves would have been marked in such a fashion, and the mark would have been one of ownership. The cost of coopting all speech (Ciceros aim in this speech) is that finally he is consul among slaves, primus super servos. A similar moment occurs when he refuses to bring before the Senate the matter of Catilines exile: VIII.20. Here, as soon as the citizen body appears branded with their own opinions, Cicero speaks (polliceor) for the consuls, the senators, the equites and omnes boni.
quid: quid introduces an indirect question dependent upon inscriptum.
Polliceor: Cicero contrasts his open promise with the need to open the minds and thoughts of others.
hoc: The demonstrative looks forward to the promises listed in the anaphoric sequence, tantam tantam tantam.
tantam: The anaphora structures the list so that it is easy to follow.
fore: enclitic position, it marks nobis consulibus as substantively important, which it is since it begins the variables in the list.
in vobis: How can Cicero promise that some quality will be in his audience? To some extent he is looking back at his initial self-accusation, when he distinguished the auctoritas of the Senate from his own actions: at vero nos vicesimum iam diem patimur hebescere aciem horum auctoritatis. He can promise their auctoritas, then, because, in a sense, it has already been given; but he can also promise it because he now speaks for the Senate.
virtutem: Again, Cicero, makes promises for others. The virtus of the Roman equites must be assumed. This is, of course, a form of flattery).
consensionem: This was apparently Ciceros consistent desire as a public figure: that the state cohere and that it cohere under his providence.
Catilinae profectione: Ablative of time when, but, not significantly different from an ablative absolute. The Ablative Absolute requires a noun and an adjective (or participle) and here, if we consider the genitive to be the same as an adjective, we have the equivalent of a noun + adjective.
patefacta: How are we to understand the syntax of this and the following three participles? The choice is either that some are predicative participles and others are parts of a periphrastic perfect passive infintive, or that all are perfect passive infinitives. Since, almost all participles in Latin are predicative, there is really not much to choose between the alternatives: best to take them all as perfect passive infintives.
PERORATIO: It is unclear where the peroratio begins. Many editors place it at the beginning of Chapter XII: presumably because they feel that Cicero begins to summarize at that point. However, I believe that it does not begin until here and that it lasts a mere 2 sentences. My reasoning is that XII and XIII up to this point are still performing the function of argument: they are justifying and making claims about the future which are appropriate to the conclusion of a deliberative speech.
Hisce ominibus: This is the summary move that begins the Peroratio. The promises and the threats, the consensus and the hatred, that Cicero believes he has constructed form the omens that will attend Catiline on his way.
cum summa rei publicae salute: This is an adverbial ablative that falls under the category of the ablative of accompaniment; the accompaniement, however, does not so much attend the performance of the act as it does the accomplishment of the act. In English, the easiest translation is to the / for the .
eorum: The demonstrative looks forward to the definition that will come in the qui-clause.
scelere parricidioque: While it could be true that the conspirators are joined in crime (scelus), it is not yet true that they are joined in murder (parricidium). The speech has made sure that the intentions of the conspiracy are inseparable from their actual activities.
impium: The religious sphere enters here because Cicero is about to address Juppiter directly. We have seen it before in paragraphs 23 (exulta impio latrocinio) and 24 (istam impiam dexteram), always in the context of civil war. Similarly, nefarium bellum in paragraph 25.
Iuppiter: The peroration of an ancient speech typically ends with a prayer. Jupiter, as the god of the state and the god in whose temple Cicero convened the Senate is the ideal god to address.
qui: The form Tu + vocative + relative clauses is typical of a formal prayer.
auspiciis: Who were established with the same auspices as the city that is, of course, by Romulus. In fact, Romulus only vowed to erect a temple to Jupiter. The temple was not built until 294 BCE.
Statorem: In the sense of establisher or protector.
templis: Catiline is a sacrilege and so must be kept apart from the temples.
moenibus: Catiline is a public enemy (hostis) and so must be separated from the Roman people by a wall, as Cicero has often said.
civium: Catiline is a desperate man and so must be kept from the lives and livelihoods of Romes citizens.
arcebis: The future indicative translates the peroration into something more than a prayer. Now either as Jupiters own spokesperson or as his advisor, Cicero is making promises on behalf of Jupiter in the same way in which he spoke on behalf of the Senators and the Equites.
inimicos: Ethical: enemy to the good.
patriae: Political: enemy to the state.
Latrones Italiae: Financial: plunderer of the country and the countryside.
scelerum foedere: Scelerum clearly recalls the criminal and sacriligious aspects of the conspiracy, but joined with foedus Cicero creates a kind of oxymoron: Criminals do not usually join in the kind of compact that has as its root the idea of fides.
coniunctos: The participle is in agreement with homines; that means that inimicos, hostis, and latrones are in predicative apposition to homines: men joined together as enemies of the good, as .
vivos: This adjective and the next are predicative: You will punish them [while] living and dead.