[4]
Wherefore, O conscript fathers, attend to the safety of
the republic; look round upon all the storms which are impending, unless you guard against
them. It is not Tiberius Gracchus, who wished to be made a second time a tribune of the
people; it is not Caius Gracchus, who endeavoured to excite the partisans of
the agrarian law; it is not Lucius Saturninus, who slew Memmius, who is now in some danger,
who is now brought before the tribunal of your severity. They are now in your hands who
withstood all Rome, with the object of bringing conflagration on the whole city, massacre on
all of you, and of receiving Catiline; their letters are in your possession, their seals,
their handwriting, and the confession of each individual of them; the Allobroges are tampered
with, the slaves are excited, Catiline is sent for; the design is actually begun to be put in
execution, that all should be put to death, so that no one should be left even to mourn the
name of the republic, and to lament over the downfall of so mighty a dominion.
This text is part of:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.