Tuesday, November 10, 2009

"And she, O Catiline, thus pleads with you, and after a manner silently speaks to you..."

"And do you, who, from the consciousness of your wickedness, know that the hatred of all men is just and has been long due to you, hesitate to avoid the sight and presence of those men whose minds and senses you offend? If your parents feared and hated you, and if you could by no means pacify them, you would, I think, depart somewhere out of their sight. Now, your country, which is the common parent of all of us, hates and fears you, and has no other opinion of you, than that you are meditating parricide in her case; and will you neither feel awe of her authority, nor deference for her judgment, nor fear of her power?
And she, O Catiline, thus pleads with you, and after a manner silently speaks to you: -- There has now for many years been no crime committed but by you; no atrocity has taken place without you : you alone unpunished and unquestioned have murdered the citizens, have harassed and plundered the allies; you alone have had power not only to neglect all laws and investigations, but to overthrow and break through them. Your former actions, though they ought not to have been borne, yet I did bear as well as I could; but now that I should be wholly occupied with fear of you alone, that at every sound I should dread Catiline, that no design should seem possible to be entertained against me which does not proceed from your wickedness, this is no longer endurable. Depart, then, and deliver me from this fear; that, if it be a just one, I may not be destroyed; if an imaginary one, that at least I may at last cease to fear."
~Cicero (106 B.C.–43 B.C.), "First Oration Against Catiline"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm finding this part funny:

"Depart, then, and deliver me from this fear; that, if it be a just one, I may not be destroyed; if an imaginary one, that at least I may at last cease to fear."

How come he gets to use that as a good excuse to ask someone to leave? I mean, really, can you imagine if you said that to someone today??? lol. I can just see a gangster sayin' that.