Speeches against Catiline

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The end of Cicero's fourth speech against Catiline in a manuscript written by Poggio Bracciolini in 1425: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana , Plut. 48,22, fol. 121r

The speeches against Catiline ( Latin Orationes In Catilinam ) are four speeches given by the Roman philosopher, writer and consul Marcus Tullius Cicero in 63 BC. BC against the Senator Lucius Sergius Catilina . Cicero was concerned with the exposure, prosecution and punishment of the second Catilinarian conspiracy , an attempted overthrow of Catiline and his followers against the Roman Republic .

prehistory

The Catiline conspiracy began in 63 BC. In order to gain power over Rome, Catiline planned a coup. For this purpose he commissioned C. Manlius to raise an army. On the evening (November 6th) before leaving for Manlius, Catiline summons his supporters in Rome and persuades the senators L. Vargunteius and C. Cornelius to assassinate Cicero. He found out about it and was able to avoid the attack by having his house guarded, so that the two senators had to leave without having done anything the next day.

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1st speech (on November 8, 63 BC before the Senate)

Cicero now convenes the Senate in the Temple of Jupiter Stator (at the foot of the Palatine). To everyone's surprise, Catiline also takes part in this meeting. Cicero begins with the rhetorical question : Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? ( How much longer, Catiline, will you abuse our patience? ) Then he informs the Senate of the unsuccessful assassination attempt, but Catiline plays the innocent. This causes Cicero to expose Catiline in an improvised speech and to give him the urgent advice to leave Rome. While there is since 21 October, a Senate resolution against which the state of emergency declared and given entirely to the consul a free hand in the elimination of the malefactor: "Ad mortem te, Catiline, duci iussu consulis iam pridem oportebat" ( Long ago you had, Catiline to be taken away on the orders of the consul to be killed ), he calls out to him in the second paragraph of the speech. Why Cicero is still reluctant to make use of his special powers, given this apparently so clear legal position, becomes clear in several places in the speech in tortuous formulations: “Tum denique interficiere, cum iam nemo tam inprobus, tam perditus, tam tui similis inveniri poterit , qui id non iure factum esse fateatur. Quamdiu quisquam erit, qui te defendere audeat, vives ”(Paragraph 5; Then at last you will be killed when no one is so bad, so depraved, so similar to you can be found who does not admit that it was then rightly done. For as long if there is anyone who dares to defend you, you will live. ) Obviously, the outrage in the people and the Senate was not as unanimous as Cicero would have us believe elsewhere in the speech. The legal validity of the senate resolution, which gave the consuls extraordinary powers to avert danger, has been questioned again and again by popular sides since this means was first used in 121 to bloody smash the Gracchian reform movement . And in fact, the execution of the followers of Catiline who remained in the city, which Cicero ordered on December 5th, was repeatedly accused of violating the law in the years after his consulate and finally led in 58 BC. To his exile. So Cicero had every reason to be careful with the state of emergency and therefore preferred a more or less voluntary departure of the putschist. By actually going to his rebellious troops in Tuscany on November 9th, Catiline put himself in the wrong. Cicero's hope that he would take all of his followers with him (Paragraph 12: "Sin tu, quod te iamdudum hortor, exieris, exhaurietur ex urbe tuorum comitum magna et periculosa sentina rei publicae" " If you withdraw what I have been asking you to do for a long time, she will too large and dangerous quantities of political manure from your comrades were washed out of the city ), however, was not fulfilled.

2nd speech (on November 9, 63 BC before the people)

The next day, after Catiline had fled Rome, Cicero gave his second speech against him. Before the beginning of a senate meeting, which was called by Caesar himself, in which the further course of action is to be discussed, he appears before the people and tells them what has happened from his point of view. In particular, he brings forward evidence that Catilina's supporters are still active in the city and are preparing a coup: shortly beforehand, during a staged raid on Pons Milvius, Cicero's people had come into possession of letters with which Catilina's supporters instructed the allobrogers to cancel their debts Had given prospects if they took part in the coup.

3rd speech (before the people on December 3rd, 63 BC)

On December 3rd, Cicero gave his third speech against Catiline: at the forum he informed the people of the capture and confession of the followers of Catiline. As a result, the Senate discussed whether the imprisoned conspirators should be punished with death or only with life imprisonment; the decision is postponed.

4th speech (on December 5, 63 BC before the Senate)

In the fourth and final Catiline speech given two days later, Cicero summarized the opinions and urged a quick decision, especially since clients had instigated liberation attempts the day before.

On decisive agitation by Cato , the Senate finally decides against Caesar's vote and consequently in favor of the death penalty.

Literary classification

Written publication

In the year 60 BC BC, three years after the events, Cicero published the speeches in writing by sending them in a letter to his friend Atticus with the request that they be disseminated. The written recording of the speeches and their publication meant that an unusually large amount was reported about the conspiracies, but only from the point of view of the victors. B. by the historians Sallust in his work De coniuratione Catilinae and Plutarch . This led to the one-sided portrayal of Catiline as a villain, on the other hand, to the overestimation of his actions in relation to the change from Rome's republican form of government to the empire.

Cicero delivers a speech against Catiline. Painting by Cesare Maccari , 1888

Significance for rhetoric

The speeches against Catiline , which, in contrast to many other speeches of Cicero, have been handed down to this day in full, established his reputation as the most important Roman orator . They are considered a masterpiece of ancient rhetoric; The opening words of the first speech in particular became famous: “ Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? “(How long do you, Catiline, want to abuse our patience?).

The first section of the first speech is a collection of rhetorical questions; they are designed in such a way that each one aims at Catiline, with the aim of exposing him in front of everyone present and identifying him as someone who acts against the Roman community: “How long, Catiline, do you want to abuse our patience? How long will this your frenzy keep ridiculing us? To what end should unrestrained cheek raise its head? Didn't the occupation of the palatium make any impression on you during the night, none of the anxious fear of the people, none of the crowd of all good people, none of this strongly fortified meeting place of the Senate, none of the looks and expressions of those present? Don't you see that your plans are clear? Can't you see that your conspiracy has been shackled by the consent of all these men here? What you were up to last night, what you were up to the night before last, where you were, whom you called and what plan you made - which of us do you think you don't know? "

authenticity

Despite the time lag, the written versions of the speeches are considered authentic: Cicero not only had an enormous memory, but was also trained in mnemonics as a speech teacher . Since it was precisely words of such political importance that might have stuck in the auditorium's memory, Cicero could not afford to deviate from the original speech. Furthermore, it can be assumed that Cicero made notes on the key points of his speeches when they were delivered. Finally, the two speeches held in the Senate were also recorded in shorthand. (See Tironic Notes )

Text output, translations and comments

  • M. Tullius Cicero: All speeches. Volume 2: For Cluentius Habitus. About the settlers law. For Rabirius. Catilinarian speeches. For Murena. incl., trans. and ext. by Manfred Fuhrmann , Zurich and Stuttgart 1970.
  • M. Tullius Cicero: State speeches. Volume 1: About the Supreme Command of Cn. Pompey, On the Farm Law, Against L. Catilina. Latin and German by Helmut Kasten , Berlin 1969.
  • M. Tullius Cicero: Four speeches against Catiline. Latin / German, ed. and over. by Dietrich Klose, with an afterthought by Karl Büchner , Stuttgart 2011.
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero: In L. Catilinam orationes / Four speeches against Catilina. Latin / German, transl. and ed. by Michael von Albrecht , Stuttgart 2016.
  • Albert Curtis Clark (Ed.): M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes , Volume 1: Pro Sex. Roscio. De imperio Cn. Pompei. Pro Cluentio. In Catilinam. Pro Murena. Pro Caelio , Oxford 1905. (Several reprints)
  • Andrew R. Dyck: Cicero, Catilinarians. Cambridge 2008.
  • Tadeusz Maslowski (Ed.): M. Tullius Cicero. Scripta quae manserunt omnia. Volume 17: Orationes in L. Catilinam quattuor. Munich et al. 2003.

literature

  • Charles M. Odahl: Cicero and the Catilinarian Conspiracy (= Routledge studies in ancient history. 1). Routledge, New York, NY et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-415-87472-4 .
  • Adolf Primmer : Historical and oratorical about the first Catilinaria. In: Gymnasium. 84, pp. 18-38 (1977).
  • Vera Sauer: The Religious in the Political Argumentation of the Late Roman Republic. Cicero's First Catilinarian Speech - A Case Study (= Potsdam Classical Studies . Volume 42: Ancient History. ) Steiner, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-515-10302-2 . (Slightly revised version of the dissertation University of Potsdam 2011).
  • Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg : The procedure against the Catilinarians or: The avoided trial. In: Ulrich Manthe (ed.): Great processes of Roman antiquity. Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-42686-7 , pp. 85-99.
  • Joseph Vogt : Cicero and Sallust on the Catilinarian conspiracy. Frankfurt am Main 1938. (Reprint: (= Libelli series. Volume 160). Wissenschaftliche Buchgemeinschaft, Darmstadt 1973, ISBN 3-534-03443-0 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cicero .: In L. Catilinam orationes / Four speeches against Catilina Latin / German . ISBN 978-3-15-019369-3 ( worldcat.org [accessed June 13, 2020]).