A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Cicero against Catiline 441
behavior of yours was beyond all patience, yet I have
borne with it as I could; but now to be in
continual fear
of you alone, on every alarm to tremble at the name of
Catiline, to see no plots formed against me which speak
not of you as their author, is altogether insupportable.
Begone, then, and rid me of my present terror; that if
just, I may avoid ruin; if groundless, I may at length
cease to fear! . . .
It is now a long time, senators, that we have trod amid
All traitors
the dangers and machinations of this conspiracy; but I the city.
know not how it comes to pass, that the full maturity of all
those crimes, and of this long-ripening rage and insolence,
has now broken out in the period of my consulship.
Should
he alone be removed from this powerful band of traitors,
it may abate perhaps our fears and anxieties for a while,
but the danger will still remain, and continue lurking
in the veins and \'itals of the republic. . . . Wherefore,
senators, let the wicked retire; let them separate themselves
from the honest; let them gather in one place. As I
have often said, let a wall be between them and us. Let
them cease to lay snares for the consul in his own house, to
beset the tribunal of the city praetor, to invest the senatehouse
with armed ruffians, and prepare fire-balls and
torches for burning the city. In brief, let every man's
sentiments regarding the republic be inscribed on his forehead.
This I engage for and promise, senators, that by the May Jupiter
diligence of the consuls, the weight of your authority, the
courage and firmness of the Roman knights, and the una-
nimity of all who are honest, Catihne shall be driven forth
from the city, and you shall behold all his treasons detected,
exposed, crushed, and punished. With these
omens of all prosperity to the republic but of destruction
state and
gnlmies?^