In Catilinam 3.10

3.23Quam ob rem, Quirītēs, quoniam ad omnia pulvīnāria supplicātiō dēcrēta est, celebrātōte illōs diēs cum coniugibus ac līberīs vestrīs.

Therefore, citizens, since a thanksgiving has been decreed at all the couches of the gods, celebrate those days with your wives and children.

Note. supplicātiō: a public thanksgiving in which the temples were opened and the images of the gods set on couches (pulvīnāria) for the people to pray before. Cicero was the first civilian to be voted one; it was normally an honour for victorious generals. celebrātōte: future imperative, used for formal instructions.

3.23Nam multī saepe honōrēs dīs immortālibus iūstī habitī sunt ac dēbitī, sed profectō iūstiōrēs numquam.

For many honours have often been paid to the immortal gods that were just and due, but surely never any more just.

3.23Ēreptī enim estis ex crūdēlissimō ac miserrimō interitū, ēreptī sine caede, sine sanguine, sine exercitū, sine dīmicātiōne;

For you have been rescued from a most cruel and miserable destruction, rescued without slaughter, without bloodshed, without an army, without a fight;

3.23togātī mē ūnō togātō duce et imperātōre vīcistis.

in civilian dress, with me in civilian dress as your only leader and general, you have won.

Note. togātī … togātō: the toga was civilian dress, as against military uniform; Cicero's boast is that he won a war without becoming a general.

3.24Etenim recordāminī, Quirītēs, omnīs cīvīlīs dissēnsiōnēs, nōn sōlum eās quās audīstis sed eās quās vōsmet ipsī meministis atque vīdistis.

Recall, citizens, all the civil conflicts, not only those you have heard of but those you yourselves remember and saw.

Note. Etenim: here 'indeed'. vōsmet: emphatic form of vōs.

3.24L. Sulla P. Sulpicium oppressit: C. Marium, custōdem huius urbis, multōsque fortīs virōs partim ēiēcit ex cīvitāte, partim interēmit.

Lucius Sulla crushed Publius Sulpicius; Gaius Marius, the guardian of this city, and many brave men he partly drove out of the state and partly killed.

Note. The civil wars of the 80s BC: in 88 Sulla marched on Rome, killed the tribune Sulpicius and drove out Marius.

3.24Cn. Octāvius cōnsul armīs expulit ex urbe conlēgam: omnis hic locus acervīs corporum et cīvium sanguine redundāvit.

Gnaeus Octavius as consul drove his colleague out of the city by force of arms: this whole place overflowed with heaps of bodies and the blood of citizens.

Note. In 87 the consul Octavius expelled his colleague Cinna, and there was fighting in the Forum (hic locus, where Cicero was speaking).

3.24Superāvit posteā Cinna cum Mariō: tum vērō clārissimīs virīs interfectīs lūmina cīvitātis exstīncta sunt.

Later Cinna won, with Marius: and then the most famous men were killed and the lights of the state put out.

Note. Cinna returned with Marius and took Rome; many leading men were murdered.

3.24Ultus est huius victōriae crūdēlitātem posteā Sulla: nē dīcī quidem opus est quantā dēminūtiōne cīvium et quantā calamitāte reī pūblicae.

Afterwards Sulla took revenge for the cruelty of that victory: there is no need even to say with what loss of citizens and what disaster to the state.

Note. Ultus est: from the deponent ulcīscor, 'avenged'. In 82 Sulla returned, won the civil war and carried out the proscriptions. nē … quidem: 'not even'. The indirect exclamation quantā … quantā is left in the ablative without a verb.

3.24Dissēnsit M. Lepidus ā clārissimō et fortissimō virō Q. Catulō: attulit nōn tam ipsīus interitus reī pūblicae lūctum quam cēterōrum.

Marcus Lepidus quarrelled with that most famous and brave man Quintus Catulus: his own death brought the state less grief than the deaths of the others.

Note. In 78-77 BC the consul Lepidus rose against the settlement Sulla had made and was defeated by his colleague Catulus.

3.25dissēnsiōnēs erant eius modī quae nōn ad dēlendam sed ad commūtandam rem pūblicam pertinērent.

Yet those conflicts were of a kind that aimed not at destroying the state but at changing it.

Note. eius modī quae … pertinērent: 'of such a kind as to aim at'; the subjunctive marks a relative clause of characteristic.

3.25Nōn illī nūllam esse rem pūblicam sed in eā quae esset sē esse prīncipēs, neque hanc urbem cōnflagrāre sed sē in hāc urbe flōrēre voluērunt.

Those men did not want there to be no state, but to be the leading men in the state that existed; they did not want this city to burn, but to flourish in it themselves.

Note. Nōn … nūllam esse rem pūblicam … voluērunt: they did not want the state to cease to exist; in eā quae esset: 'in the one there was'.

3.25Atque illae tamen omnēs dissēnsiōnēs, quārum nūlla exitium reī pūblicae quaesīvit, eius modī fuērunt ut nōn reconciliātiōne concordiae sed interniciōne cīvium dīiūdicātae sint.

And yet all those conflicts, none of which sought the destruction of the state, were of such a kind that they were settled not by a restoring of harmony but by a slaughter of citizens.

Note. The ut-clause is one of result after eius modī.

3.25In hōc autem ūnō post hominum memoriam maximō crūdēlissimōque bellō, quāle bellum nūlla umquam barbaria cum suā gente gessit, quō in bellō lēx haec fuit ā Lentulō, Catilīnā, Cethēgō, Cassiō cōnstitūta ut omnēs quī salvā urbe salvī esse possent in hostium numerō dūcerentur, ita mē gessī, Quirītēs, ut salvī omnēs cōnservārēminī, et, cum hostēs vestrī tantum cīvium superfutūrum putāssent quantum īnfīnītae caedī restitisset, tantum autem urbis quantum flamma obīre nōn potuisset, et urbem et cīvīs integrōs incolumīsque servāvī.

But in this war, the greatest and cruellest within human memory, a war such as no barbarian nation ever waged with its own people, a war in which Lentulus, Catiline, Cethegus and Cassius laid down the law that all who could be safe while the city was safe should be counted as enemies, I have so conducted myself, citizens, that you have all been kept safe; and though your enemies had reckoned that only as many citizens would remain as survived the endless slaughter, and only as much of the city as the flames could not reach, I have kept both city and citizens whole and unharmed.

Note. A long period. quāle bellum: 'a war such as'. salvā urbe: ablative absolute, 'if the city were safe'. tantum cīvium … quantum: 'as many citizens as'; tantum urbis … quantum: 'as much of the city as'. Cicero claims the conspirators meant to treat as enemies everyone who had any stake in the city's survival.