1But, you say, it was the state that led you to prosecute. 1I believe, Cato, that you came with that intention and that belief; 1but you are slipping through lack of foresight. 1What I am doing, judges, I am doing not only for the sake of my friendship with Murena and of his standing, but also, I proclaim and testify, for the sake of peace, tranquillity, concord, liberty, safety, and, in short, the lives of us all. 1Listen, listen, judges, to a consul — I shall say nothing too arrogant, I shall say only to one who thinks of the state all day and all night! 1Catiline did not despise and scorn the state so far as to think that he would overwhelm this city with the force he led out with him.
1The contagion of his crime spreads more widely than anyone thinks; it reaches more people. 1Inside, inside, I say, is the Trojan horse; 1by which, while I am consul, you will never be overwhelmed in your sleep. 79You ask me whether I fear Catiline at all. 79Not at all, and I have taken care that no one should fear him; but I say that his forces which I see here are to be feared; 79nor is Catiline's army now so much to be dreaded as those who are said to have deserted that army. 79For they have not deserted, but, left behind by him on the watch and in ambush, they have stayed on our heads and necks.
79These men want a blameless consul, a good general, one bound by nature and by fortune to the safety of the state, to be thrown down from the protection of the city and driven by your votes from the guardianship of the state. 79Their weapons and audacity I have repelled in the Campus, weakened in the forum, and often crushed even in my own house, judges; if you hand over one of the consuls to them, they will have gained far more by your votes than by their own swords. 79It is of great importance, judges, that there be two consuls in the state on the Kalends of January — a thing which I have pursued and accomplished in the face of much opposition.
80Do not think that they are using ordinary plans or customary methods. 80It is not a wicked law, not ruinous bribery, not some evil to the state ever heard of before that is being sought. 80Plans have been laid in this state, judges, for destroying the city, slaughtering the citizens, and extinguishing the Roman name. 80And these things citizens, citizens, I say, if it is right to call them by that name, both plot and have plotted against their own fatherland. 80Every day I counter their plans, weaken their audacity, resist their crime. 80But I warn you, judges. 80My consulship is now at its end; 80do not take away from me the man who is to carry on my vigilance, do not remove the one to whom I long to hand over the state unharmed, to be defended against these great dangers.