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Cicero tells the people Catiline is gone

63 BCE, Rome. His own words, in a speech to the people.

Where and when

63 BCERome

2,088 years ago

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Cicero

, RomeHis own words, in a speech to the people

In plain words, ours

He is gone, he has left, he has vanished, he has rushed out. That monster can no longer plot against this city from inside its walls.

He is gone, he has departed, he has disappeared, he has rushed out. No injury will now be prepared against these walls within the walls themselves by that monster and prodigy of wickedness.

Cicero, Against Catiline 2.1Translated by C. D. Yonge (1856)Read the full passage (Cicero, Against Catiline 2.1, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

Rome, 63 BCE. The consul Cicero has denounced Catiline, who planned to seize power by force, and Catiline has left the city to join his army. Cicero calls the people into the forum and gives them this speech.

Checked claim by claim against: Cicero exposes Catiline's plot against the Republic, the passage around the quote.

Why it matters

About the event it belongs to: Cicero exposes Catiline's plot against the Republic

Scholars disagree about its weight: one called it among the best known and least significant episodes in Roman history, while others stress that it jolted the Republic into action.

Based on Wikipedia: Catilinarian conspiracy

For example, Louis E. Lord in the introduction to the 1937 Loeb Classical Library translation of Cicero's Catilinarian orations calls it "one of the best known and least significant episodes in Roman history".

Scholars have also criticised over-estimation of the importance of Catiline's insurrection, but others stress that the affair was not meaningless and that it jolted the republic into action.

Wikipedia, Catilinarian conspiracy (opens en.wikipedia.org), as of 2026-07-19. Text CC BY-SA 4.0. Our line is checked against these sentences only.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. 63 BCESame year Cicero exposes Catiline's plot against the Republic The event behind itAlso in Rome
  2. 63 BCEThis momentCicero tells the people Catiline is gone
  3. 63 BCESame year Cato, Caesar and the note, in Plutarch Also in Rome
  4. 63 BCESame year Cicero denounces Catiline to his face More from Cicero
  5. 63 BCESame year Cicero turns on Catiline in the Senate More from Cicero
  6. 63 BCESame year Cicero advises Catiline to leave Rome More from Cicero
  7. c. 60 BCEabout 3 years later Caesar, Pompey and Crassus join forces Also in Rome

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

But Cicero was aware of his motions, and knew that he had previously sent a quantity of arms, and military ensigns, and especially a silver eagle which he had been used to keep in his own house with a superstitious reverence, because it had been used by the great Marius in his expedition against the Cimbri. However, he thought it desirable to counteract the story of his having gone into exile, and therefore summoned the people into the forum, and made them the following speech. At length, O Romans, we have dismissed from the city, or driven out, or, when he was departing of his own accord, we have pursued with words, Lucius Catiline, mad with audacity, breathing wickedness, impiously planning mischief to his country, threatening fire and sword to you and to this city.

The quote: He is gone, he has departed, he has disappeared, he has rushed out. No injury will now be prepared against these walls within the walls themselves by that monster and prodigy of wickedness.

And we have, without controversy, defeated him, the sole general of this domestic war. For now that dagger will no longer hover about our sides; we shall not be afraid in the campus, in the forum, in the senate-house,—yes, and within our own private walls, he was moved from his place when he was driven from the city. Now we shall openly carry on a regular war with an enemy without hindrance. Beyond all question we ruin the man; we have defeated him splendidly when we have driven him from secret treachery into open warfare.

Cicero, Against Catiline 2–2.1Translated by C. D. Yonge (1856)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
63 BCE. Speech two against Catiline, given during Cicero's consulship in 63 BCE; he published the speeches himself a few years later.
Whose words
His own words, in a speech to the people.
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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