barnacles of history

this time with a) all the quotes in chronological order, and b) Weird Catilina Reception Plays!

Cic. Cael. 12 trans. Charles Duke Yonge

[Catilina was] such an amalgam of natural inclinations and passions that were contradictory, divergent and at war with one another.

tam ex contrariis diversisque atque inter se pugnantibus naturae studiis cupiditatibusque conflatum.

Sal. Cat. 61 trans. Rev. John Selby Watson

Catiline himself was found, far in advance of his men, among the dead bodies of the enemy; he was not quite breathless, and still expressed in his countenance the fierceness of spirit which he had shown during his life.

Catilina vero longe a suis inter hostium cadavera repertus est paululum etiam spirans ferociamque animi, quam habuerat vivus, in voltu retinens.

Flor. Epit. 2.12.1.12 trans. Me

The end showed how fierce the fighting had been. Not one of the enemy survived the battle; each man defended the place he had taken during the fighting with his breathless corpse. Catilina was found far from his men, among the bodies of his enemy—a most beautiful death, if only he had fallen thus on his country’s behalf.

Quam atrociter dimicatum sit, exitus docuit. Nemo hostium bello superfuit; quem quis in pugnando ceperat locum, eum amissa anima corpore tegebat. Catilina longe a suis inter hostium cadavera repertus est, pulcherrima morte, si pro patria sic concidisset.

Ben Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy

PETREIUS:

Whilst Catiline came on, not with the face

Of any man, but of a public ruin:

His countenance was a civil war itself;

And as, in that rebellion ‘gainst the Gods,

Minerva holding forth Medusa’s head,

One of the giant brethren felt himself

Grow marble at the killing sight, and now,

Almost made stone, began t'inquire, what flint,

What rock it was, that crept through all his limbs,

And, ere he could think more, was that he fear’d;

So Catiline, at the sight of Rome in us,

Became his tomb: yet did his look retain

Some of his fierceness, and his hands still mov’d,

As if he labor’d, yet, to grasp the state,

With those rebellious parts.

CATULUS:

A brave bad death.

Had this been honest now, and for his country,

As 'twas against it, who had ere fallen greater?

George Croly, Catiline

HAMILCAR (anxiously):

Is Catiline slain?

CETHEGUS:

How dare you name him?

HAMILCAR (with haughtiness):

Is the rebel dead?

CETHEGUS:

Dead or alive, he’s glorious! In the rout

That bore him backwards o’er the fatal trench,

I saw him fighting, with a giant’s strength […]