[16]
Now, since, O citizens you have the nefarious leaders of this most wicked and dangerous war
taken prisoners and in your grasp, you ought to think that all the resources of
Catiline,—all his hopes and all his power, now that these dangers of the city are
warded off, have fallen to pieces. And, indeed, when I drove him from the city I foresaw in
my mind, O citizens, that if Catiline were removed, I had no cause to fear either the
drowsiness of Publius Lentulus, or the fat of Lucius Cassius, or the mad rashness of Cassius
Cethegus. He alone was to be feared of all these men, and that, only as long as he was within
the walls of the city. He knew everything, he had access to everybody. He had the skill and
the audacity to address, to tempt and to tamper with every one. He had acuteness suited to
crime; and neither tongue nor hand ever failed to support that acuteness. Already he had men
he could rely on chosen and distributed for the execution of all other business and when he
had ordered anything to be done he did not think it was done on that account. There was
nothing to which he did not personally attend and see to,—for which he did not
watch and toil. He was able to endure cold, thirst, and hunger.
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