quid vero, and sly! novis nuptiis, etc.: this crime is mentioned by no other writer, and is perhaps one of the orator's exaggerations. aho . . . scelere: Sallust mentions, as a matter of common belief, that Catiline killed his own son, in order to gratify his new wife Aurelia Orestilla, "a woman praised for nothing but beauty." ruinas: this charge was undoubtedly correct. The conspiracy was mainly composed of men of ruined fortunes, who hoped to better themselves in the general scramble of a revolution. Idibus: the Calends and Ides — the beginning and middle of the month—were the usual times for the payment of debts. Catiline's failure in his consular canvass had probably stirred up his creditors to push him for payment.
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Select Orations of. Cicero. Allen and Greenough's Edition. Revised by J. B. Greenough and G. L. Kittredge, with a special vocabulary by J. B. Greenough.
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