Cicero Loves Himself

"Real Latin" has no commas. Therefore I prefer to look at and think about Latin without commas. Sometimes it can bring out hidden meanings and connotations. English is a sad, flat language, which cannot do the wonderful things that Latin can.

I finally finished Cicero's In Catilinam II! I am very excited to share a neat passage with you from the last part of the speech. Cicero is quite full of himself. He says:

Atque haec omnia sic agentur Quirites ut res maximae minimo motu pericula summa nullo tumultu bellum intestinum ac domesticum post hominum memoriam crudelissimum ac maximum me uno togato duce et imperatore sedetur.

Here's my rough translation of Cicero's poetic prose:
And yet all these things were done thus Quirites that the greatest things by the least commotion, the highest dangers by no tumult, a war foreign and domestic after the most cruel and greatest memory of men calms me, alone a leader and general wearing a toga.

My English translation does not do this passage justice. He addresses the Quirites about great things and cruel memories that need to be quelled quietly without too much incident. Cicero ingeniously loads the sentence up with oxymorons that are chiastic. "Maximae" is next to "minimo" and "summa" is next to "nullo." Cicero is ingenious for clouding up the sentence with these pithy poetics, but the real bit is at the end. He adds that he alone is the one, "uno." He will save the great Roman state from loud and obnoxious destruction. The Quirites must not have painful memories and Cicero himself will make it so. He is at the end of the sentence along with the "sedetur," the calming. Cicero loves being the dux and imperator. Yes, Julius Caesar was really not the first imperator and he will certainly not be the last. Cicero was a wonderful read. Now it's on to Caesar's De Bello Gallico. Caesar is less poetic and more subtle than Cicero. Caesar understood the power of the sword. A sword is much more subtle than a long-winded speech.
Long Live Latin!