In Catilinam 1.11-12

[DavidFerguson]

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[bedwere]

@DavidFerguson

For the most part no problems, but

Magna dis immortalibus habena est atque huic ipsi Iovi Statori, antiquissimo custodi huis urbis, gratia…

I take this to mean “great gratitude should be given to the immortal gods and in particular to Jove Stator, most ancient defender of the city”. It all seems right except for “habenda”. “Great gratitude should be had towards the immortal gods etc.”? Why not “magnae gratiae agendae sunt”?

Quam diu mihi consuli designato, Catalina, insidiatus es, non publico me praesidio, sed privata diligentia defendi.

(“However long you, Catiline, have plotted against me, the designated consul, I have defended myself not with public protection but with my own diligence.”)

What is a designated consul?

Cum proximis comitiis consularibus me consulem in campo et competitores tuos interficere voluisti, compressi conatus tuos nefarios amicorum praesidio et copiis nullo tumultu publice concitato.

(“Although at the last consular election to wanted to kill me, the consul, in the Campus Martius along with your competitors, I checked your nefarious efforts of your friends with defenses and forces so as not to alarm the public with (great) tumult.”)

The last bit doesn’t make much sense. If he’s marshalling defenses against the conspirators, wouldn’t that be conspicuous to the public? And doesn’t that go against the above sentence where he says that he hasn’t used outside help?

1. gratiam habere = gratiam agere

) designatus: applied to a person elected to an office, but who has not yet entered upon it.

3. When at the last consular election you wanted to kill me, the consul, in the Campus Martius along with your competitors, I checked your nefarious efforts with the defense and forces of my friends, without publicly raising the alarm.

[mwh]

“Magna dis immortalibus habena est atque huic ipsi Iovi Statori, antiquissimo custodi huis urbis, gratia…”
Note huic and huius, which you ignore in your translation. They’re meeting in the Temple of Jupiter Stator, in Rome. We can imagine him gesturing to the statue as he says atque huic ipsi. (Cic is out to convey the idea that Rome has two custodes, Jupiter and himself!)