You Ought O Catiline Analysis

"You ought, O Catiline, long ago to have been led to execution by command of the consul. That destruction which you have been long plotting against us ought to have already fallen on your own head." (Safire 258) These enticing words, laced together by Marcus Tullius Cicero, were done so in an attempt to lead two audiences to two separate, although similar, conclusions. Cicero's audiences included Catiline and his fellow conspirators, of whom Cicero wished to persuade to leave Rome, and that of the Roman Consul, of whom he wished to persuade into allowing Catiline's departure. To accomplish such a feat Cicero made use of such literary devices as imagery, anaphora, apostrophe, among others to both portray his goals and to lead his audience themselves to understand if not agree with said goals.
However, Cicero supposed that although this would solve one problem Catiline was but one thorn of a rosebush. As addressed above Cicero had not one, but two audiences to persuade for now we will focus on his approach towards the Catiline and his fellow conspirators. "When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience?... Do not the nightly guards placed on the Palatine Hill—do not the watches posted throughout the city—does not the alarm of the people, and the union of all good men—does not the precaution taken of assembling the senate in this most defensible place—do not the looks and countenances of this venerable body here present, have any effect upon you? Do you not feel that your plans are detected? Do you not see that your conspiracy is already arrested and rendered powerless by the knowledge which every one here possesses of it?" (Safire