The Catilinarian executions: was putting Roman citizens to death without trial the salvation of the Republic or its betrayal?

Marcus Tullius Cicero, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

The position in brief

Five men who had conspired to burn Rome and murder the Senate were executed on the Senate's authority during my consulship. I ordered it. The Republic survived that night because of it, and I have never pretended the decision was someone else's.12345

Sources

  1. And as soon as the vote had passed, Cicero went immediately from the senate house, took Lentulus from the custody of his kinsman Lentulus Spinther, and delivered him to the executioner.
    Orations Vol 2, pp. 318–319
  2. However, what I find fault with most of all, is this: that you, with your abilities end your prudence, do not maintain the true interest of the republic, but believe, on the contrary, that those actions are not approved of by the Roman people, which, when I was consul, were done by all virtuous men, for the preservation of the common safety of all. XI.
    Orations Vol 2, pp. 386–387
  3. Being informed also that a quantity of arms had been provided by Cethegus for the purpose of the conspiracy, he orders Cains Sulpicius, one of the praetors, to search his house, and he did so, and found a great number of swords and daggers ready cleaned and lit for use. He then proceeds to meet the senate in the Temple of Concord, with the ambassadors and conspirators in custody.
    Orations Vol 2, pp. 304–305
  4. Have you any secret fear that you yourself may appear to have had some connexion with that crime? I will release you from all apprehension; no one will ever believe it; it is not like you to deserve well of the republic; the most illustrious men in the republic are the authors of that exploit; I only say that you are glad it was done; I do not accuse you of having done it.
    Orations Vol 4
  5. The one conduct would have become your dignity, and the other would have been suited to your prudence." This, O Marcus Antonius, was at all times my advice both respecting Pompeius and concerning the republic. And if it had prevailed, the republic would still be standing, and you would have perished through your own crimes, and indigence, and infamy. XI. But these are all old stories now.
    Orations Vol 4

Where the argument is made

  • In Catilinam I-IV (63 BCE), Pro Sulla, Pro Sestio, De Officiis I.76-78 and the defences scattered through the letters of the exile years

How the argument was received

Defended for the rest of my life, at the cost of exile, and defended still. The tension with my own arguments about law is in the texts.