In preparing the attack upon Catiline it seems that every witness was brought to himself.

There were four Catiline speeches made in the year of his Consulship, but in the same year many others were delivered by him.

He mentions, as we shall see just now, twelve various speeches made in the year of his Consulship.
I imagine that the words spoken can in no case have been identical with those which have come to us--which were, as we may say, prepared for the press by Tiro, his slave and secretary.

We have evidence as to some of them, especially as to the second Catiline oration, that time did not admit of its being written and learned by heart after the occurrence of the circumstances to which it alludes.

It needs must have been extemporary, with such mental preparation as one night may have sufficed to give him.