Note 3 — CICERO AGAINST CATILINE
Reading edition
: quae—defigere: the position of the relative and the indirect interrogation is foreign to our idiom, and must be avoided in translation: quae = et haec, scil. sica: “and I know not by what (unhallowed) rites it has been consecrated and devoted to its purpose by you that you deem it necessary to plunge it in the body of the consul.” Cicero here refers to the fact that a human sacrifice took place at the house of Catiline, and that the dagger used on that occasion was dedicated to the purpose of slaying the consuls: cp. Sallust, Cat. C. 23.