Chapter III: Part 3

LX. When he had made a complete survey, he gave the signal with the trumpet, and ordered the cohorts to advance slowly. The army of the enemy followed his example; and when they approached so near that the action could be commenced by the light-armed troops, both sides, with a loud shout, rushed together in a furious charge.[301] They threw aside their missiles, and fought only with their swords. The veterans, calling to mind their deeds of old, engaged fiercely in the closest combat. The enemy made an obstinate resistance; and both sides contended with the utmost fury. Catiline, during this time, was exerting himself with his light troops in the front, sustaining such as were pressed, substituting fresh men for the wounded, attending to every exigency, charging in person, wounding many an enemy, and performing at once the duties of a valiant soldier and a skillful general.

When Petreius, contrary to his expectation, found Catiline attacking him with such impetuosity, he led his praetorian cohort against the centre of the enemy, among whom, being thus thrown into confusion, and offering but partial resistance,[302] he made great slaughter, and ordered, at the same time, an assault on both flanks. Manlius and the Faesulan, sword in hand, were among the first[303] that fell; and Catiline, when he saw his army routed, and himself left with but few supporters, remembering his birth and former dignity, rushed into the thickest of the enemy, where he was slain, fighting to the last.

LXI. When the battle was over, it was plainly seen what boldness, and what energy of spirit, had prevailed throughout the army of Catiline; for, almost every where, every soldier, after yielding up his breath, covered with his corpse the spot which he had occupied when alive. A few, indeed, whom the praetorian cohort had dispersed, had fallen somewhat differently, but all with wounds in front. Catiline himself was found, far in advance of his men, among the dead bodies of the enemy; he was not quite breathless, and still expressed in his countenance the fierceness of spirit which he had shown during his life. Of his whole army, neither in the battle, nor in flight, was any free-born citizen made prisoner, for they had spared their own lives no more than those of the enemy.

Nor did the army of the Roman people obtain a joyful or bloodless victory; for all their bravest men were either killed in the battle, or left the field severely wounded.

Of many who went from the camp to view the ground, or plunder the slain, some, in turning over the bodies of the enemy, discovered a friend, others an acquaintance, others a relative; some, too, recognized their enemies. Thus, gladness and sorrow, grief and joy, were variously felt throughout the whole army.

NOTES.

[1] I. Desire to excel other animals--_Sese student praestare caeteris animalibus._ The pronoun, which is usually omitted, is, says Cortius, not without its force; for it is equivalent to _ut ipsi_: student _ut ipsi praestent_. In support of his opinion he quotes, with other passages, Plaut. Asinar. i. 3, 31: Vult placere sese amicae, i.e. vult _ut ipse amicae placeat_; and Coelius Antipater apud Festum in "Topper," Ita uti sese quisque vobis studeat aemulari, i.e. _studeat ut ipse aemuletur._ This explanation is approved by Bernouf. Cortius might have added Cat. 7: _sese_ quisque hostem _ferire --properabat._ "Student," Cortius interprets by "cupiunt."

[2] To the utmost of their power--_Summâ ope_, with their utmost ability. "A Sallustian mode of expression. Cicero would have said _summâ operâ, summo studio, summâ contentione._ Ennius has '_Summa nituntur opum vi_.'" Colerus.

[3] In obscurity--_Silentio._ So as to have nothing said of them, either during their lives or at their death. So in c. 2: _Eorum ego vitam mortemque juxta aestumo, quoniam de utrâque siletur_. When Ovid says, _Bene qui latuit, bene vixit,_ and Horace, _Nec vixit malè, qui vivens moriensque fefellit,_ they merely signify that he has some comfort in life, who, in ignoble obscurity, escapes trouble and censure. But men thus undistinguished are, in the estimation of Sallust, little superior to the brute creation. "Optimus quisque," says Muretus, quoting Cicero, "honoris et gloriae studio maximè ducitur;" the ablest men are most actuated by the desire of honor and glory, and are more solicitous about the character which they will bear among posterity. With reason, therefore, does Pallas, in the Odyssey, address the following exhortation to Telemachus:

"Hast thou not heard how young Orestes, fir'd
With great revenge, immortal praise acquir'd?

O greatly bless'd with ev'ry blooming grace,
With equal steps the paths of glory trace!
Join to that royal youth's your rival name,
And shine eternal in the sphere of fame."

[4] Like the beasts of the field--_Veluti pecora._ Many translators have rendered _pecora_ "brutes" or "beasts;" _pecus_, however, does not mean brutes in general, but answers to our English word _cattle_.

[5] Groveling--_Prona._ I have adopted _groveling_ from Mair's old translation. _Pronus_, stooping _to the earth_, is applied to _cattle_, in opposition to _erectus_, which is applied to _man_; as in the following lines of Ovid, Met. i.:

"_Prona_ que cum spectent animalia caetera terram,
Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri
Jussit, et _erectos_ ad sidera tollere vultus."

"--while the mute creation downward bend
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend,
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes
Beholds his own hereditary skies." _Dryden._

Which Milton (Par. L. vii. 502) has paraphrased:

"There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature, who not _prone
And 'brute as other creatures_, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might _erect_
_His stature_, and _upright with front serene_
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with heaven."
"Nonne vides hominum ut celsos ad sidera vultus
Sustulerit Deus, et sublimia fluxerit ora,
Cùm pecudes, voluerumque genus, formasque ferarum,
Segnem atque obscoenam passim stravisset in alvum."

"See'st thou not how the Deity has rais'd
The countenance of man erect to heav'n,
Gazing sublime, while prone to earth he bent
Th' inferior tribes, reptiles, and pasturing herds,
And beasts of prey, to appetite enslav'd"

"When Nature," says Cicero, de Legg. i. 9, "had made other animals abject, and consigned them to the pastures, she made man alone upright, and raised him to the contemplation of heaven, as of his birthplace and former abode;" a passage which Dryden seems to have had in his mind when he translated the lines of Ovid cited above. Let us add Juvenal, xv, 146.

"Sensum à coelesti demissum traximus arce,
Cujus egent prona et terram spectantia."

"To us is reason giv'n, of heav'nly birth,
Denied to beasts, that prone regard the earth."

[6] All our power is situate in the mind and in the body--_Sed omnis nostra vis in animo et corpore sita_. All our power is placed, or consists, in our mind and our body. The particle _sed,_ which is merely a connective, answering to the Greek _dé_, and which would be useless in an English translation, I have omitted.

[7] Of the mind we--employ the government--_Animi imperio--utimur_. "What the Deity is in the universe, the mind is in man; what matter is to the universe, the body is to us; let the worse, therefore, serve the better."--Sen. Epist. lxv. _Dux et imperator vitae mortalium animus est,_ the mind is the guide and ruler of the life of mortals. --Jug. c. 1. "An animal consists of mind and body, of which the one is formed by nature to rule, and the other to obey."--Aristot. Polit. i. 5. Muretus and Graswinckel will supply abundance of similar passages.

[8] Of the mind we rather employ the government; of the body, the service--_Animi imperio, corporis servitio, magis utimur_. The word _magis_ is not to be regarded as useless. "It signifies," says Cortius, "that the mind rules, and the body obeys, _in general_, and _with greater reason_." At certain times the body may _seem to have the mastery_, as when we are under the irresistible influence of hunger or thirst.

[9] It appears to me, therefore, more reasonable, etc.--_Quo mihi rectius videtur_, etc. I have rendered _quo_ by _therefore_. "_Quo_," observes Cortius, "is _propter quod_, with the proper force of the ablative case. So Jug. c. 84: _Quo_ mihi acrius adnitendum est, etc; c. 2, _Quo_ magis pravitas eorum admiranda est. Some expositors would force us to believe that these ablatives are inseparably connected with the comparative degree, as in _quo minus, eo major_, and similar expressions; whereas common sense shows that they can not be so connected." Kritzius is one of those who interprets in the way to which Cortius alludes, as if the drift of the passage were, _Quanto magis animus corpori praestat, tanto rectius ingenii opibus gloriam quaerere_. But most of the commentators and translators rightly follow Cortius. "_Quo_," says Pappaur, "is for _quocirca_."

[10] _That of_ intellectual power is illustrious and immortal--_Virtus clara aeternaque habetur_. The only one of our English translators who has given the right sense of _virtus_ In this passage, is Sir Henry Steuart, who was guided to it by the Abbé Thyvon and M. Beauzée. "It appears somewhat singular," says Sir Henry, "that none of the numerous translators of Sallust, whether among ourselves or among foreign nations--the Abbé Thyvon and M. Beauzée excepted--have thought of giving to the word _virtus_, in this place, what so obviously is the meaning intended by the historian; namely, 'genius, ability, distinguished talents.'" Indeed, the whole tenor of the passage, as well as the scope of the context, leaves no room to doubt the fact. The main objects of comparison, throughout the three first sections of this Proemium, or introductory discourse, are not vice and virtue, but body and mind; a listless indolence, and a vigorous, honorable activity. On this account it is pretty evident, that by _virtus_ Sallust could never mean the [Greek _aretae_], 'virtue or moral worth,' but that he had in his eye the well-known interpretation of Varro, who considers it _ut viri vis_ (De Ling. Lat. iv.), as denoting the useful energy which ennobles a man, and should chiefly distinguish him among his fellow-creatures. In order to be convinced of the justice of this rendering, we need only turn to another passage of our author, in the second section of the Proemium to the Jugurthine War, where the same train of thought is again pursued, although he gives it somewhat a different turn in the piece last mentioned. The object, notwithstanding, of both these dissertations is to illustrate, in a striking manner, the pre-eminence of the mind over extrinsic advantage, or bodily endowments, and to show that it is by genius alone that we may aspire to a reputation which shall never die. "_Igitur praeclara facies, magnae divitiae, adhuc vis corporis, et alia hujusmondi omnia, brevi dilabuntur: at ingenii egregia facinora, sicut anima, immortalia sunt_".

[11] It is necessary to plan before beginning to act--_Priusquam incipias, consulto--opus est_. Most translators have rendered _consulto_ "deliberation," or something equivalent; but it is _planning_ or _contrivance_ that is signified. Demosthenes, in his Oration _de Pace_, reproaches the Athenians with acting without any settled plan: [Greek: _Oi men gar alloi puntes anthropoi pro ton pragmatonheiothasi chraesthai to Bouleuesthai, umeis oude meta ta pragmata_.]

[12] To act with promptitude and vigor--_Maturè facto opus est_. "Maturè facto" seems to include the notions both of promptitude and vigor, of force as well as speed; for what would be the use of acting expeditiously, unless expedition be attended with power and effect?

[13] Each--_Utrumque_. The corporeal and mental faculties.

[14] The one requires the assistance of the other--_Alterum alterius auxilio eget_. "_Eget_," says Cortius, "is the reading of all the MSS." _Veget_, which Havercamp and some others have adopted, was the conjecture of Palmerius, on account of _indigens_ occurring in the same sentence. But _eget_ agrees far better with _consulto et--maturè facto opus est_, in the preceding sentence.

[15] II. Applied themselves in different ways--_Diversi_. "Modo et instituto diverso, diversa sequentes." _Cortius_.

[16] At that period, however--_Et jam tum_. "Tunc temporis _praecisè_, at that time _precisely_, which is the force of the particle _jam_. as donatus shows. I have therefore written _et jam_ separately. Virg. Aen. vii. 737. Late _jam tum_ ditione premebat Sarrastes populos." _Cortius_.

[17] Without covetousness--Sine cupiditate_. "As in the famous golden age. See Tacit. Ann. iii. 28." _Cortius_. See also Ovid. Met. i. 80, _seq_. But "such times were never," as Cowper says.

[18] But after Cyrus in Asia, etc.--_Postea verò quàm in, Asiâ Cyrus_, etc. Sallust writes as if he had supposed that kings were more moderate before the time of Cyrus. But this can hardly have been the case. "The Romans," says De Brosses, whose words I abridge, "though not learned in antiquity, could not have been ignorant that there were great conquerors before Cyrus; as Ninus and Sesostris. But as their reigns belonged rather to the fabulous ages, Sallust, in entering upon a serious history, wished to confine himself to what was certain, and went no further back than the records of Herodotus and Thucydides." Ninus, says Justin. i. 1, was the first to change, through inordinate ambition, the _veterem et quasi avitum gentibus morem_, that is, to break through the settled restraints of law and order. Gerlach agrees in opinion with De Brosses.

[19] Proof and experience--_Periculo atque negotiis_. Gronovius rightly interprets _periculo_ "experiundo, experimentis," by experiment or trial. Cortius takes _periculo atque negotiis_ for _periculosis negotiis_, by hendyadys; but to this figure, as Kritzius remarks, we ought but sparingly to have recourse. It is better, he adds, to take the words in their ordinary signification, understanding by _negotia_ "res graviores." Bernouf judiciously explains _negotiis_ by "ipsa negotiorum tractatione," _i. e._ by the management of affairs, or by experience in affairs. Dureau Delamalle, the French translator, has "l'expérience et la pratique." Mair has "trial and experience." which, I believe, faithfully expresses Sallust's meaning. Rose gives only "experience" for both words.

[20] And, indeed, if the intellectual ability, etc.--_Quod si--animi virtus_, etc. "Quod si" can not here be rendered _but if;_ it is rather equivalent to _quapropter si_, and might be expressed by _wherefore if, if therefore, if then, so that if_.

[21] Intellectual ability--_Animi virtus_. See the remarks on _virtus_, above noted.

[22] Magistrates--_Imperatorum_. "Understand all who govern states, whether in war or in peace." _Bernouf_. Sallust calls the consuls _imperatores_, c. 6.

[23] Governments shifted from hand to hand--_aliud aliò ferri_. Evidently alluding to changes in government.

[24] Less to the more deserving--_Ad optimum quemque à minus bono_. "From the less good to the best."

[25] Even in agriculture, etc.--_Quae homines arant, navigant, aedificant, virtuti omnia parent_. Literally, _what men plow, sail_, etc. Sallust's meaning is, that agriculture, navigation, and architecture, though they may seem to be effected by mere bodily exertion, are as much the result of mental power as the highest of human pursuits.

[26] Like travelers in a strange country--_Sicuti peregrinantes_. "Vivere nesciunt; igitur in vita quasi hospites sunt:" they know not how to use life, and are therefore, as it were, strangers in it. _Dietsch_. "_Peregrinantes_, qui, qua transeunt, nullum sui vestigium relinquunt;" they are as travelers who do nothing to leave any trace of their course. Pappaur.

[27] Of these I hold the life and death in equal estimation--_Eorum ego vitam mortemque juxta aestimo_. I count them of the same value dead as alive, for they are honored in the one state as much as in the other. "Those who are devoted to the gratification of their appetites," as Sallust says, "let us regard as inferior animals, not as men; and some, indeed, not as living, but as dead animals." Seneca, Ep. lx.

[28] III. Not without merit--_Haud absurdum_. I have borrowed this expression from Rose, to whom Muretus furnished "sua laude non caret." "The word _absurdus_ is often used by the Latins as an epithet for sounds disagreeable to the ear; but at length it came to be applied to any action unbecoming a rational being." _Kunhardt_.

[29] Deeds must be adequately represented, etc.--_Facta dictis sunt exaequanda_. Most translators have regarded these words as signifying _that the subject must be equaled by the style_. But it is not of mere style that Sallust is speaking. "He means that the matter must be so represented by the words, that honorable actions may not be too much praised, and that dishonorable actions may not be too much blamed; and that the reader may at once understand what was done and how it was done." _Kunhardt_.

[30] Every one hears with acquiescence, etc.--_Quae sibi--aequo animo accipit_, etc. This is taken from Thucydides, ii. 35. "For praises spoken of others are only endured so far as each one thinks that he is himself also capable of doing any of the things he hears; but that which exceeds their own capacity, men at once envy and disbelieve." Dale's Translation: Bohn's Classical Library.

[31] Regards as fictitious and incredible--_Veluti ficta, pro falsis ducit. Ducit pro falsis_, he considers as false or incredible, _veluti ficta_, as if invented.

[32] When a young man--_Adolescentulus_. "It is generally admitted that all were called _adolescentes_ by the Romans, who were between the fifteenth or seventeenth year of their age and the fortieth. The diminutive is used in the same sense, but with a view to contrast more strongly the ardor and spirit of youth with the moderation, prudence, and experience of age. So Caesar is called _adolescentulus_, in c. 49, at a time when he was in his thirty-third year." _Dietsch_. And Cicero, referring to the time of his consulship, says, _Defendi rempublicam adolescens_, Philipp. ii. 46.

[33] To engage in political affairs--_Ad rempublicam_. "In the phrase of Cornelius Nepos, _honoribus operam dedi_, I sought to obtain some share in the management of the Republic. All public matters were comprehended under the term _Respublica_." _Cortius_.

[34] Integrity--_Virtute_. Cortius rightly explains this word as meaning_justice, equity_, and all other virtues necessary in those who manage the affairs of a state. Observe that it is here opposed to _avaritia_, not, as some critics would have it, to _largitio_.

[35] Was ensnared and infected--_Corrupta, tenebatur_. As _obsessus tenetur_, Jug., c. 24.

[36] The same eagerness for honors, the same obloquy and jealousy, etc.--_Honoris cupido eadem quae caeteros, fama atque invidia vexabat_. I follow the interpretation of Cortius: "Me vexabat honoris cupido, et vexabat _propterea_ etiam eadem, quae caeteros, fama atqua invidia." He adds, from a gloss in the Guelferbytan MS., that it is a _zeugma_. "_Fama atque invidia_," says Gronovius, "is [Greek: _en dia duoin_], for _invidiosa et maligna fama_." Bernouf, with Zanchius and others, read _fama atque invidia_ in the ablative case; and the Bipont edition has _eadem qua--fama, etc._; but the method of Cortius is, to me, by far the most straightforward and satisfactory. Sallust, observes De Brosses, in his note on this passage, wrote the account of Catiline's conspiracy shortly after his expulsion from the Senate, and wishes to make it appear that he suffered from calumny on the occasion; though he took no trouble, in the subsequent part of his life, to put such calumny to silence.

[37] IV. Servile occupations--agriculture or hunting--_Agrum colendo, aut venando, servilibus officiis intentum_. By calling agriculture and hunting _servilia officia_, Sallust intends, as is remarked by Graswinckelius, little more than was expressed in the saying of Julian the emperor, _Turpe est sapienti, cum habeat animum, captare laudes ex corpore_. "Ita ergo," adds the commentator, "agricultura et venatio servilio officia sunt, quum in solo consistant corporis usu, animum, vero nec meliorem nec prudentiorem reddant. Quia labor in se certe est illiberalis, ei praesertim cui facultas sit ad meliora." Symmachus (1 v. Ep. 66) and some others, whose remarks the reader may see in Havercamp, think that Sallust might have spoken of hunting and agriculture with more respect, and accuse him of not remembering, with sufficient veneration, the kings and princes that have amused themselves in hunting, and such illustrious plowmen as Curius and Cincinnatus. Sallust, however, is sufficiently defended from censure by the Abbé Thyvon, in a dissertation much longer than the subject deserves, and much longer than most readers are willing to peruse.

[38] Returning to those studies, etc.--_A quo incepto studio me ambitio mala detinuerat, eodem regressus_. "The study, namely, of writing history, to which he signifies that he was attached in c. 3." _Cortius_.

[39] In detached portions--_Carptim_. "Plin. Ep. viii., 47: Respondebis non posse perinde _carptim_, ut _contexta_ placere: et vi. 22: Egit _carptim_ et [Greek: _kata kephulaia_]," _Dietsch_.

[40] V. Of noble birth--_Nobili genere natus_. His three names were Lucius _Sergius_ Catilina, he being of the family of the Sergii, for whose antiquity Virgil is responsible, Aen. v. 121: _Sergestusque, domus tenet a quo Sergia nomen_. And Juvenal says, Sat. viii. 321: _Quid, Catilino, tuis natalibus atque Cethegi Inveniet quisquam sublimius?_ His great grandfather, L. Sergius Silus, had eminently distinguished himself by his services in the second Punic war. See Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 29. "Catiline was born A.U.C. 647, A.C. 107." _Dietsch_. Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. xxv.) says that he was the last of the Sergii.

[41] _Sedition--Discordia civilis_.

[42] And in such scenes he had spent his early years--_Ibique juventutem suam exercuit_. "It is to be observed that the Roman writers often used an adverb, where we, of modern times, should express ourselves more specifically by using a noun." _Dietsch_ on c. 3, _ibique multa mihi advorsa fuere_. _Juventus_ properly signified the time between thirty and forty-five years of age; _adolescentia_ that between fifteen and thirty. But this distinction was not always accurately observed. Catiline had taken an active part in supporting Sylla, and in carrying into execution his cruel proscriptions and mandates. "Quis erat hujus (Syllae) imperii minister? Quis nisi Catilina jam in omne facinus manus exercens?" Sen. de Ira, iii. 18.

[43] Capable of pretending or dissembling whatever he wished --_Cujuslibet, rei simulator ac dissimulator_. "Dissimulation is the negative, when a man lets fall signs and arguments, that he is not that he is; simulation is the affirmative, when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pretends to be that he is not." Bacon, Essay vi.

[44] Abundance of eloquence--_Satis eloquentiae_. Cortius reads _loquentiae_ "_Loquentia_ is a certain facility of speech not necessarily attended with sound sense; called by the Greeks [Greek: _lalia_]." _Bernouf_. "Julius Candidus used excellently to observe that _eloquentia_ was one thing, and _loquentia_ another; for eloquence is given to few, but what Candidus called _loquentia_, or fluency of speech, is the talent of many, and especially of the most impudent." Plin. Ep. v. 20. But _eloquentiae_ is the reading of most of the MSS., and _loquentiae_, if Aulus Gellius (i. 15) was rightly informed, was a correction of Valerius Probus, the grammarian, who said that Sallust _must_ have written so, as _eloquentiae_ could not agree with _sapientiae parum_. This opinion of Probus, the grammarian, who said that Sallust _must_ have written so, as _eloquentiae_ could not agree with _sapientiae parum_. This opinion of Probus, however, may be questioned. May not Sallust have written _eloquentiae_, with the intention of signifying that Catiline had abundance of eloquence to work on the minds of others, though he wanted prudence to regulate his own conduct? Have there not been other men of whom the same may be said, as Mirabeau, for example? The speeches that Sallust puts into Catiline's mouth (c. 20, 58) are surely to be characterized rather as _eloquentia_, than _loquentia_. On the whole, and especially from the concurrence of MSS., I prefer to read _eloquentiae_, with the more recent editors, Gerlach, Kritz and Dietsch.

[45] Since the time of Sylla's dictatorship--_Post dominationem Lucii Syllae_. "The meaning is not the same as if it were _finitâ dominatione_ but is the same as _ab eo tempore quo dominari caeperat_. In French, therefore, _post_ should be rendered by _depuis_, not, as it is commonly translated, _après_." _Bernouf_. As _dictator_ was the title that Sylla assumed, I have translated _dominatio_, "dictatorship". Rose, Gordon, and others, render it "usurpation".

[46] Power--_Regnum_. Chief authority, rule, dominion.

[47] Rendered thoroughly depraved--_Vexabant_. "Corrumpere et pessundare studebant." _Bernouf_. _Quos vexabant_, be it observed, refers to _mores_, as Gerlach and Kritz interpret, not to _cives_ understood in _civitatis_, which is the evidently erroneous method of Cortius.

[48] Conduct of our ancestors--_Instituta majorum_. The principles adopted by our ancestors, with regard both to their own conduct, and to the management of the state. That this is the meaning, is evident from the following account.

[49] VI. As I understand--_Sicuti ego accepi_. "By these words he plainly shows that nothing certain was known about the origin of Rome. The reader may consult Livy, lib. i.; Justin, lib. xliii.; and Dionys. Halicar., lib.i.; all of whom attribute its rise to the Trojans." _Bernouf_.

[50] Aborigines--_Aborigines_. The original inhabitants of Italy; the same as _indigenae_, or the [Greek: _Autochthones_].

[51]: Almost incredible--_Incredibile memoratu_. "Non credi potest, si memoratur; superat omnem fidem." _Pappaur_. Yet that which actually happened, can not be absolutely incredible; and I have, therefore, inserted _almost_.

[52] Prepared with alacrity for there defense--_Festinare, parare_. "Made haste, prepared." "_Intenti ut festinanter pararent_ ea, quae defensioni aut bello usui essent." _Pappaur_.

[53] Procured friendships rather by bestowing, etc;--_Magisque dandis, quam accipiundis beneficiis amicitias parabant_. Thucyd. ii., 40: [Greek: _Ou paschontes eu, alla drontes, ktometha tous philous_]

[54] FATHERS--PATRES. "(Romulus) appointed that the direction of the state should be in the hands of the old men, who, from their authority, were called _Fathers_; from their age, _Senatus_." Florus, i. 1. _Senatus_ from _senex_. "_Patres_ ab honore--appellati." _Livy_.

[55] Two magistrates--_Binos imperatores_. The two consuls. They were more properly called _imperatores_ at first, when the law, which settled their power, said "_Regio imperio_ duo sunto" (Cic. de Legg. iii. 4), than afterward, when the people and tribunes had made encroachments on their authority.

[56] VII. Almost incredible--_Incredibile memoratu_. See above, c. 6.

[57] Able to bear the toils of war--_Laboris ac belli patiens_. As by _laboris_ the labor of war is evidently intended, I have thought it better to render the words in this manner. The reading is Cortius'. Havercamp and others have "simul _ac belli_ patiens erat, in castris _per laborem usu_ militiam discebat;" but _per laborem usu_ is assuredly not the hand of Sallust.

[58] Honor and true nobility--_Bonam famam magnamque nobilitatem_.

[59] VIII. Very great and glorious--_Satis amplae magnificaeque_. In speaking of this amplification of the Athenian exploits, he alludes, as Colerus observes, to the histories of Thucydides, Xenophen, and perhaps Herodotus; not, as Wasse seems to imagine, to the representations of the poets.

[60] There was never any such abundance of writers--_Nunquam ea copia fuit_. I follow Kuhnhardt, who thinks _copia_ equivalent to _multitudo_. Others render it _advantage_, or something similar; which seems less applicable to the passage. Compare c.28: _Latrones_--_quorum_--magna copia _erat_.

[61] Chose to act rather than narrate--"For," as Cicero says, "neither among those who are engaged in establishing a state, nor among those carrying on wars, nor among those who are curbed and restrained under the rule of kings, is the desire of distinction in eloquence wont to arise." _Graswinckelius_.

[62] IX. Pressed by the enemy--_Pulsi_. In the words _pulsi loco cedere ausi erant_, _loco_ is to be joined, as Dietsch observes, with cedere_, not, as Kritzius puts it, with _pulsi_. "To retreat," adds Dietsch, "is disgraceful only to those _qui ab hostibus se pelli patiantur_, who suffer themselves to be _repulsed by the enemy_."

[63] X. When mighty princes had been vanquished in war--Perses, Antiochus, Mithridates, Tigranes, and others.

[64] To keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue--_Aliud clausum in pectore, aliud in lingua promptum,

[Greek: Echthros gar moi keinos homos Aidao pulaesin.
Os ch' eteron men keuthei eni phresin, allo de Bazei.]

Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
_Pope_.

[65] XI. At first, however, it was ambition, rather than avarice, etc.--_Sed primo magis ambitio quam avaritia animos hominum exercebat_. Sallust has been accused of having made, in this passage, an assertion at variance with what he had said before (c.10), _Igitur primo pecuniae, deinde imperii cupido, crevit_, and it will be hard to prove that the accusation is not just. Sir H. Steuart, indeed, endeavors to reconcile the passages by giving them the following "meaning", which, he says, "seems perfectly evident": "Although avarice was the first to make its appearance at Rome, yet, after both had had existence, it was ambition that, of the two vices, laid the stronger hold on the minds of men, and more speedily grew to an inordinate height". To me, however, it "seems perfectly evident" that the Latin can be made to yield no such "meaning". "How these passages agree," says Rupertus, "I do not understand: unless we suppose that Sallust, by the word _primo_, does not always signify order".

[66] Enervates whatever is manly in body or mind--_Corpus virilemque animum effaeminat_. That avarice weakens the mind, is generally admitted. But how does it weaken the body? The most satisfactory answer to this question is, in the opinion of Aulus Gellius (iii. 1), that those who are intent on getting riches devote themselves to sedentary pursuits, as those of usurers and money-changers, neglecting all such exercises and employments as strengthen the body. There is, however, another explanation by Valerius Probus, given in the same chapter of Aulus Gellius, which perhaps is the true one; namely, that Sallust, by _body and mind_, intended merely to signify _the whole man_.

[67] Having recovered the government--_Receptâ republicâ_. Having wrested it from the hands of Marius and his party.

[68] All became robbers and plunderers--_Rapere omnes, trahere_. He means that there was a general indulgence in plunder among Sylla's party, and among all who, in whatever character, could profit by supporting it. Thus he says immediately afterward, "neque modum neque modestiam _victores_ habere."

[69] which he had commanded in Asia--_Quem in Asiâ dustaverat_. I have here deserted Cortius, who gives _in Asiam_, "into Asia," but this, as Bernouf justly observes, is incompatible with the frequentative verb _ductaverat_.

[70] in public edifices and private dwellings--_Privatim ac publice_. I have translated this according to the notion of Burnouf. Others, as Dietsch and Pappaur, consider _privatim_ as signifying _each on his own account_, and _publice_, _in the name of the Republic_.

[71] XII. A life of innocence was regarded as a life of ill-nature --_Innocentia pro malivolentiâ duci caepit_. "Whoever continued honest and upright, was considered by the unprincipled around him as their enemy; for a good man among the bad can never be regarded as of their party." _Bernouf_.

[72] It furnishes much matter for reflection--_Operae pretium est_.

[73] Basest of mankind--_Ignavissumi mortales_. It is opposed to _fortissumi viri_, which follows, "Qui nec fortiter nec bene quidquam fecere." _Cortius_.

[74] XIII. Seas covered with edifices--_Maria constructa esse_.

Contracta pisces aequora sentiunt,
_Jactis in altum molibus_, etc. Hor. Od., iii. 1.

--The haughty lord, who lays
His deep foundations in the seas,
And scorns earth's narrow bound;
The fish affrighted feel their waves
Contracted by his numerous slaves,
Even in the vast profound. _Francis_.

[75] To have made a sport of their wealth--_Quibus mihi videntur ledibrio fuisse divitiae_. "They spent their riches on objects which, in the judgment of men of sense, are ridiculous and contemptible." _Cortius_.

[76] Luxury--_Cultûs_. "Deliciarum in victu_, luxuries of the table; for we must be careful not to suppose that apparel is meant." _Cortius_.

[77] Cold--_Frigus_. It is mentioned by Cortius that this word is wanting in one MS.; and the English reader may possibly wish that it were away altogether. Cortius refers it to cool places built of stone, sometimes underground, to which the luxurious retired in the hot weather; and he cites Pliny, Ep., v. 6, who speaks of _crytoporticus_, a gallery from which the sun was excluded, almost as if it were underground, and which, even in summer was cold nearly to freezing. He also refers to Ambros., Epist. xii., and Casaubon. Ad Spartian. Adrian., c. x., p. 87.

[78] XIV. Gaming--_Manu_. Gerlach, Dietsch, Kritzius, and all the recent editors, agree to interpret _manu_ by _gaming_.

[79] Assassins--_Parricidae_. "Not only he who had killed his father was called a _parricide_, but he who had killed any man; as is evident from a law of Numa Pompilius: If any one unlawfully and knowingly bring a free man to death, let him be _a parricide_." _Festus_ sub voce _Parrici_.

[80] Than from any evidence of the fact--_Quam quod cuiquam id compertum foret_.

[81] XV. With a virgin of noble birth--_Cum virgine nobili_. Who this was is not known. The name may have been suppressed from respect to her family. If what is found in a fragment of Cicero be true, Catiline had an illicit connection with some female, and afterward married the daughter who was the fruit of the connection: _Ex eodem stupro et uxorem et filiam invenisti_; Orat. in Tog. Cand. (Oration xvi., Ernesti's edit.) On which words Asconius Pedianus makes this comment: "Dicitur Catilinam adulterium commisisse cum ea quae ci postea socrus fuit, et ex eo stupro duxisse uxorem, cum filia ejus esset. Haec Lucceius quoque Catilinae objecit in orationibus, quas in eum scripsit. Nomina harum mulierum nondum inveni." Plutarch, too (Life of Cicero, c. 10), says that Catiline was accused of having corrupted his own daughter.

[82] With a priestess of Vesta--_Cum sacerdote Vestae_. This priestess of Vesta was Fabia Terentia, sister to Terentia, Cicero's wife, whom Sallust, after she was divorced by Cicero, married. Clodius accused her, but she was acquitted, either because she was thought innocent, or because the interest of Catulus and others, who exerted themselves in her favor, procured her acquittal. See Orosius, vi. 3; the Oration of Cicero, quoted in the preceding note; and Asconius's commentary on it.

[83] Aurelia Orestilla--See c. 35. She was the sister or daughter, as De Brosses thinks, of Cneius Aurelius Orestis, who had been praetor, A.U.C. 677.

[84] A grown-up step-son--_Privignum adulta aetate_. A son of Catiline's by a former marriage.

[85] Desolate his tortured spirit--_Mentem exciteam vastabat_. "Conscience desolates the mind, when it deprives it of its proper power and tranquillity, and introduces into it perpetual disquietude." _Cortius_. Many editions have _vexabat_.

[86] XVI. He furnished false witnesses, etc. _Testis signatoresque falsos commodare_. "If any one wanted any such character, Catiline was ready to supply him from among his troop."_Bernouf_.

[87] Inoffensive persons, etc.--_Insontes, sicuti sontes._ Most translators have rendered these words "innocent" and "guilty," terms which suggest nothing satisfactory to the English reader. The _insontes_ are those who had given Catiline no cause of offens; the _sontes_ those who had in some way incurred his displeasure, or become objects of his rapacity.

[88] Veterans of Sylla, etc.--Elsewhere called the colonists of Sylla; men to whom Sylla had given large tracts of land as rewards for their services, but who, having lived extravagantly, had fallen into such debt and distress, that, as Cicero said, nothing could relieve them but the resurrection of Sylla from the dead. Cic. ii. Orat. in Cat.

[89] Pompey was fighting in a distant part of the world--_In extremis terris_. Pompey was then conducting the war against Mithridates and Tigranes, in Pontus and Armenia.

[90] The senate was wholly off its guard--_Senatus nihil sane intentus_. The senate was _regardless_, and unsuspicious of any danger.

[91] XVII. Lucius Caesar--He was a relation of Julius Caesar; and his sister was the wife of M. Antonius, the orator, and mother of Mark Antony, the triumvir.

[92] Publius Lentulus Sura--He was of the same family with Sylla, that of the Cornelii. He had filled the office of consul, but his conduct had been afterward so profligate, that the censors expelled him from the senate. To enable him to resume his seat, he had obtained, as a qualification, the office of praetor, which he held at the time of the conspiracy. He was called Sura, because, when he had squandered the public money in his quaestorship, and was called to account by Sylla for his dishonesty, he declined to make any defense, but said, "I present you the calf of my leg (_sura_);" alluding to a custom among boys playing at ball, of inflicting a certain number of strokes on the leg of an unsuccessful player. Plutarch, Life of Cicero, c.17.

[93] Publius Autronius--He had been a companion of Cicero in his boyhood, and his colleague in the quaestorship. He was banished in the year after the conspiracy, together with Cassius, Laeca, Vargunteius, Servius Sylla, and Caius Cornelius, under the Plautian law. _De Brosses_.

[94] Lucius Cassius Longinus.--He had been a competitor with Cicero for the consulship. Ascon. Ped., in Cic. Orat. in Tog. Cand. His corpulence was such that Cassius's fat (_Cassii adeps_) became proverbial. Cic. Orat. in Catil., iii. 7.

[95] Caius Cethegus--He also was one of the Cornelian family. In the civil wars, says De Brosses, he had first taken the side of Marius, and afterward that of Sylla. Both Cicero (Orat. in Catil., ii.7) and Sallust describe him as fiery and rash.

[96] Publius and Servius Sylla--These were nephews of Sylla the dictator. Publius, though present on this occasion, seems not to have joined in the plot, since, when he was afterward accused of having been a conspirator, he was defended by Cicero and acquitted. See Cic. Orat. pro P. Sylla. He was afterward with Caesar in the battle of Pharsalia. Caes. de B.C., iii. 89.

[97] Lucius Vargunteius--"Of him or his family little is known. He had been, before this period, accused of bribery, and defended by Hortensius. Cic. pro P. Sylla, c. 2." _Bernouf_.

[98] Quintus Annius--He is thought by De Brosses to have been the same Annius that cut off the head of M. Antonius the orator, and carried it to Marius. Plutarch, Vit. Marii, c. 44.

[99] Marcus Porcius Laeca--He was one of the same _gens_ with the Catones, but of a different family.

[100] Lucius Bestia--Of the Calpurnian _gens_. He escaped death on the discovery of the conspiracy, and was afterward aedile, and candidate for the praetorship, but was driven into exile for bribery. Being recalled by Caesar, he became candidate for the consulship, but was unsuccessful. _De Brosses_.

[101] Quintus Curius--He was a descendant of M. Curius Dentatus, the opponent of Pyrrhus. He was so notorious as a gamester and a profligate, that he was removed from the senate, A.U.C. 683. See c. 23. As he had been the first to give information of the conspiracy to Cicero, public honors were decreed him, but he was deprived of them by the influence of Caesar, whom he had named as one of the conspirators. Sueton. Caes. 17; Appian. De Bell. Civ., lib. ii.

[102] M. Fulvius Nobilior--"He was not put to death, but exiled, A.U.C. 699. Cic. ad Att. iv., 16." _Bernouf_.

[103] Lucius Statilius--of him nothing more is known than is told by Sallust.

[104] Publius Gabinius Capito--Cicero, instead of Capito, calls him Cimber. Orat. in Cat., iii. 3. The family was originally from Gabii.

[105] Caius Cornelius--There were two branches of the _gens Cornelia_, one patrician, the other plebeian, from which sprung this conspirator.

[106] Municipal towns--_Municipiis_. "The _municipia_ were towns of which the inhabitants were admitted to the rights of Roman citizens, but which were allowed to govern themselves by their own laws, and to choose their own magistrates. See Aul. Gell, xvi. 13; Beaufort, Rep. Rom., vol. v." _Bernouf_.

[107] Marcus Licinius Crassus--The same who, with Pompey and Caesar, formed the first triumvirate, and who was afterward killed in his expedition against the Parthians. He had, before the time of the conspiracy, held the offices of praetor and consul.

[108] XVIII. But previously, etc.--Sallust here makes a digression, to give an account of a conspiracy that was formed three years before that of Catiline.

[109] Publius Autronius and Publius Sylla--The same who are mentioned in the preceding chapter. They were consuls elect, and some editions have the words _designati consules_, immediately following their names.

[110] Having been tried for bribery under the laws against it --_Legibus ambitus interrogati_. _Bribery at their election_, is the meaning of the word _ambitus_, for _ambire_, as Cortius observes, is _circumeundo favorem et suffragia quaerere_. De Brosses translates the passage thus: "Autrone et Sylla, convaincus d'avoir obtenu le consulat par corruption des suffrages, avaient été punis selon la rigueur de la loi". There were several very severe Roman laws against bribery. Autronius and Sylla were both excluded from the consulship.

[111] For extortion--_Pecuniarum repetundarum_. Catiline had been praetor in Africa, and, at the expiration of his office, was accused of extortion by Publius Clodius, on the part of the Africans. He escaped by bribing the prosecutor and judges.

[112] To declare himself a candidate within the legitimate number of days--_Prohibitus erat consulatum petere, quod intra legitimos dies profiteri_ (se candidatum, says Cortius, citing Suet. Aug. 4) _nequiverit_. A person could not be a candidate for the consulship, unless he could declare himself free from accusation within a certain number of days before the time of holding the _comitia centuriata_. That number of days was _trinundinum spatium_, that is, the time occupied by three market-days, _tres nundinae_, with seven days intervening between the first and second, and between the second and third; or _seventeen days_. The _nundinae_ (from _novem_ and _dies_) were held, as it is commonly expressed, every ninth day; whence Cortius and others considered _trinundinum spatium_ to be twenty-seven, or even thirty days; but this way of reckoning was not that of the Romans, who made the last day of _the first ennead_ to be also the first day _of the second_. Concerning the _nundinae_ see Macrob., Sat. i. 16. "Muller and Longius most erroneously supposed the _trinundinum_ to be about thirty days; for that it embraced only seventeen days has been fully shown by Ernesti. Clav. Cic., sub voce; by Scheller in Lex. Ampl., p. 11, 669; by Nitschius Antiquitt. Romm. i. p. 623: and by Drachenborch (cited by Gerlach) ad Liv. iii. 35." _Kritzius_.

[113] Cneius Piso--Of the Calpurnian gens. Suetonius (Vit. Caes., c. 9) mentions three authors who related that Crassus and Caesar were both concerned in this plot; and that, if it had succeeded, Crassus was to have assumed the dictatorship, and made Caesar his master of the horse. The conspiracy, as these writers state, failed through the remorse or irresolution of Crassus.

[114] Catiline and Autronius--After these two names, in Havercamp's and many other editions, follow the words _circiter nonas Decembres_, _i.e._, about the fifth of December.

[115] On the first of January--_Kalendis Januariis_. On this day the consuls were accustomed to enter on their office. The consuls whom they were going to kill, Cotta and Torquatus, were those who had been chosen in the place of Antronius and Sylla.

[116] The two Spains--Hither and Thither Spain. _Hispania Citerior_ and _Ulterior_, as they were called by the Romans.

[117] XIX. Nor were the senate, indeed, unwilling, etc.--See Dio Cass. xxxvi. 27.

[118] XX. Just above mentioned--In c. 17.

[119] Favorable opportunity--_Opportuna res_. See the latter part of c. 16.

[120] Assert our claims to liberty--_Nosmet ipsi vindicamus in libertatem_.Unless we vindicate ourselves into liberty. See below, "En illa, illa, quam saepe optastis, libertas," etc.

[121] Kings and princes--_Reges tetrarchae_. _Tetrarchs_ were properly those who had the government of the fourth part of the country; but at length, the signification of the word being extended, it was applied to any governors of any country who were possessed of supreme authority, and yet were not acknowledged as kings by the Romans. See Hirt. Bell. Alex. c. 67: "Deiotarus, at that time _tetrarch_ of almost all Gallograecia, a supremacy which the other _tetrarchs_ would not allow to be granted him either by the laws or by custom, but indisputably acknowledged as king of Armenia Minor by the senate," etc. _Dietsch._ "Hesychius has, [Greek: _Tetrarchas, basileis_]. See Isidor., ix. 8; Alex. ab. Alex., ii. 17." _Colerus_. "Cicero, Phil. II., speaks of Reges Tetrarchas Dynastasque. And Lucan has (vii. 46) Tetrarchae regesque tenent, magnique tyranni." _Wasse._ Horace also says,

--Modo reges atque tetrarchas,
Omnia magna loquens.

I have, with Rose, rendered the word _princes_, as being the most eligible term.

[122] Insults--_Repulsas_. Repulses in standing for office.

[123] The course of events, etc.--_Caetera res expediet_.--"Of. Cic. Ep. Div. xiii. 26: _explicare et expedire negotia_." Gerlach.

[124] Building over seas--See c. 13.

[125] Embossed plate--_Toreumata_. The same as _vasa coelata_, sculptured vases, c. 11. Vessels ornamented in bas-relief; from [Greek: _toreuein_], _sculpere_; see Bentley ad Hor. A. P., 441. "Perbona toreumata, in his pecula duo," etc. Cic. in Verr. iv. 18.

[126] XXI. What support or encouragement they had, and in what quarters.--_Quid ubique opis aut spei haberent; i.e._ quid opis aut So c. 27, _init._ Quem ubique opportunum credebat, _i.e._, says Cortius, "quem, et ubi _illum_, opportunum credebat".

[127] Abolition of their debts--_Tabulas novas._ Debts were registered on tablets; and, when the debts were paid, the score was effaced, and the tablets were ready to be used _as new._ See Ernesti's Clav. in Cio._sub voce_.

[128] Proscription of the wealthy citizens--_Proscriptionem locupletium._ The practice of proscription was commenced by Sylla, who posted up, in public places of the city, the names of those whom he doomed to death, offering rewards to such as should bring him their heads. Their money and estates he divided among his adherents, and Catiline excited his adherents with hopes of similar plunder.

[129] Another of his ruling passion--_Admonebat--alium cupiditatis suae_. Rose renders this passage, "Some he put in mind of their poverty, others of their amours." De Brosses renders it, "Il remontre à l'un sa pauvreté, à l'autre son ambition." _Ruling passion_, however, seems to be the proper sense of _cupiditatis_; as it is said, in c. 14, "As the passions of each, according to his years, appeared excited, he furnished mistresses to some, bought horses and dogs for others", etc.

[130] XXII. They asserted--_Dictitare_. In referring this word to the circulators of the report, I follow Cortius, Gerlach, Kritzius, and Bernouf. Wasse, with less discrimination, refers it to Catiline. This story of the drinking of human blood is copied by Florus, iv 1, and by Plutarch in his Life of Cicero. Dio Cassius (lib. xxxvii.) says that the conspirators were reported to have killed a child on the occasion.

[131] XXIII. Quintus Curius--the same that is mentioned in c. 17.

[132] To promise her seas and mountains--_Maria montesque polliceri_. A proverbial expression. Ter. Phorm., i. 2, 18: _Modò non montes auri pollicens_. Perc., iii. 65: _Et quid opus Cratero magnos promittere emontes._

[133] With greater arrogance than ever--_Ferocius quam solitus erat._

[134] To Marcus Tullius Cicero--Cicero was now in his forty-third year, and had filled the office of quaestor, aedile, and praetor.

[135] A man of no family--_Novus homo._ A term applied to such as could not boast of any ancestor that had held any curule magistracy, that is, had been consul, praetor, censor, or chief aedile.

[136] XXIV. Manlius--He had been an officer in the army of Sylla, and, having been distinguished for his services, had been placed at the head of a colony of veterans settled about Faesulae: but he had squandered his property in extravagance. See Plutarch, Vit. Cic., Dio Cassius, and Appian.

[137] Faesulae--A town of Etruria, at the foot of the Appennines,

At evening from the top of Fesole,
Or in Valdarno to descry new lands, etc.
Par. L. i. 28.

[138] XXV. Sempronia--Of the same _gens_ as the two Gracchi. She was the wife of Decimus Brutus.

[139] Sing, play, and dance--_Psallere, saltare._ As _psallo_ signifies both to play on a musical instrument, and to sing to it while playing, I have thought it necessary to give both senses in the translation.

[140] By no means despicable--_Haud absurdum._ Compare, _Bene dicere haud absurdum est,_ c. 8.

[141] She was distinguished, etc.--_Multae facetiae, multusque lepos inerat._ Both _facetiae_ and _lepos_ mean "agreeableness, humor, pleasantry," but _lepos_ here seems to refer to diction, as in Cic. Orat. i. 7: _Magnus in jocando lepos._

[142] XXVI. By an arrangement respecting their provinces--_Pactione provinciae_. This passage has been absurdly misrepresented by most translators, except De Brosses. Even Rose, who was a scholar, translated _pactione provinciae_, "by promising a province to his colleague." Plutarch, in his Life of Cicero, says that the two provinces, which Cicero and his colleague Antonius shared between them, were Gaul and Macedonia, and that Cicero, in order to retain Antonius in the interest of the senate, exchanged with him Macedonia, which had fallen to himself, for the inferior province of Gaul. See Jug., c. 27.

[143] Plots which he had laid for the consuls in the Campus Martius --_Insidiae quas consuli in campo fecerat_. I have here departed from the text of Cortius, who reads _consulibus_, thinking that Catiline, in his rage, might have extended his plots even to the consuls-elect. But _consuli_, there is little doubt, is the right reading, as it is favored by what is said at the beginning of the chapter, _insidias parabat Ciceroni_, by what follows in the next chapter, _consuli insidias tendere_, and by the words, _sperans, si designatus foret, facile se ex voluntate Antonio usurum_; for if Catiline trusted that he should be able to use his pleasure with Antonius, he could hardly think it necessary to form plots against his life. I have De Brosses on my side, who translates the phrase, _les pieges où il comptait faire périr le consul_. The words _in campo_, which look extremely like an intruded gloss, I wonder that Cortius should have retained. "_Consuli_," says Gerlach, "appears the more eligible, not only on account of _consuli insidias tendere_, c. 27, but because nothing but the death of Cicero was necessary to make everything favorable for Catiline." Kritzius, Bernouf, Dietsch, Pappaur, Allen, and all the modern editors, read _Consuli_. See also the end of c. 27: _Si prius Ciceronem oppressisset_.] [note 144: Had ended in confusion and disgrace--_Aspera faedaque evenerant_. I have borrowed from Murphy.

[145] XXVII. Of Camerinum--Camertem. "That is, a native of Camerinum, a town on the confines of Umbria and Picenum. Hence the noun _Camers_, as Cic. Pro. Syll., c. 19, _in agro Camerti_." Cortius.

[146] Wherever he thought each would be most serviceable--_Ubi quemque opportunum credebat. "Proprie reddas: quam, _et ubi_ illum, _opportunum credebat_," Cortius. See c. 23.

[147] When none of his numerous projects succeeded--_Ubi multa agilanti nihil procedit_.

[148] XXVIII. On that very night, and with but little delay--_Ea nocte, paulo post_. They resolved on going soon after the meeting broke up, so that they might reach Cicero's house early in the morning, which was the usual time for waiting on great men. _Ingentem foribus domus alla superbis_ Mane _salutantûm totis vomit aedibus undam_. Virg. Georg., ii. 461.

[149] XXIX. This is the greatest power which--is granted, etc. --_Ea potestas per senatum, more Romano, magistratui maxima permittitur_. Cortius, _mirâ judicii peversitate_, as Kritzius observes, makes _ea_ the ablative case, understanding "decretione," "formula," or some such word; but, happily, no one has followed him.

[150] XXX. By the 27th of October--_Ante diem VI. Kalendas Novembres_. He means that they were in arms on or before that day.

[151] Quintus Marcius Rex--He had been proconsul in Cilicia, and was expecting a triumph for his successes.

[152] Quintus Metellus Creticus--He had obtained the surname of Creticus from having reduced the island of Crete.

[153] Both which officers, with the title of commanders, etc. --_hi utrique ad urbem imperatores erant; impediti ne triumpharent calumniâ paucorum quibus omnia honesta atque inhonesta vendere mos erat_. "Imperator" was a title given by the army, and confirmed by the senate, to a victorious general, who had slain a certain number of the enemy. What the number was is not known. The general bore this title as an addition to his name, until he obtained (if it were granted him) a triumph, for which he was obliged to wait _ad urbem_, near the city, since he was not allowed to enter the gates as long as he held any military command. These _imperatores_ had been debarred from their expected honor by a party who would sell _any thing honorable_, as a triumph, or _any thing dishonorable_, as a license to violate the laws.

[154] A hundred sestertia--two hundred sestertia--A hundred sestertia were about 807£. 5s. 10d. of our money.

[155] Schools of gladiators--_Gladiatoriae familiae_. Any number of gladiators under one teacher, or trainer (_lanista_), was called _familia_. They were to be distributed in different parts, and to be strictly watched, that they might not run off to join Catiline. See Graswinckelius, Rupertus, and Gerlach.

[156] The inferior magistrates--The aediles, tribunes, quaestors, and all others below the consuls, censors, and praetors. Aul. Cell., xiii. 15.

[157] XXXI. Dissipation--Lascivia. "Devotion to public amusements and gayety. The word is used in the same sense as in Lucretius, v.

Tum caput atque humeros planis redimire coronis.
Floribus et foliis, lascivia laeta monebat.

_"Then sportive gayety prompted them to deck their heads and shoulders with garlands of flowers and leaves." Bernouf_.

[158] Long tranquillity--_Diuturna quies_. "Since the victory of Sylla to the time of which Sallust is speaking, that is, for about twenty years, there had been a complete cessation from civil discord and disturbance" _Bernouf_.

[159] The Plautian law--_Lege Plautia_. "This law was that of M. Plautius Silanus, a tribune of the people, which was directed against such as excited a sedition in the state, or formed plots against the life of any individual." _Cyprianus Popma_. See Dr. Smith's Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Antiquities, sub Vis.