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C. Sallusti Crispi De Bello Catilinario Et Jugurthino

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Title: C. Sallusti Crispi De Bello Catilinario Et Jugurthino

Author: Sallust

Editor: Leonhard Schmitz
        Karl Gottlob Zumpt


        
Release date: February 1, 2005 [eBook #7402]
                Most recently updated: November 6, 2012

Language: English, Latin

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7402

Credits: Produced by David Starner, Thomas Berger and the Online
        Distributed Proofreading Team


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Classical Series.
Edited By Drs. Schmitz And Zumpt.

       *       *       *       *       *

C SALLUSTII CRISPI

DE BELLO CATILINARIO et JUGURTHINO.

       *       *       *       *       *

PREFACE.

The text of Sallust, notwithstanding the many and excellent editions
which have been published, has not yet acquired a form that can be
regarded as generally adopted and established; for the number of
manuscripts is great, and their differences have led critical editors to
form different opinions as to which, in each case, is the correct
reading, or at least the one most worthy of acceptation. This difference
of opinion manifested itself especially after the edition of Gottleib
Corte (Leipzig, 1724, 4to.), who in many passages abandoned the vulgate
as constituted by Gruter and Wasse, and on the authority of a few
manuscripts, altered the text of Sallust, on the mere supposition that
his style was abrupt. Corte's recension was adopted by many, and often
reprinted; while others, especially Haverkamp, in his valuable and very
complete edition (Hague, 1742, 2 vols. 4to.), returned to the vulgate.
The latest critical editors of Sallust--Gerlach (Basel, 1823, &c. 3 vols.
4to., and a revised text, Basel, 1832, 8vo.) and Kritz (Leipzig, 1828,
&c. 2 vols. 8vo.)--though declaring against the arbitrary proceedings of
Corte, yet very often differ in their texts from each other. Between
these two stands the edition of the learned critic, J. C. Orelli (Zurich,
1840), whose text forms the basis of the present edition. But besides
abandoning his artificial and antiquated orthography, and restoring that
which is adopted in most editions of Latin classics, we have felt obliged
in many instances to give up Orelli's reading, and to follow the
authority of the best manuscripts, especially the Codex Leidensis (marked
L in Haverkamp's edition). For our explanatory notes we are much indebted
to the edition of Kritz, though we have often been under the necessity of
differing from him.

C. G. Zumpt.

Berlin, _May_, 1848.

       *       *       *       *       *

INTRODUCTION.

Caius Sallustius Crispus, according to the statement of the ancient
chronologer Hieronymus, was born in B. C. 86, at Amiternum, in the
country of the Sabines (to the north-east of Rome), and died four years
before the battle of Actium--that is, in B.C. 34 or 35. After having no
doubt gone through a complete course of law and the art of oratory, he
devoted himself to the service of the Roman republic at a time when Rome
was internally divided by the struggle of the opposite factions of
the _optimates_, or the aristocracy, and the _populares_, or the
democratical party. The optimates supported the power of the senate, and
of the nobility who prevailed in the senate; while the populares were
exerting themselves to bring all public questions of importance before
the popular assembly for decision, and resisted the influence of
illustrious and powerful families, whose privileges, arising from birth
and wealth, they attempted to destroy. Sallust belonged to the latter of
these parties. In B.C. 52 he was tribune of the people, and took an
active part in the disturbances which were caused at Rome in that year by
the open struggles between Annius Milo, one of the optimates, who was
canvassing for the consulship, and P. Clodius, who was trying to obtain
the praetorship. Milo slew Clodius on a public road: he was accused by
the populares, and defended by the optimates; but the judges, who could
not allow such an act of open violence to escape unpunished, condemned,
and sentenced him to exile. Pompey alone, who was then consul for the
third time, was capable of restoring order and tranquillity. The position
of a tribune of the people was a difficult one for Sallust: he was to
some extent opposed to Milo, and consequently also to Cicero, who pleaded
for Milo; but there exists a statement that he gave up his opposition;
and he himself, in the introduction to his 'Catiline,' intimates that his
honest endeavours for the good of the state drew upon him only ill-will
and hatred. Two years later (B.C. 50), he was ejected from the senate by
the censor Appius Claudius, one of the most zealous among the optimates.
The other censor, L. Piso, did not protect either Sallust, or any of the
others who shared the same fate with him, against this act of partiality.
Rome was at that time governed by the most oppressive oligarchy, which
was then mainly directed against Julius Caesar, who, as a reward for
his brilliant achievements in extending the Roman dominion in Gaul,
desired to be allowed to offer himself in his absence as a candidate for
his second consulship--a desire which the people were willing to comply
with, as it was based upon a law which had been passed some years before
in favour of Caesar; but the optimates endeavoured in every way to oppose
him, and drawing Pompey over to their side, they brought about a rupture
between him and Caesar. Sallust was looked upon in the senate as a
partisan of the latter, and this was the principal reason why he was
deprived of his seat in the great council of the republic; and L. Piso,
the father-in-law of Caesar, is said not to have opposed the partiality
of his colleague in the censorship, in order to increase the number of
Caesar's partisans. When, in B. C. 49, Caesar established his right by
force of arms, Sallust went over to him, and was restored not only to his
seat in the senate, but was advanced to the praetorship in the year B. C.
47. Sallust served, both before and during his year of office, in the
capacity of a lieutenant in Caesar's armies. He also accompanied him
to Africa in the war against the Pompeian party there, and after its
successful termination, was left behind as proconsul of Numidia, which
was made a Roman province. In the discharge of his duties, he is said to
have indulged in extorting money from the new subjects of Rome. He was
accused, but acquitted. This is the historical statement of Dion Cassius;
but a hostile writer of doubtful authority mentions that, by paying
12,000 pieces of gold to Caesar (perhaps as damages for the injury done),
he purchased his acquittal.

Hereupon Sallust withdrew from public life, to devote his leisure to
literature, and the composition of works on the history of his native
country; for, as after the murder of Caesar, in B. C. 44, the republic
was again delivered over to a state of military despotism, peaceful
advice was deprived of its influence. It need hardly be mentioned that
Sallust, as he had qualified himself for the highest political career,
and the great offices of the republic, must have been possessed of an
independent property; but the statement, that he afterwards gave himself
up to a life of luxury--that he purchased a villa at Tibur, which had
formerly belonged to Caesar--and that he possessed a splendid mansion,
with a garden laid out with elegant plantations and appropriate
buildings, at Rome, near the Colline gate--is founded on the equivocal
authority of a writer of a late period, who was hostile to him. It is
indeed certain that there existed at Rome _horti Sallustiani_, in
which Augustus frequently resided, and which were afterwards in the
possession of the Roman emperors; but it is doubtful as to whether they
had been acquired and laid out by our historian, or by his nephew, a
Roman eques, and particular favourite of Augustus. The statement that
Sallust married Terentia, the divorced wife of Cicero, is still more
doubtful, and probably altogether fictitious.[1] There is, however, a
statement of a contemporary, the learned friend of Cicero, M. Varro,
which cannot be doubted--that in his earlier years Sallust, in the midst
of the party-strife at Rome, kept up an illicit intercourse with the
wife of Milo; but how much the hostility of party may have had to do with
such a report, cannot be decided. In his writings, Sallust expresses
a strong disgust of the luxurious mode of life, and the avarice and
prodigality, of his contemporaries; and there can be no doubt that these
repeated expressions of a stern morality excited both his contemporaries
and subsequent writers to hunt up and divulge any moral foibles in his
life and character, especially as in his compositions he struck into a
new path, by abandoning the ordinary style, and artificially reviving the
ancient style of composition.

[1] This strange account is found in Hieronymus's first work against
    Jovinianus, towards the end; and it becomes still more strange by the
    addition, that Terentia was married a third time to the orator
    Messalla Corvinus (who was consul with Augustus, B. C. 91):--_Illa_
    (Terentia) _interim conjunx egregia, et quae de fontibus Tullianis
    hauserat sapientiam, nupsit Sallustio, inimico ejus, et tertio
    Messallae Corvino: et quasi per quosdam gradus eloquentiae devoluta
    est._ It almost appears as if in this tradition it had been
    intended to mark three phases in the style of Roman oratory, for
    Sallust was twenty years younger than Cicero, and Messalla nearly
    as many years younger than Sallust.

The historical works of Sallust are, _De Bello Catilinae_, _De Bello
Jugurthino_ (or the two _Bella_, as the ancients call them), and
five books of _Historiae_--that is, a history of the Roman republic
during the period of twelve years, from the death of Sulla in B. C. 78,
down to the appointment of Pompey to the supreme command in the war
against Mithridates in B. C. 66. This history was regarded by the
ancients as the principal work of our author; but is now lost, with the
exception of four speeches and two political letters, which some admirer
of oratory copied separately from the context of the history, and which
have thus been preserved to our times. The two _Bella_, which are
preserved entire, form the contents of the present volume.

The work _De Bella Catilinae_ formed the beginning of his historical
compositions, as is clear from the author's own introduction; but it
was not written till after the murder of Caesar in B. C. 44. In it he
describes the conspiracy of L. Sergius Catilina, a man of noble birth and
high rank, but ruined circumstances; its discovery, and the punishment
of the conspirators at Rome in B. C. 63; and its final and complete
suppression in a pitched battle at the beginning of the year B. C. 62.

The _Bellum Jugurthinum_ treats of the life of Jugurtha, who in
B. C. 118, together with his cousins, Adherbal and Hiempsal, governed
Numidia. Having crushed his two cousins by fraud and violence, Jugurtha
afterwards maintained himself in his usurped kingdom for several years
against the Roman armies and generals that were sent out against him,
until in the end, after several defeats sustained at the hands of the
Roman consuls, L. Metullus and C. Marius, his own ally, Bocchus, king of
Mauretania, delivered him up into the hands of the Roman quaestor,
L. Sulla.

In the work on the war of Catiline, Sallust reveals especially the
corruption of what was called the Roman nobility, by tracing the criminal
designs of the conspirators to their sources--avarice, and the love of
pleasure. In the history of the Jugurthine war, he particularly exposes
and condemns the system of bribery in which the leading men of that
age indulged; but on the other hand, he draws a pleasing contrast in
describing the restoration of military discipline by Metullus and Marius.
The difficult campaigns in the extensive and desert country of Numidia,
and the wonderful events of this war, also deserve the attention of the
reader; the more so, as the author has bestowed the greatest care on
giving vivid descriptions of them.

Among the writings of Sallust, which have been transmitted to us in
manuscripts, and are printed in the larger editions of his works, there
are two epistles addressed to Caesar, containing the author's opinions
and advice regarding the new constitution to be given to the republic,
after the defeat of the optimates and their faction by the dictator. They
are written in his own peculiar style: the first contains excellent ideas
and energetic exposures of the general defects and evils in the state,
as well as plans for remedying them; the second adds some proposals
regarding the courts of justice, and the composition of the senate,
the utility and practicability of which appear somewhat doubtful.
The authenticity of these epistles, therefore, is still a matter of
uncertainty. Lastly, there are two Declamations (_declamationes_), the
one purporting to be by M. Cicero against Sallust, and the other by
Sallust against Cicero; but both are evidently unworthy of the character
and style of the men whose names they bear, and are justly considered to
be the production of some wretched rhetorician of the third or fourth
century of the Christian era.[2] Such declaimers made use of all possible
reports that were current respecting the moral weaknesses of the two men,
and respecting an enmity between them, of which history knows nothing,
and which is contradicted by our author himself, by the praise he
bestows, in his 'Catilinarian War,' upon Cicero.

[2] It has indeed been said that Quinctilian, who wrote about the year 95
    after Christ, cites passages from these Declamations; but critical
    investigation has shown that these passages are interpolations, and
    are found only in the worst manuscripts.

Sallust's character as an historian, and his grammatical style, have
been the subjects of contradictory opinions even among the ancients
themselves--both his own contemporaries, and the men of succeeding ages.
Some condemned his introductions, as having nothing to do with the
works themselves; found fault with the minute details of the speeches
introduced in the narrative; and called him a senseless imitator, in
words and expressions, of the earlier Roman historians, especially of
Cato. Others praised him for his vivid delineations of character, the
precision and vigour of his diction, and for the dignity which he had
given to his style by the use of ancient words and phrases which were no
longer employed in the ordinary language of his own day. But however
different these opinions may appear, there is truth both in the censure
and in the praise, though the praise no doubt outweighs the censure;
and the general opinion among the later Romans justly declared _primus
Romana Crispus in historia_. It is obvious that it is altogether unjust
to say that his introductions are unsuitable, and that the speeches he
introduces are inappropriate: for an author must be allowed to write a
preface to make an avowal of his own sentiments; and the speeches are
inseparably connected with the forms of public life in antiquity: they
are certainly not too long, and express most accurately, both in
sentiment and style, the characters of the great men to whom the author
assigns them. We have no hesitation in declaring that the speeches in the
Catiline and Jugurtha, as well as those extracted from the _Historiae_,
are the most precious specimens of the kind that have come down to us
from antiquity.

As regards the grammatical style and the imitation of earlier authors,
for which Sallust has been blamed by some, and praised by others, it must
be observed that he is the first among the classical authors extant in
whose works we perceive a difference between the refined language of
public life, such as we have it in Cicero and Caesar, and a new and
artificially-formed language of literature. Cicero and Caesar wrote just
as a well-educated orator of taste spoke: after the death of Caesar,
oratory began to withdraw from the active scenes of public life; and
there remained few authors who, following the practical vocation of an
orator, though at an unfavourable epoch, yet observed the principle
which is generally correct--that a man ought to write in the same manner
in which well-bred people speak. But most men of talent who devoted
themselves to written composition for the satisfaction of their own
minds, or for the instruction of their contemporaries, created for
themselves a new style, such as was naturally developed in them by
reading the earlier authors, and through their own relations to their
readers and not hearers. Livy clung to the language, style, and the
full-sounding period of the oratorical style, though even he in many
points deviated from the natural refinement of a Caesar and a Cicero;
but Sallust gave up the oratorical period, divided the long-spun,
full-sounding, and well-finished oratorical sentence into several short
sentences; and in this manner he seemed to go back to the ancients, who
had not yet invented the period: but still there was a great difference
between his style, in which the ancient simplicity was artificially
restored, and the genuine ancient sentence formed without any rhetorical
art. He wrote without periods, because he would not write otherwise, and
not because he could not; he divided the rhetorical period into separate
sentences, because it appeared to him advantageous in his animated
description of minute details; and he wrote concisely, because he did
not want the things to fill up his sentences which the orator requires
to give roundness and fulness to his periods. He states in isolated
independent sentences those ideas and thoughts which the orator
distributes among leading and subordinate sentences; but he did all this
consciously, as an artist, and with the conviction that it was conducive
to historical animation. Tacitus was his imitator in this artificial
historical style; and notwithstanding all his well-deserved praise, it
must he admitted that the blame cast upon Sallust attaches in a still
higher degree to Tacitus. It is a fact beyond all doubt, that Sallust
introduced into the language of literature antiquated forms, words, and
expressions; and this arose from a desire to recall with the ancient
language also the ancient vigour and simplicity. But even this revival of
what was ancient is visible only here and there, and all such words and
phrases might be exchanged for others and more customary ones, without
depriving Sallust of his essential characteristics; for these consist in
a vivid perception of the important moments of an action, in placing them
in strong contrasts, to excite his readers, and in the effect produced by
isolated sentences simply put in juxtaposition without the artifice of a
polished and intricate period.

To give our young readers some preparatory information about certain
frequently-recurring peculiarities of Sallust's style, we may remark that
the omission of the personal pronoun in the construction of the
accusative with the infinitive, as well as the omission of the auxiliary
verb _est_, and the frequent use of the infinitive instead of a
dependent clause--for example, _hortatur dicere, res postulat exponere,
conjuravere patriam incendere_, and many similar expressions--arise
from his desire to be brief and concise. Among his antiquated forms of
words, we may mention _die_ for _diei_, the singular _plerusque_, _quis_
for _quibus_, _senati_ for _senatus_; _dicundi, legundi_, &c. for
_dicendi, legendi_; _intellego_ for _intelligo_, _forem_ for _essem_,
_fuere_ for _fuerunt_; the use of the past participles of deponent verbs
in a passive sense--as _adeptus, interpretatus_. Antiquated words, or
words used in an antiquated sense, are--_supplicium_ for _preces_,
_scilicet_ for _scire licet_; antiquated expressions are--_fugam facere_
for _fugere_, _habere vitam_ for _agere vitam_, and other phrases with
_habere_. The frequent use of _mortales_ for _homines_, _aevum_ for
_aetas_, and _subigere_ for _cogere_, gives to his style somewhat of a
poetical colouring. As far as grammatical construction is concerned,
there is a tendency to archaisms in the use of _quippe qui_ with the
indicative; in the frequent application of the indicative in subordinate
sentences in the oratio obliqua; and in some other points which we shall
explain in short notes to the passages where they occur. An intentional
disturbance of rhetorical symmetry is perceptible in the change of
corresponding particles;--for example, instead of _alii_ in the
expression _alii-alii_, we find _pars_ or _partim_; instead of _modo_ in
the expression _modo-modo_, we find _interdum_, and similar variations.
But all these differences from the ordinary language contain in
themselves sufficient grounds of explanation and excuse, and are by no
means so frequent as to render the language of Sallust unworthy of the
merited reputation of being classical.

       *       *       *       *       *

C. SALLUSTII CRISPI

BELLUM CATILINARIUM.

       *       *       *       *       *

1. Omnes[1] homines, qui sese student[2] praestare ceteris animalibus,
summa ope[3] niti decet, ne vitam silentio transeant veluti pecora, quae
natura prona[4] atque ventri obedientia finxit. Sed nostra omnis vis in
animo et corpore sita est; animi imperio, corporis servitio magis utimur;
alterum nobis cum dis,[5] alterum cum beluis[6] commune est. Quo mihi
rectius videtur ingenii quam virium opibus gloriam quaerere et, quoniam
vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est, memoriam nostri[7] quam maxime
longam[8] efficere. Nam divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis
est, virtus clara aeternaque habetur. Sed diu magnum inter mortales
certamen fuit,[9] vine corporis an virtute animi res militaris magis
procederet. Nam et prius quam incipias consulto, et ubi consulueris
mature facto opus est.[10] Ita utrumque per se indigens, alterum alterius
auxilio eget.

[1] _Omnes_. Other editions have _omnis_ or _omneis_. The accusative
    plural of words of the third declension making their genitive plural
    in _ium_, varied in early Latin, sometimes ending in _is_, and
    sometimes in _eis_ or _es_. This fluctuation, however, afterwards
    ceased; and even in the best age of the Latin language it became
    generally customary to make the accusative plural like the nominative
    in _es_. The same was the case with some other obsolete forms, as
    _volt_ for _vult_, _divorsus_ for _diversus_, _quoique_ for _cuique_,
    _maxumus_ for _maximus_, _quom_ for _quum_, or _cum_, which are
    retained in many editions, but have been avoided in the present, in
    accordance with the orthography generally adopted during the best
    period of the Latin language.
[2] _Studeo_, when the verb following has the same subject, may be
    construed in three ways--with the infinitive alone, as _studeo
    praestare_; with the accusative and infinitive, _studeo me
    praestare_, as in the present case; or with _ut_, as _studeo ut
    praestem_.
[3] _Summa ope_, 'with the greatest exertion,' equivalent to _summa
    opere, summopere_; as _magno opere_, or _magnopere_, signifies 'with
    great exertion,' or 'greatly.' The nominative _ops_ is not in use,
    and the plural _opes_ generally signifies 'the means' or 'power of
    doing something.'
[4] _Prona_, 'bent forward,' 'bent down to the ground,' in opposition to
    the erect gait of man.
[5] _Dis_ for _diis_. See Zumpt, S 51, n. 5.
[6] _Beluis_; another, but less correct mode of spelling, is _bellua,
    belluis_.
[7] Instead of _memoriam nostri_, Sallust might have said _memoriam
    nostram_; but the genitive _nostri_ sets forth the object of
    remembrance with greater force. See Zumpt, S 423.
[8] _Quam maxime longam_; that is, _quam longissimam_, 'lasting as long
    as possible.' Zumpt, S 108.
[9] The author here makes a digression, to remove the objection that in
    war bodily strength is of greater importance than mental superiority.
    He admits that in the earlier times it may have been so, but
    maintains that in more recent times, when the art of war had become
    rather complicate, the superiority of mind has become manifest. _Vine
    corporis an_; that is, _utrum vi corporis an_. See Zumpt, S 554.
[10] That is, 'before undertaking anything, reflect well; but when
    you have reflected, then carry your design into execution without
    delay.' The past participles _consulta_ and _facto_ here supply the
    place of verbal substantives.

2. Igitur[11] initio reges (nam in terris nomen imperii id primum fuit),
diversi pars[12] ingenium, alii corpus exercebant; etiamtum vita hominum
sine cupiditate agitabatur, sua cuique satis placebant. Postea vero
quam[13] in Asia Cyrus, in Graecia Lacedaemonii et Athenienses coepere
urbes atque nationes subigere; libidinem dominandi causam belli habere,
maximam gloriam in maximo imperio putare, tum demum periculo atque
negotiis compertum est in bello plurimum ingenium posse. Quodsi[14] regum
atque imperatorum animi virtus[15] in pace ita ut in bello valeret,
aequabilius atque constantius sese res humanae haberent, neque aliud
alio[16] ferri, neque mutari ac misceri omnia cerneres. Nam imperium
facile his artibus retinetur, quibus initio partum est. Verum ubi pro
labore desidia, pro continentia et aequitate libido atque superbia
invasere, fortuna simul cum moribus immutatur. Ita imperium semper ad
optimum quemque[17] a minus bono transfertur. Quae homines arant,
navigant, aedificant, virtuti omnia parent. Sed multi mortales dediti
ventri atque somno, indocti incultique vitam sicuti peregrinantes
transiere;[18] quibus profecto contra naturam corpus voluptati, anima
oneri fuit. Eorum ego vitam mortemque juxta aestimo,[19] quoniam de
utraque siletur. Verum enimvero[20] is demum mihi vivere atque frui anima
videtur, qui aliquo negotio intentus[21] praeclari facinoris aut artis
bonae famam quaerit. Sed in magna copia rerum aliud alii natura iter
ostendit.

[11] Respecting the frequent position of _igitur_ at the beginning of a
    sentence in Sallust, see Zumpt, S 357.
[12] _Pars_, instead of _alii_, probably to avoid the repetition of
    _alii_, and to produce variety.
[13] _Postea vero quam_, for _postquam vero_. The author means to say,
    that after the formation of great empires by extensive conquests, the
    truth became manifest that even in war mind was superior to mere
    bodily strength. He mentions Cyrus, king of Persia, the
    Lacedaemonians and Athenians, because the earlier empires of the
    Egyptians and Assyrians did not yet belong to accredited history.
[14] Sallust here introduces, by _quodsi_ (and if, or yes, if), an
    illustration connected with the preceding remarks. Respecting this
    connecting power of _quodsi_, as distinguished from the simple _si_,
    see Zumpt, S 807. This illustration, which ends with the word
    _transfertur_, was suggested to Sallust especially by the
    consideration of the recent disturbances in the Roman republic under
    Pompey, Caesar, and Mark Antony, three men who, in times of peace,
    saw their glory, previously acquired in war, fade away.
[15] _Animi virtus_; these two words are here united to express a single
    idea, 'mental greatness.'
[16] _Aliud alio ferri_, 'that one thing is drawn in one direction, and
    the other in another.' For _aliud alio_, see Zumpt, S 714; and for
    _cerneres_, in which the second person singular of the subjunctive
    answers to the English 'you' when not referring to any definite
    person, S 381.
[17] _Optimum quemque_, 'to every one in proportion as he is better than
    others.' Respecting this relative meaning of _quisque_, see Zumpt,
    S 710. 'Every one,' absolutely, is _unusqisque_, and adjectively
    _omnis_.
[18] 'They have passed through life like strangers or travellers;' that
    is, as if they had no concern with their own life, although it is
    clear that human life is of value only when men are conscious of
    themselves, and exert themselves to cultivate their mental powers,
    and apply them to practical purposes.
[19] 'I set an equal value upon their life and their death;' that is,
    an equally low value, _juxta_ being equivalent to _aeque_ or
    _pariter_.
[20] _Verum enimvero;_ these conjunctions are intended strongly to draw
    the attention of the reader to the conclusion from a preceding
    argument.
[21] 'Intent upon some occupation.' _Intentus_ is commonly construed
    with the dative, or the preposition _in_ or _ad_ with the accusative;
    but as a person may be intent _upon_ something, so he also may be
    intent _by_, or _in consequence of_, something, so that the ablative
    is perfectly consistent.

3. Pulcrum est bene facere rei publicae; etiam bene dicere haud absurdum
est;[22] vel pace vel bello clarum fieri licet; et qui fecere et qui
facta aliorum scripsere, multi laudantur. Ac mihi quidem,[23] tametsi
haudquaquam par gloria sequitur scriptorem et actorem rerum, tamen in
primis arduum videtur res gestas scribere; primum quod facta dictis
exaequanda sunt, dehinc quia plerique, quae delicta reprehenderis,
malivolentia et invidia dicta putant;[24] ubi de magna virtute atque
gloria bonorum memores, quae sibi quisque facilia factu putat, aequo
animo accipit, supra ea[25] veluti ficta pro falsis ducit.

Sed ego[26] adolescentulus initio sicuti plerique studio ad rem publicam
latus sum, ibique mihi multa adversa fuere. Nam pro pudore, pro
abstinentia, pro virtute, audacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant. Quae
tametsi animus aspernabatur, insolens malarum artium,[27] tamen inter
tanta vitia imbecilla aetas ambitione corrupta tenebatur[28]: ac me, quum
ab reliquorum malis moribus dissentirem, nihilo minus honoris cupido
eadem qua ceteros fama atque invidia vexabat.[29]

[22] _Haud absurdum est_, 'is not unbecoming;' that is, 'is worthy
    of man.'
[23] _Quidem_ here, like the Greek [Greek: men] in [Greek: emoi men],
    without a [Greek: de] following, introduces one opinion in
    contradistinction from others, though the latter are not mentioned,
    but merely suggested by _quidem_. 'I for my part think so, but what
    others think I do not know, or care.'
[24] 'If you censure any things as faults or delinquencies, your censure
    is considered to have arisen from malevolence or ill-will.'
[25] _Supra ea_, 'whatever is beyond: that;' that is, whatever is beyond
    the capacity of the reader.
[26] The author now passes over to his own experience, telling us that
    after having devoted himself at first to the career of a public man,
    and finding that he was not understood, and ill-used by his
    opponents, he formed the determination to give himself up to a
    literary life.
[27] _Insolens malarum artium_, 'unacquainted with base artifices or
    intrigues;' for _artes_ may be _malae_ as well as _bonae_,
    according as they consist in the skill of doing bad or good things.
[28] _Imbecilla aetas_, 'my weak age;' that is, my mind, which had
    not yet arrived at mature independence,'was corrupted by ambition,
    and was kept under the influence of such bad circumstances.' Sallust
    means to say that if his mind had arrived at manly independence, he
    would have immediately withdrawn from the vicious atmosphere of
    public life.
[29] My ambition caused me to be equally ill spoken of and envied, and
    thus to be dragged down to a level with the rest, and to be equally
    harassed and persecuted as they were.

4. Igitur ubi animus ex multis miseriis atque periculis requievit et mihi
reliquam aetatem a re publica procul habendam decrevi, non fuit consilium
socordia atque desidia bonum otium conterere;[30] neque vero agrum
colendo aut venando, servilibus officiis,[31] intentum aetatem agere; sed
a quo incepto studioque me ambitio mala detinuerat, eodem regressus
statui res gestas populi Romani carptim,[32] ut quaeque memoria digna
videbantur, perscribere; eo magis, quod mihi a spe, metu, partibus rei
publicae animus liber erat. Igitur de Catilinae conjuratione quam
verissime potero paucis absolvam:[33] nam id facinus in primis ego
memorabile existimo sceleris atque periculi novitate. De cujus hominis
moribus pauca prius explananda sunt, quam initium narrandi faciam.

[30] _Conterere_--that is, _consumere_, 'to waste my fair leisure.'
[31] Sallust here calls agriculture and the chase occupations of men in a
    servile condition, although the majority of the ancients considered
    the former especially as the most honourable occupation of free
    citizens. But he seems to think that in comparison with the important
    business of writing the history of his country, agriculture and the
    chase are not suitable occupations for a man who has at one time
    taken an active part in political affairs.
[32] _Carptim_, 'in detached parts.'
[33] _Paucis absolvam_, 'I shall treat briefly,' or _paucis pertractabo
    conjurationem Catilinae_.

5. Lucius Catilina,[34] nobili genere natus, fuit magna vi et animi et
corporis, sed ingenio malo pravoque. Huic abadolescentia bella
intestina, caedes, rapinae, discordia civilis grata fuere, ibique
juventutem suam exercuit. Corpus patiens[35] inediae, algoris, vigiliae,
supra quam cuiquam credibile est. Animus audax, subdolus, varius, cujus
rei libet[36] simulator ac dissimulator, alieni appetens, sui profusus,
ardens in cupiditatibus; satis eloquentiae, sapientiae parum. Vastus
animus immoderata, incredibilia, nimis alta semper cupiebat. Hunc post
dominationem Lucii Sullae libido maxima invaserat rei publicae
capiundae,[37] neque id quibus modis assequeretur, dum sibi regnum
pararet, quidquam pensi habebat. Agitabatur magis magisque in dies animus
ferox inopia rei familiaris et conscientia scelerum, quae utraque his
artibus auxerat,[38] quas supra memoravi. Incitabant praeterea corrupti
civitatis mores, quos pessima ac diversa inter se mala, luxuria atque
avaritia, vexabant. Res ipsa hortari videtur, quoniam de moribus
civitatis tempus admonuit, supra repetere[39] ac paucis instituta majorum
domi militiaeque,[40] quomodo rem publicam habuerint quantamque
reliquerint, ut paulatim immutata ex pulcherrima pessima ac
flagitiosissima facta sit, disserere.

[34] Sallust begins with a general description of the character of
    Catiline. This talented person, though of a most wicked disposition,
    belonged to the patrician _gens Sergia_, which traced its descent to
    one of the companions of Aeneas. This is no doubt fabulous, but at
    any rate proves the high antiquity of the gens. The most renowned
    among the ancestors of Catiline was M. Sergius, a real model of
    bravery, who distinguished himself in the Gallic and second Punic
    wars, and after having lost his right hand in battle, wielded the
    sword with the left. As Catiline offered himself as a candidate for
    the consulship in B.C. 66, which no Roman was allowed to do by law
    before having attained the age of forty-three, we may fairly presume
    that he was born about B.C. 109, in the time of the Jugurthine war.
    Cicero was born in B.C. 106, and was consequently a few years younger
    than Catiline.
[35] _Patiens inediae_. Respecting the genitive governed by this and
    similar participles--as soon after _alieni appetens_--see Zumpt,
    S 438.
[36] _Cujus rei libet;_ it is more common to say _cujuslibet rei_.
    Sometimes the relative pronouns compounded with _cunque_ and _libet_
    are separated by the insertion of some other word or words between
    them, which in grammatical language is called a tmesis--as _quod enim
    cunque judicium subierat, absolvebatur; quem sors dierum cunque tibi
    dederit, lucre appone,_ 'whatever day chance may give thee, consider
    it as a gain.'
[37] _Capiundae_. Respecting the _e_ or _u_ in such gerunds and
    gerandives, see Zumpt, S 167.
[38] _Auxerat_. He had increased both by the above-mentioned
    qualities--namely, his poverty by extravagance, and the consciousness
    of guilt by the crimes he committed. The neuter plural _quae_,
    referring to two feminine substantives denoting abstract ideas, is
    not very common, though quite justifiable. Zumpt, S 377.
[39] Respecting the infinitive after _hortari_, instead of the more
    common use of the conjunction _ut_, see Zumpt, S 615.
[40] _Domi militiaeque_, 'in times of peace and in war.'

6. Urbem Romam,[41] sicuti ego accepi, condidere atque habuere initio
Trojani, qui Aenea duce profugi sedibus incertis vagabantur, cumque his
Aborigines,[42] genus hominum agreste, sine legibus, sine imperio,
liberum atque solutum. Hi postquam in una[43] moenia convenere, dispari
genere, dissimili lingua, alius alio more viventes, incredibile memoratu
est quam facile coaluerint.[44] Sed postquam res eorum civibus, moribus,
agris aucta, satia prospera satisque pollens videbatur, sicuti pleraque
mortalium habentur, invidia ex opulentia orta est. Igitur reges populique
finitimi bello temptare,[45] pauci ex amicis auxilio esse; nam ceteri
metu perculsi a periculis aberant. At Romani domi militiaeque intenti
festinare, parare, alius alium hortari, hostibus obviam ire, libertatem,
patriam parentesque armis tegere. Post, ubi pericula virtute propulerant,
sociis atque amicis auxilia portabant,[46] magisque dandis quam
accipiundis beneficiis amicitias parabant. Imperium legitimum, nomen
imperii regium habebant;[47] delecti, quibus corpus annis infirmum,
ingenium sapientia validum erat, rei publicae consultabant;[48] hi vel
aetate vel curae similitudine patres appellabantur. Post, ubi regium
imperium, quod initio conservandae libertatis atque augendae rei
publicae[49] fuerat, in superbiam dominationemque convertit[50] immutato
more annua imperia binosque imperatores[51] sibi fecere; eo modo minime
posse putabant per licentiam insolescere animum humanum.

[41] In the following eight chapters (6-13) Sallust describes the
    transition from the stern manners, the warlike energy, and domestic
    peace of the ancient Romans, to the corruption prevalent in the time
    of Catiline, and which consisted chiefly in extravagance, avarice,
    oppression, and the love of dominion. His description is a striking
    picture of the early virtuous character of the Romans, and their
    subsequent indulgence in vice. He traces all the corruption of his
    time to the immense wealth accumulated at Rome, after she had
    acquired the dominion over the world--that is, after the destruction
    of Carthage and Corinth; and he marks out in particular Sulla as
    the man who had fostered the very worst qualities in order to obtain
    supreme power for himself.
[42] According to the current tradition, the people of the Latins had
    been formed by a union of the Trojan emigrants with the native
    Aborigines. Their capital was Alba Longa, and they lived about
    Alba, on and near the Alban Mount, in a great number of confederate
    townships. Four centuries after the arrival of Aeneas, the city
    of Rome was founded by Albans on the extreme frontier of the Latin
    territory, and near the hostile tribes by which it was surrounded.
    Sallust passes over the intermediate stages, either because he, like
    others, thought Rome much more ancient, or because, having to do
    only with the description of manners, he was unconcerned about
    historical developments.
[43] _Una_ is the plural. See Zumpt, S 115, note.
[44] It is indeed wonderful how quickly the Roman people, although
    consisting of a mixture of different tribes--whether, as Sallust
    briefly intimates, they were Trojans and Aborigines, or, as the more
    minute historians relate, Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans--united into
    one nationality. The language spoken by the Roman people, however,
    was not a mixture of those of the last-mentioned tribes, but Latin,
    which, in conformity with Sallust's notion, appears to be a
    combination of Greek with some early Italian idiom.
[45] _Temptare_, the historical infinitive, about the meaning and
    construction of which see Zumpt, S 599, note.
[46] _Auxilia portare_ is a less common expression than _auxilium ferre_;
    for _portare_ is generally used only to denote the actual physical
    carrying of something, while _ferre_ has a wider meaning. The plural
    _auxilia_, however, here alludes to the repeated assistance given to
    friends.
[47] 'Their government was a legitimate one'--that is, the powers of the
    government were limited by law; 'and bore the name of a kingly
    government'--that is, a king stood at the head of it.
[48] Chosen men had the care of public affairs, and deliberated about the
    good of the state; they stood by the side of the kings as a
    _consilium publicum_, and were addressed by the term _patres_.
[49] Respecting the meaning of these genitives, for which datives also
    might have been used, see Zumpt, S 662.
[50] _Ubi--convertit_, 'when it had changed (itself).' For _ubi_ with the
    perfect in the sense of a pluperfect, see Zumpt, S 506; and for the
    use of _vertere_ in an intransitive or reflective sense, S 145.
[51] In the earliest times they were called _praetores_ or leaders, _qui
    praeeunt exercitui_; afterwards _consules_. As two were elected every
    year, Sallust uses _bini_, and not _duo_.

7. Sed ea tempestate coepere se quisque magis extollere magisque ingenium
in promptu habere.[52] Nam regibus boni quam mali suspectiores sunt,
semperque his aliena virtus formidolosa est. Sed civitas incredibile
memoratu est adepta[53] libertate quantum brevi[54] creverit; tanta
cupido gloriae incesserat.[55] Jam primum juventus, simul ac belli
patiens erat, in castris per laborem usu militiam discebat, magisque in
decoris armis et militaribus equis quam in scortis atque conviviis
libidinem habebant.[56] Igitur talibus viris non labos[57] insolitus, non
locus ullus asper aut arduus erat, non armatus hostis formidolosus;
virtus omnia domuerat. Sed gloriae maximum certamen inter ipsos erat: sic
se quisque hostem ferire, murum ascendere, conspici, dum tale facinus
faceret, properabat; eas[58] divitias, eam bonam famam magnamque
nobilitatem putabant; laudis avidi, pecuniae liberales erant; gloriam
ingentem, divitias honestas volebant. Memorare possem, quibus in locis
maximas hostium copias populus Romanus parva manu fuderit, quas urbes
natura munitas pugnando ceperit, ni ea res longius nos ab incepto
traheret.

[52] _In promptu habere_, 'to have in readiness,' and also 'to bring
    into action,' or 'to make use of.' Sallust means to say, that in
    consequence of the introduction of annual magistrates, every one
    increased his efforts to distinguish himself, and to make his talents
    shine.
[53] _Adepta_ is here used in a passive sense, contrary to the usage of
    the best authors, in accordance with which he might have said
    _adepta libertatem_.
[54] _Brevi_, 'in a short time.'
[55] _Incesserat_; supply _in eos_ or _iis_, referring to _cives_,
    implied in the preceding _civitas_.
[56] _Habebant_ should have been _habebat_, since _discebat_ precedes.
    But see Zumpt, S 366.
[57] _Labos_, a rarer form for _labor_, as _honos_ and _lepos_, which are
    even more frequently found than _honor_ and _lepor_.
[58] _Eas_ agrees with _divitias_, though in English we say, in such
    cases, 'This,' or 'these things they considered as riches.' See
    Zumpt, S 372.

8. Sed profecto fortuna in omni re dominatur; ea res cunctas ex libidine
magis quam ex vero celebrat obscuratque. Atheniensium res gestae, sicuti
ego aestimo, satis amplae magnificaeque fuere, verum aliquanto[59]
minores tamen quam fama feruntur. Sed quia provenere ibi scriptorum magna
ingenia, per terrarum orbem Atheniensium facta pro maximis[60]
celebrantur. Ita eorum, qui ea fecere, virtus tanta habetur, quantum ea
verbis potuere extollere praeclara ingenia. At populo Romano nunquam ea
copia fuit, quia prudentissimus quisque maxime negotiosus erat;[61]
ingenium nemo sine corpore exercebat; optimus quisque facere quam dicere,
sua ab aliis bene facta laudari quam ipse aliorum narrare malebat.

[59] _Aliquanto_, 'by a considerable amount,' or simply 'considerably,'
    is the ablative, expressing the amount of difference between two
    things compared. Sallust here considers it to be a mere matter
    of chance that the wars of the early Romans, as those against the
    Volscians, Aequians, Etruscans, and Samnites, do not stand forth
    in history as glorious as the wars of the Greek nations among
    themselves, and against the Persians. To us it appears that this was
    not a matter of chance; but it undoubtedly arose from the fact,
    that the Greeks even then had already attained a higher degree of
    civilisation. The interest which history takes in wars does not
    depend upon the vastness of the armies or the extent of countries,
    but upon the lower or higher degree of civilisation of those engaged
    in the wars.
[60] _Pro maximis_, 'they are celebrated _as if they were_ the greatest.'
    Respecting this meaning of _pro_, see Zumpt, S 394, note 3.
[61] 'The more intelligent any one was, the more business was intrusted
    to him,' so that he had no leisure (_otium_) to devote to literary
    composition. This at least is Sallust's opinion; but when a man feels
    it to be his vocation to write history, he can find time for it,
    however much he may be otherwise engaged--witness J. Caesar and
    Frederick II. of Prussia. For the construction, see Zumpt, S 710. C.

9. Igitur domi militiaeque boni mores colebantur, concordia maxima,
minima avaritia erat, jus bonumque apud eos non legibus magis quam
natura[62] valebat. Jurgia, discordias, simultates cum hostibus
exercebant, cives cum civibus de virtute certabant; in suppliciis[63]
deorum magnifici, domi parci, in amicos fideles erant. Duabus his
artibus, audacia in bello, ubi pax evenerat, aequitate seque[64] remque
publicam curabant. Quarum rerum ego maxima documenta haec habeo, quod in
bello saepius vindicatum est in eos, qui contra imperium in hostem
pugnaverant, quique tardius revocati proelio excesserant, quam qui signa
relinquere aut pulsi loco cedere ausi erant; in pace vero, quod
beneficiis quam[65] metu imperium agitabant, et accepta injuria[66]
ignoscere quam persequi malebant.

[62] 'Not more by law than by nature;' that is, 'by nature as well as by
    law.'
[63] _In suppliciis_, 'in the worship of the gods;' for as it was
    customary, in worshipping, to fall down, the word _supplicium_ has
    this religious meaning, which also appears in _supplicatio_. The
    other and more common meaning of 'execution,' 'capital punishment,'
    or 'severe chastisement,' likewise originates in the prostration of
    the person so punished.
[64] _Seque remque_ is an unusual expression for _et se et rem_.
[65] _Quam_; before this word we must supply _magis_, 'they carried on
    the government more with acts of kindness than with fear.' This
    ellipsis before _quam_ is not uncommon.
[66] When they had suffered a wrong, they would rather pardon it than
    take revenge.' To _persequi_ we must supply _eam_ from the preceding
    ablative.

10. Sed ubi labore atque justitia res publica crevit, reges magni bello
domiti, nationes ferae et populi ingentes vi subacti, Carthago, aemula
imperii Romani, ab stirpe interiit, cuncta maria terraeque patebant,
saevire fortuna ac miscere omnia coepit. Qui labores, pericula, dubias
atque asperas res facile toleraverant, his otium, divitiae optandae aliis
oneri miseriaeque fuere. Igitur primo pecuniae, deinde imperii cupido
crevit; ea quasi materies omnium malorum fuere. Namque avaritia fidem,
probitatem ceterasque artes bonas subvertit; pro his superbiam,
crudelitatem, deos negligere, omnia venalia habere edocuit. Ambitio
multos mortales falsos fieri subegit, aliud clausum in pectore, aliud in
lingua promptum habere, amicitias inimicitiasque non ex re, sed ex
commodo aestimare, magisque vultum quam ingenium bonum habere. Haec primo
paulatim crescere, interdum vindicari; post, ubi contagio quasi
pestilentia invasit, civitas immutata, imperium ex justissimo atque
optimo crudele intolerandumque factum.

11. Sed primo magis ambitio quam avaritia animos hominum exercebat, quod
tamen vitium propius virtutem[67] erat. Nam gloriam, honorem, imperium
bonus et ignavus aeque sibi exoptant; sed ille vera via nititur, huic
quia bonae artes desunt, dolis atque fallaciis contendit. Avaritia
pecuniae studium habet, quam nemo sapiens concupivit;[68] ea quasi
venenis malis imbuta corpus animumque virilem effeminat, semper infinita,
insatiabilis est, neque copia neque inopia minuitur. Sed postquam
L. Sulla, armis recepta re publica, bonis initiis malos eventus
habuit,[69] rapere omnes, trahere, domum alius, alius agros cupere, neque
modum neque modestiam victores habere, foeda crudeliaque in civibus[70]
facinora facere. Huc accedebat, quod L. Sulla exercitum, quem in Asia
ductaverat, quo sibi fidum faceret,[71] contra morem majorum luxuriose
nimisque liberaliter habuerat; loca amoena, voluptaria[72] facile in otio
feroces militum animos molliverant. Ibi primum insuevit exercitus populi
Romani amare,[73] potare, signa, tabulas pictas, vasa caelata[74] mirari,
ea privatim et publice rapere, delubra[75] spoliare, sacra profanaque
omnia polluere. Igitur hi milites, postquam victoriam adepti sunt, nihil
reliqui victis fecere. Quippe secundae res sapientium animos fatigant;
ne illi corruptis moribus victoriae temperarent.[76]

[67] _Propius virtutem_, also _propius virtuti_. See Zumpt, S 411.
[68] _Concupivit_, 'No man in his senses _has_ ever coveted money for
    its own sake;' that is, and even now no one does so, nor will any
    one ever do so. But a _homo avarus_ covets money only that he may
    _have_ it, and not for any ulterior objects.
[69] _Bonis initiis_ is the ablative absolute, 'though his beginnings
    were good.' Although Sulla's government began well, it became
    arbitrary and bad, especially by the unlimited partiality with which
    he treated the men of his own party.
[70] _In civibus_. It would have been more in accordance with the common
    usage to write _in cives_; but the ablative signifies 'in the case of
    citizens.'
[71] 'In order thereby to render him faithful or attached to himself,'
    _quo_ being equivalent to _ut eo_ or _ut ea re_.
[72] Namely, the charming and delightful places in Asia Minor, near
    the sea-coast, under a mild climate, abounding in all the means
    calculated to afford pleasure and delight.
[73] _Amare_, 'to indulge in illicit intercourse with the other sex:'
    _amare_ is often used to denote an immoral intercourse between the
    sexes.
[74] _Vasa caelata_, vessels adorned with figures, and wrought with the
    _caelum_, the chisel. _Caelare_ and _caelatura_ denote the art of
    making raised figures in metal, _alto relievo_.
[75] _Delubra_, 'temples of the gods.' Sallust has chosen this word
    in preference to the common _templa_ or _aedes_, because it conveys
    the idea of antiquity, sanctity, and mysterious seclusion, which is
    also contained in the word _fanum_.
[76] _Ne illi--temperament_ 'not to speak of their using their victory
    with moderation;' that is, they were far from using their victory
    with moderation. _Ne_ is here used in the sense of _nedum_.

12. Postquam divitiae honori esse coepere et eas gloria, imperium,
potentia sequebatur, hebescere virtus, paupertas probro haberi,
innocentia pro malivolentia[77] duci coepit. Igitur ex divitiis
juventutem luxuria atque avaritia cum superbia invasere; rapere,
consumere, sua parvi pendere, aliena cupere, pudorem, pudicitiam, divina
atque humana promiscua, nihil pensi neque moderati habere. Operae pretium
est,[78] quum domos atque villas cognoveris in urbium modum
exaedificatas, visere templa deorum, quae nostri majores, religiosissimi
mortales, fecere. Verum illi delubra deorum pietate, domos suas gloria
decorabant, neque victis quidquam praeter injuriae licentiam
eripiebant.[79] At hi contra ignavissimi homines per summum scelus omnia
ea sociis adimere, quae fortissimi viri victores reliquerant; proinde
quasi injuriam facere id demum esset imperio uti.

[77] 'Honest conduct was regarded as malevolence or envy,' inasmuch as an
    honest and incorruptible man was not praised for these virtues, but
    rather drew upon himself the suspicion of envying others for their
    increasing their possessions, and of wishing to prevent them from
    becoming rich by the base means which in their greediness they
    considered to be fair.
[78] _Operae pretium est_, 'it is worth while (properly "the labour has
    its reward") to compare the extensive country-houses of our present
    aristocracy with the small temples of the gods erected by our
    ancestors, notwithstanding their intense piety.'
[79] This is the same precept as that advanced by Cicero, that in
    punishing an enemy, we should be satisfied if we have placed him
    in a position in which he can no longer injure us.

13. Nam quid ea memorem, quae nisi his qui videre nemini credibilia sunt,
a privatis compluribus subversos montes, maria constructa[80] esse.
Quibus mihi videntur ludibrio fuisse divitiae; quippe quas honeste habere
licebat, abuti per turpitudinem properabant. Sed libido stupri, ganeae
ceterique cultus[81] non minor incesserat; viri muliebria pati, mulieres
pudicitiam in propatulo habere; vescendi causa terra marique omnia
exquirere, dormire prius quam somni cupido esset, non famem aut sitim
neque frigus neque lassitudinem opperiri, sed ea omnia luxu antecapere.
Haec juventutem, ubi familiares opes defecerant, ad facinora incendebant.
Animus imbutus malis artibus haud facile libidinibus carebat; eo
profusius omnibus modis quaestui atque sumptui[82] deditus erat.

[80] 'Mountains are levelled, and seas are produced artificially.'  In
    the latter expression, Sallust, as in chap. 20 (_maria extruuntur_),
    alludes to the formation of immense basins in the interior of the
    country, into which the water was conducted from the sea, for the
    purpose of keeping in them sea-fish and oysters. In this kind of
    luxury and extravagance all the earlier Roman grandees were eclipsed
    by L. Lucullus, who had amassed immense wealth in the war against
    Mithridates. He possessed a very extensive _piscina_ of this kind
    near the coast of Campania, in the neighbourhood of Baiae.
[81] _Cultus_ comprises the whole domestic arrangement, and especially
    includes costly furniture and dresses.
[82] 'To the acquisition and to the squandering of money;' for, as we
    stated before, it was peculiar to the corruption prevalent among
    the Romans that they squandered their own property, and appropriated
    to themselves, by violent means, that which belonged to others.

14. In tanta tamque corrupta civitate Catilina, id quod factu facillimum
erat, omnium flagitiorum atque facinorum circum se tamquam stipatorum
catervas habebat.[83] Nam quicunque impudicus, adulter, ganeo manu,[84]
ventre, pene bona patria laceraverat, quique alienum aes grande
conflaverat, quo flagitium aut facinus redimeret, praeterea omnes undique
parricidae, sacrilegi, convicti judiciis aut pro factis judicium
timentes, ad hoc quos manus atque lingua perjurio aut sanguine civili
alebat, postremo omnes, quos flagitium, egestas, conscius animus
exagitabat: hi Catilinae proximi familiaresque erant. Quodsi quis etiam a
culpa vacuus in amicitiam ejus inciderat, cotidiano usu atque illecebris
facile par similisque ceteris efficiebatur. Sed maxime adolescentium
familiaritates appetebat; eorum animi molles et aetate fluxi dolis haud
difficulter[85] capiebantur. Nam ut cujusque studium ex aetate[86]
flagrabat, aliis scorta praebere, aliis canes atque equos mercari,
postremo neque sumptui neque modestiae suae parcere, dum[87] illos
obnoxios fidosque sibi faceret. Scio fuisse nonnullos qui ita
existimarent, juventutem, quae domum Catilinae frequentabat, parum
honeste pudicitiam habuisse; sed ex aliis rebus magis quam quod cuiquam
id compertum foret, haec fama valebat.

[83] The author, after having given a description of the state of
    morality in the time of Sulla, now proceeds to the life of Catiline
    himself, and in the following two chapters, describes the associates
    in whom that criminal placed his confidence, and with whose help he
    hoped to overturn the constitution. _Flagitia_ and _facinora_ in this
    passage have the meaning of _homines flagitiosi_, and _facinorosi_.
[84] _Manu_, 'by playing at dice' (_alea_), because that game was played
    with the hand, either with or without the cup containing the dice
    (_fritillus_).
[85] _Difficulter_. See Zumpt, S 267, note 2.
[86] 'In accordance with his (still) youthful age.' Zumpt, S 309.
[87] _Dum_ for _dummodo_, 'if but.'

15. Jam primum adolescens Catilina multa nefanda stupra fecerat, cum
virgine nobili, cum sacerdote Vestae, alia hujuscemodi contra jus fasque.
Postremo captus amore Aureliae Orestillae cujus praeter formam nihil
unquam bonus laudavit, quod ea nubere illi dubitabat, timens privignum
adulta aetate, pro certo creditur necato filio vacuam domum scelestis
nuptiis fecisse.[88] Quae quidem res mihi in primis videtur causa fuisse
facinoris maturandi. Namque animus impurus, dis hominibusque infestus,
neque vigiliis neque quietibus sedari poterat; ita conscientia mentem
excitam vastabat.[89] Igitur color exsanguis, foedi oculi, citus modo,
modo tardus incessus; prorsus in facie vultuque vecordia inerat.

[88] Catiline then had a son from a previous marriage, whom he got rid of
    because Orestilla would not become his wife, from fear of the young
    man, who was already grown up, and who would have become her stepson
    (_privignus_).
[89] 'The consciousness of his guilt disturbed his thinking powers,' for
    this is the meaning of _mens_ as distinct from _animus_, which has
    reference to the feelings.

16. Sed juventutem, quam, ut supra diximus, illexerat, multis modis mala
facinora edocebat. Ex illis testes signatoresque falsos commodare; fidem,
fortunas, pericula vilia habere, post, ubi eorum famam atque pudorem
attriverat, majora alia imperabat; si causa peccandi in praesens minus
suppetebat, nihilo minus insontes sicuti sontes circumvenire, jugulare;
scilicet, ne per otium torpescerent manus aut animus, gratuito[90] potius
malus atque crudelis erat.

His amicis sociisque confisus Catilina, simul quod aes alienum per omnes
terras ingens erat, et quod plerique Sullani milites,[91] largius suo
usi, rapinarum et victoriae veteris memores civile bellum exoptabant,
opprimundae rei publicae consilium cepit. In Italia nullus exercitus;
Gn.[92] Pompeius in extremis terris bellum gerebat; ipsi consulatum
petenti magna spes; senatus nihil sane intentus;[93] tutae tranquillaeque
res omnes: sed ea prorsus opportuna Catilinae.

[90] _Gratuito_, 'gratuitously,' 'without any advantage.' Respecting the
    form of this adverb, see Zumpt, S 266.
[91] Sulla had given settlements to the legions with which he had
    gained the victory over the Marian party in the territory of those
    towns which had longest remained faithful to his adversaries; and
    it was more especially in Etruria that this measure had brought
    about a complete change of the owners of the soil. But the new
    landowners had acted very recklessly on their new estates, and
    therefore were inclined to favour any fresh revolutionary attempt
    which seemed to promise an equally favourable result.
[92] Gn. Pompeius. Respecting the orthography of the prenomen _Gneius_,
    see Zumpt, S 4. Pompey was then engaged in the war against
    Mithridates, king of Pontus, and Tigranes, king of Armenia; and in
    consequence of this war, the extensive country of Syria, which had
    before been an independent kingdom, became a Roman province.
[93] _Nihil sane intentus_, 'in no way attentive.' For the difference
    between nihil and non, see Zumpt, S 677.

17. Igitur, circiter Kalendas Junias, L. Caesare et G. Figulo
consulibus,[94] primo singulos appellare, hortari alios, alios temptare;
opes suas, imparatam rem publicam, magna praemia conjurationis docere.
Ubi satis explorata sunt quae voluit, in unum omnes convocat, quibus
maxima necessitudo[95] et plurimum audaciae inerat. Eo convenere
senatorii ordinis P. Lentulus Sura, P. Autronius, L. Cassius Longinus,
G. Cethegus, P. et Servius Sullae, Servii filii, L. Vargunteius,
Q. Annius, M. Porcius Laeca, L. Bestia, Q. Curius; praeterea ex equestri
ordine M. Fulvius Nobilior, L. Statilius, P. Gabinius Capito,
G. Cornelius; ad hoc multi ex coloniis et municipiis, domi nobiles. Erant
praeterea complures[96] paulo occultius concilii hujusce participes
nobiles, quos magis dominationis spes hortabatur quam inopia aut aliqua
necessitudo. Ceterum juventus pleraque,[97] sed maxime nobilium,
Catilinae inceptis favebat; quibus in otio vel magnifice vel molliter
vivere copia erat, incerta pro certis, bellum quam pacem malebant. Fuere
item ea tempestate[98] qui crederent M. Licinium Crassum[99] non ignarum
ejus consilii fuisse; quia Gn. Pompeius invisus ipsi magnum exercitum
ductabat, cujusvis opes voluisse contra illius potentiam crescere, simul
confisum, si conjuratio valuisset, facile apud illos principem se fore.

[94] That is, in the year B.C. 64, or 690 after the building of the city.
[95] _Necessitudo_, 'a close connection' or 'friendship' is commonly
    distinguished from _necessitas_, 'necessity,' or 'a compulsory
    circumstance;' but the two words are often confounded with each
    other, as here, and subsequently in this chapter, _necessitudo_ is
    used in the sense of _necessitas_.
[96] For the difference between _plures_ and _complures_, see
    Zumpt, S 65.
[97] _Juventus pleraque_, 'most young men.' Commonly the plural
    _plerique_ only is used; but see Zumpt, S 103.
[98] _Ea tempestate_, an old-fashioned expression, such as Sallust is
    fond of, for _eo tempore_; for in ordinary Latinity, _tempestas_
    is used only in the sense of 'storm' or 'tempest.'
[99] M. Licinius Crassus had been consul several years before (B.C.
    70), together with Cn. Pompey, and enjoyed considerable popularity
    both on account of his former practical usefulness in the state, and
    on account of his colossal wealth, which he used with proper
    discretion.

18. Sed antea[100] item conjuravere pauci contra rem publicam, in quibus
Catilina fuit; de qua[101] quam verissime potero, dicam. L. Tullo et
M. Lepido consulibus,[102] P. Autronius et P. Sulla designati consules,
legibus ambitus interrogati[103] poenas dederant. Post paulo[104]
Catilina, pecuniarum repetundarum reus,[105] prohibitus erat consulatum
petere, quod intra legitimos dies profiteri[106] nequiverat. Erat eodem
tempore Gn. Piso, adolescens nobilis, summae audaciae, egens, factiosus,
quem ad perturbandam rem publicam inopia atque mali mores stimulabant.
Cum hoc Catilina et Autronius circiter Nonas Decembres consilio
communicato parabant in Capitolio Kalendis Januariis L. Cottam et L.
Torquatum consules[107] interficere, ipsi fascibus correptis Pisonem cum
exercitu ad obtinendas duas Hispanias[108] mittere. Ea re cognita, rursus
in Nonas Februarias consilium caedis transtulerant. Jam tum non
consulibus modo, sed plerisque senatoribus perniciem machinabantur.
Quodni[109] Catilina maturasset pro curia signum sociis dare, eo die post
conditam urbem Romam pessimum facinus patratum foret. Quia nondum
frequentes armati convenerant, ea res consilium diremit.

[100] _Antea_. Sallust, who has commenced speaking of the conspiracy
    entered into in the year B. C. 64, considers it necessary, before
    relating its progress, to go back to an earlier conspiracy, which
    failed, and in which Catiline had likewise taken an active part. This
    earlier conspiracy the author relates in chaps. 19 and 20.
[101] _Qua_; supply _conjuratione_, which is to be taken from the verb
    _conjuravere_. This is an irregularity arising from the desire to be
    brief and concise.
[102] That is, in the year B. C. 66, or 688 after the building of the
    city.
[103] _Interrogati_--that is, _accusati_, 'taken to account by accusers,'
    because the beginning of all such accusations consisted in the
    accused being asked whether they owned having done this or that thing
    forbidden by law.
[104] _Post paulo_ is less common than _paulo post_.
[105] _Repetundarum reus_, 'accused of extortion.' _Res repetundae_, in
    legal phraseology, signifies the things or money which had been
    illegally taken by public officers from those subject to their
    authority; for such citizens or subjects had a right, after the
    expiration of the official year of their ruler, to reclaim
    (_repetere_) their property in a court of law. Those officers who
    were found guilty had, in addition, to pay a fine, or were otherwise
    punished. A person who stood accused of extortion was not allowed to
    come forward as a candidate for any other office before he was tried
    and acquitted.
[106] _Profiteri_, 'to announce one's self' as a candidate for an
    office.
[107] These are the consuls of the year B. C. 65, who had obtained
    their office after the condemnation of the above-mentioned P. Sulla
    (a nephew of the dictator) and P. Autronius.
[108] _Hispanias_. Ancient Spain was, for administrative purposes,
    divided into two provinces--_Hispania Tarraconensis_, or _provincia
    citerior_, with Tarraco (the modern Tarragona) for its capital; and
    _Hispania Baetica_, or _ulterior_, deriving its name from the river
    Baitis (the modern Guadalquiver). Its chief towns were Corduba and
    Hispalis (now Seville).
[109] About the force of _quod_, when joined to conjunctions, see
    Zumpt, S 807. Compare p.14, note 6 [note 14].

19. Postea Piso in citeriorem Hispaniam quaestor pro praetore[110] missus
est, adnitente Crasso, quod eum infestum inimicum Gn. Pompeio cognoverat.
Neque tamen senatus provinciam invitus dederat; quippe foedum hominem a
re publica procul esse volebat; simul quia boni complures praesidium in
eo putabant, et jam tum potentia Pompeii formidolosa erat. Sed is Piso in
provincia ab equitibus Hispanis, quos in exercitu ductabat, iter faciens
occisus est. Sunt qui ita dicunt,[111] imperia ejus injusta, superba,
crudelia barbaros nequivisse pati; alii autem equites illos Gn. Pompeii
veteres fidosque clientes voluntate ejus Pisonem aggressos; numquam
Hispanos praeterea tale facinus fecisse, sed imperia saeva multa ante
perpessos. Nos eam rem in medio relinquemus. De superiore conjuratione
satis dictum.

[110] That is, he was only quaestor, but had the powers of a praetor,
    being commissioned to supply the place of a praetor.
[111] Respecting the indicative _dicunt_, see Zumpt, S 563.

20. Catilina,[112] ubi eos, quos paulo ante memoravi, convenisse videt,
tametsi cum singulis multa saepe egerat, tamen in rem fore credens
universos appellare et cohortari, in abditam partem aedium secedit, atque
ibi, omnibus arbitris procul amotis, orationem hujuscemodi habuit. 'Ni
virtus fidesque vestra spectata mihi forent, nequidquam opportuna res
cecidisset; spes magna, dominatio in manibus frustra fuissent. Neque ego
per ignaviam[113] aut vana ingenia incerta pro certis captarem. Sed quia
multis et magnis tempestatibus vos cognovi fortes fidosque mihi, eo
animus ausus est maximum atque pulcherrimum facinus incipere, simul quia
vobis eadem quae mihi bona malaque esse intellexi; nam idem velle atque
idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est. Sed ego quae mente agitavi omnes
jam antea diversi[114] audistis. Ceterum mihi in dies magis animus
accenditur, quum considero, quae condicio vitae futura sit, nisi
nosmet ipsi vindicamus in libertatem. Nam postquam res publica in
paucorum potentium jus atque dicionem concessit, semper illis reges,
tetrarchae[115] vectigales esse, populi, nationes stipendia pendere;
ceteri omnes, strenui, boni, nobiles atque ignobiles vulgus fuimus sine
gratia, sine auctoritate, iis obnoxii, quibus, si res publica valeret,
formidini essemus. Itaque omnis gratia, potentia, honos, divitiae apud
illos sunt, aut ubi illi volunt; nobis reliquere pericula repulsas,
judicia, egestatem. Quae quousque tandem patiemini fortissimi viri? Nonne
emori per virtutem praestat quam vitam miseram atque inhonestam,
ubi alienae superbiae ludibrio fueris, per dedecus amittere? Verum
enimvero pro deum atque hominum fidem[116] victoria in manu nobis est,
viget aetas, animus valet; contra illis annis atque divitiis omnia
consenuerunt. Tantummodo incepto opus est; cetera res expediet. Etenim
quis mortalium cui virile ingenium est, tolerare potest, illis divitias
superare,[117] quas profundant in extruendo mari et montibus coaequandis,
nobis rem familiarem etiam ad necessaria deesse? illos binas aut amplius
domos continuare, nobis larem familiarem[118] nusquam ullum esse? Quum
tabulas, signa, toreumata[119] emunt, nova diruunt, alia aedificant,
postremo omnibus modis pecuniam trahunt, vexant, tamen summa libidine
divitias vincere[120] nequeunt. At nobis est domi inopia, foris aes
alienum, mala res, spes multo asperior; denique quid reliqui habemus
praeter miseram animam? Quin[121] igitur expergiscimini? En[122] illa,
illa, quam saepe optastis, libertas, praeterea divitiae, decus, gloria
in oculis sita sunt. Fortuna omnia ea victoribus praemia posuit. Res,
tempus, pericula, egestas, belli spolia magnifica magis quam oratio mea
vos hortentur. Vel imperatore vel milite me utimini; neque animus neque
corpus a vobis aberit. Haec ipsa, ut spero, vobiscum una consul agam,
nisi forte me animus fallit, et vos servire magis quam imperare parati
estis.'

[112] The author now continues his account of the conspiracy entered
    into in B.C. 64.
[113] _Per ignaviam_, 'by means of cowardice,' here means, 'with the
    assistance of cowardly men,' 'such as you are not, since I have
    evidence of your valour and trustworthiness.' _Vana ingenia_ are
    men of untrustworthy character. In both cases the abstract quality is
    mentioned instead of the person possessing it.
[114] _Diversi_, 'separately;' that is, at different times, and in
    different places.
[115] _Tetrarcha_ is a title which properly belonged only to such princes
    as ruled over the fourth part of a whole nation. Such a division took
    place in Galatia, and afterwards also in Judaea. A similar title,
    _ethnarcha_, but that of king also, was sometimes granted to powerful
    princes; or, when they had had it before, the Roman senate sometimes
    allowed them to keep it.
[116] _Pro fidem_, or _proh fidem_, is an exclamation, and _pro_ an
    interjection. The accus. _fidem_ is governed by some such verb as
    _testor_ or _invoco_. See Zumpt, S 361.
[117] _Superare_ here has an intransitive meaning, 'to exist in
    abundance.'
[118] _Lar familiaris_, a domestic or family divinity, whose image stood
    in the interior of the house, by the domestic altar; hence _lar_, or
    the plural _lares_, is sometimes used in the sense of 'a house,' or
    'home.'
[119] _Toreumata_ are the _vasa caelata_ mentioned in chap. 11; works
    in metal, especially silver, with raised figures. The instrument
    called by the Latins _caelum_, was called by the Greeks [Greek:
    toros], whence [Greek: toreuein, toreuma].
[120] 'They cannot master their wealth;' that is, they are not able to
    spend it.
[121] _Quin_--that is, _qui non_ or _quo non_? 'why not?'
[122] _En_, as well as _ecce_, are most commonly construed with the
    accusative.

21. Postquam accepere ea homines, quibus mala abunde omnia erant, sed
neque res neque spes bona ulla, tametsi illis quieta movere magna merces
videbatur, tamen postulavere plerique, uti proponeret, quae condicio
belli foret, quae praemia armis peterent, quid ubique opis aut spei
haberent. Tum Catilina polliceri tabulas novas,[123] proscriptionem
locupletium, magistratus, sacerdotia, rapinas, alia omnia, quae bellum
atque libido victorum fert. Praeterea esse in Hispania citeriore Pisonem,
in Mauretania cum exercitu P. Sittium Nucerinum, consilii sui participes;
petere consulatum G. Antonium, quem sibi collegam fore speraret, hominem
et familiarem et omnibus necessitudinibus circumventum; cum eo se
consulem[124] initium agendi facturum. Ad hoc maledictis increpat omnes
bonos, suorum unum quemque nominans laudare; admonebat alium egestatis,
alium cupiditatis suae, complures periculi aut ignominiae,[125] multos
victoriae Sullanae, quibus ea praedae fuerat. Postquam omnium animos
alacres videt, cohortatus, ut petitionem suam curae haberent, conventum
dimisit.

[123] _Tabulae novae_ are literally 'new registers of debts;' that is, a
    change or reduction of debts, when, for example, the interest
    already paid was deducted from the principal, or when the amount of
    debts was reduced by one-half, or even by three-fourths. Such
    regulations of debts in favour of debtors were often resorted to in
    the revolutions of the ancient republics.
[124] 'If he should be consul with him, he would begin to carry the
    matter into effect.'
[125] _Ignominia_, 'disgrace' which a person incurs, either because
    he has been condemned in a court of law, or with which he has been
    branded by the censors.

22. Fuere ea tempestate qui dicerent, Catilinam, oratione habita, quum ad
jusjurandum populares[126] sceleris sui adigeret, humani corporis
sanguinem vino permixtum in pateris circumtulisse; inde quum post
execrationem omnes degustavissent, sicuti in sollemnibus sacris fieri
consuevit, aperuisse consilium suum, atque eo dictitare[127] fecisse, quo
inter se magis fidi forent, alius alii tanti facinoris conscii. Nonnulli
ficta et haec et multa praeterea existimabant ab iis, qui Ciceronis
invidiam, quae postea orta est, leniri credebant atrocitate sceleris
eorum, qui poenas dederant. Nobis ea res pro magnitudine parum comperta
est.

[126] _Popularis_, properly 'a fellow-countryman,' or 'belonging to the
    same people;' but Sallust here, and in chapter 24, uses it in the
    more general sense of _particeps, socius_, 'associate.'
[127] _Dictitare_, a contraction for _dictitavere_: 'it was frequently
    said that Catiline had done it for this reason.' This contraction has
    nothing that is offensive here, though in form it is the same as the
    present infinitive; for such an ambiguity of form is not always
    avoided, provided the context clearly shows what the meaning is.
    _Dictitare_ contains a repetition of what is implied in _fuere qui
    dicerent_.

23. Sed in ea conjuratione fuit Q. Curius, natus haud obscuro loco,
flagitiis atque facinoribus coopertus, quera censores senatu probri
gratia moverant. Huic homini non minor vanitas inerat quam audacia; neque
reticere, quae audierat, neque suamet[128] ipse scelera occultare,
prorsus neque dicere neque facere quidquam pensi habebat. Erat ei cum
Fulvia, muliere nobili, stupri[129] vetus consuetudo; cui quum minus
gratus esset, quia inopia minus largiri poterat, repente glorians maria
montesque polliceri coepit et minari interdum ferro, ni sibi obnoxia
foret, postremo ferocius agitare[130] quam solitus erat. At Fulvia,
insolentiae Curii causa cognita, tale periculum rei publicae haud
occultum habuit, sed sublato auctore[131] de Catilinae conjuratione quae
quoque modo audierat compluribus narravit. Ea res in primis studia
hominum accendit ad consulatum mandandum M. Tullio Ciceroni. Namque
antea pleraque nobilitas invidia aestuabat,[132] et quasi pollui
consulatum credebant, si eum quamvis egregius homo novus[133] adeptus
foret. Sed ubi periculum advenit, invidia atque superbia post fuere.[134]

[128] _Met_ is a suffix which may be appended to all the cases of
    _suus_, and answers to our 'own.' It is usually followed by _ipse_.
    See Zumpt, S 139, note.
[129] _Stuprum_ is the name for every unchaste connexion with unmarried
    as well as with married women; but _adulterium_ is the illicit
    intercourse with married women.
[130] 'To behave more ferociously;' for _agere_ and _agitare_, even
    without an accusative, signify 'to behave,' 'conduct one's self,'
    'lead a life.'
[131] _Sublato auctore_, 'without mentioning the one of whom she had
    learned it.'
[132] 'The nobility was boiling with envy;' a figurative expression,
    taken from the boiling of water over the fire, which is frequently
    used to describe violent passions. So also _incendi, ardere,
    flagrare cupiditate_.
[133] A _homo novus_ was at Rome the name for any person, none of
    whose ancestors had been invested with a curule office; that is,
    with the consulship, praetorship, quaestorship, or curule aedileship.
[134] _Post fuere_; that is, _postposita sunt_, 'were put on one side.'

24. Igitur comitiis habitis consules declarantur M. Tullius et
G. Antonius, quod factum primo populares conjurationis concusserat.[135]
Neque tamen Catilinae furor minuebatur, sed in dies plura agitare, arma
per Italiam locis opportunis parare, pecuniam sua aut amicorum fide
sumptam mutuam Faesulas[136] ad Manlium quendam portare,[137] qui postea
princeps fuit belli faciundi. Ea tempestate plurimos cujusque generis
homines adscivisse sibi dicitur, mulieres etiam aliquot, quae primo
ingentes sumptus[138] stupro corporis toleraverant, post ubi aetas
tantummodo quaestui neque luxuriae modum fecerat, aes alienum grande
conflaverant. Per eas se Catilina credebat posse servitia urbana
sollicitare, urbem incendere, viros earum vel adjungere sibi vel
interficere.

[135] 'Which fact _had_ at first intimidated the associates of the
    conspiracy.' The pluperfect here seems to be used for the perfect,
    but is necessary from the idea, which properly should have been
    expressed by some such sentence as this: 'which fact, although it
    had at first intimidated the conspirators, yet did not stop the
    progress of the conspiracy.'
[136] _Faesulae_, now Fiesole, a town in the northern part of Etruria,
    not far from Florentia (Florence), which is now the largest town in
    that district, though it was not so in ancient times.
[137] _Portare_, 'he caused money to be taken.' See Zumpt, S 713.
[138] _Sumptus tolerare_, 'to bear the expenses,' implying the difficulty
    of defraying them.

25. Sed in his erat Sempronia, quae multa saepe virilis audaciae
facinora commiserat. Haec mulier genere atque forma, praeterea viro,
liberis satis fortunata fuit; litteris Graecis et Latinis docta,
psallere, saltare elegantius, quam necesse est probae, multa alia, quae
instrumenta luxuriae sunt. Sed ei cariora semper omnia quam decus atque
pudicitia fuit; pecuniae an famae minus parceret, haud facile
discerneres;[139] libidine sic accensa, ut saepius peteret viros quam
peteretur. Sed ea saepe antehac fidem prodiderat, creditum abjuraverat,
caedis conscia fuerat, luxuria atque inopia praeceps[140] abierat. Verum
ingenium ejus haud absurdum; posse versus facere, jocum movere, sermone
uti vel modesto vel molli vel procaci; prorsus multae facetiae multusque
lepos inerat.

[139] _Haud facile discerneres_, 'it was not easy to determine whether
    she was less concerned about her money or her reputation,' since she
    was reckless in regard to both. Respecting the imperfect subjunctive,
    see Zumpt, S 528, note 2.
[140] _Praeceps_ is used of steep and precipitous places, and of persons
    who fall or throw themselves headlong down from or into anything.
    Hence _Sempronia praeceps abierat_ is, 'she had thrown herself
    headlong into ruin,' which might also be expressed by _in praeceps
    iverat_.

26. His rebus comparatis Catilina nihilo minus in proximum annum[141]
consulatum petebat, sperans, si designatus foret, facile se ex voluntate
Antonio usurum. Neque interea quietus erat, sed omnibus modis insidias
parabat Ciceroni. Neque illi tamen ad cavendum dolus aut astutiae
deerant. Namque a principio consulatus sui multa pollicendo per
Fulviam effecerat, ut Q. Curius, de quo paulo ante memoravi, consilia
Catilinae sibi proderet. Ad hoc[142] collegam suum Antonium pactione
provinciae[143] perpulerat, ne contra rem publicam sentiret; circum se
praesidia amicorum atque clientium occulte habebat. Postquam dies
comitiorum venit, et Catilinae neque petitio neque insidiae, quas consuli
in Campo[144] fecerat, prospere cessere, constituit bellum facere et
extrema omnia experiri, quoniam quae occulte temptaverat aspera
foedaque[145] evenerant.

[141] Namely, for the year beginning with the first of January, B. C. 62.
    The elections took place about the middle of the preceding year,
    consequently, in the present instance, about the middle of the
    year B. C. 63.
[142] _Ad hoc_ is a common expression in Sallust for _praeterea_.
[143] _Pactione provinciae_, by coming to an understanding with him
    about the provinces which were assigned to the consuls after the
    expiration of their year of office at Rome. Cicero had obtained by
    lot the lucrative province of Macedonia and exchanged it for Gallia
    Cisalpina, which had fallen to the lot of Antonius; but afterwards
    he declined the latter also, in order to be able to remain at Rome,
    which at that time was considered to be a sign that a man did not
    care for money--_continentia abstinentia_.
[144] The _Campus Martius_, an extensive open plain between the city and
    the Tiber, was the place for the large assemblies of the people; that
    is, for the Comitia Centuriate, in which the consuls and praetors
    were elected.
[145] _Aspera foedaque_ might also have been expressed by the adverbs
    _aspere foedeque_, 'his attempts turned out unfavourably and
    disgracefully.' Compare Zumpt, S 682.

27. Igitur G. Manlium Faesulas atque in eam partem Etruriae, Septimium
quendam Camertem[146] in agrum Picenum, G. Julium in Apuliam dimisit;
praeterea alium alio, quem ubique opportunum sibi fore credebat. Interea
Romae multa simul moliri, consuli insidias tendere, parare incendia,
opportuna loca armatis hominibus obsidere, ipse cum telo esse, item alios
jubere, hortari; uti semper intenti paratique essent, dies noctesque
festinare, vigilare, neque insomniis neque labore fatigari. Postremo ubi
multa agitanti nihil procedit, rursus intempesta nocte conjurationis
principes convocat per M. Porcium Laecam, ibique multa de ignavia eorum
questus, docet se Manlium praemisisse ad eam multitudinem, quam ad
capiunda arma paraverat, item alios in alia loca opportuna, qui initium
belli facerent, seque ad exercitum proficisci cupere, si prius Ciceronem
oppressisset; eum suis consiliis multum officere.

[146] _Camers_, 'a native of Camerium,' (the capital of the Umbrians),
    for the inhabitants of that place were called Camertes. _Picenum_
    or _ager Picenus_, was the Roman territory on the Adriatic between
    the mouths of the rivers Aesis and Aternus with the capitals of
    Ancona and Asculum.

28. Igitur perterritis ac dubitantibus ceteris, G. Cornelius eques
Romanus operam suam pollicitus, et cum eo L. Vargunteius senator
constituere ea nocte paulo post cum armatis hominibus sicuti
salutatum[147] introire ad Ciceronem ac de improviso domi suae imparatum
confodere. Curius ubi intellegit,[148] quantum periculum consuli
impendeat, propere per Fulviam Ciceroni dolum, qui parabatur, enuntiat.
Ita illi janua prohibiti tantum facinus frustra susceperant. Interea
Manlius in Etruria plebem sollicitare, egestate simul ac dolore injuriae
novarum rerum cupidam, quod Sullae dominatione agros bonaque omnia
amiserat, praeterea latrones cujusque generis, quorum in ea regione magna
copia erat, nonnullos ex Sullanis colonis, quibus libido atque luxuria ex
magnis rapinis nihil reliqui fecerant.

[147] _Sicuti salutatum,_ 'as if to offer him his morning salutation,'
    for such a morning call before sunrise was a common politeness among
    the Romans.
[148] Or according to the common orthography, _intelligit_.

29. Ea quum Ciceroni nuntiarentur, ancipiti malo permotus, quod neque
urbem ab insidiis privato consilio longius tueri poterat, neque exercitus
Manlii quantus aut quo consilio foret satis compertum habebat, rem ad
senatum refert, jam antea vulgi rumoribus exagitatam.[149] Itaque, quod
plerumque in atroci negotio solet; senatus decrevit,[150] darent operam
consules, ne quid res publica detrimenti caperet. Ea potestas per senatum
more Romano magistratui maxima permittitur, exercitum parare,[151] bellum
gerere, coercere omnibus modis socios atque cives, domi militiaeque
imperium atque judicium summum habere; aliter sine populi jussu nulli
earum rerum consuli jus est.

[149] _Exagitatam_ for _agitatam_; but the preposition _ex_ gives to the
    word the idea of something brought out of its obscurity to light. The
    matter had already been discussed on the ground of certain rumours.
[150] About _decrevit_, with the mere subjunctive, without _ut_, see
    Zumpt, S 624.
[151] _Parare_ should properly be _parandi_; but see Zumpt, S 598.

30. Post paucos dies L. Saenius senator in senatu litteras recitavit,
quas Faesulis allatas sibi dicebat, in quibus scriptum erat, G. Manlium
arma cepisse cum magna multitudine ante diem VI. Kalendas Novembres.[152]
Simul, id quod in tali re solet, alii portenta atque prodigia[153]
nuntiabant, alii conventus fieri, arma portari, Capuae atque in Apulia
servile bellum moveri. Igitur senati[154] decreto Q. Marcius Rex
Faesulas, Q. Metellus Creticus in Apuliam circumque ea loca missi; hi
utrique[155] ad urbem imperatores erant,[156] impediti ne triumpharent
calumnia paucorum, quibus omnia honesta atque inhonesta vendere mos
erat.[157] Sed praetores Q. Pompeius Rufus Capuam, Q. Metellus Celer in
agrum Picenum,[158] hisque permissum, uti pro tempore atque periculo
exercitum compararent. Ad hoc, si quis indicavisset de conjuratione, quae
contra rem publicam facta erat, praemium servo libertatem et sestertia
centum, [159] libero impunitatem ejus rei et sestertia ducenta; itemque
decrevere, uti gladiatoriae familiae Capuam et in cetera municipia
distribuerentur pro cujusque opibus,[160] Romae per totam urbem vigiliae
haberentur, iisque minores magistratus[161] praeessent.

[152] That is, 'on the 6th day before the 1st of November,' or on the
    27th of October. In such computations with _ante_ and _post_, the
    point of time from which the calculation begins is included. See
    Zumpt, S 867. But we here reckon according to the calendar such as it
    was subsequently reformed and rectified by J. Caesar.
[153] _Portenta_ are chiefly human beings or animals presenting at their
    birth anything abnormal or monstrous; _prodigia_, on the other hand,
    are strange phenomena in the heavens; and the superstition of the
    ancients regarded both as signs sent by the gods to warn men.
[154] _Senati_ for _senatus_. See Zumpt, S 81.
[155] _Hi utrique_ for _horum uterque_. Zumpt, S 141, note 2.
[156] Both had received the military command (_imperium_) from the
    senate and people: Marcius Rex as proconsul of Cilicia, and Metellus
    for the purpose of subduing Crete. After their return from their
    provinces, they tarried for a time outside the walls of Rome (_ad
    urbem_), because, by entering the city, they would have lost their
    imperium, which they were anxious to retain until their solemn
    entrance in a military procession (the triumph), to which the senate
    had not yet given its sanction. Accordingly, as they were still
    generals in active service, they could legally be intrusted with the
    military command in the disturbed districts of Italy.
[157] The intrigues of some influential members of the senate, who had
    either received bribes from the opponents of the two commanders, or
    expected some from the commanders themselves, prevented the
    resolution of the senate here alluded to. Respecting _mos erat
    vendere_, see Zumpt, S 598.
[158] Supply to the two names of places _missus est_, which is implied
    in the preceding sentence.
[159] _Sestertia centum_; that is, _centum millia sestertiorum_, or the
    ancient census of the citizens of the first class; for the neuter
    sestertia was used in calculations as an imaginary coin of _mille
    sestertii_ or ten nummi aurei.
[160] 'According to the means of every town.' As the Roman gladiators
    might easily be tempted to join in conspiracies, they were quartered
    at a distance from Rome, in the towns of a certain class of Roman
    citizens (_municipia_); and the citizens of such places were
    ordered to watch over those bands of gladiators, that they might not
    make their escape. _Familiae_, in its proper sense, signifies the
    whole body of slaves belonging to one master.
[161] _Minores magistratus_ are those officers who did not, by virtue
    of their office, become members of the senate. The quaestors,
    accordingly, did not belong to them, but they comprised the masters
    of the mint, the superintendents of the paving of the roads, and
    especially the superintendents of all matters connected with prisons,
    and the _decemviri litibus judicandis_.

31. Quibus rebus permota civitas atque immutata urbis facies erat; ex
summa laetitia atque lascivia, quae diuturna quies pepererat, repente
omnes tristitia invasit; festinare, trepidare, neque loco neque homini
cuiquam satis credere, neque bellum gerere, neque pacem habere, suo
quisque metu pericula metiri. Ad hoc mulieres, quibus[162] rei publicae
magnitudine belli timor insolitus incesserat, afflictare sese,[163] manus
supplices ad coelum tendere, miserari parvos liberos, rogitare, omnia
pavere, superbia atque deliciis omissis sibi patriaeque diffidere. At
Catilinae crudelis animus eadem illa movebat, tametsi praesidia
parabantur et ipse lege Plautia[164] interrogatus erat ab L. Paullo.
Postremo dissimulandi causa aut sui expurgandi, sicuti[165] jurgio
lacessitus foret, in senatum venit. Tum M. Tullius consul, sive
praesentiam ejus timens sive ira commotus, orationem habuit luculentam
atque utilem rei publicae, quam postea scriptam edidit.[166] Sed ubi ille
assedit,[167] Catilina, ut erat paratus ad dissimulanda omnia, demisso
vultu, voce supplici postulare, 'Patres conscripti ne quid de se temere
crederent; ea familia ortum, ita se ab adolescentia vitam instituisse, ut
omnia bona in spe haberet; ne existimarent, sibi, patricio homini, cujus
ipsius atque majorum plurima beneficia in plebem Romanam essent, perdita
re publica opus esse, quum eam servaret M. Tullius, inquilinus civis
urbis Romae.'[168] Ad hoc maledicta alia quum adderet, obstrepere omnes,
hostem atque parricidam vocare. Tum ille furibundus: 'Quoniam quidem
circumventus, inquit, ab inimicis praeceps agor, incendium meum ruina
restinguam.'

[162] _Quibus_. Sallust more frequently uses the accusative in such
    expressions. See chapter 8.
[163] _Afflictare sese_, 'they worried themselves.' The expression is
    properly used of that kind of grief which manifests itself in
    inflicting pain on the body, by pulling the hair, striking the breast
    or loins, or by throwing one's self on the ground. So also
    _plangere_ denotes the physical expression of pain.
[164] A law _de vi_ enacted in the year B.C. 89, and aimed at those who
    might attempt by violence to subvert the existing constitution of the
    state. On the ground of this law Catiline had already been summoned
    before a court of law, though no formal charge had yet been brought
    against him.
[165] _Sicuti_ is here used for _quasi_, _velut_, or _perinde ac si_,
    'as if.'
[166] This is the first of Cicero's speeches against Catiline, which
    was delivered A.D. 6, Id. Novemb.; that is, on the 8th of November.
[167] 'When he had sat down;' that is, when he had finished his speech,
    for those who spoke in the senate did so standing.
[168] The imprudence of this speech, independent of the audacious denial
    of facts, consists in his boasting of his patrician descent, and in
    the insinuation that Cicero, who was born in the municipium of
    Arpinum, was only an alien at Rome, although in regard to political
    rights there no longer was any difference between patricians and
    plebeians, nor between the citizens of Rome and those of a
    municipium. Respecting the construction of _opus est_, with the
    ablative of a participle, see Zumpt, S 464, note 1.

32. Dein se ex curia domum proripuit; ibi multa ipse secum volvens, quod
neque insidiae consuli procedebant et ab incendio intellegebat urbem
vigiliis munitam, optimum factu credens exercitum augere ac prius quam
legiones scriberentur, antecapere quae bello usui forent, nocte
intempesta cum paucis in Manliana castra profectus est. Sed Cethego atque
Lentulo ceterisque, quorum cognoverat promptam audaciam, mandat, quibus
rebus possent opes factionis confirment, insidias consuli maturent,
caedem, incendia aliaque belli facinora parent; sese propediem cum magno
exercitu ad urbem accessurum. Dum haec Romae geruntur, G. Manlius ex suo
numero legatos ad Marcium Regem mittit cum mandatis hujuscemodi:

33. 'Deos hominesque testamur, imperator, nos arma neque contra patriam
cepisse, neque quo periculum aliis faceremus, sed uti corpora nostra ab
injuria tuta forent, qui miseri, egentes, violentia atque crudelitate
feneratorum plerique patriae, sed omnes fama atque fortunis[169] expertes
sumus; neque cuiquam nostrum licuit more majorum lege uti,[170] neque
amisso patrimonio liberum corpus habere, tanta saevitia feneratorum atque
praetoris fuit. Saepe majores vestrum[171] miseriti plebis Romanae,
decretis suis inopiae ejus opitulati sunt; ac novissime memoria nostra,
propter magnitudinem aeris alieni, volentibus omnibus bonis, argentum
aere solutum est.[172] Saepe ipsa plebes, aut dominandi studio permota,
aut superbia magistratuum, armata a patribus secessit. At nos non
imperium neque divitias petimus, quarum rerum causa bella atque certamina
omnia inter mortales sunt, sed libertatem, quam nemo bonus nisi cum anima
simul amittit.[173] Te atque senatum obtestamur, consulatis miseris
civibus, legis praesidium, quod iniquitas praetoris eripuit, restituatis;
neve nobis eam necessitudinem imponatis, ut quaeramus, quonam modo maxime
ulti sanguinem nostrum pereamus.'

[169] The adjective _expers_ here is joined in the same sentence with two
    different cases; this is an unusual construction, though _expers_ may
    be joined with the genit. as well as with the ablat. See Zumpt,
    S 437, note 1.
[170] From what he quotes as the substance of the law, we see that he
    means the lex Papiria Poetelia, which had been passed in B.C. 326,
    and according to which the property of a debtor served as a security
    to the creditor, while his person or his personal liberty could not
    be touched.
[171] _Vestrum_; it would be more in accordance with the common usage to
    say _vestri_, but the genitive of the personal pronoun also may be
    used. See Zumpt, SS 424 and 431.
[172] Literally, 'the borrowed silver was repaid in copper;' that is,
    instead of the ordinary silver coin, the sestertius, the value of
    four copper ases, only one copper as was paid. By this means debtors
    gained three-fourths of the capital they had borrowed. This reduction
    of debts took place in B.C. 86, during the ascendancy of the Marian
    party.
[173] _Amittit_; that is, _missam facit_, _dimittit_ or _omittit_, 'he
    gives up.'

34. Ad haec Q. Marcius respondit: 'Si quid ab senatu petere vellent, ab
armis discedant, Romam supplices proficiscantur; ea mansuetudine atque
misericordia senatum populumque Romanum semper fuisse, ut nemo unquam
ab eo frustra auxilium petiverit.' At Catilina ex itinere plerisque
consularibus, praeterea optimo cuique, litteras mittit: 'Se falsis
criminibus circumventum, quoniam factioni inimicorum resistere
nequiverit, fortunae cedere, Massiliam[174] in exilium proficisci: non
quo sibi tanti sceleris conscius esset, sed uti res publica quieta foret,
neve ex sua contentione seditio oriretur.' Ab his longe diversas litteras
Q. Catulus in senatu recitavit, quas sibi nomine Catilinae redditas
dicebat; earum exemplum infra scriptum est:

[174] _Massilia_ (the modern Marseilles) was a free and independent city,
    leagued with the Roman people by treaty. It had been founded about
    the year B.C. 600, by Greek emigrants from Phocaea in Asia Minor. As
    Massilia thus was not subject to the civil law of Rome, the Romans
    who withdraw from the laws of their own country--that is, who went
    into exile--might choose that city as a safe place of residence,
    without fear of being delivered up to their own country.

35. 'L. Catilina Q. Catulo. Egregia tua fides re cognita, grata mihi, in
magnis meis periculis fiduciam commendationi meae tribuit. Quamobrem
defensionem in novo consilio non statui parare, satisfactionem ex nulla
conscientia de culpa proponere decrevi,[175] quam mediusfidius[176] veram
licet cognoscas. Injuriis contumeliisque concitatus, quod fructu laboris
industriaeque meae privatus statum dignitatis non obtinebam,[177]
publicam miserorum causam pro mea consuetudine suscepi, non quin aes
alienum meis nominibus ex possessionibus solvere possem, quum et alienis
nominibus liberalitas Orestillae suis filiaeque copiis persolveret;[178]
sed quod non dignos homines honore honestatos videbam, meque falsa
suspicione alienatum esse sentiebam.[179] Hoc nomine[180] satis honestas
pro meo casu spes reliquae dignitatis conservandae sum secutus. Plura
quum scribere vellem, nuntiatum est vim mihi parari.[181] Nunc Orestillam
commendo tuaeque fidei trado: eam ab injuria defendas per liberos tuos
rogatus. Haveto.'[182]

[175] Catiline writes that he will not undertake a detailed defence of
    his new design of taking up arms, but he says that he wishes to
    justify himself in regard to one point, and that merely because he
    is not conscious of any criminal act. _Satisfactio_ is nearly the
    same as _defensio_, but less formal. A man defends himself against
    opponents, but before friends he merely gives an explanation, whereby
    they may be gained over to his side. _Ex nulla conscientia_, 'in
    consequence of his not being conscious of guilt.' The expression is
    rather harsh and artificial, and seemingly in Catiline's own style
    of writing.
[176] _Medius fidius_, the same as _mehercules_. See Zumpt, S 361.
[177] 'I could not maintain the position of my dignity;' that is, I could
    not maintain my position in society after my enemies had deprived me
    of the consulship.
[178] 'Not as if I could not pay my own debts out of my property, since
    Orestilla has paid even other persons' debts out of her own purse;'
    she would accordingly have done the same much more for me, her
    husband. _Aes alienum meis nominibus_ is the same as _meum ipsius
    aes alienum_, 'debts on my own account.' _Nomen_, in money
    transactions, is something put down to a person's account. Hence
    _aes alienum alienis nominibus_ is the same as _aliorum debita_,
    'other persons' debts,' _aes alienum_ being understood from the
    preceding clause.
[179] 'I felt that I had become estranged by false suspicions,' namely,
    'from the Roman people,' who confer the honours which have been
    obtained by unworthy persons.
[180] _Hoc nomine_, the same as _ideo_, 'accordingly,' 'for this reason.'
[181] This is said in allusion to the consul Cicero, as if he had
    intended to arrest Catiline, and imprison him. Catiline evidently has
    recourse to this expedient for the purpose of avoiding his awkward
    explanation. They are hollow phrases about honour, the republic,
    and persecution, and well suited to the ruined circumstances of that
    nobleman.
[182] _Haveto_. It is much more common to use this word in meeting a
    person, while _vale_ is the ordinary expression in parting from a
    friend.

36. Sed ipse paucos dies commoratus apud G. Flaminium in agro
Arretino,[183] dum vicinitatem antea sollicitatam armis exornat, cum
fascibus atque aliis imperii insignibus in castra ad Manlium contendit.
Haec ubi Romae comperta sunt, senatus Catilinam et Manlium hostes
judicat; ceterae multitudini diem statuit, ante quam sine fraude[184]
liceret ab armis discedere praeter[185] rerum capitalium condemnatis.
Praeterea decernit, uti consules delectum habeant, Antonius cum exercitu
Catilinam persequi maturet, Cicero urbi praesidio sit. Ea tempestate mihi
imperium populi Romani multo maxime miserabile visum est, cui quum ad
occasum ab ortu solis omnia domita armis parerent, domi otium atque
divitiae, quae prima mortales putant, affluerent, fuere tamen cives, qui
seque remque publicam obstinatis animis perditum irent.[186] Namque
duobus senati decretis ex tanta multitudine neque praemio inductus
conjurationem patefecerat neque ex castris Catilinae quisquam omnium
discesserat; tanta vis morbi uti tabes plerosque civium animos invaserat.

[183] _In agro Arretino_, 'in the territory of Arretium,' in the heart
    of Etruria, near the lake Trasimenus.
[184] _Sine fraude_, 'without injury'--that is, without the fact that
    hitherto they had been with Manlius, drawing any punishment upon
    them.
[185] _Praeter_, adverbially for _praeterquam_; but he might also have
    used _praeter_ as a preposition: _praeter--condemnatas_.
[186] _Perditum irent_. See Zumpt, S 669.

37. Neque solum illis aliena[187] mens erat, qui conscii conjurationis
fuerant, sed omnino cuncta plebes novarum rerum studio Catilinae incepta
probabat. Id adeo[188] more suo videbatur facere. Nam semper in civitate,
quibus opes nullae sunt, bonis[189] invident, malos extollunt, vetera
odere, nova exoptant, odio suarum rerum mutari omnia student, turba
atque seditionibus sine cura aluntur; quoniam egestas facile habetur[190]
sine damno. Sed urbana plebes, ea vero[191] praeceps ierat multis de
causis. Primum omnium, qui ubique probro atque petulantia maxime
praestabant, item alii per dedecora patrimoniis amissis, postremo
omnes, quos flagitium aut facinus domo expulerat, ii Romam sicut in
sentinam[192] confluxerant. Deinde multi memores Sullanae victoriae, quod
ex gregariis militibus alios senatores videbant, alios ita divites, ut
regio victu atque cultu aetatem agerent, sibi quisque, si in armis foret,
ex victoria talia sperabat. Praeterea juventus, quae in agris manuum
mercede inopiam toleraverat, privatis atque publicis largitionibus
excita[193] urbanum otium ingrato labori praetulerat; eos atque alios
omnes malum publicum alebat. Quo minus mirandum est homines egentes,
malis moribus, maxima spe, rei publicae juxta ac sibi consuluisse.[194]
Praeterea quorum,[195] victoria Sullae parentes proscripti, bona erepta,
jus libertatis imminutum erat, haud sane alio animo belli eventum
expectabant. Ad hoc quicunque aliarum atque senatus partium erant,
conturbari rem publicam quam minus valere ipsi malebant. Id adeo malum
multos post annos in civitatem reverterat.

[187] _Aliena_; supply _a republica_.
[188] _Adeo_ renders the sentence emphatic, 'nay, the common people
    seemed to do this even according to their custom.' _Adeo_ in this
    sense is always preceded by a demonstrative pronoun. See Zumpt,
    S 281.
[189] _Boni_. In the political signification of this word, the ideas of
    quiet conduct, aversion to innovations, and acquiescence in the
    actual state of things, are combined with solid wealth. The reason
    of this is easily perceptible; for he who possesses property, dreads
    every change, and supports the existing state of things. A still
    more decided political meaning is implied in the term _optimates_,
    which denotes the party in the state which we now call Conservative,
    but at Rome it implied at the same time the idea of 'faction,' and of
    a tendency to occasional violence.
[190] 'Poverty (that is, poor people) maintains itself, or continues in
    all disturbances without suffering any loss;' for he who has nothing,
    cannot sustain any loss.
[191] _Ea vero_, 'this in particular. _Vero_ indicates the transition to
    that circumstance, which in the present case is of the greatest
    importance. Compare Zumpt, S 348, note.
[192] _Sentina_ properly signifies the sediment which, in a vessel filled
    with water, sinks to the bottom. Hence 'the residue,' or the place
    where all that is bad or impure is collected.
[193] The largesses in money and provisions with which the state
    supported the needy population of the capital, and by which private
    persons, anxious to gain partisans, catered numbers of clients,
    attracted to Rome many people from the country: the city plebs was
    thus constantly increasing.
[194] 'They were as much concerned about the good of the state as about
    their own good'--that is, just as little.
[195] Connect _quorum_ with _parentes_ and the following words, _bona_
    and _jus_. Sulla had excluded the sons of those whom he proscribed
    from all public offices, and thus curtailed their rights of free
    citizens.

38. Nam postquam Gn. Pompeio et M. Crasso consulibus[196] tribunicia
potestas restituta est, homines adolescentes summam potestatem nacti,
quibus aetas animusque ferox erat, coepere senatum criminando plebem
exagitare, dein largiundo atque pollicitando magis incendere; ita ipsi
clari potentesque fieri. Contra eos summa ope nitebatur pleraque
nobilitas senatus specie[197] pro sua magnitudine. Namque uti paucis
verum absolvam, post illa tempora quicunque rem publicam agitavere,
honestis nominibus, alii sicuti populi jura defenderent, pars quo[198]
senatus auctoritas maxima foret, bonum publicum simulantes, pro sua
quisque potentia certabant; neque illis modestia neque modus contentionis
erat; utrique victoriam crudeliter exercebant.

[196] In B. C. 70, these consuls restored the power of the tribunes in
    its full extent, after it had been greatly reduced by Sulla in
    B. C. 81. The Roman people received this restoration of the tribunian
    power with the greatest joy; but Sallust does not seem to approve of
    it.
[197] _Senatus specie_; under the pretence of supporting the senate, the
    _nobiles_ formed opposition to the tribunes, but in reality it was
    for their own aggrandisement.
[198] _Quo_ for _ut eo_, 'that the authority of the senate might be the
    highest in the state.'

39. Sed postquam Gn. Pompeius ad bellum maritimum atque Mithridaticum
missus est, plebis opes imminutae, paucorum potentia crevit. Hi
magistratus, provincias, aliaque omnia tenere, ipsi innoxii,[199]
florentes, sine metu aetatem agere, ceteros judiciis terrere, quo plebem
in magistratu placidius tractarent.[200] Sed ubi primum dubiis rebus[201]
novandi spes oblata est, vetus certamen animos eorum arrexit. Quodsi
primo proelio Catilina superior aut aequa manu discessisset, profecto
magna clades atque calamitas rem publicam oppressisset; neque illis, qui
victoriam adepti forent, diutius ea uti licuisset, quin defessis et
exsanguibus qui plus posset imperium atque libertatem extorqueret.[202]
Fuere tamen extra conjurationem complures, qui ad Catilinam initio
profecti sunt; in his erat A. Fulvius, senatoris filius, quem retractum
ex itinere parens necari jussit. Iisdem temporibus Romae Lentulus, sicuti
Catilina praeceperat, quoscunque moribus aut fortuna novis rebus idoneos
credebat, aut per se aut per alios sollicitabat, neque solum cives, sed
cujusque modi genus hominum, quod modo bello usui foret.

[199] _Innoxius_ has a twofold meaning, one active, 'one who does no
    harm' (_noxa_), and a passive, 'one who is not injured,' 'one to
    whom no harm is done,' _qui non afficitur noxa_, and in this latter
    sense it is used in this passage.
[200] 'In order that, when in office, they themselves might guide the
    populace more gently,' since those who excited the multitude would
    be kept in awe by the terror of the law. _Placidius_, 'without
    harshness,' 'without severity,' harshness and severity being applied
    only against the popular leaders.
[201] _Dubiis rebus_, the ablative absolute; _cum res dubiae essent_,
    'the state of affairs being dangerous.'
[202] 'A more powerful man would even have wrested their freedom from
    them.' About _quin_, see Zumpt, S 542; and about the imperfect in the
    sense of a pluperfect, S 525.

40. Igitur P. Umbreno cuidam negotium dat, uti legatos Allobrogum[203]
requirat eosque, si possit, impellat ad societatem belli, existimans
publice privatimque aere alieno oppressos, praeterea, quod natura gens
Gallica bellicosa esset, facile eos ad tale consilium adduci posse.
Umbrenus, quod in Gallia negotiatus erat, plerisque principibus
civitatium notus erat atque eos noverat; itaque sine mora, ubi primum
legatos in foro conspexit, percontatus pauca de statu civitatis, et quasi
dolens ejus casum, requirere coepit, quem exitum tantis malis sperarent.
Postquam illos videt queri de avaritia magistratuum, accusare senatum,
quod in eo auxilii nihil esset, miseriis suis remedium mortem expectare:
'At ego, inquit, vobis, si modo viri esse vultis, rationem ostendam, qua
tanta ista mala effugiatis.' Haec ubi dixit, Allobroges in maximam spem
adducti Umbrenum orare, ut sui misereretur; nihil tam asperum neque tam
difficile esse, quod non cupidissime facturi essent, dum ea res civitatem
aere alieno liberaret. Ille eos in domum, D. Bruti perducit, quod foro
propinqua erat neque aliena consilii[204] propter Semproniam; nam tum
Brutus ab Roma aberat. Praeterea Gabinium accersit,[205] quo major
auctoritas sermoni inesset. Eo praesente conjurationem aperit, nominat
socios, praeterea multos cujusque generis innoxios, quo legatis animus
amplior[206] esset; deinde eos pollicitos operam suam domum dimittit.

[203] The Allobroges inhabited the country from Lacus Lemannus and the
    Rhone as far south as the Isara. They were subject to Rome, but, with
    a certain degree of independence, they governed themselves within
    their own country. Their chief towns were Vienna and Geneva.
[204] _Aliena consilii_. See Zumpt, S 470.
[205] Respecting the orthography of _accersit_, see Zumpt, S 202.
[206] _Magnus animus_ is the usual Latin expression for 'courage,' and
    _amplior_ is the same as _major_.

41. Sed Allobroges diu in incerto habuere, quidnam consilii caperent. In
altera parte erat aes alienum, studium belli, magna merces in spe
victoriae, at in altera majores opes, tuta consilia, pro incerta spe
certa praemia. Haec illis volventibus, tandem vicit fortuna rei publicae.
Itaque Q. Fabio Sangae, cujus patrocinio civitas plurimum utebatur, rem
omnem, uti cognoverant, aperiunt. Cicero, per Sangam consilio cognito,
legatis praecepit, ut studium conjurationis vehementer simulent, ceteros
adeant, bene polliceantur, dentque operam, uti eos quam maxime manifestos
habeant.[207]

[207] Manifestum habeo aliquem, 'I catch a person in the act,' so that he
    can be convicted of his crime by unexceptionable evidence.

42. Iisdem fere temporibus in Gallia citeriore atque ulteriore,[208] item
in agro Piceno, Bruttio,[209] Apulia motus erat. Namque illi, quos ante
Catilina dimiserat, inconsulte ac veluti per dementiam cuncta simul
agebant; nocturnis consiliis, armorum atque telorum portationibus,
festinando, agitando omnia, plus timoris quam periculi effecerant. Ex eo
numero complures Q. Metellus Celer praetor ex senati consulto, causa
cognita, in vincula conjecerat; item in ulteriore Gallia G. Murena, qui
ei provinciae legatus[210] praeerat.

[208] _Gallia citerior_ is Gaul south of the Alps, or the province of
    Cisalpine Gaul. _Gallia ulterior_ is Gaul north of the Alps, as
    far as the Cebenna mountains. The part of modern France beyond those
    mountains was not yet subject to Rome, but became a Roman province by
    the conquests of Caesar.
[209] _Bruttium_ is the peninsula of Italy, which extends towards Sicily.
    It was a mountainous country with many forests.
[210] He was legate to his brother L. Murena, who had then already left
    the province of Gaul, being a candidate for the consulship for the
    year B.C. 62, which he obtained.

43. At Romae Lentulus cum ceteris, qui principes conjurationis erant,
paratis, ut videbatur, magnis copiis, constituerant, uti quum Catilina in
agrum Faesulanum cum exercitu venisset. L. Bestia tribunus plebis
contione habita quereretur de actionibus Ciceronis, bellique gravissimi
invidiam optimo consuli imponeret; eo signo[211] proxima nocte cetera
multitudo conjurationis suum quisque negotium exequeretur. Sed[212] ea
divisa hoc modo dicebantur: Statilius et Gabinius uti cum magna manu
duodecim simul opportuna loca urbis incenderent, quo tumultu facilior
aditus ad consulem ceterosque, quibus insidiae parabantur, fieret;
Cethegus Ciceronis januam obsideret eumque vi aggrederetur, alius autem
alium; sed filii[213] familiarum, quorum ex nobilitate maxima pars erat,
parentes interficerent, simul caede et incendio perculsis omnibus, ad
Catilinam erumperent. Inter haec parata atque decreta[214] Cethegus
semper querebatur de ignavia sociorum; illos dubitando et dies prolatando
magnas opportunitates corrumpere, facto, non consulto, in tali periculo
opus esse, seque, si pauci adjuvarent, languentibus aliis, impetum in
curiam facturum. Natura ferox, vehemens, manu promptus erat; maximum
bonum in celeritate putabat.

[211] _Signum,_ in military phraseology, is the visible or audible signal
    for a movement which the army is to execute. The attack of the
    tribune of the people on Cicero during his address to the people was
    to be the signal. 'After this signal had been given' (_eo signo_),
    _dato_ being understood. _Conjurationis_ for _conjuratorum_.
[212] _Sed_. According to ordinary Latinity, the sentence ought to have
    been introduced by _autem_; see Zumpt, S 348, note. But it must be
    observed that in the historical style of Sallust _sed_ very
    frequently expresses not only opposition, but also mere transition
    from one thing to another, which seems to be an affectation of
    simplicity.
[213] The idea expressed by _filius familias_ is 'a son who is not yet
    independent, who has not yet a household of his own.'
[214] _Inter haec_, &c.; that is, _dum haec parantur atque decernuntur_.

44. Sed Allobroges ex praecepto Ciceronis per Gabinium ceteros
conveniunt;[215] ab Lentulo, Cethego, Statilio, item Cassio postulant
jusjurandum, quod signatum ad cives perferant; aliter haud facile eos ad
tantum negotium impelli posse. Ceteri nihil suspicantes dant; Cassius
semet eo brevi venturum pollicetur ac paulo ante legates ex urbe
proficiscitur. Lentulus cum his T. Volturcium quendam Crotoniensem
mittit, ut Allobroges prins quam domum pergerent, cum Catilina data atque
accepta fide societatem confirmarent. Ipse Volturcio litteras ad
Catilinam dat, quarum exemplum infra scriptum est: 'Qui[216] sim ex eo,
quem ad te misi, cognosces. Fac cogites, in quanta calamitate sis, et
memineris te virum esse; consideres, quid tuae rationes postulent;
auxilium petas ab omnibus, etiam ab infimis.'[217] Ad hoc mandata verbis
dat: 'Quum ab senatu hostis judicatus sit, quo consilio servitia
repudiet? in urbe parata esse, quae jusserit; ne cunctetur ipse propius
accedere.'

[215] _Conveniunt_, with the accusative. See Zumpt, S 387.
[216] _Qui_ for _quis_. See Zumpt, S 134, note.
[217] He means to say, 'even from the slaves, who, as is now seen, have
    not been received by Catiline into his army.'

45. His rebus ita actis, constituta nocte, qua proficiscerentur, Cicero
per legates cuncta edoctus,[218] L. Valerio Flacco et G. Pomptinio
praetoribus imperat, ut in ponte Mulvio[219] per insidias Allobrogum
comitatus deprehendant; rem omnem aperit, cujus gratia mittebantur,
cetera, uti facto opus sit, ita agant, permittit. Illi, homines
militares, sine tumultu praesidiis collocatis, sicuti praeceptum erat,
occulte pontem obsidunt.[220] Postquam ad id loci[221] legati cum
Volturcio venerunt et simul utrimque clamor exortus est, Galli, cito
cognito consilio, sine mora praetoribus se tradunt. Volturcius primo,
cohortatus ceteros, gladio se a multitudine defendit, deinde ubi a
legatis desertus est, multa prius de salute sua Pomptinium obtestatus,
quod ei notus erat, postremo timidus ac vitae diffidens velut
hostibus[222] sese praetoribus dedit.

[218] _Cuncta_. Respecting this accusative, see Zumpt, S 391, note 1.
[219] _Pons Mulvius_, a bridge across the Tiber, about one mile from
    the city, outside the porta Flaminia. It still exists under the name
    of ponte Molle, and is passed by all travellers who go from Rome to
    the north.
[220] _Obsidunt_. For this verb, see Zumpt, S 189, under _sido_.
[221] _Ad id loci_; that is, _ad eum locum_.
[222] He betrayed his treasonable designs even by surrendering to the
    public authorities, as if they were a foreign and hostile power, and
    by praying them to spare his life.

46. Quibus rebus confectis, omnia propere per nuntios consuli
declarantur. At ilium ingens cura atque laetitia simul occupavere; nam
laetabatur intellegens conjuratione patefacta civitatem periculis ereptam
esse, porro autem anxius erat, dubitans, in maximo scelere tantis civibus
deprehensis, quid facto opus esset; poenam illorum sibi oneri,
impunitatem perdundae rei publicae[223] fore credebat. Igitur confirmato
animo vocari ad sese jubet Lentulum, Cethegum, Statilium, Gabinium, item
quendam Caeparium Tarracinensem, qui in Apuliam ad concitanda servitia
proficisci parabat. Ceteri sine mora veniunt: Caeparius paulo ante domo
egressus cognito indicio ex urbe profugerat. Consul Lentulum, quod
praetor erat, ipse manu tenens in senatum[224] perducit; reliquos cum
custodibus in aedem Concordiae venire jubet. Eo senatum advocat, magnaque
frequentia ejus ordinis, Volturcium cum legatis introducit, Flaccum
praetorem scrinium cum litteris, quas a legatis acceperat, eodem afferre
jubet.

[223] See Zumpt, S 662.
[224] The meeting of the senate was held in the Temple of Concord,
    close by the Forum. Temples were often used instead of the Curia
    Hostilia, which was the regular place for the senate to assemble in.
    Lentulus was taken to the senate by the consul himself; the others
    were conducted thither by guards, to be brought before the assembly
    after the business had been opened.

47. Volturcius interrogatus de itinere, de litteris, postremo quid aut
qua de causa consilii habuisset, primo fingere alia, dissimulare de
conjuratione; post, ubi fide publica dicere jussus est,[225] omnia, uti
gesta erant, aperit docetque se paucis ante diebus a Gabinio et Caepario
socium ascitum nihil amplius scire quam legatos; tantummodo audire
solitum ex Gabinio, P. Autronium, Ser. Sullam, L. Vargunteium, multos
praeterea in ea conjuratione esse. Eadem Galli fatentur ac Lentulum
dissimulantem coarguunt praeter litteras sermonibus, quos ille habere
solitus erat; ex libris Sibyllinis[226] regnum Romae tribus Corneliis
portendi; Cinnam atque Sullam antea, se tertium esse, cui fatum foret
urbis potiri;[227] praeterea ab incenso Capitolio illum esse vigesimum
annum, quem saepe ex prodigiis haruspices[228] respondissent bello civili
cruentum fore. Igitur perlectis litteris, quum prius omnes signa sua
cognovissent, senatus decernit, uti abdicato magistratu Lentulus, itemque
ceteri in liberis custodiis[229] habeantur. Itaque Lentulus P. Lentulo
Spintheri, qui tum aedilis erat, Cethegus Q. Cornificio, Statilius G.
Caesari, Gabinius M. Crasso, Caeparius (nam is paulo ante ex fuga
retractus erat) Gn. Terentio senatori traduntur.

[225] 'He was ordered to make his statement on the ground of the promise
    made to him, on behalf of the state, that he should not be punished.'
    Sallust might have used the more complete expression, _fide publica
    data_ or _accepta_; but such expressions are to be completed by the
    sense rather than by any grammatical ellipsis.
[226] _Sibylla_ is the ancient Greek name for a prophetic woman; and at
    Rome prophecies and counsels (_libri Sibyllini_) were kept in the
    Capitol which were believed to have been given as early as the time
    of the kings by a Sibyl of Cumae. They contained information about
    festivals, sacrifices, and other religious observances, and the
    means by which calamities which threatened the state might be
    averted. They were under the superintendence of a special college
    of priests, by whom alone they were consulted, on the command of
    the senate, in cases of public distress or apprehension. This college
    was called at different times, according to the number of its
    members, _duoviri_, _decemviri_, or _quindecemviri sacrorum_.
[227] The _gens_ Cornelia comprised a large number of families, such
    as the Scipios, Dolabellas, Merulas, Sullas, Cinnas, Cethegi, and
    Lentuli. L. Cinna, by repeated consulships, and as the leader of
    the Marian party, obtained the highest power at Rome after the
    death of C. Marius, but was slain in B.C. 84 by his own soldiers,
    whom he intended to lead against L. Sulla. Sulla, after having
    been consul as early as the year B.C. 88, became dictator in B.C. 82.
    Respecting the expression _urbis potiri_, see Zumpt, S 466.
[228] _Haruspices_ were the interpreters of the signs which were
    believed to be contained in the entrails of victims sacrificed to the
    gods, as well as of the phenomena in the atmosphere (_monstra_), and
    other occurrences in nature, which seemed to be contrary to the
    ordinary course of things. The system of this kind of superstition
    had been principally developed by the ancient Etruscans, and the
    haruspices engaged in the state religion of the Romans were generally
    natives of Etruria; and the Romans, owing to the uncertainty of their
    knowledge of things divine, dreaded this kind of superstition rather
    than practised it.
[229] _Libera custodia_ is opposed to the _carcer publicus_, in which
    the prisoners were treated like slaves, and kept in chains. There
    were at Rome no prisons for those persons whose guilt was not yet
    established, or whose punishment consisted merely in confinement; but
    private persons, or the relatives of the accused, were obliged to
    keep the person of a criminal in their own houses, until the final
    decision upon his offence was given by the ordinary courts of
    justice.

48. Interea plebes, conjuratione patefacta, quae primo cupida rerum
novarum nimis bello favebat, mutata mente Catilinae consilia execrari,
Ciceronem ad coelum tollere; veluti ex servitute erepta gaudium atque
laetitiam agitabat.[230] Namque alia belli facinora praedae magis quam
detrimento fore, incendium vero crudele, immoderatum ac sibi maxime
calamitosum putabat, quippe cui omnes copiae in usu cotidiano et cultu
corporis erant.[231] Post eum diem quidam L. Tarquinius ad senatum
adductus erat, quem ad Catilinam proficiscentem ex itinere retractum
ajebant. Is, quum se diceret indicaturum de conjuratione, si fides
publica data esset, jussus a consule quae sciret edicere, eadem fere quae
Volturcius, de paratis incendiis, de caede bonorum, de itinere hostium
senatum docet; praeterea se missum a M. Crasso, qui Catilinae nuntiaret,
ne eum Lentulus et Cethegus aliique ex conjuratione deprehensi[232]
terrerent, eoque magis properaret ad urbem accedere, quo et ceterorum
animos reficeret et illi facilius e periculo eriperentur. Sed ubi
Tarquinius Crassum nominavit, hominem nobilem, maximis divitiis, summa
potentia, alii rem incredibilem rati, pars tametsi verum existimabant,
tamen quia in tali tempore[233] tanta vis hominis magis leniunda quam
exagitanda videbatur, plerique Crasso ex negotiis privatis obnoxii
conclamant indicem falsum esse, deque ea re postulant uti referatur.[234]
Itaque consulente Cicerone frequens senatus decernit, Tarquinii indicium
falsum videri, eumque in vinculis retinendum, neque amplius
potestatem[235] faciundam, nisi de eo indicaret, cujus consilio tantam
rem esset mentitus. Erant eo tempore, qui aestimarent, indicium illud a
P. Autronio machinatum, quo facilius appellato Crasso per societatem
periculi reliquos illius potentia tegeret. Alii Tarquinium a Cicerone
immissum ajebant, ne Crassus more suo suscepto malorum patrocinio rem
publicam conturbaret. Ipsum Crassum ego postea praedicantem [236] audivi,
tantam illam contumeliam sibi a Cicerone impositam.

[230] Such transitions from the historical infinitive to the present or
    imperfect, and _vice versa_, are not uncommon in Sallust. See
    chapters 18, 23, 56, 58.
[231] _Erant_; according to the style of Cicero, it would be _essent_.
    See Zumpt, S 565.
[232] For _deprehensio Lentuli et aliorum_, which would be more in
    accordance with the usage of modern languages.
[233] _In tali tempore_. See Zumpt, S 475, note.
[234] They demanded that the consul should bring forward the matter, as
    to whether the statement of Tarquinius was to be believed, in order
    that the votes might be taken upon it. For without a special
    _relatio_ by the magistrate authorised to make it (commonly the
    presiding consul, but sometimes also a tribune of the people), no
    senatus consultum could be made.
[235] _Potestatem_; supply from the context _indicandi_.
[236] _Praedicantem_. See Zumpt, S 636.

49. Sed iisdem temporibus Q. Catulus et C. Piso[237] neque precibus neque
gratia neque pretio Ciceronem impellere potuere, uti per Allobroges aut
alium indicem C. Caesar falso nominaretur. Nam uterque cum illo graves
inimicitias exercebat: Piso oppugnatus in judicio pecuniarum repetundarum
propter cujusdam Transpadani supplicium injustum; Catulus ex petitione
pontificatus odio incensus, quod extrema aetate, maximis honoribus usus,
ab adolescentulo Caesare victus[238] discesserat. Res autem opportuna
videbatur, quod is privatim egregia liberalitate, publice maximis
muneribus[239] grandem pecuniam debebat. Sed ubi consulem ad tantum
facinus impellere nequeunt, ipsi singulatim circumeundo atque ementiundo,
quae se ex Volturcio aut Allobrogibus audisse dicerent,[240] magnam illi
invidiam conflaverant, usque adeo, ut nonnulli equites Romani, qui
praesidii causa eum telis erant circum aedem Concordiae, seu periculi
magnitudine seu animi mobilitate[241] impulsi, quo studium suum in rem
publicam clarius esset, egredienti ex senatu Caesari gladio minitarentur.

[237] These two leaders of the party of the optimates had been consuls,
    Catulus in the year B.C. 78, and C. Piso in B.C. 67; and Catulus had
    also been censor in B.C. 65. Both were enemies of Caesar, who had
    defeated Catulus in his canvas for the office of pontifex maximus,
    and had caused a judicial inquiry to be instituted against Piso,
    about the manner in which he had conducted the proconsular
    administration of Gaul. Caesar was even then considered as the leader
    of the popular party, and as an opponent of the senate and its
    influence in the constitution.
[238] It was at that time that Caesar, on going from home to the
    elective assembly, said to his mother, 'To-day you shall see your
    son either as pontifex, or you shall never see him again.' Caesar,
    however, is here called an _adolescentulus_ only in comparison
    with the aged Catulus, for he was at that time thirty-six years old.
[239] 'In public life by the greatest exhibitions;' for _munera_ are
    exhibitions by means of which a private person, and still oftener a
    magistrate, endeavoured to win the favour of the people. As regards
    Caesar, that which is said here refers to the brilliant exhibitions
    in his aedileship, and the games which he gave while invested with
    that office. But he had thereby got so deeply into debt, that when,
    after his praetorship--with which he was invested in B. C. 62, the
    year after the Catilinarian conspiracy--he wanted to leave Rome to go
    to his province of Spain, he was kept back by his creditors; and
    he was not allowed to depart until M. Crassus had given security
    for him.
[240] _Dicerent_. Respecting this subjunctive, see Zumpt, S 551.
[241] _Mobilitas animi_, 'irritability,' or that state of mind which is
    easily excited, or upon which it is easy to make an impression.
    _Clarius esset_ is an explanation of _gladio minitarentur_.

50. Dum haec in senatu aguntur et dum legatis Allobrogum et T. Volturcio,
comprobato eorum indicio, praemia decernuntur, liberti et pauci ex
clientibus Lentuli diversis itineribus opifices atque servitia in
vicis ad eum eripiundum sollicitabant, partim exquirebant duces
multitudinum,[242] qui pretio rem publicam vexare soliti erant. Cethegus
autem per nuntios familiam atque libertos suos, lectos et exercitatos in
audaciam, orabat, ut grege facto cum telis ad sese irrumperent. Consul,
ubi ea parari cognovit, dispositis praesidiis, ut res atque tempus
monebat, convocato senatu refert, quid de his fieri placeat, qui in
custodiam traditi erant. Sed eos paulo ante frequens senatus judicaverat
contra rem publicam fecisse.[243] Tum D. Junius Silanus, primus
sententiam rogatus,[244] quod eo tempore consul designatus erat, de
his, qui in custodiis tenebantur, praeterea de L. Cassio, P. Furio,
P. Umbreno, Q. Annio, si deprehensi forent, supplicium sumendum
decreverat; isque postea, permotus oratione C. Caesaris, pedibus in
sententiam Tib. Neronis iturum[245] se dixerat, quod de ea re praesidiis
additis referundum censuerat.[246] Sed Caesar, ubi ad eum ventum est,
rogatus sententiam a consule, hujuscemodi verba locutus est:

[242] _Multitudines_; that is, _catervae, factiones_, crowds or bands of
    men united for the purpose of creating disturbances among the people.
[243] This is the customary form of condemnation in a decree of the
    senate, whereby it is declared that a wrong has actually been done
    to the state, or that an attempt has been made upon the constitution.
    The verdict of 'guilty,' therefore, had been pronounced by the
    senate itself.
[244] _Sententiam rogatus_. See Zumpt, S 393, note 1.
[245] He had declared that at the voting, which took place after the
    members of the senate had expressed their opinions, he would vote
    for the opinion of Tib. Nero; for the voting took place by a division
    (_discessio_), only one proposal being voted upon at a time, so
    that those who supported it separated from those who did not support
    it, but intended to vote for any other opinion (_alia omnia_).
[246] This opinion then aimed only at an adjournment of the matter.
    Its issue was to be waited for; but in the meantime, the posts of
    guards were to be strengthened, and a fresh proposal was to be made
    respecting the punishment of the prisoners. The Tib. Nero here
    mentioned is the grandfather of the Emperor Tiberius, who was raised
    to the imperial throne in A. D. 14, in the fifty-sixth year of his
    age.

51. 'Omnes homines, patres conscripti, qui de rebus dubiis consultant, ab
odio, amicitia, ira atque misericordia vacuos esse decet. Haud facile
animus verum providet, ubi illa officiunt, neque quisquam omnium libidini
simul et usui paruit. Ubi intenderis ingenium, valet; si libido possidet,
ea dominatur, animus nihil valet. Magna mihi copia est memorandi,
P. C., quae reges atque populi ira aut misericordia impulsi male
consuluerint;[247] sed ea malo dicere, quae majores nostri contra
libidinem animi sui recte atque ordine fecere. Bello Macedonico, quod cum
rege Perse[248] gessimus, Rhodiorum civitas, magna atque magnifica, quae
populi Romani opibus creverat, infida atque adversa nobis fuit; sed
postquam bello confecto de Rhodiis consultum est, majores nostri, ne quis
divitiarum magis quam injuriae causa bellum inceptum diceret, impunitos
eos dimisere. Item bellis Punicis omnibus, quum saepe Karthaginienses et
in pace et per inducias multa nefaria facinora fecissent, nunquam ipsi
per occasionem talia fecere; magis, quid se dignum foret, quam quid in
illos jure fieri posset, quaerebant. Hoc item vobis providendum est,
P. C., ne plus apud vos valeat P. Lentuli et ceterorum scelus quam vestra
dignitas; neu magis irae vestrae quam famae consulatis. Nam si digna
poena pro factis eorum reperitur, novum consilium approbo; sin magnitude
sceleris omnium ingenia exuperat, his utendum censeo, quae legibus
comparata sunt. Plerique eorum, qui ante me sententiam dixerunt,
composite atque magnifice casum rei publicae miserati sunt; quae belli
saevitia esset, quae victis acciderent, enumeravere; rapi virgines,
pueros, divelli liberos a parentum complexu, matres familiarum pati, quae
victoribus collibuissent, fana atque domos spoliari, caedem, incendia
fieri, postremo armis, cadaveribus, cruore atque luctu omnia compleri.
Sed, per deos immortales, quo illa oratio pertinuit? an[249] uti vos
infestos conjurationi faceret? Scilicet[250] quem res tanta et tam,
atrox non permovit, eum oratio accendet. Non ita est; neque cuiquam
mortalium injuriae suae[251] parvae videntur: multi eas gravius aequo
habuere.[252] Sed alia aliis licentia est, P. C. Qui demissi in obscuro
vitam habent,[253] si quid iracundia deliquere, pauci sciunt; fama atque
fortuna eorum pares sunt: qui magno imperio praediti in excelso aetatem
agunt, eorum facta cuncti mortales novere. Ita in maxima fortuna minima
licentia est; neque studere, neque odisse, sed minime irasci decet; quae
apud alios iracundia dicitur, ea in imperio superbia atque crudelitas
appellatur. Equidem ego[254] sic existimo, P. C., omnes cruciatus minores
quam facinora illorum esse; sed plerique mortales postrema meminere, et
in hominibus impiis sceleris eorum obliti de poena disserunt, si ea paulo
severior fuit. D. Silanum, virum fortem atque strenuum, certo scio, quae
dixerit, studio rei publicae dixisse, neque illum in tanta re gratiam aut
inimicitias[255] exercere; eos mores eamque modestiam viri cognovi.[256]
Verum sententia ejus mihi non crudelis,--quid enim in tales homines
crudele fieri potest?--sed aliena a re publica nostra videtur. Nam
profecto aut metus aut injuria te subegit,[257] Silane, consulem
designatum, genus poenae novum decernere. De timore supervacaneum est
disserere, quum praesertim diligentia clarissimi viri, consulis, tanta
praesidia sint in armis. De poena possumus equidem dicere id quod res
habet;[258] in luctu atque miseriis mortem aerumnarum requiem, non
cruciatum esse, eam cuncta mortalium mala dissolvere, ultra neque
curae neque gaudio locum esse. Sed, per deos immortales, quamobrem
in sententiam non addidisti, uti prius verberibus in eos
animadverteretur?[259] An quia lex Porcia[260] vetat? At aliae leges item
condemnatis civibus non animam eripi, sed exilium permitti jubent.[261]
An, quia gravius est verberari quam necari? Quid autem acerbum aut nimis
grave est in homines tanti facinoris convictos? Sin, quia levius est; qui
convenit[262] in minore negotio legem timere, quum eam in majore
neglexeris? At enim[263] quis reprehendet, quod in parricidas rei
publicae decretum erit? Tempus, dies, fortuna, cujus libido gentibus
moderatur. Illis merito accidet, quidquid evenerit; ceterum vos, P. C.,
quid in alios statuatis, considerate. Omnia mala exempla ex bonis orta
sunt; sed ubi imperium ad ignaros aut minus bonos pervenit, novum
illud exemplum ab dignis et idoneis ad indignos et non idoneos
transfertur.[264] Lacedaemonii devictis Atheniensibus triginta viros[265]
imposuere, qui rem publicam eorum tractarent. Hi primo coepere pessimum
quemque et omnibus invisum indemnatum necare; ea[266] populus laetari et
merito dicere fieri. Post ubi paulatim licentia crevit, juxta bonos et
malos libidinose interficere, ceteros metu terrere. Ita civitas servitute
oppressa stultae laetitiae graves poenas dedit. Nostra memoria victor
Sulla quum Damasippum[267] et alios hujusmodi, qui malo rei publicae
creverant, jugulare jussit, quis non factum ejus laudabat? Homines
scelestos et factiosos, qui seditionibus rem publicam exagitaverant,
merito necatos ajebant. Sed ea res magnae initium cladis fuit. Nam uti
quisque domum aut villam, postremo vas aut vestimentum alicujus
concupiverat, dabat operam, ut is in proscriptorum[268] numero esset. Ita
illi, quibus Damasippi mors laetitiae fuerat, paulo post ipsi
trahebantur; neque prius finis jugulandi fuit quam Sulla omnes suos
divitiis explevit. Atque ego haec non in M. Tullio neque his temporibus
vereor, sed in magna civitate multa et varia ingenia sunt. Potest alio
tempore, alio consule, cui item exercitus in manu sit, falsum aliquid pro
vero credi; ubi hoc exemplo per senati decretum consul gladium eduxerit,
quis illi finem statuet aut quis moderabitur? Majores nostri, P. C.,
neque consilii neque audaciae unquam eguere, neque illis superbia
obstabat, quo minus aliena instituta, si modo proba erant, imitarentur.
Arma atque tela militaria ab Samnitibus, insignia magistratuum ab Tuscis
pleraque[269] sumpserunt: postremo quod ubique apud socios aut hostes
idoneum videbatur, cum summo studio domi exequebantur, imitari quam
invidere bonis malebant. Sed eodem illo tempore, Graeciae morem imitati,
verberibus animadvertebant in cives, de condemnatis summum supplicium
sumebant. Postquam res publica adolevit et multitudine civium factiones
valuere, circumvenire innocentes, alia hujuscemodi fieri coepere, tum lex
Porcia aliaeque leges paratae sunt, quibus legibus[270] exilium damnatis
permissum est. Ego hanc causam, P. C., quominus[271] novum consilium
capiamus, in primis magnam puto. Profecto virtus atque sapientia major in
illis fuit, qui ex parvis opibus tantum imperium fecere quam in nobis,
qui ea bene parta vix retinemus. Placet igitur eos dimitti et augere
exercitum Catilinae? Minime, sed ita censeo; publicandas eorum pecunias,
ipsos in vinculis habendos per municipia,[272] quae maxime opibus valent;
neu quis de his postea ad senatum referat neve cum populo agat; qui
aliter fecerit, senatum existimare eum contra rem publicam et salutem
omnium facturum.'

[247] _Male consulere_, 'to form bad' or 'injurious resolutions.'
[248] _Perse_. Respecting the forms of this name, see Zumpt, SS 52, 54.
[249] _An_ must be explained by supplying another interrogation before
    it, such as _alione?_ 'had that speech any other object, or had it
    this one?' for _an_ is used only in the second part of a double
    question.
[250] 'To be sure words will fire him on, whom the thing itself did not
    move'--that is, words are sure not to rouse him whom the thing
    itself did not move; for _scilicet_ has an ironical force.
[251] _Injuriae suae_, 'the injuries done to him.'
[252] 'Many have taken them more seriously to heart than was necessary.'
    It is more common to say _gravius tulerunt_. The perfect, _habuere_,
    in expressing a general truth, has the sense of a present, or rather
    of a Greek aorist, denoting that which once happened, and still
    continues to happen. Compare p.22, note 2 [note 68].
[253] _Vitam habent_ for _vitam agunt_, which is more common. Sallust is
    very fond of the verb _habere_ in certain phrases. See _Jug_. 10.
[254] _Equidem ego_ for _ego quidem_. See Zumpt, S 278.
[255] _Inimicitiae_. About this plural, see Zumpt, S 94. The singular
    _inimicitia_ is not used at all.
[256] 'Such I know to be the character of the man.'
[257] _Subigere_ here, as in many other passages of Sallust, has the
    meaning of _cogere, invitum impellere_ ('to force a person to
    something'), followed by an infinitive instead of a clause with _ut_.
[258] _Id quod res habet_, 'that which is in the nature of the thing.'
    Caesar hereby means to represent his opinion as philosophically
    correct, and in accordance with nature. _Id quod_ belong together.
[259] Such had indeed been the custom in former times. The condemned
    person, previous to being beheaded with the axe, was bound to a post
    and scourged. This barbarous punishment continued to be inflicted
    sometimes even at a later period, when it was expressly mentioned in
    the verdict that the criminal should be punished _more majorum_.
    _Animadvertere_ is the proper expression for the infliction of
    bodily punishment by a lictor, who _has to pay attention to his
    orders_; but it is also used of the person who gives the order,
    and causes it to be carried into effect, just as _interficere_
    is said both of the executioner and the person who orders a man to be
    put to death.
[260] This law, proposed by one Porcius, and passed by the people,
    forbade the scourging of Roman citizens on the naked body; so that,
    after the passing of that law, an execution consisted simply in
    beheading a criminal with the sword; and if he was a soldier,
    flogging took the place of scourging. The celebrated M. Porcius Cato,
    about B. C. 160, recommended this bill to the people; but it was not
    he who proposed it, but an unknown person of the name of Porcius,
    probably a tribune of the people.
[261] There were no Roman laws forbidding capital punishment, or
    substituting exile in its place, and for this reason Caesar does not
    refer to any such law. He supports his view only by the circumstance
    that, in all the more recent laws, especially in the criminal law of
    Sulla, exile (_interdictio aquae et ignis_) was fixed upon as the
    extreme penalty; and that according to the usual indulgence (not
    sanctioned by any law), accused persons, if they denied being guilty,
    and were defended by some one, remained in the enjoyment of their
    freedom until the sentence was passed. Thus it happened that a
    person, foreseeing his condemnation, might quit the Roman territory,
    and take up his abode within the territory of some town or city where
    the Roman law was not in force, and where the Roman state placed no
    obstacles in his way.
[262] 'How is it consistent?' Respecting _qui_ for _quomodo_ or _quo
    pacto_, see Zumpt, S 133, note. The _minus negotium_ is the
    scourging, and the _majus negotium_ the execution.
[263] _At enim_ introduces an objection raised by the orator himself.
    _At_ represents the objection, and _enim_ introduces an explanation
    of it. See Zumpt, S 349.
[264] Caesar means to say that the present senate, which, as he
    flatteringly says, consists of worthy men, will not abuse the power
    of putting Roman citizens to death; but that a subsequent senate,
    taking such an example as a precedent, might abuse its power. It
    must be observed that the Roman senate possessed the power over the
    life and death of citizens, not by virtue of legal enactments, but
    only by ancient custom. This power legally belonged only to the
    people assembled in the Comitia Centuriata, or to those to whom the
    people expressly intrusted it--namely, the ordinary and extraordinary
    courts of justice. It may seem surprising that Caesar does not
    express himself more energetically against the right claimed by the
    senate; but he would certainly have spoken in vain, for it was
    every senator's interest that the power of the senate should be
    recognised in its greatest extent, even though it should not be
    exercised in every particular case.
[265] That is, the so-called thirty tyrants in the year B. C. 404.
[266] _Ea_; for this accusative, see Zumpt, S 385.
[267] _Damasippus_ was only a surname of the praetor M. Junius Brutus,
    who in the year B. C. 82 put to death a great many Roman nobles of
    the party of Sulla.
[268] Namely, by Sulla, after he had been made dictator.
[269] _Pleraque_; most of the ensigns and distinctions by which the
    magistrates were distinguished from private persons, especially the
    _toga praetexta_, _sella curulis_, _fasces_ (which were carried
    by the lictors), and, above all, the splendid procession of the
    _triumphatores_.
[270] _Legibus_ is here a pleonasm, and might have been omitted. We
    must here repeat that Caesar makes an artful application of the
    circumstance that, in all the late criminal laws, the _interdictio
    aquae et ignis_ was fixed as the severest punishment, as if
    thereby a person had been simply permitted to withdraw from the
    republic. The _interdictio_ was a much more severe punishment,
    inasmuch as the person on whom it was inflicted lost all his rights
    as a citizen, and as every one was forbidden to receive him into his
    house, so that he was a complete outcast. Wherever these regulations
    were not carried into effect, and even in case a criminal made his
    escape before the sentence was pronounced, we can see nothing but an
    abuse of clemency.
[271] _Quominus_ is here used because the leading clause conveys the
    idea of a hindrance; but _ne_ also might have been written.
[272] _Per municipia_, 'among the municipia.' See Zumpt, S 301.

52. Postquam Caesar dicendi finem fecit, ceteri verbo alius alii varie
assentiebantur: at M. Porcius Cato, rogatus sententiam, hujuscemodi
orationem habuit: 'Longe mihi alia mens est, P. C., quum res atque
pericula nostra considero, et quum sententias nonnullorum mecum ipse
reputo.[273] Illi mihi disseruisse videntur de poena eorum, qui patriae,
parentibus, aris atque focis suis bellum paravere; res autem monet cavere
ab illis magis quam, quid in illos statuamus, consultare. Nam cetera
maleficia tum persequare, ubi facta sunt; hoc nisi provideris ne accidat,
ubi evenit, frustra judicia implores; capta urbe nihil fit reliqui
victis. Sed, per deos immortales, vos ego appello, qui semper domos,
villas, signa, tabulas vestras pluris quam rem publicam fecistis,[274] si
ista, cujuscunque modi sunt quae amplexamini, retinere, si voluptatibus
vestris otium praebere vultis, expergiscimini aliquando et capessite rem
publicam.[275] Non agitur de vectigalibus neque de sociorum injuriis:
libertas et anima nostra in dubio est. Saepenumero, P. C., multa verba in
hoc ordine feci,[276] saepe de luxuria atque avaritia nostrorum civium
questus sum, multosque mortales ea causa adversos habeo; qui mihi atque
animo meo nullius unquam delicti gratiam fecissem,[277] haud facile
alterius libidini male facta condonabam. Sed ea tametsi vos parvi
pendebatis, tamen res publica firma erat; opulentia neglegentiam
tolerabat.[278] Nunc vero non id agitur, bonisne an malis moribus
vivamus, neque quantum aut quam magnificum imperium, populi Romani sit,
sed haec cujuscunque modi videntur, nostra an nobiscum una hostium futura
sint. Hic mihi quisquam mansuetudinem et misericordiam nominat.[279]
Jampridem equidem[280] nos vera vocabula rerum amisimus, quia bona aliena
largiri liberalitas, malarum rerum audacia fortitudo vocatur, eo[281] res
publica in extremo sita est. Sint sane, quoniam ita se mores habent,
liberales ex sociorum fortunis, sint misericordes in furibus aerarii; ne
illi sanguinem nostrum largiantur, et[282] dum paucis sceleratis parcunt,
bonos omnes perditum eant. Bene et composite G. Caesar paulo ante in hoc
ordine de vita et morte disseruit, credo falsa existimans ea, quae de
inferis memorantur, diverso itinere malos a bonis loca taetra, inculta,
foeda atque formidolosa habere. Itaque censuit pecunias eorum
publicandas, ipsos per municipia in custodiis habendos; videlicet timens,
ne, si Romae sint, aut a popularibus conjurationis aut a multitudine
conducta per vim eripiantur. Quasi vero mali atque scelesti tantummodo in
urbe et non[283] per totam Italiam sint, aut non ibi plus possit audacia,
ubi ad defendendum opes minores sunt. Quare vanum equidem hoc consilium
est, si periculum ex illis metuit; sin in tanto omnium metu solus non
timet, eo magis refert[284] me mihi atque vobis timere. Quare quum de P.
Lentulo ceterisque statuetis, pro certo habetote,[285] vos simul de
exercitu Catilinae et de omnibus conjuratis decernere. Quanto vos
attentius ea agetis, tanto illis animus infirmior erit; si paululum modo
vos languere viderint, jam omnes feroces aderunt.[286] Nolite existimare,
majores nostros armis rem publicam ex parva magnam fecisse.[287] Si ita
res esset, multo pulcherrimam eam nos haberemus; quippe sociorum atque
civium, praeterea armorum atque equorum major nobis copia quam illis est.
Sed alia fuere, quae illos magnos fecere, quae nobis nulla sunt, domi
industria, foris justum imperium, animus in consulendo liber, neque
delicto neque libidini obnoxius.[288] Pro his nos habemus luxuriam atque
avaritiam, publice egestatem, privatim opulentiam; laudamus divitias,
sequimur inertiam; inter bonos et malos discrimen nullum est; omnia
virtutis praemia ambitio possidet. Neque mirum: ubi vos separatim sibi
quisque consilium capitis, ubi domi voluptatibus, hic[289] pecuniae aut
gratiae servitis, eo fit, ut impetus fiat in vacuam[290] rem publicam.
Sed ego haec omitto. Conjuravere nobilissimi cives patriam
incendere,[291] Gallorum gentem infestissimam nomini Romano ad bellum
accersunt; dux hostium cum exercitu supra caput est: vos cunctamini
etiamnunc, quid intra moenia deprensis hostibus faciatis?[292]
Misereamini censeo[293],--deliquere homines adolescentuli per
ambitionem,--atque etiam armatos dimittatis. Nae ista vobis mansuetudo et
misericordia, si illi arma ceperint in miseriam onvertet.[294] Scilicet
res ipsa aspera est, sed vos non timetis eam.[295] Immo vero[296] maxime;
sed inertia et mollitia animi alius alium expectantes cunctamini,
videlicet dis immortalibus confisi, qui hanc rem publicam saepe in
maximis periculis servavere. Non votis neque suppliciis muliebribus
auxilia deorum parantur; vigilando, agendo, bene consulendo prospera
omnia cedunt; ubi socordiae te atque ignaviae tradideris, nequidquam deos
implores;[297] irati infestique sunt. Apud majores nostros A. Manlius
Torquatus bello Gallico filium suum, quod is contra imperium in hostem
pugnaverat, necare jussit,[298] atque ille egregius adolescens
immoderatae fortitudinis morte poenas dedit: vos de crudelissimis
parricidis quid statuatis cunctamini? Videlicet cetera vita eorum huic
sceleri obstat. Verum parcite dignitati Lentuli, si ipse pudicitiae, si
famae suae, si dis aut hominibus unquam ullis pepercit; ignoscite Cethegi
adolescentiae, nisi iterum jam patriae bellum fecit. Nam quid ego de
Gabinio, Statilio, Caepario loquar? quibus si quidquam[299] unquam pensi
fuisset, non ea consilia de re publica habuissent. Postremo, P. C., si
mehercule peccato locus esset,[300] facile paterer vos ipsa re corrigi,
quoniam verba contemnitis; sed undique circumventi sumus. Catilina cum
exercitu faucibus urguet:[301] alii intra moenia atque in sinu urbis sunt
hostes: neque parari neque consuli quidquam potest occulte; quo magis
properandum est. Quare ita ego censeo: quum nefario consilio sceleratorum
civium res publica in maxima pericula venerit, iique indicio T. Volturcii
et legatorum Allobrogum convicti confessique sint caedem, incendia
aliaque se foeda atque crudelia facinora in cives patriamque paravisse,
de confessis sicuti de manifestis rerum capitalium more majorum
supplicium sumendum.'

[273] Cato says, '_When I consider the danger of our situation, I form
    quite a different view_ from what I do when I reflect upon the
    opinions expressed by some about the punishment of the criminals; for
    the present danger demands energetic measures of defence, while some
    of you are speaking only about the punishment of a crime already
    committed. But such a view is incorrect, for we are still surrounded
    by the greatest dangers.'
[274] _Pluris facere_, 'to esteem higher.'
[275] _Capessere rem publicam_, 'to take part in the administration of
    the state,' or 'to devote one's self to its service.'
[276] _Verba facere_, 'to speak,' or 'to make a speech.'
[277] 'I who had never connived at any of my bad acts'--that is, I who
    had never given way to my own weaknesses. About this subjunctive
    expressing the reason why the orator does not allow the faults of
    others to pass unnoticed, see Zumpt, SS 555, 558.
[278] 'The strength of the state bore the negligence' in restraining the
    arbitrary proceedings in which individuals indulged.
[279] 'And here any one will speak to me of clemency and mercy!' alluding
    to Caesar. The negative pronoun _quisquam_ is used because the
    meaning implied is, that no one ought to have done so. See
    Zumpt, S 709.
[280] _Equidem_ for _quidem_, as often in Sallust, but never in
    Cicero. The meaning is: 'We have indeed (_quidem_) long since lost
    the habit of calling things by their true names, but this erroneous
    application of the word _mercy_ is not to be borne.'
[281] _Eo_; Cicero would have said _ea re_.
[282] Instead of _et_, the author might have used _neve_ (_neu_), since
    from the preceding clause we have to supply _ne_ to _et_. This is not
    a very common mode of speaking; but it occurs most frequently when,
    after a negative clause, _et_ introduces a kind of antithesis, and
    thus acquires the power of _sed_.
[283] _Et non_ corrects the untrue supposition, that there were no rebels
    except at Rome. In such a case we can neither use _non_ without _et_,
    nor _neque_. See Zumpt, S 334.
[284] 'If Caesar alone is unconcerned, it is more requisite (necessary
    or important) that I should be concerned for me and for you.' About
    _refert_, see Zumpt, SS 23, 449, note.
[285] _Habetote_; this future imperative denotes that something is to be
    done when something else shall take place. Zumpt, S 583.
[286] The meaning is: 'All will be there immediately'--that is, they will
    rise to make the attack.
[287] Cato means to say, 'It is a wrong opinion that our state has
    become great by arms; for if this were true, it would now be in the
    most flourishing condition, as our military power is now greater
    than it ever was. The republic has become great much more by the
    activity of the citizens, and by the justice of the government, and
    it is this activity and stern justice that must be restored.'
[288] _Obnoxius_, 'subject to a punishment,' or 'to be injured (_noxa_);'
    hence, figuratively, 'bound,' 'dependent.' Our ancestors, says Cato,
    could deliberate and judge without bias, for their minds were not
    crippled either by crimes they had committed, nor by immoderate
    desires and passions--a hint intimating that those who were in favour
    of lenient measures were conscious of their own guilt, and not free
    from bad intentions.
[289] _Hic_--that is, in the senate, in discussing matters of public
    importance, you allow yourselves to be guided only by your desire to
    gain money and popularity, being anxious not to offend any one who
    may be in your way.
[290] _Vacuam_--namely, _a defensoribus_, 'defenceless,' 'helpless.'
[291] _Incendere_, a free use of the infinitive for _ad patriam
    incendendam_.
[292] A question expressive of wonder, in which the interrogative
    particles are commonly not used. See Zumpt, S 351, note.
[293] Ironically: 'I am of opinion that you should have mercy, and
    dismiss the criminals.' The subjunctive without _ut_ depends upon the
    verb _censeo_; it is not a subjunctive for an imperative.
[294] 'Assuredly this clemency of yours will end in misery.' Respecting
    _nae_, see Zumpt, S 360; and on the transitive sense of _vertere_,
    S 145.
[295] The sentence beginning with _scilicet_ is again ironical. The
    sense, without the irony, is: 'Nor can it be supposed that you
    consider the matter indeed difficult, but that you are without fear.
    You are, on the contrary, full of fear, but you hesitate.'
[296] _Immo vero_, 'oh no; on the contrary.' See Zumpt, S 277.
[297] Respecting this form of hypothetical sentences, see Zumpt, S 524,
    note 1. The verb in the apodosis might be _implorabis_, without
    altering the meaning.
[298] This statement differs in two points from the current tradition
    of history. First, the praenomen of this Manlius is commonly _Titus_,
    and so we must no doubt correct here, even though the manuscripts
    have _Aulus_. Secondly, he did not show his severe military
    discipline towards his son in the Gallic war, but in the great Latin
    war, which ended, in B.C. 340, with the subjugation of Latium.
    Manlius ordered his son to be executed in presence of the army; and
    to characterise that harsh severity, the orator uses the word
    _necare_ instead of _interficere_ or _occidere_.
[299] _Quidquam_ is stronger than _siquid_--that is, the expression of
    the negative is more strongly marked in the protasis.
[300] 'If there were room for a mistake'--namely, in the resolution to be
    come to. The meaning is: 'No time is to be lost, since, if you come
    to a wrong determination, you will be ruined before you have time to
    correct your decision.'
[301] 'Is upon our necks,' a figurative expression, properly applied to
    a wrestler who seizes another by the throat.

53. Postquam Cato assedit, consulares omnes itemque senatus magna pars
sententiam ejus laudant, virtutem animi ad coelum ferunt, alii alios
increpantes timidos vocant, Cato clarus atque magnus habetur, senati
decretum fit, sicuti ille censuerat. Sed mihi multa legenti, multa
audienti, quae populus Romanus domi militiaeque, mari atque terra
praeclara facinora fecit, forte libuit attendere, quae res maxime tanta
negotia sustinuisset.[302] Sciebam saepenumero parva manu cum magnis
legionibus hostium contendisse; cognoveram parvis copiis bella gesta cum
opulentis regibus, ad hoc saepe fortunae violentiam toleravisse, facundia
Graecos, gloria belli Gallos ante Romanos fuisse. Ac mihi multa agitanti
constabat, paucorum civium egregiam virtutem cuncta patravisse,[303]
eoque factum, uti divitias paupertas, multitudinem paucitas superaret.
Sed postquam luxu atque desidia civitas corrupta est, rursus res publica
magnitudine sua imperatorum atque magistratuum vitia sustentabat, ac,
sicuti effeta parentum,[304] multis tempestatibus haud sane quisquam
Romae virtute magnus fuit. Sed memoria mea ingenti virtute, diversis
moribus fuere viri duo, M. Cato et G. Caesar; quos quoniam res obtulerat,
silentio praeterire non fuit consilium, quin[305] utriusque naturam et
mores, quantum ingenio possem, aperirem.

[302] 'What has chiefly helped in carrying out such great undertakings.'
    _Negotium sustinere_, 'to be able to carry out a business,'
    representing the _negotium_ as a burden.
[303] Sallust states that, after mature consideration of all the
    circumstances, he has come to the conviction that the merit of
    individual citizens had raised Rome to its supremacy over the world,
    but that afterwards there were no men of importance, or excelling
    others by mental superiority, and that the state, as a whole, alone
    made the faults of individuals bearable. We must honour the judgment
    of Sallust, but cannot agree with it; we must rather believe that the
    unvarying ability of the whole Roman people, notwithstanding the not
    very prominent minds of individuals, was the cause of the rapid
    progress of the Roman dominion. In the later times, on the other
    hand, we meet a Scipio the younger, a Marius, a Sulla, a Pompey, and
    a Caesar, all of whom were men or generals of eminent talent, while
    all those who served under them were persons of inferior abilities.
[304] _Effeta parentum_, the same as _effeta parens_, 'a mother who has
    had children, but can have no more.' Respecting the partitive
    genitive (as in _aliqui militum_ for _aliqui milites_), see
    Zumpt, S 430. The author in the progress of his sentence abandons the
    construction with which he began, and which ought to have been
    continued thus: _Roma haud sane quemquam virtute magnum protulit_,
    for which he says, _Romae haud sane quisquam virtute magnus fuit_.
    This deviation from the construction may be explained still more
    easily, if in our mind we add _facit_ to the words _sicuti effeta
    parentum_, 'as is the case with an aged mother.' _Multis
    tempestatibus_, 'during a long time.' The singular _tempestas_ in the
    sense of 'time' is not uncommon, but the plural _tempestates_ in the
    sense of 'periods of time' occurs only in Sallust in this passage,
    and _Jug_. 73, 96, and 108.
[305] _Quin_ is used regularly for _ut non_ after a negative clause:
    'I would not pass them over in silence, without unfolding their
    characters.'

54. Igitur his genus, aetas, eloquentia prope aequalia fuere; magnitudo
animi par, item gloria, sed alia alii.[306] Caesar beneficiis ac
munificentia magnus habebatur, integritate vitae Cato. Ille mansuetudine
et misericordia clarus factus, huic severitas dignitatem addiderat.
Caesar dando, sublevando, ignoscendo, Cato nihil largiundo gloriam
adeptus est. In altero miseris perfugium erat, in altero malis pernicies;
illius facilitas, hujus constantia laudabatur. Postremo Caesar in animum
induxerat laborare, vigilare; negotiis amicorum intentus sua neglegere,
nihil denegare, quod dono dignum esset; sibi magnum imperium, exercitum,
bellum novum exoptabat, ubi virtus enitescere posset. At Catoni studium
modestiae, decoris, sed maxime severitatis erat. Non divitiis cum divite,
neque factione cum factioso, sed cum strenuo virtute, cum modesto pudore,
cum innocente abstinentia certabat, esse quam videri bonus malebat; ita
quo minus petebat gloriam, eo magis ilium sequebatur.[307]

[306] 'But the one a different one from the other.' The Latin custom of
    repeating the same word obliges the author, having once said _alia_,
    to use _alii_, which, strictly speaking, should be _alteri_, as he is
    speaking of only two persons.
[307] 'The less he strove after fame, the more it followed him of
    itself,' so that _gloria_ must be supplied.

55. Postquam, ut dixi, senatus in Catonis sententiam discessit,[308]
consul optimum factu ratus, noctem, quae instabat, antecapere, ne quid eo
spatio novaretur, III. viros[309] quae supplicium postulabat parare
jubet; ipse, praesidiis dispositis, Lentulum in carcerem deducit;[310]
idem fit ceteris per praetores. Est in carcere locus, quod[311] Tullianum
appellatur, ubi paululum descenderis ad laevam, circiter duodecim pedes
humi depressus.[312] Eum muniunt undique parietes atque insuper camera
lapideis fornicibus vineta,[313] sed incultu,[314] tenebris, odore foeda
atque terribilis ejus facies est. In eum locum postquam demissus est
Lentulus, viridices rerum capitalium,[315] quibus praeceptum erat, laqueo
gulam fregere. Ila ille patricius ex gente clarissima Corneliorum, qui
consulare imperium Romae habuerat,[316] dignum moribus factisque suis
exitium vitae invenit. De Cethego, Statilio, Gabinio, Caepario eodem modo
supplicium sumptum est.[317]

[308] _Dicessit_; that is, after the senate, a division having taken
    place, had decided in favour of Cato's opinion. Compare p. 50, note 2
    [note 245].
[309] Read _tresviros_; each one by himself was called _triumvir_ 'one of
    the college of the three.' These officers belonging to the
    magistratus minores, had the superintendence of the public prison,
    and the carrying of the sentence into execution; whence their
    complete title was _tresviri capitales_. The singular, _triumvir_,
    does not justify the plural _triumviri_, since the ordinary
    grammatical laws require _tres viri_. In manuscripts, we usually had
    _III. viri_. Compare Zumpt, S 124.
[310] The preposition _de_ in this compound adds to the idea of the
    simple verb _ducere_, that of the place to which a person is led,
    and in which he is to remain; hence it is frequently used in the
    expression _domum deducere_, 'to take' or 'lead a person home.'
[311] _Locus, quod_. Respecting the gender of the relative pronoun,
    see Zumpt, S 372.
[312] The whole structure was called _carcer Mamertinus_, and its main
    parts still exist, being changed into a Christian church, _San Pietro
    in carcere_. It is situated not far from the ancient _forum Romanum_,
    to the north-east, at the foot of the Capitoline hill. According to
    Sallust's description, persons on entering had to go down a few
    steps leading to the entrance of the _Tullianum_, a subterraneous
    apartment cut into the rock, and covered over with a roof; and this
    was the place where prisoners were executed. Their corpses were
    afterwards publicly exhibited in the adjoining _Scalae Gemoniae_.
    The name Tullianum is derived by the Romans from their king, Tullius
    Hostilius.
[313] 'The roof is bound together by arches of stone,' to make it strong,
    for otherwise, wooden beams were used for such purposes.
[314] _Incultus_, a substantive of rare occurrence, denoting 'want of
    cleanliness,' 'the absence of care.'
[315] 'Punishers of capital offences' is only a paraphrase for
    _carnifices_, 'executioners.'
[316] _Cornelius Lentulus_ had been consul as early as B.C. 71, but the
    year after, he had been ejected from the senate by the censors, on
    account of his base conduct. In order to be able to re-enter the
    senate, he caused himself to become praetor a second time in this
    year, B.C. 63, in which he ended his life so disgracefully. It is
    mentioned that he was of a manly and handsome appearance; but the
    baseness of his character is attested also by other authors.
[317] The only one among the others who was a member of the senate was
    Cornelius Cethegus; Gabinius and Statilius were men of equestrian
    rank, and Caeparius was a native of the municipium of Terracina.

56. Dum ea Romae geruntur, Catilina ex omni copia,[318] quam et ipse
adduxerat et Manlius habuerat, duas legiones instituit, cohortes pro
numero militum complet,[319] deinde, ut quisque voluntarius aut ex sociis
in castra venerat, aequaliter distribuerat, ac brevi spatio legiones
numero hominum expleverat, quum initio non amplius duobus milibus[320]
habuisset. Sed ex omni copia circiter pars quarta erat militaribus armis
instructa; ceteri, ut quemque casus armaverat, sparos aut lanceas,[321]
alii praeacutas sudes portabant. Sed postquam Antonius[322] cum exercitu
adventabat, Catilina per montes iter facere, modo ad urbem, modo in
Galliam versus castra movere, hostibus occasionem pugnandi non dare;
sperabat propediem magnas copias sese habiturum, si Romae socii incepta
patravissent. Interea servitia repudiabat, cujus[323] initio ad eum
magnae copiae concurrebant, opibus conjurationis fretus, simul alienum
suis rationibus existimans, videri[324] causam civium cum servis
fugitivis communicavisse.

[318] A regular military force is more commonly called _copiae_, but
    the singular, _copia_, also occurs in the sense of 'army,' especially
    when it consists of an irregular mass of troops.
[319] _Cohortes complet_ cannot mean in this passage, 'he makes the
    cohorts complete,' for such a completeness (consisting of at least
    420 men) is incompatible with the addition _pro numero militum_,
    'according to the number of his soldiers' in each cohort was not the
    usual number of a complete cohort. _Complet_ refers to the number
    of cohorts, ten of which made a legion. Translate therefore, 'he
    makes the full number of cohorts.'
[320] _Duobus milibus_, Sallust might have said _duo milia_, with the
    ellipsis of _quam_ so customary with _plus_, _amplius_, and _minus_.
    See Zumpt, S 485.
[321] _Sparus_ is said to be a wooden kind of weapon, resembling a
    shepherd's staff, turned at the top; and _lancea_ a spear with
    a handle in the middle. Both these weapons were not used by Roman
    soldiers, for the latter, besides the short and broad _gladius_,
    used the _pilum_, as long as a man is high, and as thick as a
    fist, the upper end of which was strongly provided with iron, and
    sometimes the _hasta_, which was still longer, and had an
    iron point.
[322] _L. Antonius_, the colleague of Cicero in the consulship, B.C. 63.
[323] _Servitia, cujus magnae copiae_; a singular construction, which
    cannot be explained otherwise than by taking _cujus_ as a neuter,
    'slaves, _of which_ large numbers flocked to him.' This explanation,
    however, is supported by the consideration that slaves were regarded
    as things, and were designated by names of the neuter gender, as
    _servitia_, _mancipia_. In ordinary language, we should say _cujus
    generis_, 'of which class of men.'
[324] _Videri_ for _se videri_, 'he thought it contrary to his interest
    to appear to have maintained the cause of citizens with the aid of
    runaway slaves.' Respecting the omission of the subject of the
    infinitive when it is a personal pronoun, see Zumpt, S 605.

57. Sed postquam in castra nuntius pervenit Romae conjurationem
patefactam, de Lentulo et Cethego ceterisque, quos supra memoravi,
supplicium sumptum; plerique, quos ad bellum spes rapinarum aut novarum
rerum studium illexerat, dilabuntur; reliquos Catilina per montes asperos
magnis itineribus in agrum Pistoriensem[325] abducit, eo consilio, uti
per tramites occulte perfugeret in Galliam Transalpinam. At Q. Metellus
Celer cum tribus legionibus in agro Piceno praesidebat, ex difficultate
rerum eadem illa existimans, quae supra diximus, Catilinam agitare.
Igitur, ubi iter ejus ex perfugis cognovit, castra propere movet ac sub
ipsis radicibus montium consedit, qua illi descensus erat in Galliam
properanti. Neque tamen Antonius procul aberat, utpote qui magno exercitu
locis aequioribus expeditos in fuga sequeretur.[326] Sed Catilina
postquam videt montibus atque copiis hostium sese clausum, in urbe res
adversas, neque fugae neque praesidii ullam spem, optimum factu ratus, in
tali re fortunam belli temptare, statuit cum Antonio quam primum
confligere. Itaque contione advocata hujuscemodi orationem habuit:

[325] The territory of Pistoria, in the north of Etruria, not far from
    Faesulae, and to the north of Florentia, is in the Apennines. The
    regular road from Pisae to Genoa, and thence across the Alps into
    Transalpine Gaul, ran along the sea-coast. Cisalpine Gaul was
    likewise protected against Catiline by Metellus, so that he could
    reach his goal (Transalpine Gaul) only by mountain passes.
[326] Antonius followed the bands of Catiline, which were not
    inconvenienced by baggage, as they were fleeing (_in fuga_; that is,
    _fugientes_). Antonius's army marched on smoother roads, but had
    to carry heavier baggage. From all this, we see why Antonius, though
    not far from the enemy, yet could not reach him. Respecting the
    adverb _utpote_, see Zumpt, S 271. _Utpote qui_, 'the which,' is
    used as a conjunction for _quippe qui_, generally with the
    subjunctive, and indicates the cause of the preceding statement.

58. 'Compertum ego habeo, milites, verba virtutem non addere, neque ex
ignavo strenuum neque fortem ex timido exercitum oratione imperatoris
fieri. Quanta cujusque animo audacia natura aut moribus inest, tanta in
bello patere solet. Quem neque gloria neque pericula excitant, nequidquam
hortere; timor animi auribus officit.[327] Sed ego vos, quo pauca
monerem, advocavi; simul uti causam mei consilii aperirem. Scitis
equidem, milites, socordia atque ignavia Lentuli quantam ipsi nobisque
cladem attulerit; quoque modo, dum ex urbe praesidia opperior, in Galliam
proficisci nequiverim.[328] Nunc vero quo in loco[329] res nostrae sint,
juxta mecum omnes intellegitis. Exercitus hostium duo, unus ab urbe,
alter a Gallia obstant; diutius in his locis esse, si maxime animus
ferat, frumenti atque aliarum rerum egestas[330] prohibet. Quocunque ire
placet, ferro iter aperiundum est. Quapropter vos moneo; uti forti atque
parato animo sitis et, quum proelium inibitis, memineritis vos divitias,
decus, gloriam, praeterea libertatem atque patriam in dexteris vestris
portare. Si vincimus, omnia nobis tuta erunt, commeatus abunde, municipia
atque coloniae patebunt; sin metu cesserimus, eadem illa adversa fient:
neque locus neque amicus quisquam teget, quem arma non texerint.
Praeterea, milites, non eadem nobis et illis necessitudo impendet; nos
pro patria, pro libertate, pro vita certamus: illis supervacaneum est pro
potentia paucorum pugnare. Quo audacius aggredimini, memores pristinae
virtutis. Licuit vobis cum summa turpitudine in exilio aetatem agere;
potuistis nonnulli Romae amissis bonis alienas opes expectare: quia illa
foeda atque intoleranda viris videbantur, haec[331] sequi decrevistis. Si
haec relinquere vultis, audacia opus est; nemo nisi victor pace bellum
mutavit.[332] Nam in fuga salutem sperare, quum arma, quis[333] corpus
tegitur, ab hostibus averteris, ea vero dementia est. Semper in proelio
iis maximum est periculum, qui maxime timent; audacia pro muro habetur.
Quum vos considero, milites, et quum facta vestra aestimo, magna me spes
victoriae tenet. Animus, aetas, virtus vestra me hortantur;[334]
praeterea necessitudo, quae etiam timidos fortes facit. Nam multitudo
hostium ne circumvenire queat, prohibent angustiae loci. Quodsi virtuti
vestrae fortuna inviderit, cavete,[335] inulti animam amittatis, neu
capti potius sicuti pecora trucidemini, quam virorum more pugnantes
cruentam atque luctuosam victoriam hostibus relinquatis.'

[327] _Officere_ is properly 'to oppose,' 'obstruct,' _aliquid alicui
    rei_; then omitting the object (_aliquid_) with the dative alone, 'to
    be an obstacle to,' or 'to hinder,' therefore, _officia famae tuae_,
    'I oppose something to your fame.' 'Internal fear is a hindrance to
    the ear,' so that admonitions are either not heard at all, or do not
    penetrate into the mind.
[328] Catiline assigns the circumstance that he had expected aid and
    succours from Rome itself, as the cause of his not having set out for
    Gaul earlier, when he might have accomplished his end. _Opperior_,
    'I wait for,' or _expecto dum aliquis veniat_.
[329] _Quo in loco_, 'in which situation.' The preposition _in_ might
    have been omitted. See Zumpt, S 481.
[330] _Egestas_, 'want,' with the genitive of the thing wanted, is of
    rare occurrence for _inopia_ or _penuria_. _Egestas_ is commonly used
    absolutely in the sense of 'poverty,' 'neediness.'
[331] _Haec_ is here used in the general sense of 'these circumstances;'
    that is, this honourable but difficult war. This we must infer from
    the _haec_ following.
[332] For the construction of _mutare_, see Zumpt, S 456.
[333] _Quis_ for _quibus_. _Ea_, not _id_. Zumpt, S 372.
[334] 'Give me courage,' or 'give me hope,' for _hortari_ is applied to
    persons doing good things, and _admonere_ to persons doing bad ones:
    _hortamur properantem, admonemus cunctantem_.
[335] _Cavete--amittatis, neu trucidemeni_ for _cavete, ne amittatis,
    neve (neu) trucidemini_. See Zumpt, S 586.

59. Haec ubi dixit, paululum commoratus, signa canere jubet,[336] atque
instructos ordines in locum aequum deducit. Dein, remotis omnium equis,
quo militibus exaequato periculo animus amplior esset, ipse pedes
exercitum pro loco atque copiis instruit. Nam, uti planities erat inter
sinistros montes et ab dextera rupe aspera,[337] octo cohortes in fronte
constituit, reliquarum signa[338] in subsidio artius collocat. Ab his
centuriones omnes, lectos et evocatos, praeterea ex gregariis militibus
optimum quemque armatum in primam aciem subducit.[339] G. Manlium in
dextera, Faesulanum quendam in sinistra parte curare[340] jubet; ipse cum
libertis et colonis propter aquilam assistit,[341] quam bello Cimbrico G.
Marius in exercitu habuisse dicebatur. At ex altera parte G. Antonius,
pedibus aeger,[342] quod proelio adesse nequibat, M. Petreio legato[343]
exercitum permittit. Ille cohortes veteranas, quas tumulti[344] causa
conscripserat, in fronte post eas ceterum exercitum in subsidiis locat.
Ipse equo circumiens, unum quemque nominans appellat, hortatur, rogat, ut
meminerint, se contra latrones inermes, pro patria, pro liberis, pro aris
atque focis suis certare. Homo militaris, quod amplius annos triginta
tribunus aut praefectus aut legatus aut praetor cum magna gloria in
exercitu fuerat, plerosque ipsos factaque eorum fortia noverat; ea
commemorando militum animos accendebat.

[336] _Canere_ is used in different ways: _tubicen canit signum_, 'the
    trumpeter blows the signal;' _tubicen canit_, 'the trumpeter blows
    (his instrument);' _signa canuntur_, 'signals are blown' or 'given;'
    and lastly, _signa canunt_, 'the signals sound.' The last expression
    is the one used in our passage.
[337] _Rupe aspera_, &c. 'For in accordance with the nature of the plain
    between hills on the left-hand side, and on the right a rugged rock,
    he drew up (only) eight cohorts in front.'  A simpler construction
    would have been _et rupem asperam a dextra_, but the manuscripts are
    decidedly in favour of the ablative, which must be considered as an
    ablative absolute, and as forming a distinct clause. Other editions
    have the correction _rupis aspera_, 'the rough part of a rock'
    (_aspera_ being the neut. plur.), but this is a poetical expression.
    See Zumpt, S 435.
[338] Literally, 'The signals (_vexilla_) of the other cohorts he places
    in the rear as a reserve, more closely together.' _Signa_ here
    denotes the separate divisions of the troops; that is, the cohorts
    and the three maniples in each cohort, which are distinguished from
    one another by their flags or banners (_vexilla_). When an army was
    drawn up in a spacious plain, a space was left between the several
    divisions, but in this case, the plain being too narrow, there were
    no such spaces.
[339] 'From among these who were drawn up as a reserve, he draws, for the
    purpose of strengthening the van, all centurions, picked men (in
    apposition), and the volunteers who had not been enlisted, as well as
    the ablest of the common soldiers who were provided with arms.' The
    word _lectos_ belonging to _centuriones_, shows that Catiline had
    appointed to the office of centurions only chosen men who were
    personally known to him as able soldiers. _Evocati_ were those
    soldiers in a Roman army who did not serve in the ranks of the other
    common soldiers, but as a separate corps, and were exempt from
    the ordinary military duties of standing as sentinels, making
    fortifications, foraging, and the like. They derived their name from
    the fact that they were invited (_evocare_) by the general to serve
    in the army as volunteers; they, moreover, were generally more
    advanced in years than the regular troops.
[340] _Curare_, 'to command.'
[341] Catiline himself stood nearest the standard (eagle) with his most
    faithful followers, whose personal fate depended upon him; that is,
    the freedmen of his family and the tenant farmers of his estates.
    The Roman nobles, as early as that time, used to parcel out their
    estates in small farms, which were tenanted especially by their
    freedmen, who were thus patronised by their former masters.
[342] _Pedibus aeger_. He had the gout. Dion Cassius, a later historian
    of Rome, who wrote in Greek, states that Antonius only pretended to
    be ill, in order not to have to fight against his friend Catiline.
[343] A _legatus_, in this sense (for it also means 'ambassador'),
    supplied, in a Roman army, the place of a commander possessing the
    _imperium_. Accordingly, consuls and praetors, when intrusted with
    the command of an army, had one or more legates, according to the
    number of legions which they had under their command. The office of
    legate was given by the senate to such men as had held a magistracy,
    generally the praetorship, or at least the quaestorship, and the
    senate appointed them on the proposal of the commander-in-chief.
    When there were several legates, the commander-in-chief might
    intrust one of them with the command of the whole army; but the
    commander-in-chief was answerable for all the acts of his legate.
[344] _Tumulti_ for _tumultus_, as _senati_ for _senatus_.

60. Sed ubi, omnibus rebus exploratis, Petreius tuba signum dat, cohortes
paulatim incedere jubet, idem facit hostium exercitus. Postquam eo ventum
est, unde a ferentariis[345] proelium committi posset, maximo clamore cum
infestis signis[346] concurrunt; pila omittunt, gladiis res geritur.
Veterani, pristinae virtutis memores, comminus acriter instare; illi haud
timidi resistunt; maxima vi certatur. Interea Catilina cum expeditis in
prima acie versari, laborantibus succurrere; integros pro sauciis
accersere, omnia providere, multum ipse pugnare saepe, hostem ferire;
strenui militis et boni imperatoris officia simul exequebatur. Petreius,
ubi videt Catilinam, contra ac ratus erat, magna vi tendere, cohortem
praetoriam[347] in medios hostes inducit, eosque perturbatos atque alios
alibi resistentes interficit; deinde utrimque ex lateribus ceteros
aggreditur. Manlius et Faesulanus in primis pugnantes cadunt. Postquam
fusas copias seque cum paucis relictum videt Catilina, memor generis
atque pristinae suae dignitatis, in confertissimos hostes incurrit ibique
pugnans confoditur.

[345] _Ferentarii_ are light-armed troops fighting at a distance with
    javelins.
[346] The banners being turned hostilely against one another. Respecting
    _cum_, see Zumpt, S 473; for we also find _infestis signis
    concurrere_, without _cum_, as an ablative of the instrument.
[347] The _cohors praetoria_ was a battalion which, in forming an army,
    was composed of the ablest and most tried soldiers, as the bodyguard
    of the commander-in-chief. They had to protect him, and assist him in
    contriving to bring any engagement to the point where he wished it
    to be. Under the emperors, the _cohortes praetoriae_, nine or
    ten in number--the emperors having several armies under their
    command--formed the body-guard of the emperor and the garrison of
    Rome.

61. Sed confecto proelio, tum vero cerneres,[348] quanta audacia
quantaque vis animi fuisset in exercitu Catilinae. Nam fere, quem quisque
vivus pugnando locum ceperat, eum amissa anima corpore tegebat. Pauci
autem, quos medios[349] cohors praetoria disjecerat, paulo diversius, sed
omnes tamen adversis vulneribus[350] conciderant. Catilina vero longe a
suis inter hostium cadavera repertus est, paululum etiam spirans
ferociamque animi, quam habuerat vivus, in vultu retinens. Postremo ex
omni copia neque in proelio neque in fuga quisquam[351] civis ingenuus
captus est: ita cuncti suae hostiumque vitae juxta[352] pepercerant.
Neque tamen exercitus populi Romani laetam aut incruentam victoriam
adeptus erat; nam strenuissimus quisque aut occiderat in proelio aut
graviter vulneratus discesserat. Multi autem, qui de castris visundi aut
spoliandi gratia processerant, volventes hostilia cadavera, amicum alii,
pars hospitem aut cognatum reperiebant; fuere item, qui inimicos suos
cognoscerent. Ita varie per omnem exercitum laetitia, moeror, luctus
atque gaudia[353] agitabantur.

[348] 'There you might indeed have seen.' See Zumpt, S 528, note 2.
[349] In the centre of the army where they were drawn up.
[350] _Adversa vulnera_, 'wounds in the breast,' or 'in the front part
    of the body' generally. _Aversa vulnera_, on the other hand, are
    'wounds in the back,' such as are inflicted on cowards that run away.
[351] _Quisquam_ for ullus_. See Zumpt, S 676.
[352] _Juxta_, 'equally little.' They had spared the life of their
    enemy as little as their own. Compare p. 41, note 3 [note 194].
[353] These four substantives form contrasts, though intentionally not
    in the regular way, for _gaudium_ and _moeror_ denote a joyous and
    sad state of mind, 'joy' and 'sadness;' _laetitia_ and _luctus_ at
    the same time express the audible expressions of joy and grief.
    Accordingly, _laetitia_ contrasts with _luctus_, and _gaudia_ with
    _moeror_. Respecting the omission of the conjunction in describing
    contrasts of this nature, see Zumpt, S 783.

       *       *       *       *       *

C. SALLUSTII CRISPI

BELLUM JUGURTHINUM.

       *       *       *       *       *

1. Falso queritur de natura sua genus humanum quod imbecilla atque aevi
brevis[1] forte potius quam virtute regatur. Nam contra reputando neque
majus aliud neque praestabilius invenias,[2] magisque naturae industriam
hominum quam vim aut tempus deesse. Sed dux atque imperator vitae
mortalium animus est, qui, ubi ad gloriam virtutis via grassatur,[3]
abunde pollens potensque et clarus est, neque fortuna eget, quippe
probitatem, industriam aliasque artes bonas neque dare neque eripere
cuiquam potest. Sin captus pravis cupidinibus ad inertiam et voluptates
corporis pessumdatus est, perniciosa libidine paulisper[4] usus, ubi per
socordiam vires, tempus, ingenium diffluxere, naturae infirmitas
accusatur; suam quisque culpam auctores ad negotia transferunt.[5]
Quodsi[6] hominibus bonarum rerum tanta cura esset, quanto studio
aliena ac nihil profutura multumque etiam periculosa[7] petunt; neque
regerentur[8] magis quam regerent casus, et eo magnitudinis[9]
procederent, ubi pro mortalibus gloria aeterni fierent.

[1] _Aevi brevis_, 'of short duration.' _Aevum_, in the sense of _aetas_,
    is rather poetical, and does not occur till a rather late period;
    whence the common expression _medium aevum_, 'the middle ages,' is
    not exactly in accordance with the best Latinity.
[2] _Invenias_; supply _quam naturam humanam_.
[3] _Grassatur_, the same as _ingreditur_, 'advances towards;' but
    _grassari_ has the additional meaning of power and vehemence, whence
    it is often used to mark the progress of something bad.
[4] _Paulisper_, 'for a short time.'
[5] _Auctores_ contains a whole clause--'every one transfers his own
    fault, _though he himself is the author of it_, to circumstances;'
    that is, to the things which he himself has done.
[6] _Quodsi_, 'if, however.' Zumpt, S 807.
[7] 'And at the same time very dangerous.' In many cases one feels
    inclined to assign to the adverb _multum_ the meaning of 'often,'
    but with adjectives, it is used only to strengthen their meaning.
[8] _Regerentur_; supply _casibus_.
[9] _Eo magnitudinis_; that is, _ad eam magnitudinem_, 'to that
    greatness.' See Zumpt, S 434.

2. Nam uti genus hominum compositum ex corpore et anima est, ita res
cunctae studiaque omnia nostra corporis alia, alia animi[10] naturam
sequuntur. Igitur praeclara facies, magnae divitiae, ad hoc vis corporis
et alia hujuscemodi omnia brevi dilabuntur; at ingenii egregia facinora
sicuti anima immortalia sunt. Postremo corporis et fortunae bonorum ut
initium sic finis est, omniaque orta occidunt et aucta senescunt: animus
incorruptus[11] aeternus, rector humani generis, agit atque habet cuncta
neque ipse habetur.[12] Quo magis pravitas eorum admiranda est,[13]
qui dediti corporis gaudiis per luxum atque ignaviam aetatem agunt,
ceterum[14] ingenium, quo neque melius neque amplius aliud in natura
mortalium est, incultu atque socordia torpescere sinunt; quum praesertim
tam multae variaeque sint artes animi, quibus summa claritudo paratur.

[10] According to the common arrangement of words, it would be _alia
    corporis, alia animi_; but Sallust abandons this order just because
    it is common. For the same reason he prefers _alii--pars_ to
    _alii--alii_. _Naturam corporis_ (or _animi_) _sequuntur_, 'they
    follow the nature (that is, they are of the same kind) of body and
    mind.' Regarding the change of _anima_ into _animus_, it must be
    observed that _anima_ is 'the soul,' the seat and basis of _animus_
    (mind), which is the activity of the _anima_.
[11] 'But the mind is not subject to corruption' (that is, to dissolution
    and annihilation), for a perfect participle with the negative prefix
    in frequently denotes a passive impossibility, which is usually
    expressed by adjectives ending in _ilis_ or _bilis_; as _invictus
    miles_, an invincible soldier.
[12] 'The mind possesses all things, but itself is not possessed;' that
    is, it is free. This is an imitation of a well-known Greek phrase,
    [Greek: echo, ouk echomai].
[13] _Admirari_ signifies not only 'to admire,' but also 'to wonder,' at
    anything which is surprising or displeasing; and in the latter sense
    it is the same as _mirari_.
[14] Respecting _ceterum _ as an adversative conjunction, see Zumpt,
    S 349.

3. Verum ex his magistratus et imperia, postremo omnis cura rerum
publicarum minime mihi hac tempestate[15] cupiunda videntur; quoniam
neque virtuti honos datur, neque illi, quibus per fraudem is fuit,[16]
tuti aut eo magis honesti[17] sunt. Nam vi quidem regere patriam aut
parentes,[18] quamquam et possis et delicta corrigas,[19] tamen
importunum est; quum praesertim omnes rerum mutationes caedem, fugam,
aliaque hostilia portendant,[20] frustra autem niti,[21] neque aliud se
fatigando nisi odium quaerere, extremae dementiae est; nisi forte[22]
quem inhonesta et perniciosa libido[23] tenet, potentiae paucorum decus
atque libertatem suam gratificari.

[15] _Hac tempestate_, the same as _hoc tempore_. Sallust frequently uses
    _tempestas_ in this sense, though certainly the time which he paints
    in such dark colours--namely, the period after the murder of Caesar,
    in B.C. 44--was an agitated and stormy one.
[16] 'Who have obtained by fraud an honour or honourable office,'
    _quibus honos contigit_.
[17] _Honestus_, 'honoured,' or 'honourable;' for _honestus_ (from
    _honor_) is both the one who is intrusted with an honourable office,
    and in general he who is worthy of an honour. The persons here spoken
    of were _honesti_ in the first, but not in the second sense.
[18] It might seem doubtful as to whether _parentes_ here means 'obeying
    persons'--that is, subjects of the Roman state--or 'kinsmen,'
    'relatives.' We believe the latter to be the case, because to control
    subjects by force was not deemed improper by the ancients. Sallust
    elsewhere also combines _patria et parentes_ (_Catil._ 6, _Jug._ 87),
    thereby expressing the idea of a free and equal _civitas_, which is
    to be convinced, not forced, and to be governed by magistrates chosen
    by itself, and not by a despotic ruler. The word _importunus_
    properly characterises the rudeness and unbearableness of a despot or
    tyrant.
[19] 'Even if you have the power, and intend to punish actual crimes
    in the state'--whereby Sallust intimates that a tyrannical government
    may actually introduce improvements, as history proves to have been
    the case at all times. The subjunctive is used with _quamquam_,
    because the author speaks only of a possibility, and also because an
    indefinite person is addressed by the second person singular. Compare
    Zumpt, S 831, 3.
[20] _Portendere_ is here the same as 'to bring with one's self,' or 'to
    be followed by.' It is a very sound remark, that by violent changes
    in a constitution, improvements may indeed be effected, but that at
    the same time these are accompanied or followed by many acts of
    injustice and crime.
[21] _Frustra niti_, 'to strive in vain (namely, to effect improvements),
    if, after all, nothing but hatred is incurred by it, is extreme
    folly.'
[22] _Nisi forte_, 'unless perhaps'--which surely cannot be the case
    with any sensible man. Respecting this use of _nisi forte_,
    expressing an improbable supposition, see Zumpt, S 526.
[23] _Libido--gratificari_, 'the inclination to gratify;' for _libido
    tenet_ is only a paraphrase for _libet_. This statement is striking,
    and but too true, for there are men who think it an honour to
    sacrifice their own conviction and independence for the purpose of
    pleasing persons in power.

4. Ceterum ex aliis negotiis, quae ingenio exercentur, in primis magno
usui est memoria rerum gestarum:[24] cujus de virtute quia multi dixere,
praetereundum puto, simul ne per insolentiam[25] quis existimet memet
studium meum laudando extollere. Atque ego credo fore, qui, quia decrevi
procul a re publica aetatem agere, tanto tamque utili labori meo nomen
inertiae imponant: certe, quibus[26] maxima industria videtur salutare
plebem et conviviis gratiam quaerere. Qui si reputaverint, et quibus ego
temporibus magistratum adeptus sim, et quales viri idem assequi
nequiverint,[27] et postea quae genera hominum in senatum pervenerint,
profecto existimabunt me magis merito quam ignavia judicium animi mei
mutavisse, majusque commodum ex otio meo quam ex aliorum negotiis rei
publicae venturum. Nam saepe ego audivi, Q. Maximum,[28] P. Scipionem,
praeterea civitatis nostrae praeclaros viros solitos ita dicere, quum
majorum imagines[29] intuerentur, vehementissime sibi animum ad virtutem
accendi. Scilicet[30] non ceram illam neque figuram tantam vim in sese
habere, sed memoria rerum gestarum eam flammam egregiis viris in pectore
crescere neque prius sedari, quam virtus eorum famam atque gloriam
adaequaverit.[31] At contra, quis est omnium his moribus,[32] quin
divitiis et sumptibus, non probitate neque[33] industria cum majoribus
suis contendat? Etiam homines novi,[34] qui antea per virtutem soliti
erant nobilitatem antevenire, furtim et per latrocinia potius quam bonis
artibus ad imperia et honores nituntur; proinde quasi[35] praetura et
consulatus atque alia omnia hujuscemodi per se ipsa clara et magnifica
sint, ac non perinde habeantur, ut eorum, qui ea sustinent, virtus est.
Verum ego liberius altiusque processi, dum me civitatis morum piget
taedetque; nunc ad inceptum redeo.

[24] _Memoria rerum gestarum_, 'the recording of events ;' that is, the
    writing of history, the usefulness (_virtus_) of which is
    acknowledged.
[25] The words _per insolentiam_ belong to _laudando extollere_,
    and the meaning is, 'that no one may believe me to extol my own
    occupation with excessive praise.' _Per insolentiam_ is the same as
    _insolenter_, _per_ expressing manner.
[26] 'At least _those_ to whom it appears to be a lofty occupation,' &c.
    Respecting the omission of the demonstrative pronoun before the
    relative, even when they are in different cases, see Zumpt, S 765.
[27] 'And what distinguished men were unable to attain such a
    distinction.' Sallust here boasts of having obtained a seat in the
    senate, and a high magistracy, at a time when it was a matter of
    difficulty, and when even men of great merit were unable to gain
    either. But at the same time he adds the remark, that afterwards many
    undeserving persons were introduced into the senate, to
    co-operate with whom was no honour. _Quae genera hominum_ refers to
    the filling up of the senate with persons from the lower classes, and
    even with such as were not free-born. This connivance at ambitious
    upstarts, or rather this recklessness in filling up the vacancies in
    the supreme council of Rome, was shown not only by the dictator J.
    Caesar, but by his successors in power, M. Antony and Octavianus. In
    consequence of such things, Sallust adds, it will be evident that he
    was justified in withdrawing from public life.
[28] That is, the celebrated Fabius Maximus, surnamed Cunctator, who
    distinguished himself by his prudence in the second Punic War.
    P. Scipio is the elder Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal.
    We might indeed imagine that Sallust is speaking of Scipio Africanus
    the younger, but his being mentioned along with Fabius Maximus must
    lead every reader to think of the elder Scipio.
[29] The images (_imagines_) of ancestors might indeed be statues, but
    from the mention of wax in the next sentence, it is evident that we
    have to understand the wax masks which constituted the greatest
    ornament in the vestibule of the house of a noble family. The busts
    (portraits) of those ancestors who had been invested with a curule
    office were made of wax, and their descendants used these wax
    portraits to dress up persons representing in public processions the
    illustrious deceased, adorned with all the insignia of the offices
    with which they had been invested. Such processions, especially at
    public funerals (a real kind of masquerade), were intended to keep
    alive in the memory of the Romans not only the names and exploits
    of their illustrious statesmen and warriors, but even their bodily
    appearance.
[30] _Scilicet_, in this passage, is not a conjunction as usual, but, as
    in the earlier Latinity of Plautus and Terence, it is used for _scire
    licet_, 'one may perceive,' or 'it is self-evident,' and is
    accordingly followed by the accusative with the infinitive.
[31] 'The flame of their noble ambition did not become extinguished until
    their merit had obtained the fame and glory' (namely, of those
    ancestors).
[32] _His moribus_, 'in the present state of morality;' an ablative
    absolute.
[33] Instead of _neque_, the author might have used _aut_, for both
    particles are used to continue a negative statement. See Zumpt,
    S 337.
[34] _Homines novi_, 'new men,' so called by the Romans, were those
    persons who were the first of their family to rise to curule offices,
    as Cato Censorius, and at a later time Cicero. In former times,
    Sallust says, such _homines novi_ distinguished themselves by their
    ability, while now they rise by base means, especially by party
    strife and party interest, which he contemptuously calls
    _latrocinium_.
[35] _Proinde quasi_, 'just as if,' and afterwards _perinde habentur ut_,
    'they are considered as of equal value.' Compare Zumpt, SS 282 and
    340.

5. Bellum scripturus sum,[36] quod populus Romanus cum Jugurtha rege
Numidarum gessit; primum quia magnum et atrox variaque victoria fuit,
dein quia tunc primum superbiae nobilitatis obviam itum est; quae
contentio divina et humana cuncta permiscuit eoque vecordiae processit,
uti studiis civilibus bellum atque vastitas Italiae finem faceret. Sed
priusquam hujuscemodi rei initium expedio, pauca supra repetam, quo ad
cognoscendum omnia illustria magis magisque in aperto sint.[37] Bello
Punico secundo, quo dux Carthaginiensium Hannibal post magnitudinem
nominis Romani[38] Italiae opes maxime attriverat, Masinissa rex
Numidarum, in amicitiam receptus a P. Scipione, cui postea Africano[39]
cognomen ex virtute fuit, multa ei praeclara[40] rei militaris facinora
fecerat; ob quae victis Carthaginiensibus et capto Syphace, cujus in
Africa magnum atque late imperium valuit,[41] populus Romanus quascunque
urbes et agros manu ceperat, regi dono dedit. Igitur amicitia Masinissae
bona atque honesta nobis permansit. Sed imperii vitaeque ejus finis idem
fuit. Dein Micipsa filius regnum solus obtinuit, Mastanabale et Gulussa
fratribus morbo absumptis. Is Adherbalem et Hiempsalem ex sese genuit,
Jugurthamque, filium Mastanabalis fratris, quem Masinissa, quod ortus ex
concubina erat, privatum dereliquerat,[42] eodem cultu quo liberos suos
domi habuit.

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