Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War Part 22

[189] LXV. Which was as weak as his body--_Ob morbos--parum valido._ Sall.u.s.t had already expressed this a few lines above.

[190] Merchants--_Negotiatores._ "Every one knows that Romans of equestrian dignity were accustomed to trade in the provinces."

_Burnouf_.

[191] With the most honorable demonstrations in his favor --_Honestissima suffragatione._ "_Suffragatio_ was the zealous recommendation of those who solicited the votes of their fellow-citizens in favor of some candidate. See Festus, s.v.

_Suffragatores,_ p. 266, Lindem." _Dietsch._ It was honorable, in the case of Marius, as it was without bribery, and seemed to have the good of the republic in view.

[192] The Mamilian law--See c. 40.

[193] LXVI. Advantageous positions--_Suos locos._ Places favorable for his views. See Kritzius on c. 54.

[194] LXVII. Were in trepidation. At the citadel, etc.--I have translated this pa.s.sage in conformity with the texts of Gerlach, Kritzius, Dietsch, Muller, and Allen, who put a point between _trepidare_ and _ad arcem_. Cortina, Havercamp, and Burnouf have _trepidare ad arcem_, without any point. Which method gives the better sense, any reader can judge.

[195] On the roofs of the houses--_Pro tectis aedificiorum_. In front of the roofs of the houses; that is, at the parapets. "In prima tectorum parte." _Kritzius_. The roofs were flat.

[196] Worthless and infamous character--_Improbus intestabilisque_.

These words are taken from the twelve tables of the Roman law: See Aul. Gell. vi. 7, xv. 3. Horace, in allusion to them, has _intestabilis et sacer_, Sat. ii. 3.181, _Intestabilis_ signified a person to be of so infamous a character that he was not allowed to give evidence in a court of justice.

[197] LXVIII. Averse to further exertion--_Tum abnuentes omnia_.

Most of the translators have understood by these words that the troops refused to obey orders; but Sall.u.s.t's meaning is only that they expressed, by looks and gestures, their unwillingness to proceed.

[198] LXIX As a native of Latium--_Nam is civis ex Latio erat_.

"As he was a Latin, he was not protected by the Porcian law (see Cat., c. 51), though how far this law had power in the camp, is not agreed."

_Allen_. Gerlach thinks that it had the same power in the camp as elsewhere, with reference to Roman citizens. But Roman citizenship was not extended to the Latins till the end of the Social War, A.U.C. 662.

Plutarch, however, in his Life of Caius Gracchus (c. 9), speaks of Livius Drusus having been abetted by the patricians in proposing a law for exempting the Latin soldiers from being flogged, about thirty years earlier; and it seems to have been pa.s.sed, but, from this pa.s.sage of Sall.u.s.t, appears not to have remained in force. Lipsius touches on this obscure point in his _Militia Romana_, v. 18, but settles nothing. Plutarch, in his Life of Marius, c. 8, says that Turpilius was an old retainer of the family of Metellus, whom he attended, in this war, as _prafectus fabrum_, or master of the artificers; that, being afterward appointed governor of Vacea, he exercised his office with great justice and humanity, that his life was spared by Jugurtha at the solicitation of the inhabitants; that, when he was brought to trial, Metellus thought him innocent, and that he would not have been condemned but for the malice of Marius, who exasperated the other members of the council against him. He adds, that after his death, his innocence became apparent, and that Marius boasted of having planted in the breast of Metellus an avenging fury, that would not fail to torment him for having put to death the innocent friend of his family. Hence Sir Henry Steuart has accused Sall.u.s.t of wilfully misrepresenting the character of Turpilius, as well as the whole transaction. But as much credit is surely due to Sall.u.s.t as to Plutarch.

[199] LXX. To which Jugurtha--was unable to attend--_Quae Jugartha, fesso, aut majoribus astricto, superaverant_. "Which had remained to (or been too much for) Jugurtha, when weary, or engaged in more important affairs."

[200] Among the winter-quarters of the Romans--_Inter hiberna Romanorum_.It is stated in c. 61, as Kritzius observes, that Metellus, when he put his army into winter-quarters, had, at the same time, placed garrisons in such of Jugurtha's towns as had revolted to him.

The forces of the Romans being thus dispersed, Nabdalsa might justly be said to have his army _inter hiberna_, "_among_ their winter-quarters."

[201] LXXI. Behind his head--_Super caput_. On the back of the bolster that supported his head; part of which might be higher than the head itself.

[202] LXXIIL The factious tribunes--_Seditiosi magistratus_.

[203] After the lapse of many years--_Post multas tempestates_.

Apparently the period since A.U.C. 611, when Quintus Pompeius, who, as Cicero says (in Verr. ii. 5), was _humile atque obscuro loco natus_, obtained the consulship; that is, a term of forty-three or forty-four years.

[204] That decree was thus rendered abortive--_Ea res frustra fuit_.

By a _lex Semp.r.o.nia_, a law of Caius Gracchus, it was enacted that the senate should fix the provinces for the future consuls before the _comitia_ for electing them were held. But from Jug. c. 26, it appears that the consuls might settle by lot, or by agreement between themselves, which of those two provinces each of them should take. How far the senate were allowed or accustomed in general, to interfere in the arrangement, it is not easy to discover: but on this occasion they had taken on themselves to pa.s.s a resolution in favor of the patrician.

Lest similar scenes, however, to those of the Semp.r.o.nian times should be enacted, they yielded the point to the people.

[205] LXXV. Thala--The river on which this town stood is not named by Sall.u.s.t, but it appears to have been the Bagrada. It seems to have been nearly destroyed by the Romans, after the defeat of Juba, in the time of Julius Caesar; though Tacitus, Ann. iii. 21, mentions it as having afforded a refuge to the Romans in the insurrection of the Numidian chief, Tacfarinas. D'Anville and Dr. Shaw, _Travels in Bombay_, vol.

i. pt. 2, ch. 5, think it the same with Telepte, now _Ferre-anah_; but this is very doubtful. See Cellar. iv. 5. It was in ruins in the time of Strabo.

[206] Had done more than was required of them--_Officia intenderant._ "Auxit _intenditque_ saevitiam exacerbatus indicio filii sui Drusi"

Suet. Tib. 62.

[207] LXXVI. Nor did he ever--continue, etc.--_Neque postea--moratus, simulabat_, etc.--Most editors take _moratus_ for _morans_; Allen places a colon after it, as if it were for _moratus est_.

[208] And erected towns upon it to protect, etc.--_Et super aggerem impositis turribus epus et administros tutari_. "And protected the work and the workmen with towers placed on the mound." _Impositis turribus_ is not the ablative absolute, but the ablative of the instrument.

[209] LXXVII. Leptis--Leptis Major, now _Lebida_. In c. 19, Leptis Minor is meant.

[210] Their own safety--_Suam salutem_: i.e. the safety of the people of Leptis.

[211] LXXVIII. Which take their name from their nature--_Quibus nomen ex re inditum._ From [Greek: _surein_], _to draw,_ because the stones and sand were drawn to and fro by the force of the wind and tide. But it has been suggested that this etymology is probably false; it is less likely that their name should be from the Greek than from the Arabic, in which _sert_ signifies a desert tract or region, a term still applied to the desert country bordering on the Syrtea. See Ritter, Allgem. vergleich, Geog. vol. i. p. 929. The words which, in Havercamp, close this description of the Syrtes, "Syrtes ab tractu nominatae", and which Gruter and Putschius suspected not to be Sall.u.s.t's, Cortius omitted; and his example has been followed by Muller and Burnouf; Gerlach, Kritzius, and Dietsch, have retained them. Gerlach, however, thinks them a gloss, though they are found in every ma.n.u.script but one.

[212] Almost at the extremity of Africa--_Prope in extrema Africa._ "By _extrema Africa_ Gerlach rightly understands the eastern part of Africa, bordering on Egypt, and at a great distance from Numidia."

_Kritzius_.

[213] The language alone--_Lingua mod_.

[214] From the king's dominions--_Ab imperio regis._ "Understand Masinissa's, Micipsa's, or Jugurtha's." _Burnouf_.

[215] LXXIX. Philaeni--The account of these Carthaginian brothers with a Greek name, _philainoi, praise-loving_, is probably a fable.

Cortius thinks that the inhabitants, observing two mounds rising above the surrounding level, fancied they must have been raised, not by nature, but by human labor, and invented a story to account for their existence. "The altars," according to Mr. Rennell (Geog. of Herod., p.

640), "were situated about seven ninths of the way from Carthage to Cyrene; and the deception," he adds, "would have been too gross, had it been pretended that the Carthaginian party had traveled seven parts in nine, while the Cyrenians had traveled no more than two such parts of the way." Pliny (II. N. v. 4) says that the altars were of sand; Strabo (lib. iii.) says that in his time they had vanished. Pomponius Mela and Valerius Maximus repeat the story, but without adding any thing to render it more probable.

[216] Devoid of vegetation--_Nuda gignentium_. So c. 93, _cunota gignentium natura_. Kritzius justly observes that _gignentia_ is not to be taken in the sense of _genita_, as Cortius and others interpret, but in its own active sense; the ground was bare _of all that was productive_, or _of whatever generates any thing_. This interpretation is suggested by Perizonius ad Sanctu Minerv. i. 15.

[217] Sacrificed themselves--_Seque vitamque--condonavere_.

"Nihil aliud est quam _vitam suam_, sc.[Greek: _eu dia dyoin_]."

_Allen_.

[218] Lx.x.x. Sell--honorable or dishonorable--_Omnia honesta atque inhonesta vendere_. See Cat. c. 30. They had been bribed by Jugurtha to use their influence against Bocchus.

[219] A daughter of Bocchus, too, was married to Jugurtha--_Jugurthae filia Bocchi nupserat_. Several ma.n.u.scripts and old editions have _Boccho_, making Bocchus the son-in-law of Jugurtha. But Plutarch (Vit. Mar. c. 10, Sull. c. 8) and Florus (iii. 1) agree in speaking of him as Jugurtha's father-in-law. Bocchus was doubtless an older man than Jugurtha, having a grown up son, Volux, c. 105. Castilioneus and Cortius, therefore, saw the necessity of reading _Bocchi_, and, other editors have followed them, except Gerlach, "who," says Kritzius, "has given _Bocchi_ in his larger, and _Boccho_ in his smaller and more recent edition, in order that readers using both may have an opportunity of making a choice."

[220] No one of them becomes a companion to him--_Nulla pro socia obtinet The use of _obtinet_ absolutely, or with the word dependent on it understood, prevails chiefly among the later Latin writers. Livy, however, has _fama obtinuit_, xxi. 46. "The _tyro_ is to be reminded,"

says Dietsch, "that _obtinet_ is not the same as _habetar_, but is always for _loc.u.m obtinet_."

[221] Lx.x.xI. The two kings, with their armies--The text has only _exercitus_.

[222] To lessen Bocchus's chance of peace--_Bocchi pacem imminuere_. He wished to engage Bocchus in some act of hostility against the Romans, so as to render any coalition between them impossible.

[223] Lx.x.xII. Should have learned something of the Moors --_Cognitis Mauris, i.e._ after knowing something of the Moors, _and not before_. _Cognitis militibus_ is used in the same way in c.

39; and Dietsch says that _amicitia Jugurthae parum cognita_ is for _nondum cognita_, c. 14.

[224] Lx.x.xIV. Discharged veterans--_Homines emeritis stipendiis._ Soldiers who had completed their term of service.

[225] Means of warfare--_Usum belli._ That is _ea quae belli usus posceret_, troops and supplies.

[226] Cherished the fancy--_Animis trahebant. "Trahere animo_ is always to revolve in the mind, not to let the thought of a thing escape from the mind." _Kritzius_.

[227] Lx.x.xV. Its interests ought to be managed, etc.--_Majore cura illam administrari quam haec peti debere._ Cortius injudiciously omits the word _illam_. No one has followed him but Allen.

[228] Hostile--_Occursantis._ Thwarting, opposing.