Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War Part 5

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

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

_Livy_.

[55] Two magistrates--_Binos imperatores_. The two consuls. They were more properly called _imperatores_ at first, when the law, which settled their power, said "_Regio imperio_ duo sunto" (Cic. de Legg.

iii. 4), than afterward, when the people and tribunes had made encroachments on their authority.

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

[57] Able to bear the toils of war--_Laboris ac belli patiens_.

As by _laboris_ the labor of war is evidently intended, I have thought it better to render the words in this manner. The reading is Cortius'.

Havercamp and others have "simul _ac belli_ patiens erat, in castris _per laborem usu_ militiam discebat;" but _per laborem usu_ is a.s.suredly not the hand of Sall.u.s.t.

[58] Honor and true n.o.bility--_Bonam famam magnamque n.o.bilitatem_.

[59] VIII. Very great and glorious--_Satis amplae magnificaeque_.

In speaking of this amplification of the Athenian exploits, he alludes, as Colerus observes, to the histories of Thucydides, Xenophen, and perhaps Herodotus; not, as Wa.s.se seems to imagine, to the representations of the poets.

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

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

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

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

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

[Greek: Echthros gar moi keinos h.o.m.os Aidao pulaesin.

Os ch' eteron men keuthei eni phresin, allo de Bazei.]

Who dares think one thing, and another tell, My heart detests him as the gates of h.e.l.l.

_Pope_.

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

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

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

[68] All became robbers and plunderers--_Rapere omnes, trahere_.

He means that there was a general indulgence in plunder among Sylla's party, and among all who, in whatever character, could profit by supporting it. Thus he says immediately afterward, "neque modum neque modestiam _victores_ habere."

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

[70] in public edifices and private dwellings--_Privatim ac publice_. I have translated this according to the notion of Burnouf.

Others, as Dietsch and Pappaur, consider _privatim_ as signifying _each on his own account_, and _publice_, _in the name of the Republic_.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Cortius_.

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

_Cortius_.

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

He also refers to Ambros., Epist. xii., and Casaubon. Ad Spartian.

Adrian., c. x., p. 87.

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

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

_Festus_ sub voce _Parrici_.

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

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

[82] With a priestess of Vesta--_c.u.m sacerdote Vestae_. This priestess of Vesta was Fabia Terentia, sister to Terentia, Cicero's wife, whom Sall.u.s.t, after she was divorced by Cicero, married. Clodius accused her, but she was acquitted, either because she was thought innocent, or because the interest of Catulus and others, who exerted themselves in her favor, procured her acquittal. See Orosius, vi. 3; the Oration of Cicero, quoted in the preceding note; and Asconius's commentary on it.

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

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

[85] Desolate his tortured spirit--_Mentem exciteam vastabat_.

"Conscience desolates the mind, when it deprives it of its proper power and tranquillity, and introduces into it perpetual disquietude."

_Cortius_. Many editions have _vexabat_.

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

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

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

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

[90] The senate was wholly off its guard--_Senatus nihil sane intentus_.