Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War Part 7

[132] To promise her seas and mountains--_Maria montesque polliceri_.

A proverbial expression. Ter. Phorm., i. 2, 18: _Mod non montes auri pollicens_. Perc., iii. 65: _Et quid opus Cratero magnos promittere emontes._

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

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

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

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

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

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

Par. L. i. 28.

[138] XXV. Semp.r.o.nia--Of the same _gens_ as the two Gracchi. She was the wife of Decimus Brutus.

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

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

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

Orat. i. 7: _Magnus in jocando lepos._

[142] XXVI. By an arrangement respecting their provinces--_Pactione provinciae_. This pa.s.sage has been absurdly misrepresented by most translators, except De Brosses. Even Rose, who was a scholar, translated _pactione provinciae_, "by promising a province to his colleague."

Plutarch, in his Life of Cicero, says that the two provinces, which Cicero and his colleague Antonius shared between them, were Gaul and Macedonia, and that Cicero, in order to retain Antonius in the interest of the senate, exchanged with him Macedonia, which had fallen to himself, for the inferior province of Gaul. See Jug., c. 27.

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

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

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

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

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

[149] XXIX. This is the greatest power which--is granted, etc.

--_Ea potestas per senatum, more Romano, magistratui maxima permitt.i.tur_. Cortius, _mira judicii peversitate_, as Kritzius observes, makes _ea_ the ablative case, understanding "decretione,"

"formula," or some such word; but, happily, no one has followed him.

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

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

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

[153] Both which officers, with the t.i.tle of commanders, etc.

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

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

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

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

[157] x.x.xI. Dissipation--Lascivia. "Devotion to public amus.e.m.e.nts and gayety. The word is used in the same sense as in Lucretius, v.

Tum caput atque humeros planis redimire coronis.

Floribus et foliis, lascivia laeta monebat.

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

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

[159] The Plautian law--_Lege Plautia_. "This law was that of M.

Plautius Sila.n.u.s, a tribune of the people, which was directed against such as excited a sedition in the state, or formed plots against the life of any individual." _Cypria.n.u.s Popma_. See Dr. Smith's Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Antiquities, sub Vis.

[160] Which he afterward wrote and published--_Quam postea scriptam edidit_. This was the first of Cicero's four Orations against Catiline. The epithet applied to it by Sall.u.s.t, which I have rendered "splendid," is _luculentam_; that is, says Gerlach, "luminibus verborum et sententiarum ornatam," distinguished by much brilliancy of words and thoughts. And so say Kritzius, Bernouf, and Dietsch. Cortius, who is followed by Dahl, Langius, and Muller, makes the word equivalent merely to _lucid_, in the supposition that Sall.u.s.t intended to bestow on the speech, as on other performances of Cicero, only very cool praise.

_Luculentus_, however, seems certainly to mean something more than _lucidus_.

[161] A mere adopted citizen of Rome--_Inquilinus civis urbis Romae_.

"Inquilinus" means properly a lodger, or tenant in the house of another.

Cicero was born at Arpinum, and is therefore called by Catiline a citizen of Rome merely by adoption or by sufferance. Appian, in repeating this account (Bell. Civ., ii. 104), says, [Greek: _Ingkouilinon, phi raemati kalousi tous enoikountas en allotriais oikiais_.]

[162] Traitor--_Parricidam_. See c. 14. "An oppressor or betrayer of his country is justly called a parricide; for our country is the common parent of all. Cic. ad Attic." _Wa.s.se_.

[163] Since I am encompa.s.sed, by enemies, he exclaimed, etc.--"It was not on this day, nor indeed to Cicero, that this answer was made by Catiline. It was a reply to Cato, uttered a few days before the comitia for electing consuls, which were held on the 22d day of October. See Cic. pro Muraeno, c. 25. Cicero's speech was delivered on the 8th of November. Sall.u.s.t is, therefore, in error on this point, as well as Florus and Valerius Maximus, who have followed him."

_Bernouf_. From other accounts we may infer that no reply was made to Cicero by Catiline on this occasion. Plutarch, in his Life of Cicero, says that Catiline, before Cicero rose, seemed desirous to address the senate in defense of his proceedings, but that the senators refused to listen to him. Of any answer to Cicero's speech, on the part of Catiline, he makes no mention. Cicero himself, in his second Oration against Catiline, says that Catiline _could not endure his voice_, but, when he was ordered to go into exile, "paruit, quievit," _obeyed and submitted in silence_. And in his Oration, c. 37, he says, "That most audacious of men, Catiline, when he was accused by me in the senate, was dumb."

[164] x.x.xII. With directions to address him, etc.--_c.u.m mandatis hujuscemodi_. The communication, as Cortius observes, was not an epistle, but a verbal message.

[165] x.x.xIII. To have the benefit of the law--_Lege uti_. The law here meant was the Papirian law, by which it was provided, contrary to the old law of the Twelve Tables, that no one should be confined in prison for debt, and that the property of the debtor only, not his person, should be liable for what he owed. Livy (viii. 28) relates the occurrence which gave rise to this law, and says that it ruptured one of the strongest bonds of credit.

[166] The praetor--The _praetor urba.n.u.s_, or city praetor, who decided all causes between citizens, and pa.s.sed sentence on debtors.

[167] Relieved their distress by decrees--_Decretis suis inopiae opitulati sunt_. In allusion to the laws pa.s.sed at various times for diminishing the rate of interest.

[168] Silver--was paid with bra.s.s--_Agentum aere solutum est_.

Thus a _sestertius_, which was of silver, and was worth four _a.s.ses_, was paid with one _as_, which was of bra.s.s; or _the fourth part only of the debt was paid_. See Plin. H. N. x.x.xiii. 3; and Velleius Paterculus, ii. 23; who says, _quadrantem solvi_, that _a quarter_ of their debts were paid by the debtors, by a law of Valerius Flaccus, when he became consul on the death of Marius.

[169] Often--have the commonalty--seceded, etc.--"This happened three times: 1. To the Mons Sacer, on account of debt; Liv. ii. 32. 2.

To the Aventine, and thence to the Mons Sacer, through the tyranny of Appius Claudius, the decemvir; Liv. iii. 50. 3. To the Janiculum, on account of debt; Liv. Epist. xi." _Bernouf_.

[170] x.x.xIV. That such had always been the kindness, etc.--_Ea, mansuetudine atque misericordia senatum populumque Romanum, semper fuisse._ "That the senate, etc., had always been of such kindness." I have deserted the Latin for the English idiom.

[171] x.x.xV. The commencement of this letter is different in different editions. In Havercamp it stands thus: _Egregiatua fides, re cognita, grata mihi, magnis in meis periculis, fiduciam commendationi meae tribuit._ Cortius corrected it as follows: _Egregia tua fides, re cognita, gratam in magnis periculis fiduciam commendationi meae tribuit._ Cortius's reading has been adopted by Kritzius, Bernouf, and most other editors. Gerlach and Dietsch have recalled the old text.

That Cortius's is the better; few will deny; for it can hardly be supposed that Sall.u.s.t used _mihi, meis_, and _meae_ in such close succession. Some, however, as Rupertus and Gerlach, defend Havercamp's text, by a.s.serting, from the phrase _earum exemplam infra scriptum,_ that this is a true copy of the letter, and that the style is, therefore, not Sall.u.s.t's, but Catiline's. But such an opinion is sufficiently refuted by Cortius, whose remarks I will transcribe: "Rupertus," says he, "quod in promptu erat, Catilinae culpam tribuit, qui non eo, quo Crispus, stilo scripserit. Sed cur oratio ejus tam apta et composita supra, c. 20 refertur? At, inquis, hic ipsum litterarum exemplum exhibetur. At vide mihi exemplum litterarum Lentuli, c. 44; et lege Ciceronem, qui idem exhibet, et senties sensum magis quam verba referri. Quare inanis haec quidem excusatio." Yet it is not to be denied that _grata mihi_ is the reading of all the ma.n.u.scripts.