Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War Part 8

[172] Known--by experience.--_Re cognita._ "Cognita" be it observed, _tironum gratia,_ is the nominative case. "Catiline had experienced the friendship of Catulus in his affair with Fabia Terentia; for it was by his means that he escaped when he was brought to trial, as is related by Orosius." _Bernouf._

[173] Recommendation--_Commendationi._ His recommendation of his affairs, and of Orestilla, to the care of Catulus.

[174] Formal defense--_Defensionem._ Opposed to _satisfactionem_, which follows, and which means a private apology or explanation.

"_Defensio_, a defense, was properly a statement or speech to be made against an adversary, or before judges; _satisfactio_ was rather an excuse or apology made to a friend, or any other person, in a private communication." _Cortius._

[175] Though conscious of no guilt--_Ex nulla conscientia de culpa_.

This phrase is explained by Cortius as equivalent to "Propter conscientam denulla culpa," or "inasmuch as I am conscious of no fault." "_De culpa_, he adds, is the same as _culpae_; so in the ii.

Epist. to Caesar, c. 1: Neque _de futuro_ quisquam satix callidus; and c. 9: _de illis_ potissimum jactura fit."

[176] To make no formal defense--to offer you some explanation --_Defensionem--parare; satisfactionem--proponere_. "Parare," says Cortius, "is applied to a defense which might require some study and premeditation; _proponere_ to such a statement as it was easy to make at once".

[177] On my word of honor--_Me dius fidius_, sc. juvet. So may the G.o.d of faith help me, as I speak truth. But who is the G.o.d of faith?

_Dius_, say some, is the same as _Deus_ (Plautus has _Deus_ fidius, Asin i. 1, 18); and the G.o.d here meant is probably Jupiter (_sub dio_ being equivalent to _sub Jove_); so that _Dius fidius_ (_fidius_ being an adjective from _fides_) will be the [Greek: _Zeus pistios_] of the Greeks. "_Me dius fidius_" will therefore be, "May Jupiter help me!"

This is the mode of explication adopted by Gerlach, Bernouf, and Dietsch. Others, with Festus (sub voce _Medius fidius_) make _fidius_ equivalent to _filius_, because the ancients, according to Festus, often used D for L, and _dius fidius_ will then be the same as [Greek: _Dios_] or Jovis filius, or Hercules, and _medius fidius_ will be the same as _mehercules_ or _mehercule_. Varro de L. L. (v. 10, ed.

Sprengel) mentions a certain Aelius who was of this opinion. Against this derivation there is the quant.i.ty of _fidius_, of which the first syllable is short: _Quaerebam Nonas Sanco fidone referrem_, Ov. Fast.

vi. 213. But if we consider _dius_ the same as _deus_, we may as well consider _dius fidius_ to be the G.o.d Hercules as the G.o.d Jupiter, and may thus make _medius fidius_ identical with _mehercules_, as it probably is. "Tertullian, de Idol. 20, says that _medius fidius_ is a form of swearing by Hercules." Schiller's Lex. sub _Fidius_. This point will be made tolerably clear if we consider (with Varro, v. 10, and Ovid, _loc. cit._) Dius Fidius to be the same with the Sabine Sancus, or Semo Sancus, and Semo Sancus to be the same with Hercules.

[178] You may receive as true--_Veram licet cognoscas_. Some editions, before that of Cortius, have _quae--licet vera mec.u.m recognoscas_; which was adopted from a quotation of Servius ad Aen.

iv. 204. But twenty of the best MSS., according to Certius, have _veram licet cognoscas_.

[179] Robbed of the fruit of my labor and exertion--_Fructu laboris industriaeque meae privatus_. "The honors which he sought he elegantly calls the _fruit_ of his labor, because the one is obtained by the other." _Cortius_.

[180] Post of honor due to me--_Statum dignitatis_. The consulship.

[181] On my own security--_Meis nominibus_. "He uses the plural,"

says Herzogius, "because he had not borrowed once only, or from one person, but oftentimes, and from many." No other critic attempts to explain this point. For _alienis nominibus_, which follows, being in the plural, there is very good reason. My translation is in conformity with Bernouf's comment.

[182] Proscribed--_Alienatum_. "Repulsed from all hope of the consulship." _Bernouf_.

[183] Adopted a course--_Spes--secutus sum_. "_Spem sequi_ is a phrase often used when the direction of the mind to any thing, action, or course of conduct, and the subsequent election and adoption of what appears advantageous, is signified." _Cortius_.

[184] Protection--_Fidei_.

[185] Intreating you, by your love for your own children, to defend her from injury--_Eam ab injuria defendas, per liberos tuos rogatus_.

"Defend her from injury, being intreated [to do so] by [or for the sake of] your own children."

[186] x.x.xVI. In the neighborhood of Arretium--_In agro Arretino_.

Havercamp, and many of the old editions, have _Reatino_; "but," says Cortius, "if Catiline went the direct road to Faesulae, as is rendered extremely probable by his pretense that he was going to Ma.r.s.eilles, and by the a.s.sertion of Cicero, made the day after his departure, that he was on his way to join Manlius, we must certainly read _Arretino_."

Arretium (now _Arezzo_) lay in his road to Faesulae; Reate was many miles out of it.

[187] In an extremely deplorable condition--_Multo maxime miserabile_.

_Multe_ is added to superlatives, like _longe_. So c. 52, _multo pulcherrimam_ eam nos haberemus. Cortius gives several other instances.

[188] Notwithstanding the two decrees of the senate--_Duobus senati decretis._ I have translated it "_the_ two decrees," with Rose.

One of the two was that respecting the rewards mentioned in c. 30; the other was that spoken of in c. 36., allowing the followers of Catiline to lay down their arms before a certain day.

[189] x.x.xVII. Endeavor to exalt the factious--_Malos extollunt_.

They strive to elevate into office those who resemble themselves.

[190] Poverty does not easily suffer loss--_Egestas facile habetur sine d.a.m.na_ He that has nothing, has nothing to lose. Petron.

Sat., c. 119: _Inops audacia tuta est_.

[191] Had become disaffected--Praeceps abierat. Had grown demoralized, sunk in corruption, and ready to join in any plots against the state.

So Sall.u.s.t says of Semp.r.o.nia, _praeceps abierat_, c. 25.

[192] In the first place--Primum omnium. "These words refer, not to _item_ and _postremo in the same sentence, but to _deinde_ at the commencement of the next." _Bernouf_.

[193] Civil rights had been curtailed--_Jus libertatis imminutum erat_. "Sylla, by one of his laws, had rendered the children of proscribed persons incapable of holding any public office; a law unjust, indeed, but which, having been established and acted upon for more than twenty years, could not be rescinded without inconvenience to the government. Cicero, accordingly, opposed the attempts which were made, in his consulship, to remove this restriction, as he himself states in his Oration against Piso, c. 2." _Bernouf_. See Vell. Patere., ii., 28; Plutarch, Vit. Syll.; Quintil., xi. 1, where a fragment of Cicero's speech, _De Proscriptorum Liberis_, is preserved.

This law of Sylla was at length abrogated by Julius Caesar, Suet. J.

Caes. 41; Plutarch Vit. Caes.; Dio Ca.s.s., xli. 18.

[194] This was an evil--to the extent to which it now prevailed--_Id ade malum multos post annos in civitatem reverterat_. "_Ade_, says Cortius, "_in particula elegantissima_" Allen makes it equivalent to _e usque_.

[195] x.x.xVIII. The powers of the tribunes--had been fully restored --_Tribunicia potestas rest.i.tuta_. Before the time of Sylla, the power of the tribunes had grown immoderate, but Sylla diminished and almost annihilated it, by taking from them the privileges of holding any other magistracy after the tribunate, of publicly addressing the people, of proposing laws, and of listening to appeals.

But in the consulship of Cotta, A.U.C. 679, the first of these privileges had been restored; and in that of Pompey and Cra.s.sus, A.U.C. 683, the tribunes were reinstated in all their former powers.

[196] Having obtained that high office--_Summam potestatem nacti_.

Cortius thinks these words spurious.

[197] x.x.xIX. Free from harm--_Innoxii_. In a pa.s.sive sense.

[198] Overawing others--with threats of impeachment--_Caeteros judiciis terrere_. "Accusationibus et judiciorum periculis."

_Bernouf_.

[199] His father ordered to be put to death--_Parens necari jussit_.

"His father put him to death, not by order of the consuls, but by his own private authority; nor was he the only one who, at the same period, exercised similar power." Dion. Ca.s.s., lib. x.x.xvii. The father observed on the occasion, that, "he had begotten him, not for Catiline against his country, but for his country against Catiline".

Val. Max., v.8. The Roman laws allowed fathers absolute control over the lives of their children.

[200] XL. Certain deputies of the Allobroges--_Legatos Allobrogum_.

Plutarch, in his Life of Cicero, says that there were then at Rome _two deputies_ from this Gallic nation, sent to complain of oppression on the part of the Roman governors.

[201] As Brutus was then absent from Borne--_Nam tum Brutus ab Roma, aberat_. From this remark, say Zanchius and Omnibonus, it is evident that Brutus was not privy to the conspiracy. "What sort of woman _Semp.r.o.nia_ was, has been told in c. 25. Some have thought that she was the wife of Decimus Brutus; but since Sall.u.s.t speaks of her as being in the decay of her beauty at the time of the conspiracy, and since Brutus, as may be seen in Caesar (B. G. vii., sub fin.), was then very young, it is probable that she had only an illicit connection with him, but had gained such an ascendency over his affections, by her arts of seduction, as to induce him to make her his mistress, and to allow her to reside in his house." _Beauzee_. I have, however, followed those who think that Brutus was the husband of Semp.r.o.nia. Sall.u.s.t (c. 24), speaking of the woman, of whom Semp.r.o.nia was one, says that Catiline _credebat posse--viros earum vel adjungere sibi, vel interficere_. The truth, on such a point, is of little importance.

[202] XLI. To be expected from victory--_In spe victoriae_.

[203] Certain rewards--_Certa praemia_. "Offered by the senate to those who should give information of the conspiracy. See c. 30."

_Kuhnhardt_.

[204] Quintus Fabius Sanga--"A descendent of that Fabius who, for having subdued the Allobroges, was surnamed Allobrogicus." _Bernouf_.

Whole states often chose patrons as well as individuals.

[205] XLII. There were commotions--_Motus erat_. "_Motus_ is also used by Cicero and Livy in the singular number for _seditiones_ and _tumultus_. No change is therefore to be made in the text." _Gerlach_.

"Motus bellicos intelligit, _tumultus_; ut Flor., iii. 13." _Cortius_.

[206] Having brought several to trial--_Complures--caussa cognita.

"Caussum cognoscere_ is the legal phrase for examining as to the authors and causes of any crime." _Dietsch_.