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CAII CRISPI

SALLUSTII

DE

CATILINE CONJURATIONE HISTORIA..

I. OMNIS homines, qui sese student præstare cæteris anima libus, summâ ope niti decet, vitam silentio ne transeant, veluti pecora, quæ Natura, prona atque ventri obedientia, finxit. Sed nostra omnis vis in animo et corpore sita: animì imperio, corporis servitio, magis utimur. Alterum nobis cum Dîs, alterum cum belluis, commune est. Quò mihi rectiùs videtur, ingenii quàm virium opibus, gloriam quærere; et, quoniam vita ipsa, quâ fruimur, brevis est, memoriam nostri quàm maxumè longam efficere. Nam divitiarum et formæ gloria fluxa atque fragilis; virtus clara æternaque, habetur. Sed diu magnum inter mortalis certamen fuit, vinè corporis, an virtute animi, res militaris magis procederet. Nam et, priùs quàm incipias, consulto, et, ubi consulueris, maturè facto, opus est. Ita utrumque, per se indigens, alterum alterius auxilio eget.

II. Igitur initio reges (nam in terris nomen imperii id primum fuit) diversi; pars ingenium, alii corpus, exercebant.. Et jam tum vita hominum sine cupiditate agitabatur; sua. cuique satis placebant. Postea verò, quàm in Asiâ Cyrus, in Græciâ Lacedæmonii et Athenienses, cœpere urbes atque

I. Omnis for omnes: one of the archaic forms affected by Sallust. A list of the principal ones will be found at the end of the Life. The rule is that those words whose genitive plural ends in ium, take es, is, or eis in the nom., and acc plural.

Quàm maxumè longam = quam longissimam. The form of expression is a favourite one, and it is used to enhance the superlative.

II. Igitur. The best writers only occasionally place Igitur at the beginning of a sentence. It will be found a common practice with Sallust.

SALLUST'S HISTORY

OF THE

CATILINARIAN

CONSPIRACY.

I. It becomes all men who aim at excelling the rest of the animal world to strive with their utmost power not to go through life in obscurity, like cattle which nature has formed. bent downward and obeying their appetite. But the whole of our power is situated in the mind and the body; we rather avail ourselves of the sway of the mind, but (demand) of the body obedience. The one is common to us with the gods, the other with the brute creation. Wherefore it appears to me more just to seek glory by the powers of the intellect rather than those of the body, and, since, the life itself which we enjoy is short, to make the remembrance of ourselves as enduring as possible. For the fame of riches and beauty is considered evanescent and brittle, (while) virtue is illustrious and eternal. Now for a lengthened period there was a great contest among men whether military matters progressed better through strength of body or energy of mind. For there is need of deliberation before you begin, and when you have deliberated,. of action without delay. Thus, each being incomplete of itself, the one requires the aid of the other.

II. Therefore, in the beginning, kings (for that was the first title of authority on earth), some (kings) differing (from others), exercised their minds, others their bodies; moreover, at that time the life of man was gone through without avarice, everyone was contented with his own. But after Cyrus in Asia, the Lacedæmonians and Athenians in Greece began to conquerTM

nationes subigere, lubidinem dominandi caussam belli habere, maxumam gloriam in maxumo imperio putare; tum demum periculo atque negotiis compertum est, in bello plurimùm ingenium posse. Quod si regum atque imperatorum animi virtus in pace ita, uti in bello, valeret, æquabiliùs atque constantiùs sese res humanæ haberent; neque aliud alio ferri, neque mutari ac misceri omnia, cerneres. Nam imperium facilè his artibus retinetur, quibus initio partum est. Verùm ubi pro labore desidia, pro continentiâ et æquitate lubido atque superbia invasere, fortuna simul cum moribus immutatur: ita imperium semper ad optumum quemque a minùs bono transfertur. Quæ homines arant, navigant, ædificant, virtuti omnia parent. Sed multi mortales, dediti ventri atque somno, indocti incultique, vitam, sicuti peregrinantes, transegere: quibus, profectò contra naturam, corpus voluptati, anima oneri, fuit. Eorum ego vitam mortemque juxtà æstumo, quoniam de utrâque siletur. Verùm enim verò is demum mihi vivere atque frui animâ videtur, qui, aliquo negotio intentus, præclari facinoris, aut artis bonæ, famam quærit. Sed in magnâ copiâ rerum aliud alii Natura iter ostendit.

III. Pulchrum est bene facere reipublicæ; etiam bene dicere haud absurdum est. Vel pace, vel bello clarum fieri licet: et qui fecere, et qui facta aliorum scripsere, multi laudantur. Ac mihi quidem, tamen etsi haudquaquam par gloria sequatur scriptorem et auctorem rerum, tamen in primis arduum videtur res gestas scribere: primùm, quòd facta dictis sunt exæquanda; dehinc, quia plerique, quæ delicta reprehenderis, malivolentiâ et invidiâ putant. Ubi de magnâ virtute et gloriâ bonorum memores, quæ sibi quisque facilia factu putat, æquo animo accipit; supra ea, veluti ficta, pro falsis ducit. Sed ego adolescentulus, initio, sicuti plerique, studio ad rempublicam latus sum, ibique mihi advorsa multo fuere. Nam pro pudore, pro abstinentiâ, pro virtute, audacia, largitio, avaritia, vigebant. Quæ, tametsi animus aspernabatur, insolens malarum artium

Cyrus, i.e., the Elder, the founder of the Persian Empire.

Aliud alio ferri. This is peculiarly a Latin idium, requiring two sentences in English. Alter is used in the same way when only two persons or things are spoken of.

Ad optumam quemque omnes. The form is mostly used relatively; another superlative or, as here, comparative, being used with the verb. III. Auctorem. Some editions have actorem.

cities and nations, to hold the desire of dominion a cause of war, and to think the greatest glory to consist in the greatest empire; then at length, from experience and from affairs themselves, it was found that intellect was of most avail in war. And if the mental greatness of kings and rulers were equally strong in peace as in war, human affairs would be regulated more justly and steadily, nor would you see one thing drawn in one direction and the other in another, nor all things shifting and muddled. For government is easily retained by those arts, by which in the first instance it was acquired. But when sloth has stepped in in place of exertion, lust and pride in place of moderation and justice, fortune is changed along with manners; thus government is always transferred from the less good to the most deserving. Agriculture, navigation, architecture (lit. what men plough, &c.), all depend on mental excellence. But many men, given up to eating and drinking and sleeping, ignorant and without culture, have passed through life like travellers in a foreign land, to whom indeed, contrary to nature, the body was the source of pleasure, the mind a burden. I set a like value upon their life and death, since nothing is said of either. Now, in my view, he alone seems to live and enjoy his nature, who, bent upon some occupation, seeks fame from (some) noble deed or (the produce of some) useful art. But in the great variety of employments nature indicates different paths to different individuals.

III. It is a glorious thing to act well for the Commonwealth; even to be eloquent (lit. speak well) is not unworthy. It is possible to become illustrious, both in peace and war, and many who have taken part in public affairs, and many who have recounted the deeds of others, are praised. And to me, indeed, though by no means equal glory attends the writer and the actor of deeds, yet it appears in the highest degree difficult to compose an historical narrative; in the first place, because the deeds are to be properly described by the words; again, because most men think that the evil deeds you blame are censured through ill-will and jealousy. Where you record the great virtue and glory of the good (the reader), accepts in good part, what he himself thinks easy to be accomplished, whatever is beyond that he holds to be false, as if intended. But I, when a young man; in the beginning, like most men, was inclined with earnestness to the service of the State, and there many things were adverse to me. For instead of modesty, temperance, (or) manliness-daring, bribery, and avarice flourished.

And these things, although my mind despised,

tamen, inter tanta vitia, imbecilla ætas ambitione corrupta tenebatur. Ac me, cùm ab reliquorum malis moribus dissentirem, nihilò minùs honoris cupido, eadem, quæ cæteros, fama atque invidia vexabat.

IV. Igitur ubi animus ex multis miseriis atque periculis requievit, et mihi reliquam ætatem a republicâ procul habendam decrevi; non fuit consilium, secordiâ atque desidiâ bonum otium conterere; neque verò agrum colendo, aut venando, servilibus officiis intentum, ætatem agere; sed, a quo incepto studio me ambitio mala detinuerat, eòdem regressus, statui res gestas Populi Romani carptim, ut quæque memoriâ digna videbantur, perscribere: eò magis, quòd mihi a spe, metu, partibus reipublicæ, animus liber erat. Igitur de Catilinæ Conjuratione, quàm verissumè potero, paucis absolvam. Nam id facinus in primis ego memorabile existumo, sceleris atque periculi novitate. De cujus hominis moribus pauca priùs explananda sunt, quàm initium narrandi faciam.

V. LUCIUS CATILINA, nobili genere natus, magnâ vi et anima et corporis, sed ingenio malo pravoque. Huic, ab adolescentiâ, bella intestina, cædes, rapinæ, discordia civilis, grata fuere: ibique juventutem suam exercuit. Corpus patiens inediæ, vigiliæ, algoris, supra quàm cuique credibile est. Animus audax, subdolus, varius, cujus rei libet simulator ac dissimulator, alieni appetens, sui profusus, ardens in cupiditatibus, satis loquentiæ, sapientiæ parum. Vastus animus immoderata, incredibilia, nimis alta, semper cupiebat. Hunc post dominationem Lucii Sullæ lubido maxuma invaserat reipublicæ capiundæ ; neque id quibus modis adsequeretur, dum sibi regnum pararet, quidquam pensi habebat. Agitabatur magis magisque in dies animus ferox, inopiâ rei familiaris, et conscientiâ scelerum; quæ utraque his artibus auxerat, quas suprà memoravi. Incitabant præterea corrupti civitatis mores, quos pessuma ac diversa inter se mala, luxuria atque avaritia vexabant. Res ipsa hortari videtur, quoniam de moribus civitatis

IV. Carptim. Probably Sallust means that he intended to try his hand on short essays on the greater events in Roman history before attempting to treat the whole subject. The "Catiline" is generally believed to have been his first work.

V. Lucius Catilina. The full name is Lucius Sergius Catilina. Sallust's account of him may be supplemented by stating that his family, though noble, was wretchedly poor; that from earliest youth he had been an adventurer, steeped to the lips in vice and crime. He was a zealous follower of Sulla, became prætor in B.C. 68, and tried for the consulship in B.C. 66, but was disqualified on account of an impeach

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