Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

mirers of Sallust. Quintilian, for instance, finds fault with his introductions both to the Catiline and the Jugurtha: they have no real connection with the works to which they are prefixed. The criticism is well founded, though these prefaces are well worth reading as modes of vigorous thought vigorously expressed. It is chiefly Sallust's style, however, to which the ancients took exception. It is abrupt, they tell us; its brevity verges on obscurity; Sallust borrows too many obsolete words from the elder Cato and other ancient historians. If we study Sallust's style, we shall soon find that it differs widely from Cicero's and Caesar's. Sallust makes no attempt to write with the rhythmic flow, which is so marked a characteristic in Cicero and writers of his school. As Sallust cut loose from the old annalists and founded a new school in history, so as a stylist he struck out in a new direction. His sentences are crisp and pointed, not flowing and melodious. Modern criticism finds both styles allowable, and holds that both may be handled with great effect. That Sallust is a vigorous and impressive writer needs no demonstration, though his epigrammatic brevity is at times hurtful to the clearness of his sentences. But it must not be inferred that Sallust is a careless stylist. He not only abounds in antithesis, but he arranges the words contrasted with conscious effort to produce the greatest effect; hence the frequent occurrence of chiasmus in his writings. He is even more fond of parallel arrangement in his sentences (anaphora). Series of words he arranges in pairs, omitting conjunctions, wherever it is feasible. How painfully he strives to vary his expression, is apparent to the least observant reader, and his art here often degenerates into artificiality. To secure variety in his constructions, he perversely puts aside established rules in the use of correlatives, as when he replaces alii . . . alii by alii. · pars; to attain the same end he avoids parallelism in construction where others would seek it; as for instance in Bellum Catilinae, IX. 3, he says: audacia in bello, ubi pax evenerat aequitate . . . rem publicam curabant, where it would have been so much more natural to write: audacia in bello, in pace aequitate,

...

etc. It is not unlikely that to the same striving after word effects, which led him into these mannerisms, we should ascribe his fondness for archaisms. However, we must not indorse this charge of his ancient critics indiscriminately. A careful examination of Sallust's vocabulary and grammatical usage has convinced modern scholars that he uses not only many so-called archaisms, but also many words and constructions that are colloquial rather than archaic. Indeed, it is not always safe to infer that a word which occurs, let us say, in Plautus, and is missed in Caesar and Cicero, was obsolete. Who will assure us that it was not in common colloquial use, though the school of Cicero may have condemned it? Nay, when we see a word of this kind reappear immediately after Cicero, and continue to be used by many later writers, must we not conclude that this is the true explanation? If we apply this principle to Sallust, the number of his archaisms becomes comparatively small, and most of them occur in the speeches. Perhaps Sallust used them there to give the speeches an archaic coloring or to portray the speaker's peculiarities of language. As the archaisms have been carefully pointed out in the notes, the attentive student may form his own judgment on this question. He will also observe in our author many other peculiarities, such as the use of igitur, ceterum, ad hoc, at the beginning of sentences; his preference for the form in -ere rather than -erunt in the 3d pl. of the perfect indicative; his use of quippe qui with the indicative; his fondness for the verb habeo; his frequent use of the historical infinitive. Perhaps some of these also were colloquialisms. At all events, the student will find in the notes every assistance needed to study Sallust from the point of view of style.

B.C.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

108. Catiline born.

106.

Cicero born.

82. Catiline murders his brother-in-law, Q. Caecilius, and M. Marius Gratidianus.

73. Catiline tried for incest with the Vestal Fabia, but acquitted. 68. Catiline praetor.

67. Catiline propraetor of the province of Africa.

66. About Dec. 5. Catiline conspires with Autronius and Piso to murder the consuls, L. Cotta and L. Torquatus, on Jan. 1, 65 B.C. (ch. XVIII.).

The consul L. Volcatius Tullus refuses to recognize Catiline as a candidate for the consulship.

65. Jan. 1. The plot, becoming known, fails (ch. XVIII.).

Feb. 5. A second attempt, fixed for this day, fails (ch. XVIII.). Catiline, prosecuted by P. Clodius for extortion, is acquitted. 64. About June 1. Catiline makes preparations for a second plot, and afterwards summons a meeting of the conspirators (ch. XVII.). Catiline defeated as candidate for the consulship.

M. Tullius Cicero and C. Antonius are elected consuls.

63. Catiline declares himself a candidate for the consulship for the year 62 B.C.

Cicero learns of Catiline's conspiracy through Fulvia and Curius.
The consular election, after postponement, takes place probably
towards the end of July. (D. Junius Silanus and L. Licinius
Murena are chosen consuls for 62.)

Oct. 21. Meeting of the Senate, which passed the decree viderent
consules ne quid detrimenti res publica caperet.

Oct. 27. Manlius takes up arms at Faesulae.

Nov. 6. The conspirators meet at Laeca's house.

Nov. 7. C. Cornelius and L. Vargunteius attempt to murder Cicero
in his own house.

Nov. 8. Meeting of the Senate: Cicero's First Oration against
Catiline.

Catiline leaves Rome.

Nov. 9. Cicero's Second Oration against Catiline to the people.

B.C.

63. Towards the end of November the Senate declares Catiline and

Manlius public enemies.

Intrigues with the Allobroges.

On the night from Dec. 2 to Dec. 3. Arrest of the Allobrogian ambassadors and T. Volturcius (ch. XLV.).

Dec. 3. Arrest of the chiefs of the conspiracy in Rome. Meeting of the Senate (ch. XLVI.). After the meeting of the Senate Cicero addresses the people in his Third Oration against Catiline. Dec. 5. Meeting of the Senate: Speeches of Caesar, Cato, Cicero (Fourth Oration against Catiline). Condemnation of the conspirators by the Senate. They are put to death (ch. L. to LV.). 62. Battle of Pistoria. Defeat and death of Catiline (ch. LVII. to LXI.).

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

GAI SALLUSTI CRISPI

BELLUM CATILINAE.

1

I. Omnis homines, qui sese student praestare ceteris animalibus, summa ope niti decet, ne vitam silentio transeant veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri oboedientia finxit. Sed nostra omnis vis in animo et 2 corpore sita est: animi imperio, corporis servitio magis utimur; alterum nobis cum dis, alterum cum beluis commune est. Quo mihi rectius videtur ingeni quam 3 virium opibus gloriam quaerere et, quoniam vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est, memoriam nostri quam maxume longam efficere. Nam divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa 4 atque fragilis est, virtus clara aeternaque habetur.

Sed diu magnum inter mortalis certamen fuit, vine 5 corporis an virtute animi res militaris magis procederet.

1 The student is reminded that in the present edition: 1°. Nouns and adjectives with -i stems have the acc. pl. in -is. 2°. Nouns in -ius and -ium have the gen. sing. in -i. 3°. Superlatives and ordinals end in -umus instead of in -imus. 4°. Gerunds and gerundives of the third and fourth conjugations end in -undo instead of -endo. 5o. Nouns and adjectives of the second declension whose ending (-us) is preceded by v, retain the old form in -vos, as vivos instead of vivus. 6°. Certain words retain the old u instead of later i; e.g. lubet for libet. 7°. Certain words have vo instead of later ve ; e.g. vorto, voster for verto, vester.

1

« IndietroContinua »