[45.]
[218] Cuncta. Respecting this accusative, see Zumpt, § 391, note 1.
[219] Pons Mulvius, a bridge across the Tiber, about one mile from the city, outside the porta Flaminia. It still exists under the name of ponte Molle, and is passed by all travellers who go from Rome to the north.
[220] Obsidunt. For this verb, see Zumpt, § 189, under sido.
[221] Ad id loci; that is, ad eum locum.
[222] He betrayed his treasonable designs even by surrendering to the public authorities, as if they were a foreign and hostile power, and by praying them to spare his life.
[46.]
[223] See Zumpt, § 662.
[224] The meeting of the senate was held in the Temple of Concord, close by the Forum. Temples were often used instead of the Curia Hostilia, which was the regular place for the senate to assemble in. Lentulus was taken to the senate by the consul himself; the others were conducted thither by guards, to be brought before the assembly after the business had been opened.
[47.]
[225] ‘He was ordered to make his statement on the ground of the promise made to him, on behalf of the state, that he should not be punished.’ Sallust might have used the more complete expression, fide publica data or accepta; but such expressions are to be completed by the sense rather than by any grammatical ellipsis.
[226] Sibylla is the ancient Greek name for a prophetic woman; and at Rome prophecies and counsels (libri Sibyllini) were kept in the Capitol which were believed to have been given as early as the time of the kings by a Sibyl of Cumae. They contained information about festivals, sacrifices, and other religious observances, and the means by which calamities which threatened the state might be averted. They were under the superintendence of a special college of priests, by whom alone they were consulted, on the command of the senate, in cases of public distress or apprehension. This college was called at different times, according to the number of its members, duoviri, decemviri, or quindecemviri sacrorum.
[227] The gens Cornelia comprised a large number of families, such as the Scipios, Dolabellas, Merulas, Sullas, Cinnas, Cethegi, and Lentuli. L. Cinna, by repeated consulships, and as the leader of the Marian party, obtained the highest power at Rome after the death of C. Marius, but was slain in B.C. 84 by his own soldiers, whom he intended to lead against L. Sulla. Sulla, after having been consul as early as the year B.C. 88, became dictator in B.C. 82. Respecting the expression urbis potiri, see Zumpt, § 466.
[228] Haruspices were the interpreters of the signs which were believed to be contained in the entrails of victims sacrificed to the gods, as well as of the phenomena in the atmosphere (monstra), and other occurrences in nature, which seemed to be contrary to the ordinary course of things. The system of this kind of superstition had been principally developed by the ancient Etruscans, and the haruspices engaged in the state religion of the Romans were generally natives of Etruria; and the Romans, owing to the uncertainty of their knowledge of things divine, dreaded this kind of superstition rather than practised it.
[229] Libera custodia is opposed to the carcer publicus, in which the prisoners were treated like slaves, and kept in chains. There were at Rome no prisons for those persons whose guilt was not yet established, or whose punishment consisted merely in confinement; but private persons, or the relatives of the accused, were obliged to keep the person of a criminal in their own houses, until the final decision upon his offence was given by the ordinary courts of justice.
[48.]
[230] Such transitions from the historical infinitive to the present or imperfect, and vice versa, are not uncommon in Sallust. See chapters [18], [23], [56], [58].
[231] Erant; according to the style of Cicero, it would be essent. See Zumpt, § 565.
[232] For deprehensio Lentuli et aliorum, which would be more in accordance with the usage of modern languages.
[233] In tali tempore. See Zumpt, § 475, note.
[234] They demanded that the consul should bring forward the matter, as to whether the statement of Tarquinius was to be believed, in order that the votes might be taken upon it. For without a special relatio by the magistrate authorised to make it (commonly the presiding consul, but sometimes also a tribune of the people), no senatus consultum could be made.
[235] Potestatem; supply from the context indicandi.
[236] Praedicantem. See Zumpt, § 636.
[49.]
[237] These two leaders of the party of the optimates had been consuls, Catulus in the year B.C. 78, and C. Piso in B.C. 67; and Catulus had also been censor in B.C. 65. Both were enemies of Caesar, who had defeated Catulus in his canvas for the office of pontifex maximus, and had caused a judicial inquiry to be instituted against Piso, about the manner in which he had conducted the proconsular administration of Gaul. Caesar was even then considered as the leader of the popular party, and as an opponent of the senate and its influence in the constitution.
[238] It was at that time that Caesar, on going from home to the elective assembly, said to his mother, ‘To-day you shall see your son either as pontifex, or you shall never see him again.’ Caesar, however, is here called an adolescentulus only in comparison with the aged Catulus, for he was at that time thirty-six years old.
[239] ‘In public life by the greatest exhibitions;’ for munera are exhibitions by means of which a private person, and still oftener a magistrate, endeavoured to win the favour of the people. As regards Caesar, that which is said here refers to the brilliant exhibitions in his aedileship, and the games which he gave while invested with that office. But he had thereby got so deeply into debt, that when, after his praetorship — with which he was invested in B. C. 62, the year after the Catilinarian conspiracy — he wanted to leave Rome to go to his province of Spain, he was kept back by his creditors; and he was not allowed to depart until M. Crassus had given security for him.
[240] Dicerent. Respecting this subjunctive, see Zumpt, § 551.
[241] Mobilitas animi, ‘irritability,’ or that state of mind which is easily excited, or upon which it is easy to make an impression. Clarius esset is an explanation of gladio minitarentur.