[119] Frequentata sunt, ‘they have been frequented.’ The participle is in the neuter, the subjects being both animate and inanimate. Asperitas refers to the inaccessible nature of mountainous districts.
[120] Other editions have in partem tertiam, and this deviation from the common mode of speaking (which is to use pono with in and the ablative) commentators explain by the remark, that the division was not yet made, but only supposed. But the Latin language knows of no such distinction.
[121] In the earliest times, before the earth was divided into three parts, it was rather customary to consider Africa, especially Egypt and the countries about the Nile, as belonging to Asia. To connect Africa with Europe could only have been an idea of those who divided the earth into an eastern and a western half, and did not know the vast extent of Africa to the south.
[122] Fretum, &c.; that is, the Fretum Herculeum, or the Straits of Gibraltar. It is clear that Sallust wants to state only the northern frontier of Africa on the Mediterranean, and the frontiers in the east and west. The extent of Africa southward was too little known to him to speak about it.
[123] ‘The inclined plain,’ or, as the geographer Mela says, ‘the valley which inclines towards Egypt.’ The length of this valley extends from south to north as far as the Mediterranean, and in the upper part it separates the immense desert in the west from the oasis in the east, which is considered as a part of Egypt. The easternmost country in Africa on the Mediterranean was Cyrenaica. It is therefore quite clear that Sallust does not include Egypt in Africa.
[124] Sallust wants to give a short account of the original inhabitants of Africa, and their amalgamation with new immigrants, such as it was translated for him from the Punic books of King Hiempsal. This Hiempsal is not the same as the one already mentioned, who had been murdered by Jugurtha, but a later descendant of Masinissa, who ruled after Jugurtha, and was still alive in the days of Cicero, about B. C. 60. Interpretatum est, in a passive sense. See Zumpt, § 632.
[18.]
[125] Within the clause expressed by the ablative absolute (multis — petentibus) there is inserted another stating that each did so for himself, and that in the nominative case, because multis petentibus is, after all, only a different form for quum multi peterent. Grammatically speaking, it ought to be sibi quoque; but no Latin would have understood this, since he would have taken quoque as an adverb. See Zumpt, § 710. Passim, ‘in different places,’ ‘scattered everywhere,’ but not ‘here and there.’ The tradition of the immense conquests extending to the western extremities of the known earth, which are ascribed to Hercules (Heracles), who occurs in the traditions of various nations, runs through the whole of ancient history.
[126] Nostrum mare is the Mediterranean, the African coast of which was occupied by the parts of Hercules’ army here mentioned; and the Persae, it is farther stated, occupied that coast which is more within (that is, ‘on this side,’ as a person writing at Rome would say) the ocean.
[127] Gnarus and ignarus have most commonly an active meaning, denoting ‘one who does know,’ or ‘one does not know;’ but sometimes, and especially in Sallust and Tacitus, they have a passive meaning, ‘he who is known,’ and ‘he who is not known.’ So here ignara lingua is the same as ignota lingua.
[128] ‘They tried the fields;’ that is, ‘the soil,’ as to whether it was fruitful, and in this manner they sometimes inhabited one place, and sometimes another. Alia, deinde alia, is the same as alia atque alia, as in [chap. 26]. Hence they were called in Greek Νομαδες, and the Greek accusative of this word, Nomadas for Nomades, is used by Sallust in the next sentence. See Zumpt, § 74.
[129] The Medes and Armenians in the army of Hercules joined the Libyans, the ancient inhabitants of Africa. Libyes is the accusative, for accedere is joined with the accusative as well as the dative of the person whom one joins. See Zumpt, § 386, note.
[130] This derivation of the name Mauri is very improbable. The Mauri are the inhabitants of the western part of the African coast of the Mediterranean. They lived to the west of the mouth of the river Mulucha (which separated them from the Numidians), opposite Malaga and Cadiz, and also on the coast of the ocean extending southward as far as those countries were known to the ancients. The modern name of Moors is derived from the ancient Mauri.
[131] Utrique refers to parentes and their descendants, the Numidae. One part of the nation trusted to the other (alteris freti), and was supported by it.
[19.]
[132] To aliis — avidis supply sollicitatis.
[133] All three are cities in the territory of Carthage, which afterwards became the province of Africa. Hippo with the surname of Diarrhytus, (there being another town, Hippo Regius, on the coast of Numidia,) is said to be the modern Bizerta; Hadrumetum, southeast of Carthage, and Leptis, surnamed minor (there being another town, Leptis magna, more to the east), are now in ruins.
[134] ‘To their origin;’ that is, to their mother country Phoenicia, whence the settlers had come.
[135] The transition to Carthage by the conjunction nam presupposes the ellipsis of some such sentiment as — ‘I only meant to mention these Phoenician settlements on the African coast, for it is well known that Carthage also was a settlement of the Phoenicians.’
[136] Secundo mari, ‘along the sea,’ is said according to the analogy of secundo flumine (see Caes. Bell. Gall. vii. 58) secundo flumine ad Lutetiam iter facere coepit. The sea has indeed no current like a river, but the direction is determined by the person travelling on the coast, and in this case it is the direction from east to west. Theraei are the inhabitants of the island of Thera, in the Greek Archipelago, south of Peloponnesus, whence the first Greek settlers at Cyrene proceeded in B. C. 631, under the leadership of Battus. Respecting the Greek genitive on, instead of orum, see Zumpt, § 52, 1.
[137] Syrtis major and Syrtis minor are two large sandbanks near the coast of Africa between Cyrene and Carthage. They were very dangerous to navigation, and between them lay the route to Leptis magna, a city of considerable importance. Compare [chap. 78], where Sallust describes these sandbanks and the bays named after them.
[138] The origin of the name of this place is stated by Sallust, [chap. 79]. As it was situated above the great, that is, the eastern Syrtis, it is clear that deinde is used somewhat vaguely, since only the great Syrtis, but not the town of Leptis and the small Syrtis, precede the place Arae Philaenon in the order of succession.
[139] ‘Above Numidia;’ that is, southward, towards the inland, the coast being always, or at least being always conceived to be, lower than the inland districts.
[140] Novissime, ‘latterly;’ that is, at the beginning of the third Punic war, the result of which was, that Carthage and its territory became a Roman province.
[141] Cetera ignarus, ‘otherwise unknown.’ Compare p. 87, note 4 [[note 127]]; and on cetera, Zumpt, § 459.
[20.]
[142] Questum, the supine, ‘in order to complain’
[143] ‘The war previously undertaken had turned out unsuccessfully.’ About secus, see Zumpt, § 283.
[21.]
[144] Cirta, the capital of Numidia, situated in that part of the country nearest to Carthage, or the Roman province. It is said to be ‘not far from the sea,’ only in consideration of the vast extent of Numidia to the south. Cirta is the modern Constantina, which name it received in honour of the Emperor Constantine, and is situated at a distance of four days’ march from Bona, the ancient Hippo Regius.
[145] Plerumque for the more common plurimum, ‘the greater part.’ See Zumpt, § 103.
[146] As Sallust in other passages connects pars and alii, so here partim and alios, partim being the same as partem.
[147] Togati are Roman citizens, for they alone wore the peculiar and privileged dress called toga. But it may be that other Italians also are comprised under the name; for Romans and Italians resided in great numbers in all the towns subject to the Roman dominion, for the sake of commerce, and in them they formed a distinct conventus. Moenibus prohibere. See Zumpt, § 468.
[148] It would be more in accordance with the ordinary usage to say, et se et illis. See Zumpt, § 338.