[627] ‘That the war could be brought to a close by mutual concessions.’
[628] Pax conventa, ‘the peace which is agreed upon.’ Observe the rare use of the passive participle; for convenire is commonly intransitive — as pax convenit, a ‘peace is concluded.’
[629] In potestatem habere is ungrammatical for in potestate habere, but is found now and then. See Zumpt, § 316.
[630] The expression is somewhat contorted; for the inserted clause non sua ignavia sed ob rem publicam should have a verb of its own, which, however, would be a part of the leading verb — namely, qui in hostium potestate esset.
[113.]
[631] ‘In contradiction with themselves,’ ‘contradictory.’
[632] ‘The king first summoned his councillors, then dismissed them immediately, and for a long time meditated by himself.’ Ceteris refers to the preceding amicis, but is used instead of iis, to form antithesis to himself: ‘after the removal of all the rest, he deliberated by himself.’
[633] Vultus, chiefly ‘the look of the eyes,’ but also ‘the features of the countenance,’ by which the inward emotions are manifested; hence Sallust here, by the addition of corporis, opposes the outward expression to the emotions of the mind: ‘He changed (varied) in the expression of his bodily features as much as in his sentiments.’ Quae scilicet patefecisse, ‘which, as could be seen, revealed his mental emotions.’ Quae is the neuter plural, and scilicet contains the leading verb.
[634] That is, ut praeceptum erat, and not dictum in the sense of edictum; for according to the deceitful agreement, the condiciones pacis were to be determined peaceably.
[635] Sallust passes very rapidly over the catastrophe of a king who had worn out, by simulation and war, the Roman armies for six years. He was taken prisoner in B.C. 106, when Marius was no longer consul, but yet remained in Africa as proconsul. Sulla considered the capture of Jugurtha to be an event so important, and to himself so glorious, that he had it engraved on his sealing ring.
[114.]
[636] ‘During the same time;’ that is, the time during which Marius, as proconsul, was still in Africa, occupied no doubt with the regulation of the affairs which, owing to the long war, had fallen into disorder. Bocchus received a part of western Numidia, as far as the river Ampsaga; and Numidia was divided between Hiempsal and Hiarbas, two princes of the family of Masinissa. These and other matters detained Marius in Africa during the year B.C. 105, in which the Romans under the consul Gn. Manlius and the proconsul Q. Caepio, suffered a great defeat from the Cimbri, on the river Rhodanus. This led to the second consulship of Marius, in B.C. 104. The people whom Sallust here calls Gauls (Galli) are the Cimbri and Teutones, German tribes coming from the countries about the Elbe. This mistake must be accounted for by the general difficulty of distinguishing Celtic (Gallic) from Germanic tribes, and also by the circumstance that the Cimbri had for many years been wandering about in Gaul.
[637] Illique; that is, the Romans then living, as opposed to those in the time of Sallust. Sic habuere, ‘entertained this opinion.’
[638] Certare; supply se; unless we read certari, to which it is easier to supply a se.
[639] On the 1st of January B.C. 104. We may here observe, that Jugurtha, after he had adorned the triumphal procession at Rome, was put to death in the public prison near the Forum — which is described by Sallust, [Cat. 55] — at the same hour in which Marius offered up his thanksgiving to Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the Capitol.