[153] Both which officers, with the title of commanders, etc. —hi utrique ad urbem imperatores erant; impediti ne triumpharent calumniâ paucorum quibus omnia honesta atque inhonesta vendere mos erat. "Imperator" was a title given by the army, and confirmed by the senate, to a victorious general, who had slain a certain number of the enemy. What the number was is not known. The general bore this title as an addition to his name, until he obtained (if it were granted him) a triumph, for which he was obliged to wait ad urbem, near the city, since he was not allowed to enter the gates as long as he held any military command. These imperatores had been debarred from their expected honor by a party who would sell any thing honorable, as a triumph, or any thing dishonorable, as a license to violate the laws.
[154] A hundred sestertia—two hundred sestertia—A hundred sestertia were about 807£. 5s. 10d. of our money.
[155] Schools of gladiators—Gladiatoriae familiae. Any number of gladiators under one teacher, or trainer (lanista), was called familia. They were to be distributed in different parts, and to be strictly watched, that they might not run off to join Catiline. See Graswinckelius, Rupertus, and Gerlach.
[156] The inferior magistrates—The aediles, tribunes, quaestors, and all others below the consuls, censors, and praetors. Aul. Cell., xiii. 15.
[157] XXXI. Dissipation—Lascivia. "Devotion to public amusements and gayety. The word is used in the same sense as in Lucretius, v.
Tum caput atque humeros planis redimire coronis.
Floribus et foliis, lascivia laeta monebat.
"Then sportive gayety prompted them to deck their heads and shoulders with garlands of flowers and leaves." Bernouf.
[158] Long tranquillity—Diuturna quies. "Since the victory of Sylla to the time of which Sallust is speaking, that is, for about twenty years, there had been a complete cessation from civil discord and disturbance" Bernouf.
[159] The Plautian law—Lege Plautia. "This law was that of M. Plautius Silanus, a tribune of the people, which was directed against such as excited a sedition in the state, or formed plots against the life of any individual." Cyprianus Popma. See Dr. Smith's Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Antiquities, sub Vis.
[160] Which he afterward wrote and published—Quam postea scriptam edidit. This was the first of Cicero's four Orations against Catiline. The epithet applied to it by Sallust, which I have rendered "splendid," is luculentam; that is, says Gerlach, "luminibus verborum et sententiarum ornatam," distinguished by much brilliancy of words and thoughts. And so say Kritzius, Bernouf, and Dietsch. Cortius, who is followed by Dahl, Langius, and Muller, makes the word equivalent merely to lucid, in the supposition that Sallust intended to bestow on the speech, as on other performances of Cicero, only very cool praise. Luculentus, however, seems certainly to mean something more than lucidus.