[261] We have lost the real names of things, etc.—Imitated from Thucydides, iii. 32: [Greek: Kai taen eiothuian axiosin ton onomaton es ta erga antaellaxan tae dikaiosei. Tolma men gar alogistos, andria philetairos enomisthae, mellasis te promaethaes, deilia euprepaes to de sophron. Tou anandrou proschaema, kai to pros apan syneton, epi pan argon.] "The ordinary meaning of words was changed by them as they thought proper. For reckless daring was regarded as courage that was true to its friends; prudent delay, as specious cowardice; moderation, as a cloak for unmanliness; being intelligent in every thing, as being useful for nothing." Dale's translation; Bohn's Classical Library.
[262] Elegant language—Compositè. See above, c. 51.
[263] In a most excellent condition—Multo pulcherrumam. See c. 36.
[264] For of allies and citizens, etc.—Imitated from Demosthenes, Philipp. III.4.
[265] I advise you to have mercy upon them—Misereamini censeo, i.e., censeo ut misereanum, spoken ironically. Most translators have taken the words in the sense of "You would take pity on them, I suppose," or something similar.
[266] Unless this be the second time that he has made war upon his country—"Cethegus first made war on his country in conjunction with Marius." Bernouf. Whether Sallust alludes to this, or intimates (as Gerlach thinks) that he was engaged in the first conspiracy, is doubtful.
[267] Is ready to devour us—Faucibus urget. Cortius, Kritzius, Gerlach, Burnouf, Allen, and Dietsch, are unanimous in interpreting this as a metaphorical expression, alluding to a wild beast with open jaws ready to spring upon its prey. They support this interpretation by Val. Max., v. 3: "Faucibus apprehensam rempublicam;" Cic. pro. Cluent., 31: "Quum faucibus premetur;" and Plaut. Casin. v. 3,4, "Manifesto faucibus teneor." Some, editors have read in faucibus, and understood the words as referring to the jaws or narrow passes of Etruria, where Catiline was with his army.
[268] LIII. All the senators of consular dignity, and a great part of the rest—Consulares omnes, itemque senatus magna pars. "As the consulars were senators, the reader would perhaps expect Sallust to have said reliqui senatús but itemque is equivalent to et praeter eos." Dietsch.
[269] That they had carried on wars—Bella gesta. That wars had been carried on by them.
[270] As if the parent stock were exhausted—Sicuti effoeta parentum. This is the reading of Cortius, which he endeavors to explain thus: "Ac sicuti effoeta parens, inter parentes, sese habere solet, ut nullos amplius liberas proferat, sic Roma sese habuit, ubi multis tempestatibus nemo virtute magnus fuit." "Est," he adds, "or solet esse, or sese habere solet, may very well be understood from the fuit which follows." But all this only serves to show what a critic may find to say in defense of a reading to which he is determined to adhere. All the MSS., indeed, have parentum, except one, which has parente. Dietsch thinks that some word has been lost between effoeta and parentum, and proposes to read _sicuti effoetá aetate parentum, with the sense, as if the age of the parents were too much exhausted to produce strong children. Kritzius, from a suggestion of Cortius (or rather of his predecessor, Rupertus), reads effoetae parentum (the effoetae agreeing with Romae which follows), considering the sense to be the same as as effoetae parentis—as divina dearum for divina dea, etc. Gerlach retains the rending of Cortius, and adopts his explanation (4to. ed., 1827), but says that the explicatio may seem durior, and that it is doubtful whether we ought not to have recourse to the effoeta parente of the old critics. Assuredly if we retain parentum, effoetae is the only reading that we can well put with it. We may compare with it loca nuda gignentium, (Jug. c. 79), i.e. "places bare of objects producing any thing." Gronovius know not what to do with the passage, called it locus intellectus nemini, and at last decided on understanding virtute with effoetae parentum, which, pace tarti viri, and although Allen has followed him, is little better than folly. The concurrence of the majority of manuscripts in giving parentum makes the scholar unwilling to set it aside. However, as no one has explained it satisfactorily even to himself, I have thought it better, with Dietsch, to regard it a scriptura non ferenda, and to acquiesce, with Glareanus, Rivius, Burnouf, and the Bipont edition, in the reading effoetâ parente.