they helped to raise him to the consulship at the critical moment, to the surprise of all the world, and even of himself, such an elevation having never before been accorded to one of his rank, except to the great military champion Marius. As soon as their object was attained and the outbreak crushed, the nobles suffered Cicero to drop. When Pompeius returned from Asia, and encouraged the impeachment with which Clodius threatened him, for his stretch of the consular prerogative, they drew back from his defence, and he fell without an arm held forth to save him. It then appeared how totally devoid he was of personal influence or substantial power in the state. From that time, though suffered to return from his exile, his part in public affairs was only secondary, and became indeed daily more trivial. During the civil wars of Cæsar and Pompeius he was neglected, his counsel disregarded, and himself almost driven contemptuously from the camp of the oligarchs. Cæsar condescended to solicit his countenance, but received his refusal with the coldest indifference. The conspirators against Cæsar did not care to consult him, and after they had struck their blow were but little elated by his tardy adhesion. It was not till the liberators, Brutus, Cassius, and the rest, had quitted Rome for the East, till Antonius had taken up arms in the north of Italy, till Octavius had repaired to his legions to watch him, till even the consuls Hirtius and Pansa had marched forth from the city, that Cicero became at last the first man in the senate and the forum. For the few months, indeed, next ensuing he continued to take the lead in the domestic affairs of the republic; his influence within that sphere became really effective; he enacted a great part, and crowned his long political life with a glorious aporeía. It is no reflection upon the wisdom and integrity of Cicero's public conduct to point out the inferiority of the position he was allowed to hold among his contemporaries; on the contrary, it may serve to display more fully the contrast between his honourable character and the selfish corruption of his times, that neither his talents nor his genuine patriotism availed to place him on the eminence from whence he could save the state from its conflicting factions. It is due however to Sallust to shew that the secondary place he assigns him is not really below the truth, nor to be ascribed to any unworthy jealousy on the part of the historian. The Jugurtha, it must be admitted, is a work of far less interest than the Catilina. Farther removed himself from the period to which it refers, and with no personal knowledge of the events and characters it brings before us, Sallust in the second of his histories enters into an unequal rivalry with his earlier achievement. Nevertheless there is much life and expression in his portraiture of the times at Rome; the ambition of the nobles and the growing corruption of the people, as there represented, prepare us for the crisis of the civil wars which was soon about to be developed. The early career of Marius and Sulla, their selfish ambition and personal antagonism, serve as a preface to the records of slaughter and proscription with which their names were to become conspicuously blended. Jugurtha himself, the crafty Numidian, bold and active, with inexhaustible resources and devoid of scruples, combining the subtilty of the Carthaginian with the ferocity of the Moor, is interesting not only on his own account, but as a type of the African character, such as it was afterwards exemplified in Tacfarinas, and recently in Abd-elkader. The struggle of the serpent and the eagle, so favourite a subject with poets and painters, has been delineated by no historian more vividly than by Sallust. In the present revised edition the readings of Kritz's text (Lips. 1828) have been generally adopted, and his system of punctuation followed. The notes have been carefully corrected, and some addition made to them. It will be observed that many idiomatic passages from the poets have been introduced, to assist the understanding of the text, but partly also to show how much the style of Sallust approaches to that of poetry, and still more from the idea that youthful readers will take more interest in verse than in prose illustrations, and better retain what they learn from them. ELY, 1882. C. M. C. SALLUSTII CRISPI CATILINA. I. OMNES homines qui sese student praestare ceteris animalibus summa ope niti decet ne vitam silentio transeant, veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri obedientia finxit. Sed nostra omnis vis in animo et corpore sita est; animi imperio, corporis servitio magis utimur; alterum nobis cum dis, alterum cum belluis commune est. Quo mihi rectius videtur ingenii quam virium opibus gloriam quaerere; et, quoniam vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est, memoriam nostri quam maxime longam efficere. Nam divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis est; virtus clara aeternaque habetur. Sed diu magnum inter mortales certamen fuit, vine corporis an virtute animi res militaris magis procederet. Nam et prius quam incipias consulto, et, ubi consulueris, mature facto opus est. Ita utrumque per se indigens alterum alterius auxilio eget. II. Igitur initio reges (nam in terris nomen imperii id primum fuit) diversi pars ingenium, alii corpus exercebant: etiam tum vita hominum sine cupiditate agitabatur; sua cuique satis placebant. Postea vero quam in Asia Cyrus, in Graecia Lacedaemonii et Athenienses coepere urbes atque nationes subigere, lubidinem dominandi caussam belli habere, maximam gloriam in maximo imperio putare; tum demum periculo atque negotiis compertum est in bello plurimum ingenium posse. Quodsi regum atque imperatorum animi virtus in pace ita uti in bello valeret, aequabilius atque constantius sese res humanae haberent ; neque aliud alio ferri, neque mutari ac misceri omnia cerneres. Nam imperium facile his artibus retinetur quibus initio partum est. Verum ubi pro labore desidia, pro continentia et aequitate lubido atque superbia invasere, fortuna simul cum moribus immutatur. Ita imperium semper ad optimum quemque a minus bono transfertur. Quae homines arant, navigant, aedificant, virtuti omnia parent. Sed multi mortales, dediti ventri atque somno, indocti incultique vitam sicuti peregrinantes transegere; quibus profecto contra naturam corpus voluptati, anima oneri fuit. Eorum ego vitam mortemque juxta aestimo, quoniam de utraque siletur. Verum enim vero is demum mihi vivere atque frui anima videtur qui, aliquo negotio intentus, praeclari facinoris aut artis bonae famam quaerit. Sed in magna copia rerum aliud alii natura iter ostendit. III. Pulchrum est bene facere reipublicae ; etiam bene dicere haud absurdum est. Vel pace vel bello clarum fieri licet; et qui fecere, et qui facta aliorum scripsere, multi laudantur. Ac mihi quidem, tametsi haudquaquam par gloria sequatur scriptorem et auctorem rerum, tamen in primis arduum videtur res gestas scribere; primum quod facta dictis sunt exaequanda; dehinc quia plerique, quae delicta reprehen |