When you are once resigned to sloth and indolence, it is in vain that you implore the gods; for they are then indignant and threaten vengeance. But our forefathers adorned the fanes of the deities with devotion, and their homes with their own glory, and took nothing from those whom they conquered but the power of doing harm; their descendants, on the contrary, the basest of mankind have even wrested from their allies, with the most flagrant injustice, whatever their brave and victorious ancestors had left to their vanquished enemies; as if the only use of power were to inflict injury. A few, indeed, whom the praetorian cohort had dispersed, had fallen somewhat differently, but all with wounds in front. In the days of our forefathers, Titus Manlius Torquatus, during a war with the Gauls, ordered his own son to be put to death, because he had fought with an enemy contrary to orders. Often, Conscript Fathers, have I spoken at great length in this assembly; often have I complained of the luxury and avarice of our citizens, and, by that very means, have incurred the displeasure of many. But Catos ambition was that of temperance, discretion, and, above all, of austerity; he did not contend in splendor with the rich, or in faction with the seditious, but with the brave in fortitude, with the modest in simplicity, with the temperate in abstinence, he was more desirous to be, than to appear, virtuous; and thus, the less he courted popularity, the more it pursued him. [52], The style of works written by Sallust was well known in Rome. 7) was cited and interpreted by theologian Thomas Aquinas and scholar Brunetto Latini. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 6 Of the city of Rome, as I understand, the founders and earliest inhabitants were the Trojans, who, under the conduct of Aeneas, were wandering about as exiles from their country, without any settled abode; and with these were joined the Aborigines, a savage race of men, without laws or government, free and owning no control. In his extant monographs Bellum Catilinae and Bellum Jugurthinum, he displays a sardonic moralism, using history to emphasize the decadence of the dominant caste. He saw that their punishment would be a weight upon himself, and their escape the destruction of the Commonwealth. But nothing was ever less valued by her than honor or chastity. Far from it: for to no man does evil, directed against himself, appear a light matter; many, on the contrary, have felt it more seriously than was right. The opportunity, too, seemed favorable for such an accusation; for Caesar, by extraordinary generosity in private, and by magnificent exhibitions in public, had fallen greatly into debt. 60 When he had made a complete survey, he gave the signal with the trumpet, and ordered the cohorts to advance slowly. In addition to this, the youth, who, in the country, had earned a scanty livelihood by manual labor, tempted by public and private largesses, had preferred idleness in the city to unwelcome toil in the field. If you wish to quit it, you must exert all your re. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sallust. This course will investigate closely the assigned text, with only sporadic comments on the historical and social background. How easily these two tribes, though of different origin, dissimilar language, and opposite habits of life, formed a union when they met within the same walls, is almost incredible. 10 But when, by perseverance and integrity, the republic had increased its power; when mighty princes had been vanquished in war; when barbarous tribes and populous states had been reduced to subjection; when Carthage, the rival of Romes dominion, had been utterly destroyed, and sea and land lay everywhere open to her sway, Fortune then began to exercise her tyranny, and to introduce universal innovation. [39], His brief monographs his work on Catiline, for example, is shorter than the shortest of Livy's volumes were the first books of their form attested at Rome. The corrupt morals of the state, too, which extravagance and selfishness, pernicious and contending vices, rendered thoroughly depraved, furnished him with additional incentives to action. These vices at first advanced but slowly, and were sometimes restrained by correction; but afterwards, when their infection had spread like a pestilence, the state was entirely changed, and the government, from being the most equitable and praiseworthy, became rapacious and insupportable. I shall accordingly give a brief account with as much truth as I can, of the Conspiracy of Catiline; for I think it an enterprise eminently deserving of record, from the unusual nature both of its guilt and of its perils. All humans who are keen to surpass other animals had best strive with all their might not to pass through life without notice, like cattle, which nature has fashioned bent over and subservient to their stomachs. Sallust did not participate in military operations directly, but he commanded several ships and organized supply through the Kerkennah Islands. Others at the same time, as is not uncommon in such a crisis, spread reports of omens and prodigies; others of meetings being held, of arms being transported, and of insurrections of the slaves at Capua and in Apulia. His violent spirit was daily more and more hurried on by the diminution of his patrimony, and by his consciousness of guilt; both which evils he had increased by those practices which I have mentioned above. [38], Sallust's monographs of the Catiline conspiracy (De coniuratione Catilinae or Bellum Catilinae) and the Jugurthine War (Bellum Jugurthinum) have come down to us complete, together with fragments of his larger and most important work (Historiae), a history of Rome from 78 to 67BC. Bellum Catilinae 16. This person, having offered to give information of the conspiracy, if the public faith were pledged to him, and being directed by the consul to state what he knew, gave the senate nearly the same account as Volturcius had given, concerning the intended conflagration, the massacre of respectable citizens, and the approach of the enemy, adding that he was sent by Marcus Crassus to assure Catiline that the apprehension of Lentulus, Cethegus, and others of the conspirators, ought not to alarm him, but that he should hasten, with so much the more expedition, to the city, in order to revive the courage of the rest, and to facilitate the escape of those in custody. When Tarquinius named Crassus, a man of noble birth, of very great wealth, and of vast influence, some, thinking the statement incredible, others, though they supposed it true, yet, judging that at such a crisis a man of such power was rather to be soothed than irritated (most of them, too, from personal reasons, being under obligation to Crassus), exclaimed that he was a false witness, and demanded that the matter should be put to the vote. Omissions? Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue; to estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest heart. Spare, then, the dignity of Lentulus, if he has ever spared his own honor or character, or had any regard for gods or for men. Besides, soldiers, the same exigency does not press upon our adversaries, as presses upon us; we fight for our country, for our liberty, for our life; they contend for what but little concerns them, the power of a small party. But as soon as a prospect of change, in this dubious state of affairs, had presented itself, the old spirit of contention awakened their passions; and had Catiline, in his first battle, come off victorious, or left the struggle undecided, great distress and calamity must certainly have fallen upon the state, nor would those, who might at last have gained the ascendancy, have been allowed to enjoy it long, for some superior power would have wrested dominion and liberty from them when weary and exhausted. In these passages, Sallust reports the speeches given by Cato and Caesar to the Senate concerning Ciceros motion to summarily execute Lentulus and the other conspirators of Catilines coniuratio. But though you little regarded my remonstrances, yet the republic remained secure; its own strength was proof against your remissness. 50 While these occurrences were passing in the senate, and while rewards were being voted, on approbation of their evidence, to the Allobrogian deputies and to Titus Volturcius, the freedmen, and some of the other dependents of Lentulus, were urging the artisans and slaves, in various directions throughout the city, to attempt his rescue; some, too, applied to the ringleaders of the mob, who were always ready to disturb the state for pay. [7] However, Sallust's birth is widely dated at 86 BC,[4][8][9] and the Kleine Pauly Encyclopedia takes 1 October 86 BC as the birthdate. A speech, no doubt, will inflame him whom so frightful and monstrous a reality has not provoked! [47] Historians regret the loss of the work, as it must have thrown much light on a very eventful period, embracing the war against Sertorius (died 72 BC), the campaigns of Lucullus against Mithradates VI of Pontus (75-66 BC), and the victories of Pompey in the East (6662 BC). For example, Gaius Asinius Pollio criticized Sallust's addiction to archaic words and his unusual grammatical features. Had they ever possessed the smallest share of discretion, they would never have engaged in such a plot against their country. Petreius ranged the cohorts of veterans, which he had raised to meet the present insurrection, in front, and behind them the rest of his force in lines. Here Sallust deals with a wider range of subject matter, but party conflict and attacks on the politically powerful remain a central concern. We might, with the utmost ignominy, have passed the rest of our days in exile. [20], Syme suggests that Sallust, because of his position in Milo's trial, did not originally support Caesar. Updates? [49] In this, he felt a "pervasive pessimism" with decline that was "both dreadful and inevitable", a consequence of political and moral corruption itself caused by Rome's immense power:[46] he traced the civil war to the influx of wealth from conquest and the absence of serious foreign threats to hone and exercise Roman virtue at arms. The denomination of their government was monarchy. To read with reasonable ease the passages assigned. It includes only speeches and letters from Catiline, Jugurtha and Histories. But in the great abundance of occupations, nature points out different paths to different individuals. I advise you to have mercy upon them; they are young men who have been led astray by ambition; send them away, even with arms in their hands. In order that the Allobroges, before they reached home, might confirm their agreement with Catiline, by giving and receiving pledges of faith, Lentulus sent with them one Titus Volturcius, a native of Crotona, he himself giving Volturcius a letter for Catiline, of which the following is a copy: Political turmoil in Rome during the late republic had social and economic causes (not overlooked by Sallust), but essentially it took the form of a power struggle between the aristocratic group in control of the Senate and those senators who enlisted popular support to challenge the oligarchy. [12] The Sallustii were a provincial noble family of Sabine origin. solution for none but conquerors have exchanged war for peace. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In Rome, at the same time Lentulus, in pursuance of Catilines directions, was endeavoring to gain over, by his own agency or that of others, all whom he thought adapted, either by principles or circumstances, to promote an insurrection; and not citizens only but every description of men who could be of any service in war. 18 But previously to this period, a small number of persons, among whom was Catiline, had formed a design against the state; of which affair I shall here give as accurate an account as I am able. 1 It becomes all men, who desire to excel other animals, to strive, to the utmost of their power, not to pass through life in obscurity, like the beasts of the field, which nature has formed groveling and subservient to appetite. Two armies of the enemy, one on the side of Rome, and the other on that of Gaul, oppose our progress; while the want of grain, and of other necessaries, prevents us from remaining, however strongly we may desire to remain, in our present position. But the significance of these citations for the reconstruction is uncertain; because occasionally the authors cited Sallust from memory, some distortions were possible.[88]. WebBellum Catilinae (War of Catiline), also called De coniuratione Catilinae (Conspiracy of Catiline), is the first history published by the Roman historian Sallust. The Lacedaemonians, when they had conquered the Athenians, appointed thirty men to govern their state. [7] But Ronald Syme suggests that Jerome's date has to be adjusted because of his carelessness,[7] and suggests 87 BC as a more correct date. It could not be otherwise in the circumstances: the conspiracy of Catiline was the chosen subject of his first historical essay, and he agreed with Cicero that it was a crime unparalleled to that date. Of works written by Sallust was well known in Rome on the politically powerful remain a concern! Archaic words and his unusual grammatical features cited and interpreted by theologian Aquinas! 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