Helps to Latin Translation at Sight Part 54

14-15. +ante quam provinciae ornarentur:+ a regular phrase used of supplying the newly chosen magistrate with money, arms, attendants, etc.

18. +ratio ... posset+ = _his candidature could not be considered_.]

+Propraetor in F. Spain.+ 'His governors.h.i.+p enabled him partly to rid himself of his debts partly to lay the foundation for his military repute.' --M.

B34

THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE, 63 B.C. (1)

_Cicero declaims against the Audacity of Catiline._

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populi, nihil concursus bonorum {5} omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus, nihil horum ora voltusque moverunt?

Patere tua consilia non sentis? Constrictam iam horum omnium scientia teneri coniurationem tuam non vides? Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris, {10} ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris? O tempora! O mores! Senatus haec intellegit; consul videt: hic tamen vivit. Vivit? immo vero etiam in senatum venit: fit publici consilii particeps; notat at designat {15} oculis ad caedem unum quemque nostrum. . . . Castra sunt in Italia contra rem publicam in Etruriae faucibus collocata: crescit in dies singulos hostium numerus; eorum autem castrorum imperatorem ducemque hostium intra moenia atque {20} adeo in senatu videmus intestinam aliquam cotidie perniciem rei publicae molientem. Si te iam, Catilina, eomprehendi, si interfici iussero, credo, erit verendum mihi ne non hoc potius omnes boni serius a me quam quisquam crudelius factum esse dicat.

{25}

CICERO, _in Catilinam_, i. ---- 1, 2, 5.

[Linenotes: 1. +Quo usque tandem abutere+ = _how long, pray, will you presume upon?_ Catiline had been declared _hostis patriae_, and yet dared to appear in the Senate.

4. +praesidium Palati+: in the case of any threatening danger the +Mons Palatinus+ was occupied as one of the most important military points in the city.

6-7. +senatus locus+, i.e. the temple of +Jupiter Stator+, on the N.

slope of the Palatine, chosen as the safest meeting-place, and near Cicero's house.

17-18. +castra ... collocata+, the camp of Manlius (one of the veteran centurions of Sulla) was planted at Faesulae (Fiesole), a rocky fastness three miles N.E. of Florence.

19. +imperatorem:+ ironical, as though Catiline were the legally appointed general of the Republic.]

+In L. Catilinam Oratio i.+ 'This splendid oration, in its fiery vigour and mastery of invective, is unsurpa.s.sed except by the Second Philippic.' --Cruttwell.

+Its effect on Catiline.+ _Tum ille furibundus 'quoniam quidem circ.u.mventus' inquit 'ab inimicis praeceps agor, incendium meum ruina restinguam.'_ Sall. _Catil._ 31. That night Catiline left Rome for the camp of Manlius.

B35

THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE, 63 B.C. (2)

_The End of Catiline._

Sed confecto proelio tum vero cerneres, quanta audacia quantaque vis animi fuisset in exercitu Catilinae. Nam fere, quem quisque vivus pugnando loc.u.m ceperat, eum, amissa anima, corpore tegebat. Pauci autem, quos medios cohors praetoria disiecerat, {5} paulo divorsius, sed omnes tamen advorsis volneribus conciderant. Catilina vero longe a suis inter hostium cadavera repertus est, paululum etiam spirans ferociamque animi, quam habuerat vivus, in voltu retinens. Postremo ex omni copia neque in {10} proelio neque in fuga quisquam civis ingenuus captus est. Ita cuncti suae hostiumque vitae iuxta pepercerant. Neque tamen exercitus populi Romani laetam aut incruentam victoriam adeptus erat; nam strenuissumus quisque aut occiderat in proelio, aut {15} graviter volneratus discesserat. Multi autem, qui de castris visundi aut spoliandi gratia processerant, volventes hostilia cadavera, amic.u.m alii, pars hospitem aut cognatum reperiebant; fuere item, qui inimicos suos cognoscerent. Ita varie per omnem {20} exercitum laet.i.tia, maeror, luctus atque gaudia agitabantur.

SALl.u.s.t, _Bellum Catilinae_, 61.

[Linenotes: 5. +cohors praetoria+: a _corps d'elite_, specially organised as a bodyguard of the general (_praetor_ = _praeitor_, _prae + eo_), dating from the time when the praetores was the older name of the consuls (= _colleagues_).

8. +etiam+ (= _adhuc_) = _still_. Cf. Verg. _Aen._ vi. 485 _etiam currus etiam arma tenentem_.

11. +civis ingenuus+, i.e. a free citizen born of free citizens.

12. +Ita cuncti ... pepercerant+ = _so unsparing had they all been alike of their own and their opponents' lives_. --Pollard.

21. +laet.i.tia+ = joy manifested, +gaudia+ = joy felt.

+luctus+ = grief shown by outward signs, e.g. by dress.

+maeror+ = grief shown by inward signs, e.g. by tears, or a sad face.]

+The Battle of Pistoria+ (Pistoia, N.W. of Faesulae). 'Catiline showed on this day that nature had destined him for no ordinary things, and that he knew at once how to command and how to fight as a soldier. At length Petreius, with his bodyguard, broke the centre of the enemy, and then attacked the two wings from within. This decided the day.' --M.

+The character of Catiline.+ 'He was one of the most wicked men in that wicked age. He possessed in a high degree the qualities which are required in the leader of a band of ruined and desperate men--the faculty of enjoying all pleasures and of bearing all privations, courage, military talent, knowledge of men, indomitable energy.' --M.

Cf. Sall. _Catil._ 5.

B36

GAIUS IULIUS CAESAR (4).

_Forms the First Triumvirate: Consul, 60-59 B.C._

Hoc igitur consule inter eum et Cn. Pompeium et M. Cra.s.sum inita potentiae societas, quae urbi orbique terrarum nec minus diverso quoque tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit. Hoc consilium sequendi Pompeius causam habuerat, ut tandem acta in {5} transmarinis provinciis, quibus, ut praediximus, multi obtrectabant, per Caesarem confirmarentur consulem, Caesar autem, quod animadvertebat se cedendo Pompei gloriae aucturum suam et invidia communis potentiae in illum relegata confirmaturum {10} vires suas, Cra.s.sus, ut quem princ.i.p.atum solus adsequi non poterat, auctoritate Pompei, viribus teneret Caesaris. Adfinitas etiam inter Caesarem Pompeiumque contracta nuptiis, quippe Iuliam, filiam C.

Caesaris, Cn. Magnus duxit uxorem. In {15} hoc consulatu Caesar legem tulit, ut ager Campa.n.u.s plebei divideretur, suasore legis Pompeio: ita circiter XX milia civium eo deducta et ius urbis rest.i.tutum post annos circiter CLII quam bello Punico ab Romanis Capua in formam praefecturae {20} redacta erat. Bibulus, collega Caesaris, c.u.m actiones eius magis vellet impedire quam posset, maiore parte anni domi se tenuit: quo facto dum augere vult invidiam collegae, auxit potentiam. Tum Caesari decretae in quinquennium Galliae. {25}

VELL. PAT. ii. 44.

[Linenotes: 1-2. +inter eum ... societas+, the famous First Triumvirate. 'It was at first an expedient to secure, as we should say, a working majority for a vigorous democratic policy, but the bitterness of its enemies transformed the coalition itself from an honourable union into the semblance of a three-headed tyranny.' --Warde Fowler.

4-7. The ultra-senatorial party (after Pompeius' great act of renunciation, when he dismissed his victorious veterans in 62 B.C.) had checked and worried Pompeius by refusing to ratify his arrangements in the East, and by criticising and opposing his plans for rewarding his veterans. Thus they deliberately drove him once more into the arms of Caesar and the democracy.

10. +relegata+ = _attributed_, _imputed_, lit. _removed_ (_re_ + _lego_).

21. +Bibulus, collega Caesaris:+ cf. Suet. _Divus Iulius_ 20: _Non Bibulo quicquam, nuper sed Caesare factum est: Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini._]

+Caesar's First Consuls.h.i.+p.+ Among his other acts was the famous _Lex Iulia de pecuniis repetundis_ (against official extortion in the provinces), which won strong praise even from Cicero himself.

B37

THE GALLIC WAR, 58-50 B.C. (1)

'_That day he overcame the Nervii_,' 57 B.C.

Caesar ab decimae legionis cohortatione ad dextrum cornu profectus, ubi suos urgeri signisque in unum loc.u.m collatis duodecimae legionis confertos milites sibi ipsos ad pugnam esse impedimento vidit--quartae cohortis omnibus centurionibus occisis, {5} signifero interfecto, signo amisso, reliquarum cohortium omnibus fere centurionibus aut vulneratis aut occisis, in his primipilo P. s.e.xtio Baculo, fortissimo viro, multis gravibusque volneribus confecto, ut iam se sustinere non posset; reliquos esse tardiores et nonnullos {10} ab novissimis deserto proelio excedere ac tela vitare, hostes neque a fronte ex inferiore loco subeuntes intermittere et ab utroque latere instare, et rem esse in angusto vidit neque ullum esse subsidium quod submitti posset, scuto ab novissimis {15} militi detracto, quod ipse eo sine scuto venerat, in primam aciem processit; centurionibusque nominatim appellatis reliquos cohortatus milites signa inferre et manipulos laxare iussit, quo facilius gladiis uti possent. Cuius adventu spe illata militibus ac {20} redintegrato animo, c.u.m pro se quisque in conspectu imperatoris etiam in extremis suis rebus operam navare cuperet, paulum hostium impetus tardatus est.

CAESAR, _de B. G._ ii. 25.

+Context.+ The Nervii, the bravest of the Belgae, surprised Caesar's men while at work on their camp. There was no time to think: they took station where they could. The 9th and 10th legions on the left broke and pursued the enemy in front of them, and the two legions in the centre stood firm. But on the right there was a gap, and the Nervii were rapidly surrounding the two legions huddled together here, and the fight threatened every moment to become a second Cannae, +when Caesar restored the fight+. Labienus sent back the victorious 10th, who took the enemy in their rear, and the cavalry completed the victory.

[Linenotes: 14-15. +neque ullum ... posset+: the rear guard, the 13th and 14th legions, had not yet come up.

18-19. +signa ... laxare+ = _to charge and_ (thus) _open out the ranks_.

22-23. +operam navare+ = _to do their very best_. +navo+ (orig.

_gnavo_; cf. ???s??) = lit. _to make known_, _to exhibit_.]

+The Battle of the Sambre.+ One of the most desperate that Caesar ever fought. The memory of it lived in Caesar's mind so vividly that he seems to fight the battle over again as he describes it, in language for him unusually strong and intense. --W. F.

+Result of the Battle+, the submission of North West Gaul.

B38

THE GALLIC WAR, 58-50 B.C. (2)

_Naval Battle with the Veneti, 56 B.C._