De Bello Catilinario et Jurgthino | Page 5

for others and more customary ones, without depriving Sallust of his essential characteristics; for these consist in a vivid perception of the important moments of an action, in placing them in strong contrasts, to excite his readers, and in the effect produced by isolated sentences simply put in juxtaposition without the artifice of a polished and intricate period.
To give our young readers some preparatory information about certain frequently-recurring peculiarities of Sallust's style, we may remark that the omission of the personal pronoun in the construction of the accusative with the infinitive, as well as the omission of the auxiliary verb est, and the frequent use of the infinitive instead of a dependent clause--for example, _hortatur dicere, res postulat exponere, conjuravere patriam incendere_, and many similar expressions--arise from his desire to be brief and concise. Among his antiquated forms of words, we may mention die for diei, the singular plerusque, quis for quibus, senati for senatus; dicundi, legundi, &c. for dicendi, legendi; intellego for intelligo, forem for essem, fuere for fuerunt; the use of the past participles of deponent verbs in a passive sense--as adeptus, interpretatus. Antiquated words, or words used in an antiquated sense, are--supplicium for preces, scilicet for scire licet; antiquated expressions are--fugam facere for fugere, habere vitam for agere vitam, and other phrases with habere. The frequent use of mortales for homines, aevum for aetas, and subigere for cogere, gives to his style somewhat of a poetical colouring. As far as grammatical construction is concerned, there is a tendency to archaisms in the use of quippe qui with the indicative; in the frequent application of the indicative in subordinate sentences in the oratio obliqua; and in some other points which we shall explain in short notes to the passages where they occur. An intentional disturbance of rhetorical symmetry is perceptible in the change of corresponding particles;--for example, instead of alii in the expression alii-alii, we find pars or partim; instead of modo in the expression modo-modo, we find interdum, and similar variations. But all these differences from the ordinary language contain in themselves sufficient grounds of explanation and excuse, and are by no means so frequent as to render the language of Sallust unworthy of the merited reputation of being classical.
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C. SALLUSTII CRISPI
BELLUM CATILINARIUM.
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1. Omnes[1] homines, qui sese student[2] praestare ceteris animalibus, summa ope[3] niti decet, ne vitam silentio transeant veluti pecora, quae natura prona[4] atque ventri obedientia finxit. Sed nostra omnis vis in animo et corpore sita est; animi imperio, corporis servitio magis utimur; alterum nobis cum dis,[5] alterum cum beluis[6] commune est. Quo mihi rectius videtur ingenii quam virium opibus gloriam quaerere et, quoniam vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est, memoriam nostri[7] quam maxime longam[8] efficere. Nam divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis est, virtus clara aeternaque habetur. Sed diu magnum inter mortales certamen fuit,[9] vine corporis an virtute animi res militaris magis procederet. Nam et prius quam incipias consulto, et ubi consulueris mature facto opus est.[10] Ita utrumque per se indigens, alterum alterius auxilio eget.
[1] Omnes. Other editions have omnis or omneis. The accusative plural of words of the third declension making their genitive plural in ium, varied in early Latin, sometimes ending in is, and sometimes in eis or es. This fluctuation, however, afterwards ceased; and even in the best age of the Latin language it became generally customary to make the accusative plural like the nominative in es. The same was the case with some other obsolete forms, as volt for vult, divorsus for diversus, quoique for cuique, maxumus for maximus, quom for quum, or cum, which are retained in many editions, but have been avoided in the present, in accordance with the orthography generally adopted during the best period of the Latin language. [2] Studeo, when the verb following has the same subject, may be construed in three ways--with the infinitive alone, as _studeo praestare; with the accusative and infinitive, studeo me praestare, as in the present case; or with ut, as studeo ut praestem_. [3] Summa ope, 'with the greatest exertion,' equivalent to _summa opere, summopere; as magno opere, or magnopere_, signifies 'with great exertion,' or 'greatly.' The nominative ops is not in use, and the plural opes generally signifies 'the means' or 'power of doing something.' [4] Prona, 'bent forward,' 'bent down to the ground,' in opposition to the erect gait of man. [5] Dis for diis. See Zumpt, S 51, n. 5. [6] Beluis; another, but less correct mode of spelling, is _bellua, belluis_. [7] Instead of memoriam nostri, Sallust might have said _memoriam nostram; but the genitive nostri_ sets forth the object of remembrance with greater force. See Zumpt, S 423. [8] Quam maxime longam; that is, quam longissimam, 'lasting as long as possible.' Zumpt, S 108. [9] The