Sallust, Catilinae Coniuratio, ed. Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A., 9

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Good morals, accordingly, were cultivated in the city and in the camp. There was the greatest possible concord, and the least possible avarice. Justice and probity prevailed among the citizens, not more from the influence of the laws than from natural inclination. They displayed animosity, enmity, and resentment only against the enemy. Citizens contended with citizens in nothing but honor. They were magnificent in their religious services, frugal in their families, and steady in their friendships.

By these two virtues, intrepidity in war, and equity in peace, they maintained themselves and their state. Of their exercise of which virtues, I consider these as the greatest proofs; that, in war, punishment was oftener inflicted on those who attacked an enemy contrary to orders, and who, when commanded to retreat, retired too slowly from the contest, than on those who had dared to desert their standards, or, when pressed by the enemy,¹ to abandon their posts; and that, in peace, they governed more by conferring benefits than by exciting terror, and, when they received an injury, chose rather to pardon than to revenge it.

Catilinae Coniuratio. Sallust. ed. Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A.. New York and London. 1899.

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Current edition Perseus

Conspiracy of Catiline (English) (Sallust. Sallust, Florus, and Velleius Paterculus. Watson, J. S. (John Selby), translator. London: Harper & Brothers, 1899.)

Editions (2)

Catilinae Coniuratio Perseus (Sallust. C. Sallusti Crispi Catilina, Iugurtha, orationes et epistulae excerptae de historiis. Ahlberg, Axel Wilhelm, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1919.) — 9 focus

1 Igitur domi militiaeque boni mores colebantur; concordia maxuma, minuma avaritia erat; ius bonumque apud eos non legibus magis quam natura valebat. 2 iurgia discordias simultates cum hostibus exercebant, cives cum civibus de virtute certabant. in suppliciis deorum magnifici, domi parci, in amicos fideles erant. 3 duabus his artibus, audacia in bello, ubi pax evenerat aequitate, seque remque publicam curabant. 4 quarum rerum ego maxuma documenta haec habeo, quod in bello saepius vindicatum est in eos, qui contra imperium in hostem pugnaverant quique tardius revocati proelio excesserant, quam qui signa relinquere aut pulsi loco cedere ausi erant; 5 in pace vero quod beneficiis magis quam metu imperium agitabant et accepta iniuria ignoscere quam persequi malebant.

Catilinae Coniuratio Perseus (Sallust. Catilinae Coniuratio. (No bibliographic information found).) — 9 focus

Igitur domi militiaeque boni mores colebantur; concordia maxuma, minuma avaritia erat; ius bonumque apud eos non legibus magis quam natura valebat. Iurgia, discordias, simultates cum hostibus exercebant, cives cum civibus de virtute certabant. In suppliciis deorum magnifici, domi parci, in amicos fideles erant. Duabus his artibus, audacia in bello, ubi pax evenerat, aequitate, seque remque publicam curabant. Quarum rerum ego maxuma documenta haec habeo, quod in bello saepius vindicatum est in eos, qui contra imperium in hostem pugnaverant quique tardius revocati proelio excesserant, quam qui signa relinquere aut pulsi loco cedere ausi erant; in pace vero, quod beneficiis magis quam metu imperium agitabant et accepta iniuria ignoscere quam persequi malebant.

Notes on the current edition

Conspiracy of Catiline

1. IX. Pressed by the enemy]

Pulsi.

In the words pulsi loco cedere ausi erant, loco is to be joined, as Dietsch observes, with cedere, not, as Kritzius puts it, with pulsi. "To retreat," adds Dietsch, " is disgraceful only to those qui ab hostibus se pelli patiantur, who suffer themselves to be repulsed by the enemy."

Sallust Catilinae Coniuratio 9

ed. Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A.

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