1.
III Civil and military offices]
Magistratus et imperia.
"Illo vocabulo civilia, hoc militaria munera, significantur."
Dietsch.
2.
To rule our country or subjects, etc.]
Nam vi quidem regere patriam aut parents,
etc. Cortius, Gerlach, Kritz, Dietsch, and Müller are unanimous in understanding
parentes as the participle of the verb
parco. That this is the sense, says Gerlach, is sufficiently proved by the conjunction
aut; for if Sallust had meant
parents, he would have used
ut; and in this opinion Allen coincides. Doubtless, also, this sense of the word suits extremely well with the rest of the sentence, in which changes in government are mentioned. But Bernouf, with Crispinus, prefers to follow Aldus Manutius, who took the word in the other signification, supposing that Sallust borrowed the sentiment from Plato, who says in his Epistle
ad Dionis Propinquos:
Πατέρα δὲ ἢ μητέρα ὀυχ ὅσιον ἡγοῦμαι προσβιύζεσθαι, μὴ νόσῳ παραφροσύνησ ἐχομένους. Βίαν δὲ πατρίδι πολιτέιασ μεταβολῆσ ηὴ προσφερειν, ὅταν ἄνευ φυγῶν, καὶ σφαγῆζ ἀνδρῶν, μὴ δυνατὸν ᾗ γίνεσθαι τὴν ἀριστὴν. And he makes a similar observation in his Crito:
Πανταχοὖ ποιητέον, ὃ ἃν κελεύοι ἡ πόλισ τε, καὶ ἡ πατρὶς. On which sentiments Cicero, ad Fam. i. 9, thus comments:
Id enim jubet idem ille Plato, quem ego auctorem vehementer sequor; tantum contender in republica quantum probare tuis civibus possis: vim neque parenti, neque patriœ afferre oportere. There is also another passage in Cicero, Cat. i. 3, which seems to favor this sense of the word:
Si te parentes timerent atque odissent tui, neque eos ullâ ratione placare posses, ut opinor, ab eorum oculis aliquò concederes; nunc te patria, quœ communis est omnium nostrum parens odit ac metuit, etc. Of the first passage cited from Plato, indeed, Sallust's words may seem to be almost a translation. Yet, as the majority of commentators have followed Cortius, I have also followed him. Sallust has the word in this sense in Jug., c. 102:
Parentes abunde habemus. So Vell. Pat. ii. 108:
Principatis constans ex voluntate parentium.
3.
Lead to]
Portendant.
"
Portendere in a pregnant sense, meaning not merely to indicate, but
quasi secum ferre, to carry along with them."
Kritzius.
