Sallust: SPURIA

I. Pro vero antea obtinebat, regna, atque imperia, fortunam dono dare, item alia, quae per mortalis avide cupiuntur: quia et apud indignos saepe erant, quasi per lubidinem data; neque cuiquam incorrupta permanserant. Sed res docuit, id verum esse, quod in carminibus Appius ait, "Fabrum esse suae quemque fortunae:" atque in te maxume, qui tantum alios praetergressus es, uti prius defessi sint homines laudando facta tua, quam tu laude digna faciundo. Ceterum uti fabricata, sic virtute parta, quam magna industria haberi decet, ne incuria deformentur, aut corruant infirmata.

1. It previously prevailed as true, that kingdoms and empires, Fortune gives by gift, likewise other things which are avidly desired by mortals: because they were often in the possession of the unworthy, as if given by whim; nor had they remained uncorrupted for anyone. But the fact has taught that that is true which Appius says in his poems, "Each is the smith of his own fortune:" and most of all in you, who have so far surpassed others, that men are sooner wearied by praising your deeds than you by doing things worthy of praise. Moreover, just as things fashioned, so those won by virtue, ought to be maintained with great diligence, lest by neglect they be disfigured, or, weakened, collapse.

Nemo enim alteri imperium volens concedit: et, quamvis bonus atque clemens sit, qui plus potest, tamen, quia malo esse licet, formidatur. Id evenit, quia plerique rerum potentes perverse consulunt: et eo se munitiores putant, quo illi, quibus imperitant, nequiores fuere.

For no one willingly concedes dominion to another; and, although he who has more power be good and clement, nevertheless, because it is permitted to be evil, he is feared. That comes about because the majority of those powerful in affairs take counsel perversely; and they think themselves the more fortified, the more wicked those over whom they command have been.

At contra id eniti decet; quum ipse bonus, atque strenuus sis, uti quam optumis imperites. Nam pessumus quisque asperrume rectorem patitur.

But on the contrary, it is fitting to strive for this: since you yourself are good and strenuous, that you may command the very best men. For each most wicked man endures a ruler most harshly.

Sed tibi hoc gravius est, quam ante te omnibus, armis parta componere. Bellum aliorum pace mollius gessisti: ad hoc victores pradam petunt, victi cives sunt. Inter has difficultates evadendum est tibi: atque in posterum firmanda respublica non armis modo, neque advorsum hostes; sed, quod multo maius, multoque asperius est, bonis pacis artibus.

But for you this is more grievous than for all before you: to compose what has been obtained by arms. You have carried on the war of others more mildly by peace: to this, the victors seek plunder, the vanquished are citizens. Amid these difficulties you must make your way: and for the future the republic must be strengthened not by arms only, nor against enemies; but, which is much greater, and much harsher, by the good arts of peace.

Ergo omnes magna mediocrique sapientia res huc vocat: quam quisque optuma potest, ut dicat. Ac mihi sic videtur: qualicumque modo tu victoriam composueris, ita alia omnia futura.

Therefore the matter calls all men of great and of middling wisdom to this: that each say as best he can. And thus it seems to me: in whatever manner you shall have composed the victory, so all other things will be.

II. Sed iam, quo melius faciliusque constituas, paucis, quae me animus monet, accipe. Bellum tibi fuit, imperator, cum homine claro, magnis opibus, avido potentiae, maiore fortuna, quam sapientia: quem sequuti sunt pauci, per suam iniuriam tibi inimici; item quos adfinitas, aut alia necessitudo, traxit. Nam particeps dominationis neque fuit quisquam; neque, si pati potuisset, orbis terrarum bello concussus foret.

2. But now, that you may establish things better and more easily, receive in a few words what my mind admonishes. You had a war, Emperor, with a man illustrious, of great resources, avid for power, with fortune greater than wisdom: whom few followed, enemies to you through their own injury; likewise those whom affinity, or some other necessity, drew. For there was no partner in his domination; nor, if he could have endured one, would the whole world have been shaken by war.

Cetera multitudo volgi, more magis quam iudicio, post alius alium, quasi prudentiorem, sequuti.

The rest of the multitude of the crowd, more by custom than by judgment, followed, one after another, as if more prudent.

Per idem tempus maledictis iniquorum occupandae reipublicae in spem adducti homines, quibus omnia probro ac luxuria polluta erant, concurrere in castra tua; et aperte quietis mortem, rapinas, postremo omnia, quae corruptus animus lubebat, minitari. Ex quis magna pars, ubi neque creditum condonare, neque te civibus, sicut hostibus, uti vident, defluxere: pauci restitere; quibus maius otium in castris, quam Romae, futurum erat; tanta vis creditorum impendebat. Sed ob easdem caussas immane dictu est, quanti et quam multi mortales, postea ad Pompeium discesserint: eoque, per omne tempus belli, quasi sacro atque inspoliato fano debitores usi.

At the same time, men brought into hope of occupying the commonwealth by the maledictions of the iniquitous—men for whom everything was defiled by opprobrium and luxury—rushed together into your camp; and openly they threatened the death of quiet, rapines, and, finally, all things which a corrupted mind lusted after. Of these a great part, when they see that neither the loan would be condoned nor that you deal with citizens as with enemies, sloughed away; a few stood fast—for whom there would be greater leisure in the camp than at Rome, so great a force of creditors was impending. But for the same causes it is monstrous to say how many and what multitudes of mortals afterwards departed to Pompey; and thereupon, through the whole time of the war, debtors made use of him as of a sacred and unplundered shrine.

III. Igitur, quoniam tibi victori de bello atque pace agitandum est, hoc tu civiliter deponas, illa ut quam iustissuma et diuturna sit; de te ipso primum, quia compositurus es, quod optumum factu est, existuma. Equidem ego cuncta imperia crudelia, magis acerba, quam diuturna, arbitror; neque quemquam a multis metuendum esse, quin ad eum ex multis formido recidat: eam vitam bellum aeternum atque anceps gerere: quoniam neque advorsus, neque ab tergo, aut lateribus tutus sis; semper in periculo, aut metu agites.

3. Therefore, since you, the victor, must deliberate about war and peace, lay this—war—down civilly, so that the other—peace—may be as most just and long-lasting; about yourself first, since you are about to compose a settlement, which is the best thing to do, form your judgment. For my part, I reckon all cruel dominations to be more bitter than lasting; nor is anyone to be feared by many without dread from many falling back upon him: such a life wages an eternal and two-edged war; since you are safe neither in front, nor from behind, or at the sides; you are always in peril, or in fear.

Contra qui benignitate et clementia imperium temperavere, his laeta et candida omnia visa, etiam hostes aequiores quam aliis cives.

By contrast, those who tempered their imperium with benignity and clemency, to these all things seemed joyful and bright, and even enemies were more equitable than citizens are to others.

An qui me his dictis corruptorem victoriae tuae, nimisque in victos bona voluntate praedicent? Scilicet quod ea, quae externis nationibus, natura hostibus nosque maioresque nostri saepe tribuere, ea civibus danda arbitror; neque barbaro ritu caede caedem, et sanguine sanguinem expiandum.

Or do they proclaim me by these words a corrupter of your victory, and as having too much good will toward the conquered? Surely because those things which to external nations, enemies by nature, we and our ancestors have often granted, I judge are to be given to citizens; nor, by a barbarous rite, are slaughter to be expiated by slaughter, and blood by blood.

IV. An illa, quae paullo ante hoc bellum in Cn. Pompeium victoriamque Sullanam increpabantur, oblivio intercepit? Domitium, Carbonem, Brutum, alios item non armatos, neque in praelio belli iure, sed post ea supplices per summum scelus interfectos: plebem romanam in villa publica, pecoris modo, conscissam? Heu!

4. Or has oblivion intercepted those things which a little before this war were being cast in reproach against Cn. Pompey and the Sullan victory? Domitius, Carbo, Brutus, others likewise unarmed, and not in battle by the right of war, but afterward, as suppliants, murdered by a most heinous crime: the Roman plebs in the Villa Publica, after the manner of cattle, torn to pieces? Alas!

Quam illa occulta civium funera, et repentinae caedes in parentum, aut liberorum sinum, fuga mulierum et puerorum, vastatio domorum, ante partam a te victoriam omnia saeva atque crudelia erant! Ad quae te illi idem hortantur: et scilicet id certatum esse, utrius vestrum arbitrio iniuria fierent; neque receptam, sed captam a te rempublicam; et ea caussa exercitus, stipendiis confectis, optumos et veterrumos omnium, advorsum fratres parentesque ac liberos armis contendere; ut ex alienis malis deterrumi mortales ventri, atque profundae lubidini sumtus quaererent; atque essent obprobria victoriae, quorum flagitiis commacularetur honorum laus.

How those hidden funerals of citizens, and sudden slaughters in the arms of parents or of children, the flight of women and children, the devastation of homes—before the victory won by you, all things were savage and cruel! To these same things those men urge you: and, of course, that this was the point contested—at whose discretion of you two wrongs should be done; that the commonwealth was not recovered, but captured by you; and that for this cause the army, with pay worn out, the very best and most veteran men of all, to contend with arms against brothers, parents, and children; so that from others’ miseries the worst mortals might seek out expenses for the belly and for profound libido; and that there be opprobria upon the victory, by whose disgraces the praise of honors would be stained.

Neque enim te praeterire puto, quali quisque eorum more aut modestia, etiam tum dubia victoria, sese gesserit; quoque modo in belli administratione scorta aut convivia exercuerint nonnulli; quorum aetas ne per otium quidem tales voluptates sine dedecore attigerit. De bello satis dictum.

For I do not think it passes you by with what manner or modesty each of them conducted himself, even when the victory was still doubtful; and in what way, in the administration of the war, some have busied themselves with courtesans or convivial banquets; whose age would not even in leisure have touched such pleasures without disgrace. Of the war enough has been said.

V. De pace firmanda quoniam tuque et omnes tui agitatis; primum id, quaeso, considera, quale id sit, de quo consultas: ita, bonis malisque dimotis, patenti via ad verum perges. Ego sic existumo: quoniam orta omnia intereunt, qua tempestate urbi romanae fatum excidii adventarit, cives cum civibus manus conserturos: ita defessos et exsangues regi, aut nationi praedae futuros: aliter non orbis terrarum, neque cunctae gentes conglobatae, movere aut contundere queunt hoc imperium. Firmanda igitur sunt concordiae bona, et discordiae mala expellenda.

5. On peace to be made firm, since you and all yours are agitating about it; first, I ask, consider what sort of thing it is, about which you take counsel: thus, with good and bad set aside, by an open way you will go forward to the truth. I so judge: since all things that have arisen perish, at that season when the fate of downfall shall have come to the Roman city, citizens will join hands in combat with citizens; thus, wearied and bloodless, they will be prey for a king or for a nation: otherwise neither the orbis of lands, nor all the nations conglobated, are able to move or crush this imperium. Therefore the goods of concord must be made firm, and the evils of discord must be driven out.

Id ita eveniet, si sumtuum et rapinarum licentiam demseris; non ad vetera instituta revocans, quae, iam pridem corruptis moribus, ludibrio sunt; sed si suam cuique rem familiarem finem sumtuum statueris: quoniam is incessit mos, ut homines adolescentuli, sua atque aliena consumere, nihil lubidini, atque aliis rogantibus denegare, pulcherrumum putent; eam virtutem, et magnitudinem animi, pudorem, atque modestiam pro socordia aestument. Ergo animus ferox, prava via ingressus, ubi consueta non subpetunt, fertur accensus in socios modo, modo in cives; movet composita, et res novas veteribus adquirit.

That will come about, if you remove the license of expenditures and of rapines; not by recalling to the ancient institutes, which, with morals long since corrupted, are a laughingstock; but if you set each person’s own household estate as the limit of expenditures: since this custom has taken hold, that adolescent young men think it most beautiful to consume both their own and others’, to deny nothing to libido and to those asking, and they assess that virtue and greatness of spirit—shame and modesty—as sloth. Therefore a fierce spirit, having entered upon a crooked way, when the accustomed supplies do not come up, is borne inflamed now against allies, now against citizens; it stirs what has been settled, and brings novelties upon the old.

Quare tollendus foenerator in posterum, uti suas quisque res curemus. Ea vera, atque simplex via est, magistratum populo, non creditori, gerere; et magnitudinem animi in addendo, non demendo reipublicae, ostendere.

Wherefore the usurer must be removed henceforth, so that each of us may take care of his own affairs. That is the true and simple way: to exercise magistracy for the people, not for the creditor; and to show greatness of spirit in adding to, not in taking away from, the republic.

VI. Atque ego scio, quam aspera haec res in principio futura sit, praesertim iis qui se in victoria licentius liberiusque, quam arctius, futuros credebant: quorum si saluti potius, quam lubidini consules, illosque nosque et socios in pace firma constitues. Sin eadem studia artesque iuventuti erunt, hae ista egregia tua fama simul cum urbe Roma brevi concidet. Postremo sapientes pacis caussa bellum gerunt, laborem spe otii sustentant: nisi illam firmam efficis, vinci, an vicisse, quid retulit?

6. And I know how harsh this matter will be at the beginning, especially for those who believed that in victory they would be more licentiously and more liberally, rather than more strictly: for whom, if you take counsel for safety rather than for libido, you will establish them and us and our allies in firm peace. But if the same studies and arts will belong to the youth, this outstanding fame of yours will shortly collapse together with the city Rome. Lastly, the wise wage war for the sake of peace, they sustain toil by the hope of leisure: unless you make that firm, what did it matter, to have been conquered or to have conquered?

Quare capesse per deos, rempublicam, et omnia aspera, uti soles, pervade. Namque aut tu mederi potes, aut obmittenda est cura omnibus. Neque quisquam te ad crudeles poenas, aut acerba iudicia invocat, quibus civitas vastatur magis quam corrigitur; sed uti pravas artes, malasque lubidines, ab iuventute prohibeas.

Therefore, by the gods, take up the commonwealth, and, as you are wont, press through all hardships. For indeed either you are able to remedy, or the care must be omitted by all. Nor does anyone call you to cruel punishments, or bitter judgments, by which the commonwealth is laid waste more than corrected; but that you keep perverse practices and evil lusts away from the youth.

Ea vera clementia erit, consuluisse, ne immerito cives patria expellerentur; retinuisse ab stultitia et falsis voluptatibus; pacem, concordiamque stabilivisse: non, si flagitiis obsecutus, delicta perpessus, praesens gaudium cum mox futuro malo concesseris.

That will be true clemency: to have taken counsel that citizens not be expelled from their fatherland undeservedly; to have restrained from folly and false pleasures; to have stabilized peace and concord: not, if, being obsequious to flagitious deeds and having tolerated offenses, you will have conceded present joy along with the evil soon to come.

VII. Ac mihi animus, quibus rebus alii timent, maxume fretus est, negotii magnitudine: et quia tibi terrae et maria simul omnia componenda sunt; quippe res parvas tantum ingenium adtingere nequit: magnae curae magna merces est.

7. And my spirit, in the very things at which others fear, is most of all reliant—on the magnitude of the business: and because for you both lands and seas together, all, are to be set in order; for genius cannot attain only small things: great care has a great reward.

Igitur provideas oportet uti plebes, largitionibus et publico frumento corrupta, habeat negotia sua, quibus ab malo publico detineatur: iuventus probitati et industriae, non sumptibus, neque divitiis studeat. Id ita eveniet, si pecuniae, quae maxuma omnium pernicies est, usum atque decus demseris.

Therefore you must provide that the plebs, corrupted by largesses and by public grain, have their own affairs, by which they may be held back from public evil: the youth should strive for probity and industry, not for expenditures, nor for riches. This will come about thus, if you take away from money—which is the greatest bane of all—its use and its honor.

Nam saepe ego cum animo meo reputans, quibus quisque rebus clarissumi viri magnitudinem invenissent; quae res populos, nationesve, magnis auctoribus auxissent; ac deinde quibus caussis amplissuma regna et imperia corruissent: eadem semper bona, atque mala reperiebam omnesque victores divitas contemsisse, et victos cupivisse. Neque aliter quisquam extollere sese, et divina mortalis adtingere potest, nisi, obmissis pecuniae et corporis gaudiis, animo indulgens, non adsentando, neque concupita praebendo, perversam gratiam gratificans; sed in labore, patientia, bonisque praeceptis, et factis fortibus exercitando.

For often I, reflecting with my mind by what things each of the most illustrious men had found magnitude; what things had increased peoples or even nations by great leaders; and then by what causes the most ample kingdoms and empires had collapsed: I always kept finding the same goods and the same evils, and that all the victors had contemned riches, and the vanquished had coveted them. Nor otherwise can anyone exalt himself, and a mortal touch the divine, unless, the joys of money and of the body set aside, indulging the mind, not by assenting, nor by supplying the coveted things, gratifying a perverse favor; but by exercising himself in labor, patience, and good precepts, and in brave deeds.

VIII. Nam domum aut villam exstruere, eamque signis, aulaeis, aliisque operibus exornare, et omnia potius, quam semet, visendum efficere; id est, non divitias decori habere, sed ipsum illis flagitio esse. Porro ii, quibus bis die ventrem onerare, nullam noctem sine scorto quiescere, mos est; ubi animum, quem dominari decebat, servitio obpressere, nequicquam eo postea hebeti atque claudo, pro exercito uti volunt: nam imprudentia pleraque et se praecipitant.

8. For to build a house or a villa, and to adorn it with statues, hangings, and other works, and to make everything rather than oneself the thing to be looked at; that is, not to have wealth for ornament, but oneself to be a disgrace to it. Moreover, those for whom it is the custom to load the belly twice a day, to pass no night at rest without a harlot: when they have crushed into servitude the mind, which it befitted to be lord, thereafter they vainly wish to use it, dull and crippled, in place of trained; for by imprudence they precipitate both most things and themselves.

Verum haec et omnia mala pariter cum honore pecuniae desinent, si neque magistratibus, neque alia vulgo cupiunda venalia erunt.

But these, and all evils alike, will cease together with the honor of money, if neither magistracies nor other things desired by the common multitude will be venal.

Ad hoc providendum est, quonam modo Italia atque provinciae tutiores sint: id quod factu haud obscurum est. Nam iidem omnia vastant, suas deserendo domos, et per iniuriam alienas obcupando. Item ne, ut adhuc, militia iniusta, aut inaequalis sit: quum alii triginta, pars nullum stipendium faciet.

In addition, provision must be made by what mode Italy and the provinces may be safer: which is by no means obscure to do. For these same men devastate everything, by deserting their own homes and wrongfully occupying others’. Likewise, let it not be, as up to now, that military service be unjust or unequal: since some will do thirty campaigns, while a portion will do no campaign at all.

Et frumentum id, quod antea praemium ignaviae fuit, per municipia et colonias, illis dare conveniet, quum stipendiis emeritis domos reverterint.

And that grain, which formerly was the reward of sloth, it will be fitting to give to them through the municipalities and colonies, when, their stipends earned out, they shall have returned home.

Quae reipublicae necessaria, tibique gloriosa ratus sum, quam paucissumis absolvi. Non peius videtur pauca nunc de facto meo disserere. Plerique mortales ad iudicandum satis ingenii habent, aut simulant: verum enim ad reprehendenda aliena facta, aut dicta, ardet omnibus animus; vix satis apertum os, aut lingua promta videtur, quae meditata pectore evolvat.

What I have judged necessary for the commonwealth and glorious for you, I have completed in the very fewest words. It does not seem amiss now to discuss a few things about my deed. Most mortals have sufficient ingenuity for judging, or simulate it; but in truth, for reprehending others’ deeds or sayings, everyone’s spirit burns; scarcely does a mouth seem open enough, or a tongue prompt enough, to unfold what has been meditated in the breast.

Quibus me subiectum haud poenitet, magis reticuisse pigeret. Nam sive hac, seu meliore alia via perges, a me quidem pro virili parte dictum et adiutum fuerit. Reliquum est optare, uti, quae tibi placuerint, es dii immortales adprobent, beneque evenire sinant.

I do not repent having subjected myself to these; I should have been more vexed to have kept silence. For whether you proceed by this way or by some other better road, on my part at least, to the extent of my powers, it will have been said and aided. What remains is to wish that the things which shall have pleased you the immortal gods may approve, and allow to turn out well.