Sallust, The Conspiracy of Catiline ...classroom version...
It becomes all men, who desire to excel other animals, to strive, to the
utmost of their power, not to pass through life in obscurity, like the beasts
of the field, which nature has formed grovelling and subservient to appetite.
All our power is situate in the mind and in the body. Of the mind we rather
employ the government; of the body, the service. The one is common to us
with the gods; the other with the brutes. It appears to me, therefore, more
reasonable to pursue glory by means of the intellect than of bodily strength,
and, since the life which we enjoy is short, to make the remembrance of us
as lasting as possible. For the glory of wealth and beauty is fleeting and
perishable; that of intellectual power is illustrious and immortal. ...
... For dominion is easily secured by those qualities
by which it was at first obtained. But when sloth has introduced itself
in the place of industry, and covetousness and pride in that of moderation
and equity, the fortune of a state is altered together with its morals;
and thus authority is always transferred from the less to the more deserving.
Even in agriculture, in navigation, and in architecture, whatever man performs
owns the dominion of intellect. Yet many human beings, resigned to sensuality
and indolence, uninstructed and unimproved, have passed through life like
travellers in a strange country; to whom, certainly, contrary to the intention
of nature, the body was a gratification, and the mind a burden. ... To
act well for the Commonwealth is noble, and even to speak well for it is
not without merits. Both in peace and in war it is possible to obtain celebrity;
many who have acted, and many who have recorded the actions of others,
receive their tribute of praise. And to me, assuredly, though by no means
equal glory attends the narrator and the performer of illustrious deeds,
it yet seems in the highest degree difficult to write the history of great
transactions; first, because deeds must be adequately represented by words;
and next, because most readers consider that whatever errors you mention
with censure, are mentioned through malevolence and envy; while, when you
speak of the great virtue and glory of eminent men, every one hears with
acquiescence only that which he himself thinks easy to be performed; all
beyond his own conception he regards as fictitious and incredible.
...
Since the occasion has thus brought
public morals under my notice, the subject itself seems to call upon
me to look back, and briefly to describe the conduct of our ancestors in
peace and war; how they managed the state,
and how powerful they left it; and how, by gradual alteration, it became,
from being the most virtuous, the most vicious and depraved. Of the city
of Rome, as I understand, the founders and earliest inhabitants were the
Trojans, who, under the conduct of Aeneas, were wandering about as exiles
from their country, without any settled abode; and with these were joined
the Aborigines, a savage race of men, without laws or government, free
and owning no control. How easily these two tribes, though of different
origin, dissimilar language, and opposite habits of life, formed a union
when they met within the same walls, is almost incredible. But when their
state, from an accession of population and territory, and an improved condition
of morals, showed itself tolerably flourishing and powerful, envy, as is
generally the case m human affairs, was the consequence of its prosperity.
..They protected with their arms, their liberty, their country, and their
homes.
And when they had at length repelled danger
by valour, they lent assistance to their allies and supporters, and procured
friendships rather by bestowing favours than by receiving them. They
had a government regulated by laws. The denomination of their government
was monarchy. Chosen men, whose bodies might be enfeebled by years, but
whose minds were vigorous in understanding, formed the council of the state;
and these, whether from their age, or from the similarity of their
duty, were called fathers . But afterwards, when the monarchical power,
which had been originally established for the protection of liberty, and
for the promotion of the public interest, had degenerated into tyranny
and oppression, they changed their plan, and appointed two magistrates,
with power only annual; for they conceived that, by this method, the human
mind would be least likely to grow overbearing through want of control.
At
this period every citizen began to seek distinction, and to display
his talents with greater freedom; for, with princes, the meritorious are
greater objects of suspicion than the undeserving, and to them the worth
of others is a source of alarm. But when liberty was secured, it is almost
incredible how much the state strengthened itself in a short space of time,
so strong a passion for distinction had pervaded it. Now, for the first
time, the youth, as soon as they were able to bear the toils of war, acquired
military skill by actual service in the camp, and took pleasure rather
in splendid arms and military steeds than in the society of mistresses
and convivial indulgence. To such men no toil was unusual, no place was
difficult or inaccessible, no armed enemy was formidable; their valour
had overcome everything. But among themselves the grand rivalry was for
glory; each sought to be first to wound an enemy, to scale a wall, and
to be noticed while performing such an exploit. Distinction such as this
they regarded as wealth, honour, and true nobility. They were covetous
of praise, but liberal of money; they desired sufficient riches,
but boundless glory.
...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 honour. 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, 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. But when, by perseverance and integrity,
the republic had increased its power; when mighty princes had been vanquished
in war; when barbarous tribes and populous states had been reduced to
subjection; when Carthage, the rival of Rome's dominion, had been utterly
destroyed, and sea and land lay everywhere open to her sway,
Fortune then
began to exercise her tyranny, and to introduce universal innovation.
To those who had easily endured toils, dangers, and doubtful and difficult
circumstances, ease and wealth, the objects of desire to others, became
a burden and a trouble. At first the love of money, and then that of
power, began to prevail, and these became, as it were, the sources of every
evil. For avarice subverted honesty, integrity, and other honourable principles,
and, in their stead, inculcated pride, inhumanity, contempt of religion,
and general venality. Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to
keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue;
to estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according
to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest
heart.
But after Lucius Sulla, having
recovered the government by force of arms, proceeded, after a fair
commencement, to a pernicious termination, all became robbers and plunderers;
some set their affections on houses, others on lands; his victorious
troops knew neither restraint nor moderation, but inflicted on the citizens
disgraceful and inhuman outrages. Their rapacity was increased by the
circumstance that Sulla, in order to secure the attachment of the forces
which he had commanded in Asia, had treated them, contrary to the practice
of our ancestors, with extraordinary indulgence, and exemption from discipline;
and pleasant and luxurious quarters had easily, during seasons of idleness,
enervated the minds of the soldiery. Then the armies of the Roman people
first became habituated to licentiousness and intemperance, and began
to admire statues, pictures, and sculptured vases; to seize such objects
alike in public edifices and private dwellings; to spoil temples; and
to cast off respect for everything, sacred and profane. Such troops, accordingly,
when once they obtained the mastery, left nothing to the vanquished.
Success unsettles the principles even of the wise,
and scarcely would those of debauched habits use victory with moderation.
When wealth was once considered an honour, and glory, authority, and power
attended on it, virtue lost her influence, poverty was thought a disgrace,
and a life of innocence was regarded as a life of ill-nature. From the
influence of riches, accordingly, luxury, avarice, and pride prevailed
among the youth; they grew at once rapacious and prodigal; they undervalued
what was their own, and coveted what was another's; they set at nought
modesty and continence; they lost all distinction between sacred and profane,
and threw off all consideration and self-restraint.
But
the love of irregular gratification, open debauchery, and all kinds
of luxury, had spread abroad with no less force. Men forgot their sex;
women threw off all the restraints of modesty. To gratify appetite, they
sought for every kind of production by land and by sea; they slept before
there vas any inclination for sleep; they no longer waited to feel hunger,
thirst, cold, or fatigue, but anticipated them all by luxurious indulgence.
Such propensities drove the youth, when their patrimonies were exhausted,
to criminal practices; for their minds, impregnated with evil habits,
could not easily abstain from gratifying their passions, and were thus
the more inordinately devoted in every way to rapacity and extravagance.