Chapter 31

and particularly of love. Book v. treats of the formation of the earth and the heavenly bodies, the origin of life, and the progress of civilization. It is shown that nothing has been created, and that everything must perish. Book vi. treats of abnormal phenomena, such as thunder and lightning, tempests, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc. The plague at Athens is described (from Thucydides). Books v. and vi. are unfinished.

Ethical views are given only by the way, the poem being primarily on physics. Pleasure is the end of action: ii. 172, 'dux vitae dia voluptas.' This pleasure is the absence of disturbance (+ataraxia+), hence all passion (as of love, iv. 1121-40) is deprecated; ii. 14,

'O miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca! qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis degitur hoc aevi quodcumque est! nonne videre nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi utqui corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur iucundo sensu cura semota metuque?'

Lucretius, as Epicurus, is often weak in physics. Cf. v. 564 _sqq._, of the sun's size,

'Nec nimio solis maior rota nec minor ardor esse potest, nostris quam sensibus esse videtur.'

In i. 1052 _sqq._ he states well the theory of the antipodes but his dependence on Epicurus will not allow him to accept it. Reasons are sometimes given for a thing that never existed, as in iv. 710-21 for the fear that a lion has for a cock. Some passages come near the results of modern science, cf. v. 837 _sqq._ on extinct species; v. 855 _sqq._ on the struggle for existence; v. 610-3, on the invisible rays of the sun.

The references to Lucretius by name are few.

Nep. _Att._ 12, 4, 'L. Iulium Calidum, quem post Lucreti Catullique mortem multo elegantissimum poetam nostram tulisse aetatem vere videor posse contendere.'

Ovid, _Am._ i. 15, 23,

'Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti, exitio terras cum dabit una dies.'

_Trist._ ii. 425,

'Explicat ut causas rapidi Lucretius ignis.'

Stat. _Silv._ ii. 7, 76,

'docti furor arduus Lucreti.'

Quint. x. 1, 87, 'Macer et Lucretius legendi quidem, sed non ut phrasin, id est, corpus eloquentiae faciant; elegantes in sua quisque materia, sed alter humilis alter difficilis.'

Cf. Tac. _Dial._ 23.

His influence on Virgil is seen _passim_. Cf. Gell. i. 21, 7, 'Non verba sola sed versus prope totos et locos quoque Lucreti plurimos sectatum esse Vergilium videmus.'

Verg. _Georg._ ii. 490 _sqq._ and _Ecl._ 6, 31 _sqq._ refer to Lucretius. _Georg._ ii. 490,

'Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari.'

Horace has also imitated him in several places: so _Sat._ i. 3, 99-110 (on primitive man) = Lucr. v. 1028 _sqq._; _Sat._ i. 5, 101 _sqq._ = Lucr. v. 82 _sqq._ Most of the poets after him, particularly Manilius, came under his influence.

SALLUST.

(1) LIFE.

C. Sallustius Crispus was born B.C. 86 at Amiternum, in the country of the Sabines, and died B.C. 35.

Jerome yr. Abr. 1931 = B.C. 86, 'Sallustius Crispus, scriptor historicus, in Sabinis Amiterni nascitur.' _Ibid._ 1982 = B.C. 35, 'Sallustius diem obiit, quadriennio ante Actiacum bellum.'

Sallust was of plebeian family, as is seen from the fact that he was afterwards _tribunus plebis_. According to the Pseud.-Cic. _in Sallustium declamatio_, 13-14, he led an evil life in youth, and brought his father with sorrow to the grave.

Cf. § 14, 'Cuiquam dubium potest esse, quin mori coegerit eum [patrem]?'

There is a story that Milo punished him for an amour with his wife.

Gell. xvii. 18, 'M. Varro ... in libro quem scripsit "Pius aut de pace," C. Sallustium scriptorem seriae illius et severae orationis, in cuius historia notiones censorias fieri atque exerceri videmus, in adulterio deprehensum ab Annio Milone loris bene caesum dicit et, cum dedisset pecuniam, dimissum.'

The story is corroborated by Pseud.-Cic. _in Sall._ 15; by Macrob. iii. 13, 9, '_alienae_ luxuriae obiurgator et censor,' and others; and Sallust himself appears to admit that there was something wrong; _Cat._ 4, 'a quo incepto studioque me ambitio mala detinuerat.'[34]

Sallust speaks of the political offices he filled, and of the class of men who were unsuccessful candidates about the same time--a supposed reference to M. Cato's candidature for the praetorship, B.C. 55.

_Iug._ 4, 'Qui si reputaverint, et quibus ego temporibus magistratus adeptus sim et quales viri idem adsequi nequiverint,' etc.

After being quaestor (Pseud.-Cic. _in Sall._ 15), he was, in B.C. 52, _tribunus plebis_, when he and other two tribunes opposed Cicero in his defence of Milo.

Ascon. _in Cic. pro Mil._ p. 33 (Kiessl. and Schöll), 'C. Sallustius et T. Munatius Plancus tr. pleb. inimicissimas contiones de Milone habebant.'

In B.C. 50, Sallust was _legatus pro quaestore_ to Bibulus in Syria, according to Mommsen (_Hermes_, i. 171), who thinks that the Sallust to whom Cicero writes _ad Fam._ ii. 17 is the historian. In the same year he was expelled from the Senate by the censors, Appius Claudius and L. Piso.

Pseud.-Cic. _in Sall._ 16, 'neque post illum delectum senatus vidimus te.'

In B.C. 49, Caesar reappointed him quaestor, and he resumed his place in the Senate.

Pseud.-Cic. _in Sall._ 17, 'in senatum post quaesturam est reductus.'

In B.C. 48, he commanded a legion in Illyria without distinction (Orosius vi, 15, 8), and next year he was Caesar's agent with the insurgent legions in Campania (Appian, _B.C._ ii. 92). In B.C. 46 he was praetor, and as such commanded successfully an expedition to seize the enemy's stores in Cercina.

_Bell. Afr._ 8, 'Item C. Sallustium Crispum praetorem ad Cercinam insulam versus, quam adversarii tenebant, cum parte navium ire iubet.' (See also c. 34.)

At the end of the year he was appointed proconsul of Numidia.

_Ibid._ 97, 'Ibi Sallustio pro consule cum imperio relicto ipse Zama egressus Uticam se recepit.'

As proconsul, he plundered the province, and bought, probably with the spoils, the _horti Sallustiani_, which afterwards belonged to the Roman emperors (see Tac. _Ann._ xiii. 47; _Hist._ iii. 82).

Pseud.-Cic. _in Sall._ 19, 'Nonne ita provinciam vastavit, ut nihil neque passi sint neque exspectaverint gravius in bello socii nostri, quam experti sint in pace hoc Africam interiorem obtinente?'

Sallust is said to have married Terentia, whom Cicero had divorced (Jerome _adv. Iov._ 1). Probably he had no son, as he adopted a grandson of his sister.

Tac. _Ann._ iii. 30, 'Crispum equestri ortum loco C. Sallustius, rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor, sororis nepotem in nomen adscivit.'

After Caesar's death, Sallust retired from public life, and, having no taste for sport or agriculture, spent his leisure in writing history.

_Cat._ 4, 'Ubi ... mihi reliquam aetatem a re publica procul habendam decrevi, non fuit consilium socordia atque desidia bonum otium conterere, neque vero agrum colundo aut venando servilibus officiis intentum aetatem agere; sed ... statui res gestas populi Romani carptim, ut quaeque memoria digna videbantur, perscribere.'

Sallust, as above stated, died B.C. 35.

(2) WORKS.

1. _De Catilinae Coniuratione_ (so _Cat._ 4). The book is called _bellum Catilinae_ by Quint. iii. 8, 9, and in some MSS.; in MSS. also _bellum Catilinarium_. The work was written after Caesar's death (_Cat._ 53-4). It is, as Mommsen (_R.H._ iv. 184, note) states, a political pamphlet in the interests of the democratic party (on which the monarchy was based), and tries to clear Caesar from the charge of being implicated in the Catilinarian conspiracy, and collaterally performing the same service for C. Antonius, the uncle of the triumvir.

Cf. _Cat._ 49, 'Sed isdem temporibus Q. Catulus et C. Piso neque pretio neque gratia Ciceronem inpellere potuere, uti per Allobroges aut alium indicem C. Caesar falso nominaretur. Nam uterque cum illo gravis inimicitias exercebant ... Sed ubi consulem ad tantum facinus inpellere nequeunt,' etc. (Cf. also Caesar's speech in _Cat._ 51.)

_Cat._ 59, 'At ex altera parte C. Antonius pedibus aeger, quod proelio adesse nequibat, M. Petreio legato exercitum permittit.' Dion Cassius,