_Sallust's Jugurthine War, and Conspiracy of Catiline, with an English
Commentary, and Historical Indexes. By Charles Anthon, L.L.D.
Jay-Professor of Ancient Literature in Columbia College, and Rector of
the Grammar School. Sixth edition, corrected and enlarged. New York:
Harper and Brothers._
In respect to external appearance this is an exceedingly beautiful
book, whether we look to the quality of its paper, the clearness,
uniform color, and great accuracy of its typography,[1] or the
neatness and durability of its covering. In this latter point
especially the Harpers and other publishers would do well, we think,
to follow up the style of the present edition of Sallust--dropping at
once and forever that flimsy and unsatisfactory method of binding so
universally prevalent just now, and whose sole recommendation is its
cheapness--if indeed it be cheaper at all. These are things of which
we seldom speak--but venture to mention them in the present instance
with a view of seizing a good opportunity. No man of taste--certainly
no lover of books and owner of a library--would hesitate at paying
twice as much for a book worth preservation, and which there is some
possibility of preserving, as for one of these fragile ephemera which
it is now the fashion to do up in muslin. We think in short the
interest of publishers as well as the taste of the public would be
consulted to some purpose in paying more attention to the mechanics of
book making.
[Footnote 1: In the course of a very attentive perusal we have
observed only one typographical error. On page 130, near the top, we
see _Fatigatus a fatre_ in place of _fratre_.]
That Mr. Anthon has done more for our classical literature than any
man in the country will hardly be denied. His Lempriere, to speak of
nothing else, is a monument of talent, erudition, indefatigable
research, and well organized method, of which we have the greatest
reason to be proud, but which is perhaps more fully and more properly
appreciated in any other climate than our own. Of a former edition of
his Sallust, two separate reprints, by different editors, total
strangers to the author, have appeared in England, without any effort
on his part, as we are very willing to believe, for procuring a
republication of his labors. The correct and truly beautiful edition
now before us, leaves nothing to be desired. The most striking
emendation is the placing the narrative of the Jugurthine war before
the conspiracy of Catiline. This arrangement, however, as Mr. Anthon
we believe admits, has the merit of novelty in America alone. At least
we understand him to make this admission in saying that the order he
has {393} observed is no novelty on the continent of Europe, as may be
discovered from the works of the President De Brosses, the Abbé
Cassagne, and M. Du Rozoir. At all events we have repeatedly seen in
England editions of Sallust, (and we suppose them to have been English
editions,) in which the Jugurthine war preceded the Conspiracy. Of the
propriety of this order there can be no doubt whatever, and it is
quite certain to meet with the approbation of all who give themselves
even a moment's reflection on the subject. There is an obvious
anachronism in the usual arrangement--for the rebellion of Catiline
was nearly fifty years subsequent to the war with Jugurtha. "The
impression produced, therefore, on the mind of the student," (we here
use the words of our author,) "must necessarily be a confused one when
he is required to read the two works in an inverted order. In the
account of Catiline's conspiracy, for example, he will find frequent
allusions to the calamitous consequences of Sylla's strife with
Marius; and will see many of the profligate partizans of the former
rallying around the standard of Catiline; while in the history of the
Jugurthine war, if he be made to peruse it after the other, in the
ordinary routine of school reading, he will be introduced to the same
Sylla just entering on a public career, and standing high in the favor
and confidence of Marius. How too will he be able to appreciate, in
their full force, the remarks of Sallust relative to the successive
changes in the Roman form of government, and the alternate ascendency
of the aristocratic and popular parties, if he be called upon to
direct his attention to results before he is made acquainted with the
causes that produced them?"
The only reason assigned for the usual arrangement is founded upon the
order of composition--Sallust having written the narrative of the
Conspiracy before the account of the Jugurthine war. All the MS.S.
too, have followed this order. Mr. Anthon, however, justly remarks
that such an argument should weigh but little when positive utility is
placed in the opposite scale.
An enlarged commentary on the Jugurthine War, is another improvement
in the present edition. There can be no doubt that the notes usually
appended to this portion of Sallust were insufficient for the younger,
if not for all classes of pupils, and when this deficiency is
remedied, as in the present instance, by the labors of a man not only
of sound scholarship, but of great critical and general acumen, we
know how to value the services thus rendered to the student and to the
classical public at large. We subjoin one or two specimens of the
additional notes.
Page 122. "_Ingenii egregia facinora_." "_The splendid exertions of
intellect._" _Facinus_ denotes a bold or daring action, and unless it
be joined with a favorable epithet, or the action be previously
described as commendable, the term is always to be understood in a
vituperative sense. In the present passage, the epithet _egregius_
marks the character of the action as praiseworthy.
Page 122. "_Quippe probitatem, &c._" "Since it (i.e. fortune) can
neither give, nor take away integrity, activity, nor other
praiseworthy qualities." _Industria_ here means an active exercise of
our abilities.
We might add (with deference) to this note of Professor Anthon's, that
_industria_, generally, has a more variable meaning than is usually
given it, and that the word, in a great multiplicity of instances,
where ambiguities in translation have arisen, has allusion to mental
rather than to physical exertion. We have frequently, moreover,
remarked its connection with that idea which the moderns attach to the
term _genius_. _Incredibili industriâ_, _industriâ singulari_, are
phrases almost invariably used in the sense we speak of, and refer to
great mental power. Apropos, to this subject--it is remarkable that
both Buffon and Hogarth directly assert that "genius is nothing but
labor and diligence."
Page 133. "_Vos in mea injuria_," _&c._ "_You are treated with
contempt in the injustice which is done me._" _Despicere_ always
implies that the person despising thinks meanly of the person
despised, as compared with himself. _Contemnere_ denotes the absolute
vileness of an object.
We may here observe that we have no English equivalent to _despicere_.
Page 135. "_Quod utinam_," _&c._ "_But would that I may see._" The use
of _quod_ before many conjunctions, &c. merely as a copulative,
appears to have arisen from the fondness of the Latin writers for the
connexion by means of relatives.
Page 135. "_Emori_." "_A speedy death_." The infinitive here supplies
the place of a noun, or more correctly speaking, is employed in its
true character. For this mood, partaking of the nature of a noun, has
been called by grammarians "the verb's noun" (_ονομα ρηματος_.) The
reason of this appellation is more apparent, however, in Greek, from
its taking the prepositive article before it in all cases; as _το
γραφειν_, _τον γραφειν_, _τω γραφειν_. The same construction is not
unknown in English. Thus Spencer--
For not to have been dipped in Lethe lake,
Could save the son of Thetis from to die.
Besides the new arrangement of matter, and the additional notes on the
Jugurthine war, the principal changes in the present edition are to be
found in two convenient Indexes--the one Geographical, the other
Historical. We are told by Mr. Anthon that his object in preparing
them was to relieve the Annotations from what might have proved too
heavy a pressure of materials, and have deterred from, rather than
have invited, a perusal. The geographical and historical matter is now
made to stand by itself.
The account of Sallust himself, and especially the critical
examination of his writings, which appeared in the ordinary way in
previous editions, is now resolved into the form of a dialogue, and
has gained by the change much force and vivacity, without being at all
deteriorated in other respects. Upon the whole, any farther real
improvement in the manner of editing, printing, or publishing a
Sallust would seem to be an impossibility.