SALLUST
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5 (1-3) |
[1] It becomes all men, who
desire to be superior to other animals, to strive with all their might not to
pass through life in obscurity, like cattle, which nature has formed to gaze on
the ground and serve their appetite. (2) But our
power, taken as a whole, resides in the mind as well as in the body: we employ
the governance of the mind, the service rather of the body; the one we share
with the gods, the other with the beasts. (3) Wherefore it seems to me more reasonable to
pursue glory by means of the intellect than of physical strength, and, since
the life which we enjoy is itself short, to make the remembrance of us as
lasting as possible. (4) For the
glory of wealth and beauty is fleeting and frail, whereas excellence is an
illustrious and eternal possession. (5) Yet it
was long a subject of dispute among men, whether it was [more] by strength of
body or by force of intellect that military affairs were advanced. (6) For there is need both of deliberation before
one commences, and of seasonable action after one has deliberated. (7) So each, deficient by itself, needs the help
the one of the other.
[5] I am about to write [a
history] of the war which the Roman people waged with Jugurtha, king of the
Numidians; firstly, because it was a great and severe contest, fought with
varying success; and secondly, because then for the first time did the pride of
the nobility meet with a challenge. (2) This
struggle threw everything, both human and divine, into confusion, and reached
such a pitch of madness that, amid the passions of her citizens, war and
devastation made an end of Italy. (3) But
before I set forth the origins of this state of affairs, I will go back to a
few points earlier, so that everything may be clearer and more in the open for
our understanding.