3. Pulcrum est bene facere rei publicae; etiam bene dicere haud absurdum est;[22] vel pace vel bello clarum fieri licet; et qui fecere et qui facta aliorum scripsere, multi laudantur. Ac mihi quidem,[23] tametsi haudquaquam par gloria sequitur scriptorem et actorem rerum, tamen in primis arduum videtur res gestas scribere; primum quod facta dictis exaequanda sunt, dehinc quia plerique, quae delicta reprehenderis, malivolentia et invidia dicta putant;[24] ubi de magna virtute atque gloria bonorum memores, quae sibi quisque facilia factu putat, aequo animo accipit, supra ea[25] veluti ficta pro falsis ducit. Sed ego[26] adolescentulus initio sicuti plerique studio ad rem publicam latus sum, ibique mihi multa adversa fuere. Nam pro pudore, pro abstinentia, pro virtute, audacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant. Quae tametsi animus aspernabatur, insolens malarum artium,[27] tamen inter tanta vitia imbecilla aetas ambitione corrupta tenebatur[28]: ac me, quum ab reliquorum malis moribus dissentirem, nihilo minus honoris cupido eadem qua ceteros fama atque invidia vexabat.[29] [22] _Haud absurdum est_, 'is not unbecoming;' that is, 'is worthy of man.' [23] _Quidem_ here, like the Greek [Greek: men] in [Greek: emoi men], without a [Greek: de] following, introduces one opinion in contradistinction from others, though the latter are not mentioned, but merely suggested by _quidem_. 'I for my part think so, but what others think I do not know, or care.' [24] 'If you censure any things as faults or delinquencies, your censure is considered to have arisen from malevolence or ill-will.' [25] _Supra ea_, 'whatever is beyond: that;' that is, whatever is beyond the capacity of the reader. [26] The author now passes over to his own experience, telling us that after having devoted himself at first to the career of a public man, and finding that he was not understood, and ill-used by his opponents, he formed the determination to give himself up to a literary life. [27] _Insolens malarum artium_, 'unacquainted with base artifices or intrigues;' for _artes_ may be _malae_ as well as _bonae_, according as they consist in the skill of doing bad or good things. [28] _Imbecilla aetas_, 'my weak age;' that is, my mind, which had not yet arrived at mature independence,'was corrupted by ambition, and was kept under the influence of such bad circumstances.' Sallust means to say that if his mind had arrived at manly independence, he would have immediately withdrawn from the vicious atmosphere of public life. [29] My ambition caused me to be equally ill spoken of and envied, and thus to be dragged down to a level with the rest, and to be equally harassed and persecuted as they were.