conturbari rem publicam quam minus valere ipsi malebant. Id adeo malum multos post annos in civitatem reverterat. [187] _Aliena_; supply _a republica_. [188] _Adeo_ renders the sentence emphatic, 'nay, the common people seemed to do this even according to their custom.' _Adeo_ in this sense is always preceded by a demonstrative pronoun. See Zumpt, S 281. [189] _Boni_. In the political signification of this word, the ideas of quiet conduct, aversion to innovations, and acquiescence in the actual state of things, are combined with solid wealth. The reason of this is easily perceptible; for he who possesses property, dreads every change, and supports the existing state of things. A still more decided political meaning is implied in the term _optimates_, which denotes the party in the state which we now call Conservative, but at Rome it implied at the same time the idea of 'faction,' and of a tendency to occasional violence. [190] 'Poverty (that is, poor people) maintains itself, or continues in all disturbances without suffering any loss;' for he who has nothing, cannot sustain any loss. [191] _Ea vero_, 'this in particular. _Vero_ indicates the transition to that circumstance, which in the present case is of the greatest importance. Compare Zumpt, S 348, note. [192] _Sentina_ properly signifies the sediment which, in a vessel filled with water, sinks to the bottom. Hence 'the residue,' or the place where all that is bad or impure is collected. [193] The largesses in money and provisions with which the state supported the needy population of the capital, and by which private persons, anxious to gain partisans, catered numbers of clients, attracted to Rome many people from the country: the city plebs was thus constantly increasing. [194] 'They were as much concerned about the good of the state as about their own good'--that is, just as little. [195] Connect _quorum_ with _parentes_ and the following words, _bona_ and _jus_. Sulla had excluded the sons of those whom he proscribed from all public offices, and thus curtailed their rights of free citizens. 38. Nam postquam Gn. Pompeio et M. Crasso consulibus[196] tribunicia potestas restituta est, homines adolescentes summam potestatem nacti, quibus aetas animusque ferox erat, coepere senatum criminando plebem exagitare, dein largiundo atque pollicitando magis incendere; ita ipsi clari potentesque fieri. Contra eos summa ope nitebatur pleraque nobilitas senatus specie[197] pro sua magnitudine. Namque uti paucis verum absolvam, post illa tempora quicunque rem publicam agitavere, honestis nominibus, alii sicuti populi jura defenderent, pars quo[198] senatus auctoritas maxima foret, bonum publicum simulantes, pro sua quisque potentia certabant; neque illis modestia neque modus contentionis erat; utrique victoriam crudeliter exercebant.