pleraque[269] sumpserunt: postremo quod ubique apud socios aut hostes idoneum videbatur, cum summo studio domi exequebantur, imitari quam invidere bonis malebant. Sed eodem illo tempore, Graeciae morem imitati, verberibus animadvertebant in cives, de condemnatis summum supplicium sumebant. Postquam res publica adolevit et multitudine civium factiones valuere, circumvenire innocentes, alia hujuscemodi fieri coepere, tum lex Porcia aliaeque leges paratae sunt, quibus legibus[270] exilium damnatis permissum est. Ego hanc causam, P. C., quominus[271] novum consilium capiamus, in primis magnam puto. Profecto virtus atque sapientia major in illis fuit, qui ex parvis opibus tantum imperium fecere quam in nobis, qui ea bene parta vix retinemus. Placet igitur eos dimitti et augere exercitum Catilinae? Minime, sed ita censeo; publicandas eorum pecunias, ipsos in vinculis habendos per municipia,[272] quae maxime opibus valent; neu quis de his postea ad senatum referat neve cum populo agat; qui aliter fecerit, senatum existimare eum contra rem publicam et salutem omnium facturum.' [247] _Male consulere_, 'to form bad' or 'injurious resolutions.' [248] _Perse_. Respecting the forms of this name, see Zumpt, SS 52, 54. [249] _An_ must be explained by supplying another interrogation before it, such as _alione?_ 'had that speech any other object, or had it this one?' for _an_ is used only in the second part of a double question. [250] 'To be sure words will fire him on, whom the thing itself did not move'--that is, words are sure not to rouse him whom the thing itself did not move; for _scilicet_ has an ironical force. [251] _Injuriae suae_, 'the injuries done to him.' [252] 'Many have taken them more seriously to heart than was necessary.' It is more common to say _gravius tulerunt_. The perfect, _habuere_, in expressing a general truth, has the sense of a present, or rather of a Greek aorist, denoting that which once happened, and still continues to happen. Compare p.22, note 2 [note 68]. [253] _Vitam habent_ for _vitam agunt_, which is more common. Sallust is very fond of the verb _habere_ in certain phrases. See _Jug_. 10. [254] _Equidem ego_ for _ego quidem_. See Zumpt, S 278. [255] _Inimicitiae_. About this plural, see Zumpt, S 94. The singular _inimicitia_ is not used at all. [256] 'Such I know to be the character of the man.' [257] _Subigere_ here, as in many other passages of Sallust, has the meaning of _cogere, invitum impellere_ ('to force a person to something'), followed by an infinitive instead of a clause with _ut_. [258] _Id quod res habet_, 'that which is in the nature of the thing.' Caesar hereby means to represent his opinion as philosophically correct, and in accordance with nature. _Id quod_ belong together. [259] Such had indeed been the custom in former times. The condemned person, previous to being beheaded with the axe, was bound to a post and scourged.