[10] To rule our country or subjects, etc.--_Nam vi quidem regere patriam aut parentes_, etc. Cortius, Gerlach, Kritz, Dietsch, and Muller are unanimous in understanding _parentes_ as the participle of the verb _pareo_. That this is the sense, says Gerlach, is sufficiently proved by the conjunction _aut_; for if Sallust had meant _parents_, he would have used _ut_; and in this opinion Allen coincides. Doubtless, also, this sense of the word suits extremely well with the rest of the sentence, in which changes in government are mentioned. But Burnouf, with Crispinus, prefers to follow Aldus Manutius, who took the word in the other signification, supposing that Sallust borrowed the sentiment from Plato, who says in his Epistle _ad Dionis Propinquos_: [Greek: _Patera de hae maetera ouch osion haegoumai prosbiazesthai, mae noso paraphrosunaes hechomenous. Bian de patridi politeias metabolaes aeae prospherein, otan aneu phugon, kai sphagaes andron, mae dunaton hae ginesthae taen ariostaen_.] And he makes a similar observation in his Crito: [Greek: _Pantachou poiaetaen, o an keleuoi hae polis te, kai hae patris.--Biazesthai de ouch osion oute maetera, oute patera poly de touton eti aetton taen patrida_.] On which sentiments Cicero, ad Fam. i. 9, thus comments: _Id enim jubet idem ille Plato, quem ego auctorem vehementer sequor; tantum contendere in republica quantum probare tuis civibus possis: vim neque parenti, neque patriae afferre oportere_. There is also another passage in Cicero, Cat. i. 3, which seems to favor this sense of the word: _Si te parentes timerent atque odissent tui, neque eos ullâ ratione placare posses, ut opinor, ab eorum oculis aliquò concederes; nunc te patria, quae communis est omnium nostrum parens odit ac metuit_, etc. Of the first passage cited from Plato, indeed, Sallust's words may seem to be almost a translation. Yet, as the majority of commentators have followed Cortius, I have also followed him. Sallust has the word in this sense in Jug., c. 102; _Parentes abunde habemus_. So Vell. Pat. ii. 108: _Principatis constans ex voluntate parentium_. [11] Lead to--_Portendant_. "_Portendere_ in a _pregnant sense_, meaning not merely to indicate, but _quasi secum ferre_, to carry along with them." _Kritzius_. [12] IV, Presumptuously--_Per insolentiam_. The same as _insolenter_, though some refer it, not to Sallust, but to _quis existumet,_ in the sense of _strangely,_ i. e. _foolishly or ignorantly._ I follow Cortius's interpretation.