[13] At what periods I obtained office, what sort of men, etc. --_Quibus ego temporibus maqistratus adeptus sum, et quales viri,_ etc. --"Sallust obtained the quaestorship a few years after the conspiracy of Catiline, about the time when the state was agitated by the disorders of Clodius and his party. He was tribune of the people, A.U.C. 701, the year in which Clodius was killed by Milo. He was praetor in 708, when Caesar had made himself ruler. In the expression _quales viri,_ etc., he alludes chiefly to Cato, who, when he stood for the praetorship, was unsuccessful." _Burnouf._ Kritzius defends _adeptus sum._ [14] What description of persons have subsequently entered the senate--"Caesar chose the worthy and unworthy, as suited his own purposes, to be members of the senate." _Burnouf._ [15] Quintus Maximus--Quintus Fabius Maximus, of whom Ennius says, Unus qui nobis cunctando restituit rem; Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem. [16] Publius Scipio--Scipio Africanus the Elder, the conqueror of Hannibal. See c. 5. [17] To the pursuit of honor--_Ad vertutem. Virtus_ in the same sense as in _virtutis viâ,_ c. 1. [18] The wax--_Ceram illam._ The images or busts of their ancestors, which the nobility kept in the halls of their houses, were made of wax. See Plin. H. N. xxxv., 2. [19] Men of humble birth--_Homines novi_. See Cat., c. 23. [20] V. Threw every thing, religious and civil, into confusion--_Divina et humana cuncta permiscuit_. "All things, both divine and human, were so changed, that their previous condition was entirely subverted." _Dietsch_. [21] Civil dissensions--_Studiis civilibus_. This is the sense in which most commentators take _studia_; and if this be right, the whole phrase must be understood as I have rendered it. So Cortius; "Ut non prius finirentur [_studia civilia_] nisi bello et vastitate Italiae." Sallust has _studia partium_ Jug. c. 42; and Gerlach quotes from Cic. pro Marcell. c. 10: "_Non enim consiliis solis et studiis, sed armis etiam et castris dissidebamus_". [22] More than any other enemy--_Maximè_. [23] Since the Roman name became great--_Post magnitudinem nominis Romani_. "I know not why interpreters should find any difficulty in this passage. I understand it to signify simply _since_ the Romans became so great as they were in the time of Hannibal; for, _before_ that period they had suffered even heavier calamities, especially from the Gauls." _Cortius_.