[14] The one requires the assistance of the other--_Alterum alterius auxilio eget_. "_Eget_," says Cortius, "is the reading of all the MSS." _Veget_, which Havercamp and some others have adopted, was the conjecture of Palmerius, on account of _indigens_ occurring in the same sentence. But _eget_ agrees far better with _consulto et--maturè facto opus est_, in the preceding sentence. [15] II. Applied themselves in different ways--_Diversi_. "Modo et instituto diverso, diversa sequentes." _Cortius_. [16] At that period, however--_Et jam tum_. "Tunc temporis _praecisè_, at that time _precisely_, which is the force of the particle _jam_. as donatus shows. I have therefore written _et jam_ separately. Virg. Aen. vii. 737. Late _jam tum_ ditione premebat Sarrastes populos." _Cortius_. [17] Without covetousness--Sine cupiditate_. "As in the famous golden age. See Tacit. Ann. iii. 28." _Cortius_. See also Ovid. Met. i. 80, _seq_. But "such times were never," as Cowper says. [18] But after Cyrus in Asia, etc.--_Postea verò quàm in, Asiâ Cyrus_, etc. Sallust writes as if he had supposed that kings were more moderate before the time of Cyrus. But this can hardly have been the case. "The Romans," says De Brosses, whose words I abridge, "though not learned in antiquity, could not have been ignorant that there were great conquerors before Cyrus; as Ninus and Sesostris. But as their reigns belonged rather to the fabulous ages, Sallust, in entering upon a serious history, wished to confine himself to what was certain, and went no further back than the records of Herodotus and Thucydides." Ninus, says Justin. i. 1, was the first to change, through inordinate ambition, the _veterem et quasi avitum gentibus morem_, that is, to break through the settled restraints of law and order. Gerlach agrees in opinion with De Brosses. [19] Proof and experience--_Periculo atque negotiis_. Gronovius rightly interprets _periculo_ "experiundo, experimentis," by experiment or trial. Cortius takes _periculo atque negotiis_ for _periculosis negotiis_, by hendyadys; but to this figure, as Kritzius remarks, we ought but sparingly to have recourse. It is better, he adds, to take the words in their ordinary signification, understanding by _negotia_ "res graviores." Bernouf judiciously explains _negotiis_ by "ipsa negotiorum tractatione," _i. e._ by the management of affairs, or by experience in affairs. Dureau Delamalle, the French translator, has "l'expérience et la pratique." Mair has "trial and experience." which, I believe, faithfully expresses Sallust's meaning. Rose gives only "experience" for both words. [20] And, indeed, if the intellectual ability, etc.--_Quod si--animi virtus_, etc. "Quod si" can not here be rendered _but if;_ it is rather equivalent to _quapropter si_, and might be expressed by _wherefore if, if therefore, if then, so that if_. [21] Intellectual ability--_Animi virtus_. See the remarks on _virtus_, above noted.