[32] When a young man--_Adolescentulus_. "It is generally admitted that all were called _adolescentes_ by the Romans, who were between the fifteenth or seventeenth year of their age and the fortieth. The diminutive is used in the same sense, but with a view to contrast more strongly the ardor and spirit of youth with the moderation, prudence, and experience of age. So Caesar is called _adolescentulus_, in c. 49, at a time when he was in his thirty-third year." _Dietsch_. And Cicero, referring to the time of his consulship, says, _Defendi rempublicam adolescens_, Philipp. ii. 46. [33] To engage in political affairs--_Ad rempublicam_. "In the phrase of Cornelius Nepos, _honoribus operam dedi_, I sought to obtain some share in the management of the Republic. All public matters were comprehended under the term _Respublica_." _Cortius_. [34] Integrity--_Virtute_. Cortius rightly explains this word as meaning_justice, equity_, and all other virtues necessary in those who manage the affairs of a state. Observe that it is here opposed to _avaritia_, not, as some critics would have it, to _largitio_. [35] Was ensnared and infected--_Corrupta, tenebatur_. As _obsessus tenetur_, Jug., c. 24. [36] The same eagerness for honors, the same obloquy and jealousy, etc.--_Honoris cupido eadem quae caeteros, fama atque invidia vexabat_. I follow the interpretation of Cortius: "Me vexabat honoris cupido, et vexabat _propterea_ etiam eadem, quae caeteros, fama atqua invidia." He adds, from a gloss in the Guelferbytan MS., that it is a _zeugma_. "_Fama atque invidia_," says Gronovius, "is [Greek: _en dia duoin_], for _invidiosa et maligna fama_." Bernouf, with Zanchius and others, read _fama atque invidia_ in the ablative case; and the Bipont edition has _eadem qua--fama, etc._; but the method of Cortius is, to me, by far the most straightforward and satisfactory. Sallust, observes De Brosses, in his note on this passage, wrote the account of Catiline's conspiracy shortly after his expulsion from the Senate, and wishes to make it appear that he suffered from calumny on the occasion; though he took no trouble, in the subsequent part of his life, to put such calumny to silence.