[43] Capable of pretending or dissembling whatever he wished --_Cujuslibet, rei simulator ac dissimulator_. "Dissimulation is the negative, when a man lets fall signs and arguments, that he is not that he is; simulation is the affirmative, when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pretends to be that he is not." Bacon, Essay vi. [44] Abundance of eloquence--_Satis eloquentiae_. Cortius reads _loquentiae_ "_Loquentia_ is a certain facility of speech not necessarily attended with sound sense; called by the Greeks [Greek: _lalia_]." _Bernouf_. "Julius Candidus used excellently to observe that _eloquentia_ was one thing, and _loquentia_ another; for eloquence is given to few, but what Candidus called _loquentia_, or fluency of speech, is the talent of many, and especially of the most impudent." Plin. Ep. v. 20. But _eloquentiae_ is the reading of most of the MSS., and _loquentiae_, if Aulus Gellius (i. 15) was rightly informed, was a correction of Valerius Probus, the grammarian, who said that Sallust _must_ have written so, as _eloquentiae_ could not agree with _sapientiae parum_. This opinion of Probus, the grammarian, who said that Sallust _must_ have written so, as _eloquentiae_ could not agree with _sapientiae parum_. This opinion of Probus, however, may be questioned. May not Sallust have written _eloquentiae_, with the intention of signifying that Catiline had abundance of eloquence to work on the minds of others, though he wanted prudence to regulate his own conduct? Have there not been other men of whom the same may be said, as Mirabeau, for example? The speeches that Sallust puts into Catiline's mouth (c. 20, 58) are surely to be characterized rather as _eloquentia_, than _loquentia_. On the whole, and especially from the concurrence of MSS., I prefer to read _eloquentiae_, with the more recent editors, Gerlach, Kritz and Dietsch. [45] Since the time of Sylla's dictatorship--_Post dominationem Lucii Syllae_. "The meaning is not the same as if it were _finitâ dominatione_ but is the same as _ab eo tempore quo dominari caeperat_. In French, therefore, _post_ should be rendered by _depuis_, not, as it is commonly translated, _après_." _Bernouf_. As _dictator_ was the title that Sylla assumed, I have translated _dominatio_, "dictatorship". Rose, Gordon, and others, render it "usurpation". [46] Power--_Regnum_. Chief authority, rule, dominion. [47] Rendered thoroughly depraved--_Vexabant_. "Corrumpere et pessundare studebant." _Bernouf_. _Quos vexabant_, be it observed, refers to _mores_, as Gerlach and Kritz interpret, not to _cives_ understood in _civitatis_, which is the evidently erroneous method of Cortius. [48] Conduct of our ancestors--_Instituta majorum_. The principles adopted by our ancestors, with regard both to their own conduct, and to the management of the state. That this is the meaning, is evident from the following account.