[61] Chose to act rather than narrate--"For," as Cicero says, "neither among those who are engaged in establishing a state, nor among those carrying on wars, nor among those who are curbed and restrained under the rule of kings, is the desire of distinction in eloquence wont to arise." _Graswinckelius_. [62] IX. Pressed by the enemy--_Pulsi_. In the words _pulsi loco cedere ausi erant_, _loco_ is to be joined, as Dietsch observes, with cedere_, not, as Kritzius puts it, with _pulsi_. "To retreat," adds Dietsch, "is disgraceful only to those _qui ab hostibus se pelli patiantur_, who suffer themselves to be _repulsed by the enemy_." [63] X. When mighty princes had been vanquished in war--Perses, Antiochus, Mithridates, Tigranes, and others. [64] To keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue--_Aliud clausum in pectore, aliud in lingua promptum, [Greek: Echthros gar moi keinos homos Aidao pulaesin. Os ch' eteron men keuthei eni phresin, allo de Bazei.] Who dares think one thing, and another tell, My heart detests him as the gates of hell. _Pope_. [65] XI. At first, however, it was ambition, rather than avarice, etc.--_Sed primo magis ambitio quam avaritia animos hominum exercebat_. Sallust has been accused of having made, in this passage, an assertion at variance with what he had said before (c.10), _Igitur primo pecuniae, deinde imperii cupido, crevit_, and it will be hard to prove that the accusation is not just. Sir H. Steuart, indeed, endeavors to reconcile the passages by giving them the following "meaning", which, he says, "seems perfectly evident": "Although avarice was the first to make its appearance at Rome, yet, after both had had existence, it was ambition that, of the two vices, laid the stronger hold on the minds of men, and more speedily grew to an inordinate height". To me, however, it "seems perfectly evident" that the Latin can be made to yield no such "meaning". "How these passages agree," says Rupertus, "I do not understand: unless we suppose that Sallust, by the word _primo_, does not always signify order". [66] Enervates whatever is manly in body or mind--_Corpus virilemque animum effaeminat_. That avarice weakens the mind, is generally admitted. But how does it weaken the body? The most satisfactory answer to this question is, in the opinion of Aulus Gellius (iii. 1), that those who are intent on getting riches devote themselves to sedentary pursuits, as those of usurers and money-changers, neglecting all such exercises and employments as strengthen the body. There is, however, another explanation by Valerius Probus, given in the same chapter of Aulus Gellius, which perhaps is the true one; namely, that Sallust, by _body and mind_, intended merely to signify _the whole man_. [67] Having recovered the government--_Receptâ republicâ_. Having wrested it from the hands of Marius and his party.