Quintus recently sent me a review copy of his translation of Sallust's
Conspiracy of Catiline and the War of Jugurtha. Both chronic held during a
turbulent period in Rome history. It was a time when the glories of
imperialism abroad have led to new social tensions at home. The republican
constitution, long the cornerstone of Roman society was awash in greed and
jealousy of a senatorial elite consumed by the new wealth and luxury that
he had harvested.
Sallust harshly criticized this process and nobility. They reproach the
fracture of the republic and its descent into civil war, and it reflects
both the conspiracy of Catiline and the War of Jugurtha.
Several speeches, Memmius and Marius sounds particularly if contemporary
one would be forgiven for thinking that they are living people lambasting
marshes Washington. During the attack of the Roman elite and willful
misconduct of the war against Jugurtha, Marius and said:
My friends, look me & # 8211; a new man & # 8211; with these arrogant
nobles. What they are accustomed to hear or read, I saw either first hand
or I did. They gathered in the books I taught myself while serving as a
soldier. Now see if you believe that the shares are worth more than words.
They make fun of my common origins, and I their worthlessness. Before me
lies my own destiny; before the lies their disgrace. I think there is a
universal for all men, and the brave has the best pedigree. And if the
fathers of Albinus and Bestia may wonder if they would have generated me or
them, what do you think their answer would be if they really wanted the
best offspring?
If by law, they look down on me, let them also on their own ancestors whose
nobility was based, like mine, on male virtue. They appreciate my occupies
the consulship: let them want my job, my integrity, and the dangers I
risked! For it is these things that I got my office. Men really corrupted
by arrogance live like this; It's like they think nothing of your honors.
But they seek these honors still, as if they lived an honorable life.
Delirious are people who expect these two completely different things are
equal: the idleness of the delights and rewards of virtue. And when they
give speeches in the Senate or in you, they offer mostly orations praising
their ancestors. They believe bravest recalling such famous exploits. But
it is just the opposite. More distinguished their ancestors lives are more
pathetic their own indolence.
If there's a more caustic polemic that can describe our time, I'm not sure
where he is.
Quintus has worked hard on his translation to burn Salluste English
language as brilliantly as in ancient Latin in which he composed. And
although Salluste controversies are reading, are still more exhortations to
virtue in men. As he says at the beginning:
All men who want to be better than the animals must exercise themselves
with the greatest efforts, lest they spend their lives in silence as if
they were beasts of burden, that nature be prostrate conditioning and
subservient to their stomachs. All our powers are in our minds and bodies;
we use the mind for more control and body to the service. One of them we
have in common with the gods, the other with the wild beasts. To me it
seems more appropriate to seek glory by its nature and by the efforts of
naked force and from that life that we enjoy is so short, fashionable
inheritance for ourselves which is so durable as possible. For the glory
derived from wealth and appearance is fleeting and fragile, but the male is
under pure and eternal.
These are the words that sum up why Quintus worked so hard to translate
Sallust and Cicero, and why the classics are so important to recover.
Classics against Moderns
Ancient historians such as Sallust, Livy and Plutarch, have sought to
instill in their readers with lessons about courage and virtue. This is a
stark contrast to today's educational system, which largely aims to cram
students with as many facts as possible (most of which they forget anyway)
and then teach them to hate or to see themselves as victims side.
For the ancient historians, the inculcation of good character was just as
important as understanding the facts. This can certainly biased coverage,
but even Thucydides, the more modern background of ancient historians, said
early in his great history that the events he wrote was unprecedented, and
that his work was not designed to satisfy the taste of an immediate public,
but was done to last forever & # 8221.
Thucydides account is full of lessons of characters provided in the case of
Pericles and the notorious and destructive arrogance of Alcibiades, who
defended the Sicilian expedition misguided that crushed the power of
Athens. The Peloponnesian War was so remarkable and so large in the mind of
Thucydides, he thought that it is crucial for the education of future
generations of men.
These kinds of courses are too detached from modern education. As Quintus
wrote early in his translation of Sallust, the classics had already been
given a central place in education, but has plummeted since the mid-20th
century, and I don t think it's coincidence that since then we have
witnessed such phenomena as the sex of the children required bending and
the invasion of Europe invited.
A civilization that has lost touch with its past and does not pride himself
or his people the courage to embrace all kinds of strange ideas,
destructive, a phenomenon with which Sallust himself was all too familiar:
But when the republic increased by work and the application of justice, and
great kings had been submitted in time of war; when the barbarian peoples
and powerful nations have been brought to heel; and when Carthage, jealous
of the Roman Empire, was destroyed from top to bottom and every land and
sea opened; then, finally, fortune began to evacuate its disfavor and
everything started to become turbulent. Those who easily carried the work,
danger, insecurity and bitterness now found that leisure and wealth - so
desirable in certain situations - were rather a burden and a source of
unhappiness. So, first the love of money has increased, and the love of
power as well; these things were basically the building blocks of all
evils. Greed toppled honesty, good faith, and other positive virtues; in
their place, he fed arrogance, cruelty, neglect of religious duty, and the
idea that everything could be bought for a price.
Worldly ambition forced many to become deceitful: to have a feeling in the
heart yet ready to different language, making friends and enemies not on an
objective basis, but on an estimate of the monetary convenience; and show a
good face rather than a good character. These trends have grown gradually
from time to time be punished. Thereafter, when the infection spread like a
contagion, the state has been transformed, and a government that was among
the most fair and strong has become unbearable and inhuman.
Return of the Kings has recently made a post on moral relativism,
foundation of modern leftist thinking. It should come as no surprise that
classical decreased in education, moral relativism has increased. Cicero,
whose rights were a school standard text and recently translated Quintus,
moral relativism expected in some respects, and has an intelligent decision
on it:
When an open crack in the earth after a series of rain, Gyges went down
into it. There he found the body of a dead man of enormous proportions,
with a gold ring on his finger. He removed the ring and put it on her
finger. When he turned the ring into the palm of his hand, he was seen by
anyone, while he himself was able to see everything. When he turned the
ring to its original position, he again could be seen by others.
Thus, taking advantage of the opportunity created by this magic ring, he
seduced the Queen of Lydia, and with it, as his accomplice, murdered the
king of this country. He destroyed everyone he thought might oppose it, and
there was someone who could see him as he went about the crimes. Thus, with
the unexpected help of the ring, he rose to become king of Lydia. If a wise
man had such a ring, he would not think he could commit crimes if he had
not. For moral and not the secret goodness for evil deeds is that good men
seek.
Therein lies the power of the concept of magic ring and this little fable:
if no one was able to know or suspect when you do something for the sake of
wealth, power, domination, or sensual pleasure and if such action could
never be hidden gods and men, would you do it?
Presentation of this little thought experiment is like torture for [the
skeptics]. If they say they could indeed commit an act badly with impunity
(that is, do what is most advantageous for them), they basically admit they
have bad characters. But if they deny they might commit a bad undetected
action, they are, in effect, admitting that all, without exception, should
be avoided morally wrong things.
Cicero as consul Catiline indicts before the Senate. What he failed to
understand is that Catiline was a symptom of a failed system.
With texts like this now out of school, it's little wonder that the
imagination has replaced reality that hysteria and censorship has replaced
the debate, and that the feelings of the participating groups for victims
Olympics have replaced the rights and obligations of free citizens in a
republic with a common heritage, character and identity. It is also little
wonder that a generation of freaks androgynous was raised before us and
welcomes their own invasion and overthrow.
I can t be sure, but I think it was largely because I was exposed to
classical a bit like a teenager, I avoided the fate of so many others of my
generation. It is long time that these texts and authors are reintroduced
as one of the foundations of a young man's education. Quintus did a good
job in this area, and I recommend translations such as Sallust.
Read more: Why men should read the works of Sallust
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