1 XXXVII. Endeavor to exalt the factious] “Malos extollunt.” They strive to elevate into office those who resemble themselves.
2 Poverty does not easily suffer loss] “Egestas facilè habetur sine damno” He that has nothing, has nothing to lose. Petron. Sat., c. 119: Inops audacia tuta est.
3 Had become disaffected] “Præceps abierat.” Had grown demoralized, sunk in corruption, and ready to join in any plots against the state. So Sallust says of Sempronia, præceps abierat, c. 25.
4 In the first place] “Primum omnium.” "These words refer, not to item and postremo in the same sentence, but to deinde at the commencement of the next." Bernouf.
5 Civil rights had been curtailed] “Jus libertatis imminutum erat.” " Sylla, by one of his laws, had rendered the children of proscribed persons incapable of holding any public office; a law unjust, indeed, but which, having been established and acted upon for more than twenty years, could not be rescinded without inconvenience to the government. Cicero, accordingly, opposed the attempts which were made, in his consulship, to remove this restriction, as he himself states in his Oration against Piso, c. 2." Bernouf. See Vell. Paterc., ii., 28; Plutarch, Vit. Syll.; Quintil., xi. 1, where a fragment of Cicero's speech, De Proscriptorum Liberis, is preserved. This law of Sylla was at length abrogated by Julius Cæsar, Suet. J. Cæs. 41; Plutarch Vit. Cæs.; Dio Cass., xli. 18.
6 This was an evil--to the extent to which it now prevailed] “Id adeò malum multos post annos in civitatem reverterat.” "Adeo," says Cortius, "is particular elegantissima." Allen makes it equivalent to eò usque.
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