BELLUM CATILIN. CAP. 7.

style is more preferred. Furthermore, libido desire/lust, here, is to be delighted by some thing, or to have pleasure, as Cicero sometimes speaks. You see, however, that libido is an ambiguous word καὶ τῶν μέσων and of the middle sort, as it is permitted to use it in both a good and a bad sense. Rivius.

Had desire] He placed his zeal, he was delighted. For libido is a middle word: for it signifies not only evil, but also good will and desire: as we see here, and in the oration to C. Caesar On Organizing the Republic, where it is written thus: "But if you have a good desire, of gratifying the fatherland and parents." Cast.

Thus each one [prepared] to strike the enemy, to scale the wall] The particle thus is not in the Fabrician volume: yet it is in the others, as also in the Merseburg. What if you read, Each one himself? I suspect this from a certain manuscript; although I do not reject the former reading. Rivius.

Thus each one to strike the enemy] The first two words are absent from my book, nor are they necessary. Ciacconius. They are also absent from the Venerable Codex of Ursinus. Ursinus.

Thus each one] While the first words are absent from the codex of Ciacconius, and they ought to be absent, although even thus others do not guess well for this passage. The manuscript prefers to do facere instead of he might do faceret; let someone elicit: Thus each one to strike the enemy, to scale the wall, was preparing to do such a deed to be seen. Putachius.

Thus each one to strike the enemy] One did not wait for another to invade the enemy, but each one wanted to be the first, because no noble deed among the Romans was without a reward. Cast.

Was hastening to scale the wall] Each one wanted to be the first in besieging cities, who would scale the wall and obtain the mural crown. For the mural crown was given to those who had scaled the wall first. The Romans, in order to incite the minds of soldiers more toward noble deeds of war, and that their virtue might be more honored and testified, with a reward proposed, invented mural, obsidional, civic, naval, camp, and golden crowns, and other most ample types of honor: with which they were gifted, who first scaled the wall of a besieged city: or who had freed cities, camps, or armies from siege, and had saved a citizen. Manlius Capitolinus was the first to be gifted with the mural crown in the seventeenth year of his age. "The mural crown," says Gellius, "is that which is gifted by the Emperor to him who first approached the wall, and climbed into the enemy’s town by force; it is decorated, therefore, as if with the battlements of a wall." Zench.

Was hastening to be seen while he did such a deed] If it were permitted to my desire to remove anything, I would relegate those six words elsewhere; or certainly, the verb 'he might do' faceret; with 'was hastening' properabat changed into 'he might hasten' properaret: for in some manuscripts we see 'otherwise,' 'to hasten' properare; as also in the first editions. Gruterus.

Those riches, and that good fame] In the manuscripts, I found, those riches, that good fame: and no differently in the corrected printed editions, with that conjunction que and clearly omitted. Rivius.

They thought those riches, that good fame] In the oration On Organizing the Republic: "they might esteem that virtue and magnitude of spirit." Better in my book: they thought those riches, those good fame: thus below, chapter 51: "those peoples rejoice." Ciacconius: thus also Ursinus.

Avid of praise] Horace said no less aptly: "To the Greeks, apart from praise, no one is greedy:" and Q. Curtius, Book IX: "Avarice of glory, and insatiable desire of fame." Ciacconius.

They wanted honest riches] Thus in the oration On Organizing the Republic: "good arts, honest riches." The same.

I could recount, in what places the Roman people with a small band routed the greatest forces of the enemy] Thus below: "I knew many times that with a small band he had contended with great legions of the enemy..." The text ends with a catchword "conten-".