Bellum Catilinae 61

Cat. 61.1Sed cōnfectō proeliō, tum vērō cernerēs, quanta audācia quantaque animī vīs fuisset in exercitū Catilīnae.

But when the battle was over, then indeed you could have seen how great the daring and how great the strength of spirit had been in Catiline's army.

Note. cernerēs: imperfect subjunctive of the generalising 'you': 'you could have seen'. The battle was fought early in 62 BC.

Cat. 61.2Nam ferē quem quisque vīvos pugnandō locum cēperat, eum āmissā animā corpore tegēbat.

For nearly every man covered with his body, once life was gone, the place he had taken by fighting while alive.

Note. quem quisque … locum cēperat, eum … tegēbat: the antecedent locum is drawn into the relative clause. vīvos: older spelling of vīvus, nominative singular.

Cat. 61.3Paucī autem, quōs mediōs cohors praetōria disiēcerat, paulō dīvorsius, sed omnēs tamen advorsīs volneribus conciderant.

A few, however, whom the praetorian cohort had scattered in the middle, had fallen a little apart from the rest, but all of them still with their wounds in front.

Note. advorsīs volneribus: 'with wounds in front', the sign that they died facing the enemy. volnus is the older spelling of vulnus.

Cat. 61.4Catilīna vērō longē ā suīs inter hostium cadāvera repertus est, paululum etiam spīrāns ferōciamque animī, quam habuerat vīvos, in voltū retinēns.

Catiline indeed was found far from his own men among the bodies of the enemy, still breathing a little and keeping on his face the fierceness of spirit he had had while alive.

Cat. 61.5Postrēmō ex omnī cōpiā neque in proeliō neque in fugā quisquam cīvis ingenuos captus est: ita cūnctī suae hostiumque vītae iūxtā pepercerant.

Finally, out of the whole force not a single freeborn citizen was taken, either in the battle or in flight: so little had they all spared their own lives or the enemy's.

Note. ingenuos: nominative singular (= ingenuus), 'freeborn'. suae hostiumque vītae iūxtā pepercerant: 'they had spared their own lives and the enemy's equally (little)', an ironic understatement.

Cat. 61.7Neque tamen exercitus populī Rōmānī laetam aut incruentam victōriam adeptus erat.

Yet the army of the Roman people had not won a happy or bloodless victory either.

Cat. 61.7Nam strēnuissumus quisque aut occiderat in proeliō aut graviter volnerātus discesserat.

For all the most energetic men had either fallen in battle or left it badly wounded.

Cat. 61.8Multī autem, quī ē castrīs vīsundī aut spoliandī grātiā prōcesserant, volventēs hostīlia cadāvera amīcum aliī, pars hospitem aut cognātum reperiēbant;

Many, moreover, who had come out of the camp to look or to plunder, as they turned over the enemy's bodies, found some a friend, others a guest-friend or a relative;

Note. vīsundī: gerund of vīsō, 'to look', with the older -und- form. amīcum aliī, pars hospitem: 'some … others', a deliberate variation instead of aliī … aliī.

Cat. 61.8fuēre item quī inimīcōs suōs cognōscerent.

there were also some who recognised their personal enemies.

Cat. 61.9Ita variē per omnem exercitum laetitia, maeror, lūctus atque gaudia agitābantur.

So, in different ways, joy and sorrow, grief and gladness ran through the whole army.

Note. Sallust ends the monograph on the cost of civil war: victory and grief run through the same army.