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When he arrived in Africa, the command of the army was resigned to him by Albinus, the proconsul;1 but it was an army spiritless and unwarlike; incapable of encountering either danger or fatigue; more ready with the tongue than with the sword; accustomed to plunder our allies, while itself was the prey of the enemy; unchecked by discipline, and void of all regard to its character. The new general, accordingly, felt more anxiety from the corrupt morals of the men, than confidence or hope from their numbers. He determined, however, though the delay of the comitia had shortened his summer campaign, and though he knew his countrymen to be anxious for the result of his proceedings, not to commence operations, until, by a revival of the old discipline, he had brought the soldiers to bear fatigue. For Albinus, dispirited by the disaster of his brother Aulus and his army, and having resolved not to leave the province during the portion of the summer that he was to command, had kept the soldiers, for the most part, in a stationary camp,2 except when stench, or want of forage, obiged them to remove. But neither had the camp been fortified,3 nor the watches kept, according to military usage; every one had been allowed to leave his post when he pleased. The camp-followers, mingled with the soldiers, wandered about day and night, ravaging the country, robbing the houses, and vying with each other in carrying off cattle and slaves, which they exchanged with traders for foreign wine4 and other luxuries; they even sold the corn, which was given them from the public store, and bought bread from day to day; and, in a word, whatever abominations, arising from idleness and licentiousness, can be expressed or imagined, and even more, were to be seen in that army.
1 XLIV. By Spurius Albinus, the proconsul.] “A Spurio Albino proconsule.” This is the general reading. Cortius has, Spurii Albini pro consule, with which we may understand agentis or imperantis, but can hardly believe it to be what Sallust wrote. Kritzius reads, Spurii Albini proconsulis.
2 In a stationary camp] “Stativis castris.” In contradistinction to that which the soldiers formed at the end of a day's march.
3 But neither had the camp been fortified, etc.] “Sed neque muniebantur ea” (sc. castra), neque more militari vigiliæ deducebantur. “"The words sed neque muniebantur ea are wanting in almost all the manuscripts, as well as in all the editions, except that of Cyprianus Popma."” Kritzius. Gerlach, however had, previously to Kritz, inserted them in his text though in brackets; for he supposed them to be a mere conjecture of some scribe, who was not satisfied with a single neque. But they have been found in a codex of Fronto, by Angelo Mai, and have accordingly been received as genuine by Kritz and Dietsch. Potter and Burnouf have omitted the ea, thinking, I suppose, that in such a position it could hardly be Sallust's; but the verb requires a nominative case to prevent it from being referred to the following vigiliœ.
4 Foreign wine] “Vino advectitio” Imported. Africa does not abound in wine.
Sallust. The Jugurthine War. Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A. New York and London. Harper & Brothers. 1899.
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