[54] _Brevi_, 'in a short time.'
[55] _Incesserat_; supply _in eos_ or _iis_, referring to _cives_,
implied in the preceding _civitas_.
[56] _Habebant_ should have been _habebat_, since _discebat_ precedes.
But see Zumpt, S 366.
[57] _Labos_, a rarer form for _labor_, as _honos_ and _lepos_, which are
even more frequently found than _honor_ and _lepor_.
[58] _Eas_ agrees with _divitias_, though in English we say, in such
cases, 'This,' or 'these things they considered as riches.' See
Zumpt, S 372.

8. Sed profecto fortuna in omni re dominatur; ea res cunctas ex libidine
magis quam ex vero celebrat obscuratque. Atheniensium res gestae, sicuti
ego aestimo, satis amplae magnificaeque fuere, verum aliquanto[59]
minores tamen quam fama feruntur. Sed quia provenere ibi scriptorum magna
ingenia, per terrarum orbem Atheniensium facta pro maximis[60]
celebrantur. Ita eorum, qui ea fecere, virtus tanta habetur, quantum ea
verbis potuere extollere praeclara ingenia. At populo Romano nunquam ea
copia fuit, quia prudentissimus quisque maxime negotiosus erat;[61]
ingenium nemo sine corpore exercebat; optimus quisque facere quam dicere,
sua ab aliis bene facta laudari quam ipse aliorum narrare malebat.

[59] _Aliquanto_, 'by a considerable amount,' or simply 'considerably,'
is the ablative, expressing the amount of difference between two
things compared. Sallust here considers it to be a mere matter
of chance that the wars of the early Romans, as those against the
Volscians, Aequians, Etruscans, and Samnites, do not stand forth
in history as glorious as the wars of the Greek nations among
themselves, and against the Persians. To us it appears that this was
not a matter of chance; but it undoubtedly arose from the fact,