Sarrastes populos." _Cortius_.

[17] Without covetousness--Sine cupiditate_. "As in the famous
golden age. See Tacit. Ann. iii. 28." _Cortius_. See also Ovid. Met.
i. 80, _seq_. But "such times were never," as Cowper says.

[18] But after Cyrus in Asia, etc.--_Postea vero quam in, Asia
Cyrus_, etc. Sallust writes as if he had supposed that kings were more
moderate before the time of Cyrus. But this can hardly have been the
case. "The Romans," says De Brosses, whose words I abridge, "though
not learned in antiquity, could not have been ignorant that there were
great conquerors before Cyrus; as Ninus and Sesostris. But as their
reigns belonged rather to the fabulous ages, Sallust, in entering upon
a serious history, wished to confine himself to what was certain, and
went no further back than the records of Herodotus and Thucydides."
Ninus, says Justin. i. 1, was the first to change, through inordinate
ambition, the _veterem et quasi avitum gentibus morem_, that is, to
break through the settled restraints of law and order. Gerlach agrees
in opinion with De Brosses.

[19] Proof and experience--_Periculo atque negotiis_. Gronovius
rightly interprets _periculo_ "experiundo, experimentis," by
experiment or trial. Cortius takes _periculo atque negotiis_ for
_periculosis negotiis_, by hendyadys; but to this figure, as Kritzius
remarks, we ought but sparingly to have recourse. It is better, he
adds, to take the words in their ordinary signification, understanding
by _negotia_ "res graviores." Bernouf judiciously explains _negotiis_
by "ipsa negotiorum tractatione," _i. e._ by the management of affairs,
or by experience in affairs. Dureau Delamalle, the French translator,
has "l'experience et la pratique." Mair has "trial and experience."