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In judging of the respective merits of these two speeches, it is very difficult to be impartial. Galgacus was a patriot fighting for every thing that is justly dear to man; and he is made to address his followers in the language of virtue. Cataline was a conspirator of the blackest hue; and, though he talks of liberty and his country, he urges no such arguments to his adherents as can operate only on virtuous minds. Avarice, ambition and despair, are the topics from which he reasons; whilst the British Chief presents to his countrymen their wives and parents in the field, animating them to the contest, the success of which he hopes from the justice of their cause. The reader is therefore prejudiced in behalf of every thing which he is made to utter; though we must agree with Mr. Steuart, that there is more art displayed in the structure of Cataline's speech, and that the arguments employed are the very best that could be urged by such a leader, in such circumstances, and to such an audience.

Both translations are excellent; but Mr. Steuart's, though we will not positively say that it is the best, appears to us, perhaps, the most faithful picture of the original. Tacitus does not say that the Roman army consisted wholly of men, of whom it was doubtful whether they had a country. His words are-aut nulla PLERISQUE patria, aut alia est; whilst his meaning, towards the conclusion of the address, seems not to be accurately given in the version. Hic dux, hic exercitus ; ibi tributa, et metella, et cæteræ servientum pœnæ ; quas in æternum preferre, aut statim ulcisci, in hoc campo est, is not rendered with perfect accuracy by "In me behold your general; behold an army of free-born men. Your enemy is before you: and, in his train, heavy tributes, drudgery in the mines, and all the horrors of slavery. Are those calamities to be entailed upon us? or, shall this day relieve us by a brave revenge?" In Mr. Steuart's translation there are one or two superfluous clauses; but nothing which accords not exactly with the sense of his author, "Woe be to him who relies not on the vigour of his own arm," is the translation of nothing to be found in Sallust; and in the sentence-" our present difficulties, which have followed, are but too visible and apparent to you all;" the words which we have printed in italics would have been well omitted, though they certainly change not, in the smallest degree, the sense of the original author.

There is hardly any thing in the Greek and Roman classics, to which translators in general have done so little justice, as the descriptions of battles and sieges. This is to be accounted for by the circumstance, that those who employ themselves in the study of the classics, are seldom acquainted with the language of tactics, or the art of war; and hence such of them, as, like Blackwell, attempt to clothe the military part of the narrative in an appropriate dress, too often make themselves ridiculous. Murphy is indeed an exception; and so is Mr. Steuart, whose translation of the history of the battle near the

* See Johnson's review of this author's Memoirs of the Court of Augustus. Muthul

NO. XCIX. VOL, XXV.

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Muthul, between Jugurtha and Metellus, exhibits at once the scholar and the officer. After describing the Consul's march through Numidia, the ambush laid for him by Jugurtha, and the nature of the ground where that Prince expected the Romans to fall into his snare, the historian, as translated by our author, says

Meanwhile Metellus was seen descending from the heights, but withqut any notion of the intentions of the enemy, until he began to discover them upon the hill. At first he was doubtful what to think of the strange appearance (which) they exhibited. The Numidians lay close, and kept themselves and their horses behind the bushes; but by reason of the low. ness of the screen, they were neither fully dislpayed, nor entirely hid from the view. Neither arms nor colours were suffered to appear: but the rugged nature of the place, united to the artifice with which the whole was conducted, gave ample room for suspicion. The general was convinced that an ambush was intended, and halted on the spot. Resolving to alter the disposition of the troops, he instantly formed the line to the front, on the right division, that flank being next the enemy. The order (which) he chose was that of three lines, the first covered and supported by the two others. The slingers and archers were ordered into the intervals between the companies of foot; and all the cavalry posted on the wings. Having encouraged, the men by a concise speech, such as the nature of his situation, and the shortness of the time would permit, he commanded the whole to file off from the left, and marched down in column to the plain.

"As the army advanced in this order, all seemed quiet on the hill, the Numidians never once attempting to quit their station, Metellus, however, apprehended, on account of the heat of the season, and the scarcity of springs near the place, that the army would be distressed for want of water; Rutilius, therefore, his Lieutenant, was sent forward to the river, with the light cohorts, and a detachment of the cavalry, with orders to reconnoitre the ground, and secure a situation for forming an encampment. The enemy, it was probable, would not fail to retard the main body on their march, by frequently taking it in flank, or by galling it in the rear; and convinced of their inability to cope with the discipline of the Legions, they would attempt to wear them out by means of thirst and fatigue. The Consul continued to advance at a gentle pace, as the nature of his situation, and that of the ground required, and preserving the same disposition (that) he had made, on descending from the mountains. The centre was commanded by Marius. The general himself headed the cavalry of the left wing; which, as the line had broken from that flank into column, became, of course, the leading division on the march.

"Jugurtha, who lay in close ambush, no sooner saw that the rear of the Consul had cleared his left, than, detaching from his main body two thousand foot, he ordered them to take possession of that part of the heights just quitted by the Romans, by which means, if they gave ground, their retreat might be cut off from a situation for rallying to advantage. This previous movement being made, and the signal given for action, he suddenly rushed down and fell on the enemy.

The Numidians charged to the front, and cut off the rear files of our

army;

army some, rapidly wheeling about, skirmished, at once, with both the flanks. The attack was executed with astonishing spirit and intrepi dity, and our ranks thrown into disorder on every side. Even those who, on facing about, gave them the warmest reception, were harassed and fatigued by so desultory a mode of encounter; finding themselves wounded from a distance, and without an opportunity to return the blow, or to close with the assailants. According to instructions, which they had re ceived from Jugurtha, the horse well knew how to elude the efforts of the Roman cavalry; for when a troop of the latter attempted to charge, far from continuing at close order, or in a body, they suddenly broke, and dispersed in an instant, in all directions. As they could not, by that means, prevent a pursuit, they watched their opportunity, and, being superior in point of numbers, attacked us, in their turn, both in flank and rear. If in this flying sort of fight, the indefatigable Numidian chose the hill rather than the plain, his nimble horse was in his own element : he easily scrambled up the ascent, and disappeared among the bushes; while the Roman trooper, unused to a surface so rugged and intricate, was unable to follow him."

That this is a faithful translation, every scholar will be convinced, by comparing it with the original; and, we believe, every well-informed soldier will admit the propriety of the technical terms, which disgust not like Blackwell's Paymasters and Commodores! The account of the battle is rendered with equal elegance, and equal fidelity: whilst the whole is illustrated by a sketch of the ground, and the different positions of the two armies, which together with some remarks, by way of military commentary, the translator hopes will enable the reader distinctly to apprehend the movements of the troops. Part of this commentary we shall extract as a fair specimen of Dr. Steuart's notes; premising, however, that the extract is necessarily less perspicuous in our Journal than in the work itself, where it refers to the view which is given of the ground.

"Jugurtha, in consonance to his plan of keeping a watchful eye on the motions of the Roman General, had learned, by his scouts, that the enemy were on their march, along the mountains near the Muthul, and he seized that opportunity of attacking them to advantage. From the nature of such a country, and the information given us by the historian himself concerning Metellus's order of march, we know that he usually moved forward in a single column, himself at the head of it, with the light cohorts; Marius in the rear, commanding the Roman cavalry; with the Velites, or light infantry, under the charge of the Tribunes and Præfects, covering the flanks, and, as often as it was needful, scouring the country. These light cohorts seem to have been a select body, answering in description to our picquets. They were legionary soldiers, drawn, like the picquets, from the line, whether singly, or by Maniples, we are not informed; but with the general at their head, they appear to have acted as a sort of advanced-guard to the army, when on its march.

"When Metellus was about to descend from the heights, and began to observe the ambush that was prepared for him by the Numidians on he hill, be ordered a halt and, immediately changing the disposition of

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the

the troops, formed the line to the front, upon the right division, as that flank was next to the quarter where the Numidians were posted. Situated as he was, he had no desire to engage the enemy: he resolved only on making the best of his way across the plain to the river, to guard against an attack. For the single lengthened column Agmen), which was necessary to clear the defiles of the mountains, he now substituted the line of battle (Acies), drawing up the troops in the usual manner, in three lines (triplicibus subsidiis). He posted Marius in the centre: all the cavalry in the wings, and the slingers and archers in the intervals between the Maniples, or companies of foot of the line. He then ordered the whole to face, or perhaps to wheel, by centuries, or half centuries, to the left, and from that flank to march down (transvarsis principiis), in three columns to the plain : himself advancing with those squadrons of the cavalry, which now formed the head of the right column, and had, just before, been upon the left of the line. Thus, should the Numidians, as was expected, venture down from the hill, he would be enabled, by means of a single wheel' to the right, if the lines were broken into columns by divisions, or by turning to that side, if broken by files, instantly to form them again towards the enemy, and be ready to charge at a moment's notice. That he did wheel into line, to receive Jugurtha, is sufficiently evident from the historian's narrative; otherwise the Numidians could not have been, as he describes them, on the left of the Romans at the commencement of the affair: nor could the Consul have presented the same front to the enemy, as he had immediately formed, on discovering them upon the hill.

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"All this every officer will understand and he will further perceive the technical propriety of rendering the equites sinistra alæ, qui in agmine principes facti erant, by the cavalry of the left wing, which as the line had broken from that flank into column, became the leading division, on the march.'♪♪

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"Satisfactory as I trust these illustrations will appear, yet it must be acknowledged that Sallust's account of the attack, by the Numidian king, is not without its difficulties. He tells us, that Metellus's army was drawn up triplicibus subsidiis, which naturally should mean four lines,' that is, three lines stationed behind the first; whereas, our knowledge of the ancient tactics must satisfy us, that no more than three, in all, could be intended by the author. There is no example, as far as I know, wherein the former number was ever adopted, as a system, in any of the engage. ments, described by Cæsar, Polybius, or Livy. The body, consisting of six cohorts, drawn up by Cæsar, behind the third line, at Pharsalia, and a few other instances of a similar sort, are partial cases, that do not affect the general principle, since we find them constantly accounted for (as in the instance of Cæsar, who meant to oppose the cavalry of Pompey), by the particular circumstances in which different commanders happened to be placed. The regular order of battle consisted of three lines, covering one another, seldom of two, and never of four; and Sallust, who gives, in considerable detail, the history of Jugurtha's attack, would, with his usual accuracy, have explained the circumstance, had there been so extraordinary a deviation from the established method. Subsidia, we uni formly find, is the word employed by the Roman writers, to designate the second and third lines. Even Livy, the most unscientific of them all,

in regard to military operations (witness his confused account of the constitution of the army, in L. viii. 8.) never deviates from the practice. In the same manner our author, in describing the disposition made by Cataline at Pistoria, consisting of two lines, says-Octo cohortes in fronte constituit, reliqua signa in subsidia ar&ius collocat.”

We are not tacticians enough to pronounce authoritatively on our author's reasoning; but since the army was, by his own confession, sometimes formed into four lines, when circumstances required it; is it not more probable that so concise, and, at the same time, so perspicuous a writer as Sallust, omitted the circumstances which induced Metellus to adopt such a form, than that he used the common words triplicis subsidiis in an uncommon Sense? Dr. Steuart strengthens his argument, however, by a luminous account of the constitution, and component parts of the Roman Acies; and concludes, that "the doubtful expression of Sallust may either be an error of the copyists, or a technical phrase, in fashion only at the time, but not adopted by other writers, whose compositions have come down to us."

From these extracts the reader will be enabled to judge for himself of Mr. Steuart's merits as a translator; and, if he think not very differently from us, he will estimate those merits high. We know not, indeed, any translator of a prose classic, whom we deem superior to our author, and very few, indeed, whom we can consider as his equals. By this we do not mean to say, that every sentence, and every clause of a sentence, have been either elegantly, or even faithfully, translated; but we do mean to say, that as a whole, the version is alinost without a rival. In the history of the Jugurthine war, which seems to have most delighted Dr. Steuart, as it most delights us, our attention was so completely arrested by the elegant detail of events, illustrated by the reflections both of the author and of the translator, that we were not at leisure to observe trifling inaccuracies; a few such, however, we did observe in the conspiracy of Cataline; and we shall point them out to Mr. Steuart's consideration, not as matters of importance, but as worthy of correction in a second edition.

In the following sentence (page 8), the clause, which is printed in italics, is certainly superfluous; whilst, in our opinion, it adds nothing to the harmony of the period. "Such being the manners and character of Cataline, it can excite no wonder, if, after the example of Sylla, he deeply fixed his wishes on the supreme power, and subverting the government." The subverting of the government was included in his wish to be possessed of the supreme power.

Though Nebuchadnezzar's herald "cried aloud to all people, nations, and languages," to worship the golden image which he had set up; and though the English bible is unquestionably one of the best translations from one language into another, that is any where to be found, we do not approve of the following use of the word languages, in a translation of Sallust. Hi, postquam in una mœnia convenere dispari genere, dissimili lingua, alius alio more viventes; incredibile memoratu est, quam facilè coaluerint, is not, in our opinion, well rendered

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