Sallust's Bellum Catilinae:
A New English Translation
with text, translation, and commentary
by E.H. Campbell
© E. H. Campbell 2007
All Rights Reserved
Foreword
Although this translation of Sallust's Bellum Catilinae is as yet an unfinish work, and there as yet remains not only some errata but also some difficult passages, I have determined to externalize this piece now in accordance with the demands of Time, Fortune, and Necessity. I hope the reader will keep in mind that this is a first draft and that since the Commentary to the text of the Bellum Catilinae is incomplete at this time, the Notebooks shall serve in leiu of a complete commentary. It is also my intention to render a complete translation and commentary to Cicero's In Catilinam I-IV and that the two of these works be included into Discontents at Rome : 63 B.C. Which I hope someday to complete. But because of a serious lack of resources and time, the reader for the time being will be compelled to accept this work as is.
It has been my intention neither to lead the reader to believe that the translations of the great Hellenists and Latinists of Oxford and Harvard are wholly inadequate nor that they beyond reproach; nor have I intended to lead the reader to believe that one rendering of these works into English is altogether much better than all others and, on account of that, to be relied upon alone. Ezra Pound said somewhere that every generation requires a new translation. But there is more to it than this: it is necessary for the student to become acquainted with the translations both of the old and of the new, and, consequently, I believe that one should familiarize oneself with as many of these translators, textual critics, and commentators as they have time for, not just with one work alone. Many of the standard translations are quite good, some hoever as not quite so good as the others.
The work done by the English grammarians, authenticating texts, translating the Greek and Latin library, codifying Greek and Latin grammar, and certifying the Latin and Greek dictionaries and lexicon, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries c.1885-1925, should not however be underestimated and are indubitably of singular importance to the history of Western thought. But we must at this time in history now ask: How is it that these works, particularly the Bellum Catilinae, which were once of such grand importance that countless scholars, the best and the brightest of western civilization, who were employed for well neigh forty years standardizing this library, have all but vanished from American higher education? The loss of this enormous amount of dedication, this wisdom of inestimable value, the energy and resources of those scholars now demands a rational account and its recompense. I offer this translation with the sincere hope that it may ignite an academic movement for the serious study of the Latin authors, especially the Latin historians, and primarily this work by Sallust.
I must confess, however, that J. C. Rolf's translation of the Bellum Catilinae has not suited my purposes. Indeed, in his translation of the Bellum Catilinae, he took, in my opinion, far too many liberties with respect to the exactness of grammar and syntax; though the gist of what it says in Latin truly is there, and indubitably I could not have achieved what I have achieved with out his work being ahead of me, indeed I often relied on it for the gist of Sallust; but it did not have the precision that I have required. And on account of the fact that I seldom agreed with his translation, and therefore would not render Sallust's epigrams among my own words in the manner that he chose; I concluded that a complete translation of the Bellum Catilinae by my own hand was necessary.
Edward H. Campbell,
Olympia Washington,
May 13, 2008.
Although this translation of Sallust's Bellum Catilinae is as yet an unfinish work, and there as yet remains not only some errata but also some difficult passages, I have determined to externalize this piece now in accordance with the demands of Time, Fortune, and Necessity. I hope the reader will keep in mind that this is a first draft and that since the Commentary to the text of the Bellum Catilinae is incomplete at this time, the Notebooks shall serve in leiu of a complete commentary. It is also my intention to render a complete translation and commentary to Cicero's In Catilinam I-IV and that the two of these works be included into Discontents at Rome : 63 B.C. Which I hope someday to complete. But because of a serious lack of resources and time, the reader for the time being will be compelled to accept this work as is.
It has been my intention neither to lead the reader to believe that the translations of the great Hellenists and Latinists of Oxford and Harvard are wholly inadequate nor that they beyond reproach; nor have I intended to lead the reader to believe that one rendering of these works into English is altogether much better than all others and, on account of that, to be relied upon alone. Ezra Pound said somewhere that every generation requires a new translation. But there is more to it than this: it is necessary for the student to become acquainted with the translations both of the old and of the new, and, consequently, I believe that one should familiarize oneself with as many of these translators, textual critics, and commentators as they have time for, not just with one work alone. Many of the standard translations are quite good, some hoever as not quite so good as the others.
The work done by the English grammarians, authenticating texts, translating the Greek and Latin library, codifying Greek and Latin grammar, and certifying the Latin and Greek dictionaries and lexicon, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries c.1885-1925, should not however be underestimated and are indubitably of singular importance to the history of Western thought. But we must at this time in history now ask: How is it that these works, particularly the Bellum Catilinae, which were once of such grand importance that countless scholars, the best and the brightest of western civilization, who were employed for well neigh forty years standardizing this library, have all but vanished from American higher education? The loss of this enormous amount of dedication, this wisdom of inestimable value, the energy and resources of those scholars now demands a rational account and its recompense. I offer this translation with the sincere hope that it may ignite an academic movement for the serious study of the Latin authors, especially the Latin historians, and primarily this work by Sallust.
I must confess, however, that J. C. Rolf's translation of the Bellum Catilinae has not suited my purposes. Indeed, in his translation of the Bellum Catilinae, he took, in my opinion, far too many liberties with respect to the exactness of grammar and syntax; though the gist of what it says in Latin truly is there, and indubitably I could not have achieved what I have achieved with out his work being ahead of me, indeed I often relied on it for the gist of Sallust; but it did not have the precision that I have required. And on account of the fact that I seldom agreed with his translation, and therefore would not render Sallust's epigrams among my own words in the manner that he chose; I concluded that a complete translation of the Bellum Catilinae by my own hand was necessary.
Edward H. Campbell,
Olympia Washington,
May 13, 2008.
notebook5.bellum.catilinae.pdf
download PDF (6.4 MB)
notebook6.bellum.catilinae.14april08.pdf
download PDF (6.0 MB)
notebook7.bellum.catilinae.20april08.pdf
download PDF (13.3 MB)
notebook8.bellum.catilinae.4may08.pdf
download PDF (9.2 MB)