5
I am about to relate the war which the Roman people carried on with Jugurtha, King of the Numidians; first, because it was great, sanguinary, and of varied fortune; and secondly, because then, for the first time, opposition was offered to the power of the nobility; a contest which threw every thing, religious and civil, into confusion,V. Threw every thing, religious and civil into confusion] Divina et humana cuncta permiscuit. "All things, both divine and human, were so changed, that their previous condition was entirely subverted."Dietsch. and was carried to such a height of madness, that nothing but war, and the devastation of Italy, could put an end to civil dissensions.Civil dissensions] Studiis civilibus. This is the sense in which most commentators take studia; and if this be right, the whole phrase must be understood as I have rendered it. So Cortius; "Ut non prius finirentur [studio civilia] nisi bello et vastitate Italiæ." Sallust has studia paratium, Jug c. 42; and Gerlach quotes from Cic. pro Marcell. c. 10: "Non enim consiliis solis et studiis, sed armis etiam et castris dissidebamus." But before I fairly commence my narrative, I will take a review of a few preceding particulars, in order that the whole subject may be more clearly and distinctly understood.