Urbs Venalis

A City for Sale

Sallustius, qui verba Iugurthae Romam relinquentis memoriae prodidit, eadem Washingtoniae audit.

Sallust, who recorded Jugurtha’s words as he left Rome, hears them again in Washington.

C. Sallustius Crispus

Historicus, praetorHistorian, praetor · RES PVBLICA

a.d. V Id. Oct. · MMDCCLXXIX a.u.c.

11 October 2026 · 1 minutae legendimin read

Urbs VenalisA City for Sale

Textus paragraphis congruitParagraphs aligned for learners

LATINEANGLICE

Iugurtha, cum Roma egrederetur, saepe eo tacitus respiciens postremo dixisse fertur: “Urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit!” Washingtoniae nunc emptores in vestibulis senatus stant, nomina sua in tabulis inscribunt, et legatos vocant.

As Jugurtha left Rome, he looked back at it several times in silence, and at last is said to have exclaimed: “A city for sale — and doomed to perish swiftly, if it ever finds a buyer!” In Washington the buyers now stand in the Senate’s own lobbies, write their names on the register, and call themselves “representatives”.

· FINIS ·

FONTES ANTIQVIANCIENT SOURCES

Sall. Iug. 35.10urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit.

FONTES HODIERNITODAY’S SOURCES

—Haec sententia ex ipsius ingenio, non ex nuntio singulari.This piece reflects on the times rather than a single report.

Res ex fontibus; sententia Romani.Facts from the sources; the opinion is the Roman’s.

C. Sallustius Crispus

86–35 a.C.n.86–35 B.C. · Pecunia · HistoriaeMoney · Histories

Avaritiam et ambitionem tamquam morbos rei publicae descripsit — ipse, ut aiunt, provinciae spoliis ditatus. Stilo brevi, antiquo, acri.He diagnosed greed and ambition as the twin diseases of the Republic — having, people say, grown rich himself on a plundered province. Terse, archaic, merciless prose.

Haec vox restituta est ex his libris:This voice is reconstructed from:

Bellum CatilinaeBellum IugurthinumHistoriae (fragm.)

Omnia scripta →Everything by this writer →