Please read the Introduction to Sallust's War with Jugurtha. Pick out what you consider to be the most important/most interesting line from this selection. If other students have chosen a different line, explain why *your* line is even more important or more interesting.As an alternative, pick out the line from Sallust you consider the worst, or the least interesting. If other students have chosen a different line, explain why your line is even worse or less interesting.
The quote I have chosen is the following:
ReplyDelete"Of course they did not mean to imply that the wax or the effigy had any such power over them, but rather that it is the memory of great deeds that kindles in the breasts of noble men this flame that cannot be quelled until they by their own prowess have equalled the fame and glory of their forefathers."
For many, this is simply a case of worship, of being so proud in one's ancestors that they want to make those ancestors proud with their modern day achievements. For this, they would be commendable.
However, there is the other hand in the situation, the case of greed and envy. Oftentimes, those who seek out to write their names in history are not seeking to do so for the betterment of those around them, but instead for the betterment of themselves.
They don't inherently want to help others, but they want the glory that may come with it that their ancestors may have, and still do, receive.
In a way, we still see this occur when it comes to people who record themselves doing a good deed - they want the glory that comes with being kind, but they have a malicious reason as to why they are doing it.
In my own opinion, some of the best known rulers and people who were written in history are there because they had nothing to gain by helping others, but chose to anyway.
That's why I find this so interesting; this is an issue that we continue to suffer from even today, echoing the past even if we are exponentially different in modern times.