Sallust
For the philosopher, see Sallustius.Gaius Sallustius Crispus, simply known as
Sallust, (
86-
34 BC). He was a
Roman historian, belonging to a well-known
plebeian family, and was born at
Amiternum in the country of the
Sabines.
After an ill-spent youth he entered public life, and was elected tribune of the people in
52, the year in which
Clodius was killed in a street brawl by the followers of
Milo. Sallust was opposed to Milo and to
Pompey's party and to the old aristocracy of Rome.
From the first he was a decided partisan of
Caesar, to whom he owed such political advancement as he attained. In
50 he was removed from the senate by the censor
Appius Claudius Pulcher on the grounds of gross immorality, the real reason probably being his friendship for Caesar. In the following year, no doubt through Caesar's influence, he was reinstated and appointed
quaestor.
In
46 he was
praetor and accompanied Caesar in his African campaign, which ended in the decisive defeat of the remains of the Pompeian war party at
Thapsus. As a reward for his services, Sallust was appointed governor of the province of Africa Nova. In this capacity he was guilty of such oppression and extortion that only the influence of Caesar enabled him to escape condemnation. On his return to Rome he purchased and begun laying out in great splendour the famous gardens on the
Quirinal known as the
Horti Sallustiani or
Gardens of Sallust.
He then retired from public life and devoted himself to historical literature, and further developing his
Gardens of Sallust upon which he spent much of his accumulated wealth.
His account of the
Catiline conspiracy (
De coniuratione Catilinae or
Bellum Catilinae) and of the
Jugurthine War (
Bellum Jugurthinum) have come down to us complete, together with fragments of his larger and most important work (
Historiae), a history of Rome from
78-
67 BC, intended as a continuation of
Cornelius Sisenna's work.
The Conspiracy of Catiline
The Conspiracy of Catiline (his first published work) contains the history of the memorable year
63. Sallust adopts the usually accepted view of
Catiline, and describes him as the deliberate foe of law, order and morality, and does not give a comprehensive explanation of his views and intentions. Catiline, it must be remembered, had supported the party of
Sulla, to which Sallust was opposed. There may be truth in
Mommsen's suggestion that he was particularly anxious to clear his patron Caesar of all complicity in the conspiracy.
In writing about the Conspiracy of Catiline, Sallust's tone, style, and descriptions of aristocratic behavior show that he was deeply troubled by the moral decline of Rome. While he inveighs against Catiline's depraved character and vicious actions, he does not fail to state that the man had many noble traits, indeed all that a Roman man needed to succeed.
This subject gave him the opportunity of showing off his
rhetoric at the expense of the old Roman aristocracy, whose degeneracy he delighted to paint in the blackest colours. On the whole, he is not unfair towards
Cicero.
Jugurthine War
Sallust's
Jugurthine War, again, though a valuable and interesting monograph, many consider it an unsatisfactory performance. We may assume that he had collected materials and put together notes for it during his governorship of
Numidia. Here, too, he dwells upon the feebleness of the senate and aristocracy, too often in a tiresome, moralizing and philosophizing vein, but as a military history the work is unsatisfactory in the matter of geographical and chronological details.
Other works
The extant fragments of the
Histories (some discovered in
1886) are enough to show the political partisan, who took a keen pleasure in describing the reaction against the dictator's policy and legislation after his death. The loss of the work is to be regretted, as it must have thrown much light on a very eventful period, embracing the war against
Sertorius, the campaigns of
Lucullus against
Mithradates VI of Pontus, and the victories of the great
Pompey in the East.
Two letters (
Duae epistolae de republica ordinanda), letters of political counsel and advice addressed to Caesar, and an attack upon Cicero (
Invectiva or
Declamatio in Ciceronem), frequently attributed to Sallust, are probably the work of a rhetorician of the first century AD, also the author of a counter-invective by Cicero.
On the whole the verdict of antiquity was favourable to Sallust as an historian. Sallust is highly spoken of by
Tacitus (
Annals, iii. 30); and
Quintilian (ii. 5, x. i), who regards him as superior to
Livy, and does not hesitate to put him on a level with
Thucydides.
He struck out for himself practically a new line in literature, his predecessors having been little better than mere dry-as-dust chroniclers, whereas he endeavoured to explain the connection and meaning of events, and was a successful delineator of character. The contrast between his early life and the high moral tone adopted by him in his writings was frequently made a subject of reproach against him, but there is no reason why he should not have reformed.
In any case, his knowledge of his own former weaknesses may have led him to take a pessimistic view of the morality of his fellow-men, and to judge them severely. His model was Thucydides, whom he imitated in his truthfulness and impartiality, in the introduction of philosophizing reflections and speeches, and in the brevity of his style, sometimes bordering upon obscurity. His fondness for old words and phrases, in which he imitated his contemporary
Cato the younger, was ridiculed as an affectation; but it was just this affectation and his rhetorical exaggerations that made Sallust a favourite author in the
2nd century and later.
*
Free ebook of Sallust at
Project Gutenberg*
Sallust Quotes.
*
Sallust's works in Latin:
Bellum Catilinae,
Bellum Iugurthinum,
Fragmenta Historiarum,
Epistolae ad Caesarem and
Invectiva in Ciceronem', the last of uncertain authorship but sometimes attributed to Sallust.
*Online English and Latin editions of The Catilinarian Conspiracy
.
*Sallust's Conspiracy of Catiline
in both English and Latin in an easy to read HTML format.
*Online English and Latin editions of The Jugurthine War
.
* The Gardens of Sallust'', a new book
*
The Gardens of Sallut, a description
