Sallust

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Sallust (86-ca. 35 B.C.), or Gaius Sallustius Crispus, was a Roman statesman and historian. Rejecting the annalistic method of writing history, he concentrated with improved accuracy and narrative technique on critical stages in the decline of the Roman Republic.

Sallust was born of plebeian stock in the small Sabine town of Amiternum. Joining the Popular faction, he was elected tribune of the people in 52 B.C. When Clodius was murdered by Milo, Sallust was instrumental in arousing public outrage against Milo. Sallust's motives probably went beyond loyalty to Clodius and certainty of Milo's guilt to revenge arising from the whipping Sallust endured for an adulterous relationship with Milo's wife. In 50 his immoral life and factionalism caused Sallust's name to be stricken from the senatorial roll.

With the outbreak of civil war in 49 B.C., Sallust joined Julius Caesar, who secured for him a quaestorship and command of a legion in the unsuccessful campaign against Pompey in Illyricum. Sallust continued to serve Caesar as praetor in Africa and was rewarded with a proconsular governorship of Numidia. Sallust plundered the province to amass his great wealth, but he either was not brought to trial or was acquitted. In 44 B.C. Sallust retired to Rome and the splendor of his residence, situated amid the famous Gardens of Sallust (Horti Sallustiani). The estate later was the residence of several Roman emperors. His last years were devoted to elegant leisure and the writing of history. He died in 35 or 34 B.C.

Sallust's first historical monograph, The Conspiracy of Catiline (De Catilinae coniuratione), was apparently published in 43 B.C. The work begins with a grave account of the moral decline of the Romans and narrates the career of Catiline with emphasis on the detection and suppression of the conspiracy. Despite Sallust's knowledge of the facts from personal experience and contemporary records, the work is more notable for brilliant speeches and character sketches.

The Jugurthine War (Bellum Iugurthinum), was published about 41 B.C. After a philosophical introduction and an account of the career of Jugurtha, Sallust narrates the war of the Romans against the Numidian king (111-106 B.C.). Sallust drew upon his own knowledge of Africa and literary sources which included translations of Punic documents, but he does falter on chronology and topography.

Probably after 39 B.C. Sallust composed his Histories (Historiae), in five books, devoted to the critical period from the death of Sulla in 78 B.C. to Pompey's rise to power in 67 B.C. Unfortunately, only fragments, including two letters and four speeches, survive.

Sallust was judged by Quintilian to rival Thucydides, and Martial ranked him as Rome's foremost historian. Some critics allege that Sallust's works are politically inspired in favor of Caesar. Whatever his biases may be, Sallust's avowed ambition was an impartial and trustworthy narrative. Rather than writing general or annalistic history, he deliberately selected subjects and portions of history on the basis of their interest and value. Like Thucydides, he fathoms character and motivation; thus his works are never dreary or monotonous but are dramatic, colorful, and concentrated. Sallust's polished, vigorous, and varied style shows a fondness for concise expression, neatly turned phrases, figurative language, archaisms, and colloquialisms.

Further Reading

Sallust, translated by John Carew Rolfe (1921), contains the major works. An excellent, incisive critique of Sallust, his work, and his cultural milieu is Ronald Syme's scholarly Sallust (1964). Also useful is D. C. Earl, The Political Thought of Sallust (1961). A brief but clear account of Sallust for the general reader is in Stephen Usher, The Historians of Greece and Rome (1970), which, since it reports the conclusions of modern scholarship, is more useful than the older works by J. B. Bury, The Ancient Greek Historians (1909), and Max Ludwig Wolfram Laistner, The Greater Roman Historians (1947).

Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus) (86–35 BC), Roman historian. He was born at Amiternum in the Sabine country, of a plebeian family. He was tribune of the plebs in 52 BC, when he acted against Cicero ((1) 4) and Milo. It is said that the hostility he showed to Milo after the murder of Clodius in that year was the result of his being horse-whipped by Milo when caught in the act of adultery with the latter's wife. He was expelled from the senate in 50 BC, perhaps for playing a part in fomenting the riots of 52. He then joined Julius Caesar, commanding a legion in 49. Elected praetor in 47 he became governor of the province of Numidia in 46, where he enriched himself considerably at the provincials' expense and was (unsuccessfully) charged with extortion upon his return to Rome. He became the owner of fine gardens, horti Sallustiāni, withdrew from public life, and devoted the rest of his life to writing historical monographs, the Bellum Catilīnae, Bellum Iugurthīnum (see CATILINE and JUGURTHA) and the Historiae of the period 78–67 BC (the years following the abdication of Sulla). The first two works and fragments of the third have survived.

Sallust's work shows an advance on his annalistic predecessors (see HISTORIOGRAPHY 2) both in narrative powers and in its more scientific method: he endeavours to explain the causes of political events and the motives for men's actions. His weaknesses lie in his vagueness and inaccuracy in chronological and geographical matters, and in his biased attitude to the popularēs and his hostility to the nobilēs, natural perhaps for a novus homo. Nevertheless he can recognize merit in political adversaries and faults in his own side. His characters, notably those of Jugurtha and Catiline, Marius, and Sulla, are vividly drawn. For his history of Catiline he must have relied heavily on Cicero ((1) 2) as well as his own recollections of events; for Jugurtha he used a variety of sources, including the autobiography of Sulla and the History of Sisenna; he had gathered information while in Africa and had had Punic documents translated. In selecting Catiline and Jugurtha as subjects he was influenced, as he says himself, by the striking and potentially dangerous nature of their actions. All his monographs have a common theme, namely the struggle of the populares, at successive stages, against the entrenched nobles. His principal models were Thucydides and the Elder Cato, his narrative enlivened by speeches (in the manner of Thucydides), letters, digressions, and character studies. His political thought is not profound but reflects an essentially Roman moralistic outlook, with emphasis on traditional virtus (‘virtue’), and a pessimistic attitude towards contemporary corruption. He furnishes us with the starting-point of the late republic, dating Rome's moral collapse from the return of Sulla's booty-laden troops from the East and their bloody seizure of Rome.

The ancient critics noted the characteristics of his style: the use of archaisms, brevity to the point of obscurity, innovative vocabulary, Graecisms, epigrams, rapidity. In these respects he influenced the style of later historical writers, notably Tacitus.

Quotes:

"To like and dislike the same things, this is what makes a solid friendship."

"It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will."

"He that will be angry for anything will be angry for nothing."

"We employ the mind to rule, the body to serve."

"Necessity makes even the timid brave."

"Those most moved to tears by every word of a preacher are generally weak and a rascal when the feelings evaporate."

See more famous quotes by Sallust

For the philosopher, see Sallustius; for other uses, see Sallust (disambiguation).

Gaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust, (86-34 BC), a Roman historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines. Throughout his career Sallust always stood by his principle as a popularis, an opposer of Pompey's party and the old aristocracy of Rome.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Works 2.1 The Conspiracy of Catiline 2.2 Jugurthine War 2.3 Other works 3 Significance 4 Footnotes 5 References 6 External links 6.1 Latin with English translation 6.2 Latin only 6.3 English translation only

Biography

After an ill-spent youth, Sallust entered public life and won election as Quaestor in 55 and one of the tribunes of the people in 52, the year in which the followers of Milo killed Clodius in a street brawl. Sallust then supported the following prosecution of Milo. He also had hostilities with the famous orator Cicero.

From the beginning of his public career, Sallust operated as a decided partisan of Caesar, to whom he owed such political advancement as he attained. In 50 the censor Appius Claudius Pulcher removed him from the Senate on the grounds of gross immorality (probably really because of his friendship with Caesar). In the following year, no doubt through Caesar's influence, he was reinstated.

In 46 he served as a 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 gained appointment as governor of the province of Africa Nova. In this capacity he committed such oppression and extortion that only the influence of Caesar enabled him to escape condemnation. On his return to Rome he purchased and began laying out in great splendour the famous gardens on the Quirinal known as the Horti Sallustiani or Gardens of Sallust. These gardens would later belong to the emperors.

Sallust 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.

Works

Sallust's account of the Catiline conspiracy (De coniuratione Catilinae or Bellum Catilinae) and of the Jugurthine War (Bellum Iugurthinum) 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 (Sallust's 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. (Note that Catiline had supported the party of Sulla, which Sallust had opposed.) Mommsen's suggestion — that Sallust particularly wished to clear his patron (Caesar) of all complicity in the conspiracy — may have contained some truth.

In writing about the conspiracy of Catiline, Sallust's tone, style, and descriptions of aristocratic behavior show him as 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. In particular, Sallust shows Catiline as deeply courageous in his final battle.

This subject gave Sallust 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.

Jugurthine War

Sallust's Jugurthine War is a brief monograph recording the war in Numidia c.112 B.C. Its true value lies in the introduction of Marius and Sulla to the Roman political scene and the beginning of their rivalry. Sallust's time as governor of Africa Nova ought to have let the author develop a solid geographical and ethnographical background to the war, however, this is not evident in the monograph despite a diversion on the subject because Sallust's priority in the "Jugurthine War", as with the "Catiline Conspiracy", is to use history as a vehicle for his judgement on the slow destruction of Roman morality and politics.

Other works

The extant fragments of the Histories (some discovered in 1886) show sufficiently well the political partisan, who took a keen pleasure in describing the reaction against Sulla's policy and legislation after the dictator's death. Historians regret the loss of the work, as it must have thrown much light on a very eventful period, embracing the war against Sertorius (died 72 BC), the campaigns of Lucullus against Mithradates VI of Pontus (75 - 66 BC), and the victories of Pompey in the East (66 - 62 BC).

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 thought by modern scholars to have probably come from the pen of the rhetorician Marcus Porcius Latro, also the supposed author of a counter-invective attributed to Cicero.^[1]

Significance

On the whole, antiquity looked favourably on Sallust as an historian. Tacitus speaks highly of him (Annals, iii. 30); and Quintilian does not hesitate to put him on a level with Thucydides (x.1), and declares that he is a greater historian than Livy (ii.5).

Sallust struck out for himself practically a new line in literature, his predecessors having functioned as little better than mere dry-as-dust chroniclers, whereas he endeavoured to explain the connection and meaning of events and successfully delineated character. The contrast between his early life and the high moral tone adopted by him in his writings has frequently made him a subject of reproach, but history gives 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. He took as his model 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. Some readers have ridiculed^{[citation needed]} his fondness for old words and phrases (in which he imitated his contemporary Cato the younger) as an affectation, but this very affectation and his rhetorical exaggerations made Sallust a favourite author in the 2nd century and later.

Nietzsche, in Twilight of the Idols (Section 13.1) credits Sallust for his epigrammatic style: "My sense of style, for the epigram as a style, was awakened almost instantly when I came into contact with Sallust." and praises him for being "compact, severe, with as much substance as possible, a cold sarcasm against 'beautiful words' and 'beautiful sentiments'."

Footnotes

1. ^ Smith, William (1867), "Latro, M. Porcius", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 2, pp. 726 

References

• Lemprière, John, A Classical Dictionary (1820), p. 683.
• Oniga, Renato, Sallustio e l'etnografia (Pisa: Giardini, 1995).

External links

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Latin with English translation

• at LacusCurtius (J. C. Rolfe, 1921):
  • Bellum Catilinae
  • Bellum Iugurthinum
  • Invectiva in Ciceronem (uncertain authorship, sometimes attributed to Sallust)
  • Oratio ad Caesarem (uncertain authorship)

• Works by Sallust at Project Gutenberg (Schmitz and Zumpt, 1848):
  • Bellum Catilinae
  • Bellum Iugurthinum
• at Perseus:
  • Bellum Catilinae
  • Bellum Iugurthinum
• at Attalus.org:
  • Fragmenta Historiarum (translation of selected fragments)
  • Fragmenta Historiarum (Latin text of all surviving fragments)
• at Latin Teaching Materials (2007)
  • Bellum Catilinae

Latin only

• at Latin Library (unknown edition):
  • Bellum Catilinae
  • Bellum Iugurthinum
  • Fragmenta Historiarum
  • Epistolae ad Caesarem
  • Invectiva in Ciceronem

English translation only

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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