SALLUST.
(1) LIFE.
C. Sallustius Crispus was born B.C. 86 at Amiternum, in the country of the Sabines, and died B.C. 35.
Jerome yr. Abr. 1931 = B.C. 86, ‘Sallustius Crispus, scriptor historicus, in Sabinis Amiterni nascitur.’ Ibid. 1982 = B.C. 35, ‘Sallustius diem obiit, quadriennio ante Actiacum bellum.’
Sallust was of plebeian family, as is seen from the fact that he was afterwards tribunus plebis. According to the Pseud.-Cic. in Sallustium declamatio, 13-14, he led an evil life in youth, and brought his father with sorrow to the grave.
Cf. § 14, ‘Cuiquam dubium potest esse, quin mori coegerit eum [patrem]?’
There is a story that Milo punished him for an amour with his wife.
Gell. xvii. 18, ‘M. Varro ... in libro quem scripsit “Pius aut de pace,” C. Sallustium scriptorem seriae illius et severae orationis, in cuius historia notiones censorias fieri atque exerceri videmus, in adulterio deprehensum ab Annio Milone loris bene caesum dicit et, cum dedisset pecuniam, dimissum.’
The story is corroborated by Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 15; by Macrob. iii. 13, 9, ‘alienae luxuriae obiurgator et censor,’ and others; and Sallust himself appears to admit that there was something wrong; Cat. 4, ‘a quo incepto studioque me ambitio mala detinuerat.’[34]
Sallust speaks of the political offices he filled, and of the class of men who were unsuccessful candidates about the same time—a supposed reference to M. Cato’s candidature for the praetorship, B.C. 55.
Iug. 4, ‘Qui si reputaverint, et quibus ego temporibus magistratus adeptus sim et quales viri idem adsequi nequiverint,’ etc.
After being quaestor (Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 15), he was, in B.C. 52, tribunus plebis, when he and other two tribunes opposed Cicero in his defence of Milo.
Ascon. in Cic. pro Mil. p. 33 (Kiessl. and Schöll), ‘C. Sallustius et T. Munatius Plancus tr. pleb. inimicissimas contiones de Milone habebant.’
In B.C. 50, Sallust was legatus pro quaestore to Bibulus in Syria, according to Mommsen (Hermes, i. 171), who thinks that the Sallust to whom Cicero writes ad Fam. ii. 17 is the historian. In the same year he was expelled from the Senate by the censors, Appius Claudius and L. Piso.
Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 16, ‘neque post illum delectum senatus vidimus te.’
In B.C. 49, Caesar reappointed him quaestor, and he resumed his place in the Senate.
Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 17, ‘in senatum post quaesturam est reductus.’
In B.C. 48, he commanded a legion in Illyria without distinction (Orosius vi, 15, 8), and next year he was Caesar’s agent with the insurgent legions in Campania (Appian, B.C. ii. 92). In B.C. 46 he was praetor, and as such commanded successfully an expedition to seize the enemy’s stores in Cercina.
Bell. Afr. 8, ‘Item C. Sallustium Crispum praetorem ad Cercinam insulam versus, quam adversarii tenebant, cum parte navium ire iubet.’ (See also c. 34.)
At the end of the year he was appointed proconsul of Numidia.
Ibid. 97, ‘Ibi Sallustio pro consule cum imperio relicto ipse Zama egressus Uticam se recepit.’
As proconsul, he plundered the province, and bought, probably with the spoils, the horti Sallustiani, which afterwards belonged to the Roman emperors (see Tac. Ann. xiii. 47; Hist. iii. 82).
Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 19, ‘Nonne ita provinciam vastavit, ut nihil neque passi sint neque exspectaverint gravius in bello socii nostri, quam experti sint in pace hoc Africam interiorem obtinente?’
Sallust is said to have married Terentia, whom Cicero had divorced (Jerome adv. Iov. 1). Probably he had no son, as he adopted a grandson of his sister.
Tac. Ann. iii. 30, ‘Crispum equestri ortum loco C. Sallustius, rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor, sororis nepotem in nomen adscivit.’
After Caesar’s death, Sallust retired from public life, and, having no taste for sport or agriculture, spent his leisure in writing history.
Cat. 4, ‘Ubi ... mihi reliquam aetatem a re publica procul habendam decrevi, non fuit consilium socordia atque desidia bonum otium conterere, neque vero agrum colundo aut venando servilibus officiis intentum aetatem agere; sed ... statui res gestas populi Romani carptim, ut quaeque memoria digna videbantur, perscribere.’
Sallust, as above stated, died B.C. 35.
(2) WORKS.
1. De Catilinae Coniuratione (so Cat. 4). The book is called bellum Catilinae by Quint. iii. 8, 9, and in some MSS.; in MSS. also bellum Catilinarium. The work was written after Caesar’s death (Cat. 53-4). It is, as Mommsen (R.H. iv. 184, note) states, a political pamphlet in the interests of the democratic party (on which the monarchy was based), and tries to clear Caesar from the charge of being implicated in the Catilinarian conspiracy, and collaterally performing the same service for C. Antonius, the uncle of the triumvir.
Cf. Cat. 49, ‘Sed isdem temporibus Q. Catulus et C. Piso neque pretio neque gratia Ciceronem inpellere potuere, uti per Allobroges aut alium indicem C. Caesar falso nominaretur. Nam uterque cum illo gravis inimicitias exercebant ... Sed ubi consulem ad tantum facinus inpellere nequeunt,’ etc. (Cf. also Caesar’s speech in Cat. 51.)
Cat. 59, ‘At ex altera parte C. Antonius pedibus aeger, quod proelio adesse nequibat, M. Petreio legato exercitum permittit.’ Dion Cassius, xxxvii. 39, on the other hand, says that this was a pretence, Antonius being unwilling to fight against his old confederate.
2. Bellum Iugurthinum. (So in MSS. and Quint. iii. 8, 9.)
Iug. 5, ‘Bellum scripturus sum, quod populus Romanus cum Iugurtha rege Numidarum gessit, primum quia magnum et atrox variaque victoria fuit, dehinc quia tunc primum superbiae nobilitatis obviam itum est.’
The object of the book is to give a picture of the low state of the oligarchical government (cf. Iug. 8, ‘Romae omnia venalia esse’), and to glorify Marius, the chief of the democratic party.
Of his sources, Sallust mentions Sisenna (Iug. 95) for information about Sulla, and native authorities for African ethnography.
Iug. 17, ‘Sed qui mortales initio Africam habuerint, quique postea adcesserint, aut quo modo inter se permixti sint ... uti ex libris Punicis, qui regis Hiempsalis dicebantur, interpretatum nobis est ... dicam.’
Sallust probably also used the memoirs of Scaurus, Sulla, and Catulus.
3. Historiae.—This work dealt with the events from B.C. 78 to 67. Cf. Ausonius, p. 264 (ed. Peiper),
‘Ab Lepido et Catulo iam res et tempora Romae
orsus his senos seriem conecto per annos.’
There is no reference in the fragments to any event after B.C. 67. The book took up the history where Sisenna had left off, B.C. 78. Cf. i. frag. 1 (ed. Maurenbrecher), ‘Res populi Romani M. Lepido Q. Catulo coss. ac deinde militiae et domi gestas composui.’
Four speeches and two letters from the Histories have been preserved in a collection of Sallustian speeches and letters made for rhetorical purposes, probably in the second century A.D. Besides these there are considerable fragments, chiefly from Books ii. and iii. We may conclude from Iug. 95, ‘neque enim alio loco de Sullae rebus dicturi sumus,’ that the career of Sulla was not treated of in the Histories. He is, however, repeatedly mentioned.
Two works are falsely attributed to Sallust:
1. Oratio invectiva in Tullium, composed, along with an Oratio invectiva in Sallustium falsely ascribed to Cicero, by the same ancient rhetorician. The Or. in Tull. is quoted by Quintilian, if the MSS. are right, e.g. iv. 1, 68.
2. An oration and an epistle ad Caesarem senem de re publica, both probably belonging to the imperial period.
Sallust as a historian.—1. He departed from the annalistic arrangement, and took a broader view of his subject, endeavouring to connect events together, and to trace the motives of actions.
2. He shows a want of precision in his facts. Instead of giving dates, he often says vaguely interea; isdem temporibus; dum haec aguntur. One year in the Jugurthine war is left unaccounted for, and Marius is represented as consul in B.C. 105. So in geography and ethnography (as in the Iugurtha) he is not to be trusted. In Iug. 21 he forgets that Cirta is fifty miles from the sea, and that city is besieged in the usual way, though surrounded on three sides by gorges.
He prides himself on his impartiality.
Cat. 4, ‘Mihi a spe, metu, partibus rei publicae animus liber erat.’ So Hist. i. fr. 6.
His leaning to the popular party, however, has been shown above.
3. His speeches do not always suit the speaker or his audience, and are not historical. Thus the speech of Catiline (Cat. 20) does not suit his audience and is not authentic, and that of Marius (Iug. 85) is too learned for the speaker.
4. His prefaces have little to do with what follows. Cf. Quint. iii. 8, 9, ‘C. Sallustius in bello Iugurthino et Catilinae nihil ad historiam pertinentibus principiis orsus est.’
5. He is too fond of hackneyed moral maxims and trite sayings. Thus:
Cat. i, ‘Sed nostra omnis vis in animo et corpore sita est,’ etc.
Iug. 2, ‘Nam uti genus hominum compositum ex corpore et anima est, ita res cunctae studiaque omnia nostra corporis alia, alia animi naturam secuntur.’
His tone is that of a severe moralist.
Cat. 3, ‘Sed ego adulescentulus initio sicuti plerique studio ad rem publicam latus sum, ibique mihi multa advorsa fuere. Nam pro pudore, pro abstinentia, pro virtute audacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant,’ etc.
As this moralizing did not fit in with the facts of his life he was censured for it, as shown above.
Sallust’s authorities and models.—Besides the authorities mentioned above, he used a breviarium rerum omnium Romanarum prepared for him by the grammarian Ateius (Sueton. Gramm. 10). He is said to have borrowed phrases from Cato.
Quint. viii. 3, 29, ‘Nec minus noto Sallustius epigrammate incessitur:
“Et verba antiqui multum furate Catonis,
Crispe, Iugurthinae conditor historiae.”’
The similarity of Sallust’s style to that of Thucydides, whom he tried to emulate, was remarked by the ancients.
Quint. ix. 3, 17, ‘Ex Graeco vero translata vel Sallustii plurima, quale est “volgus amat fieri”’ [Iug. 34, a poor instance, and wrongly quoted]. Cf. Cat. 6, ‘magisque dandis quam accipiundis beneficiis amicitias parabant,’ and Thuc. ii. 40, 4, οὐ γὰρ πάσχοντες εὖ ἀλλὰ δρῶντες κτώμεθα τοὺς φίλους: Iug. 73, ‘in maius celebrare,’ and Thuc. i. 10, 3, ἐπὶ τὸ μεῖζον κοσμῆσαι.
Sallust’s popularity is shown by the numerous references to him, particularly in Quintilian. Cf. Quint. x. 1, 101, ‘At non historia cesserit Graecis, nec opponere Thucydidi Sallustium verear’; § 102, ‘immortalem illam Sallustii velocitatem.’ Cf. also Martial, xiv. 191, ‘primus Romana Crispus in historia.’ Tacitus is the most important writer influenced by Sallust. For imitations cf. Tac. Agr. 37, where part of the description of a battle is modelled on Iug. 101. Cf. also Cat. 43, ‘facto non consulto in tali periculo opus esse,’ and Tac. Hist. i. 62, ‘ubi facto magis quam consulto opus esset.’