1. Life.
SALLUST.
A member of a plebeian family, Sallust was born 86 B.C. at Amiternum, in the country of the Sabines. As tribune of the people in 52 B.C. he took an active part in opposing Milo (Cicero’s client) and the Pompeian party in general. In 48 B.C. he commanded a legion in Illyria without distinction, and next year Caesar sent him to treat with the mutinous legions in Campania, where he narrowly escaped assassination. He afterwards followed Caesar to Africa, and apparently did good service there, for he was appointed in 46 the first governor of the newly formed province of Numidia. In 45 he returned to Rome a very rich man, and built himself a magnificent palace, surrounded by pleasure grounds (the famous Gardens of Sallust, in the valley between the Quirinal and the Pincius), which in after years emperors preferred to the palace of the Caesars. After Caesar’s death Sallust retired from public life, and it is to the leisure and study of these ten years that we owe the works that have made him famous.
2. Works.
(1) De Catilinae Coniuratione (or Bellum Catilinae), a monograph on the famous conspiracy, in which Sallust writes very largely from direct personal knowledge of men and events.
(2) Bellum Iugurthinum (111-106 B.C.) The writing of this monograph involved wide inquiry and much preparation.
(3) Historiae, in five books, dealing with the events from 78 B.C. (death of Sulla) to 67 B.C., of which only a few fragments are extant.
3. Style.
‘Sallust aimed at making historical writing a branch of literature. He felt that nothing had yet been done by any Roman writer which would stand beside Thucydides. It was his ambition to supply the want. That could only be done by offering as complete a contrast to the tedious annalist as possible, and Sallust neglected no means of giving variety to his work. From Thucydides he probably borrowed the idea of his introductions, the imaginary speeches and the character portraits; from Cato the picturesque descriptions of the scenes of historical events and the ethnographical digressions.’—Cook.
‘The style of Sallust is characterised by the use of old words and forms (especially in the speeches). He makes use of alliteration, extensively employs the Historic Infinitive, and shows a partiality for conversational expressions which from a literary point of view are archaic. His abrupt unperiodic style of writing (rough periods without particles of connexion) has won for Sallust his reputation for brevity. His style is, however, the expression of the writer’s character, direct, incisive, emphatic, and outspoken; to have been a model for Tacitus is no slight merit.’—Cook.