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: