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.