The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline (Penguin Classics)

• The Rise of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics)
• The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives (Penguin Classics)
• Livy: The Early History of Rome, Books I-V (Penguin Classics) (Bks. 1-5)
• Makers of Rome: Nine Lives (Penguin Classics)
• The Civil Wars (Penguin Classics)

Allowing for some Roman idioms, Sallust is as relevant today as he was 2,000 years ago.

Pretty sad commentary on human nature, huh?!

As with other histories written in ancient times, the two stories contained in this book are partly historical data, partly historical narratives, and partly dramatic dialogue. Whenever Sallust wants to make a general point, like "Rome is the city where everything is for sale", he adapts the language of this assertion to the circumstances of a point of specific action, and then puts it into the mouth of one of his characters. Keep in mind that the dramatic dialogue may be fiction, but the underlying points may very well have been valid. Rome really was a city where almost everything was for sale, and reading narratives like these gives us a vivid look at this reality.

This work is flawed, but we should be very happy that we have it because it gives us an alternate (pagan) look at power relationships within the late Roman Republic - a society that would soon become an Empire and produce written works (both Christian and secular) that are today read all over the world.

Only a part of Sallust's work has survived, most notably his history of the war against Jugurthine, an able North African monarch, and the Conspiracy of Catiline, a debauched but charismatic member of the aristocracy who aimed at a populist coup. This volume is composed of these two histories.

The war against the ruthless but talented Jugurthine was more about politics than tactics. Jugurthine took advantage of the growing material greed of senators and tribunes in the late Roman Republic to bribe them to connive at his usurpation of the Numidian Kingdom. This policy was only successful in the short term, however, as the aggravated greed of the Romans led to a war of conquest, plunder, and annexation of his kingdom.

Sallust's account is particularly effective at showing the rise of Marius, a common soldier from a plebian family, who succeeded in overcoming prejudice to rise to the top of the Roman State as Consul. Although he later became a bloodthirsty revolutionary, his toughness, honesty, and energy contrast with the corruption and decadence that was already infecting Rome's higher orders.

The second part of this history focuses on one of these corrupt aristocrats, the much vilified Catiline, who tried to seize supreme power. Connected to many of the great men of his day, like the young Julius Caesar and the extremely wealthy Crassus, he hatched a plot to cause fires, assassinations, and riots in Rome while his private army conscripted from veterans with bad debts marched on the city. Catiline as a profligate nobleman had vast debts of his own and this was perhaps one of the main motives behind the plot.

Ably opposed by the Consul Cicero, the plot fell apart until Catiline's private army was forced to retreat and then annihilated by the Roman legions in North Italy. Although Catiline was depicted by Cicero as a depraved monster who had even sacrificed and eaten human flesh, Sallust seems more objective. He records Caesar's fine speech calling for clemency for some of the conspirators, and he also records the bravery of Catiline's little army, every man of which fell facing the enemy in a stubborn battle. This leaves the reader feeling that Catiline was perhaps more than just a power-crazed thug.

Dealing honestly with two of the most unpopular 'villains' from the late Republic, Sallust's history successfully aspires to the writer's own notion of intellectual excellence. It is for this reason that his name is still with us today.