Sallust Gaius Sallustius Crispus , usually anglicised as Sallust ( 86 BC – c . 35 BC ) was a Roman historian , politician , and " novus homo " from a provincial plebeian family . Sallust was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabine s and was a popularis , opposer of the old Roman aristocracy throughout his career , and later a partisan of Julius Caesar . Sallust is the earliest known Roman historian with surviving works to his name , of which we have " Catiline ' s War " ( about the conspiracy in 63 BC of L . Sergius Catilina ) , " The Jugurthine War " ( about Rome ' s war against the Numidians from 111 to 105 BC ) , and the " Histories " ( of which only fragments survive ) . Sallust was primarily influenced by the Greek historian Thucydides and amassed great ( and ill - gotten ) wealth from his governorship of Africa . Life and career . Sallust was probably born in Amiternum in Central Italy , though Eduard Schwartz takes the view that Sallust ' s birthplace was Rome . His birthdate is calculated from the report of Jerome ' s " Chronicon " . But Ronald Syme suggests that Jerome ' s date has to be adjusted because of his carelessness . The British historian offers 87 BC as a more correct date . However , dating Sallust ' s birth as 86 BC is widely used , and the Kleine Pauly Encyclopedia uses 1 October 86 BC as the birthdate . Michael Grant cautiously offers 80s BC . There is no information about Sallust ' s parents . The only exception is Tacitus ' mention of his sister . " Sallustii " was a provincial noble family of Sabine origin . They belonged to the equestrian order and had a full Roman citizenship . During the Social War Gaius ' parents could hide in the capital , because Amiternum was under threat of siege by rebelled Italic tribes . Due to this Sallust could have been raised in Rome The historian received very good education . After an ill - spent youth , Sallust entered public life and may have won election as quaestor in 55 BC . However , there is no strict evidence about this , and some scholars suppose that Sallust hadn ' t been a quaestor — the practice of violating " cursus honorum " was common in the last years of the Republic . He became a Tribune of the Plebs in 52 BC , the year in which the followers of Milo killed Clodius in a street brawl . Sallust then supported the prosecution of Milo . Sallust , Titus Munatius Plancus and Quintus Pompeius Rufus also tried to blame Cicero , one of the leaders of senators ' opposition to triumvirate , for his support of Milo . Because of his position in Milo ' s trial R . Syme suggests that originally Sallust didn ' t support Caesar . T . Mommsen states that Sallust acted in Pompey ' s interests ( according to Mommsen , Pompey was preparing to install his own dictatorship ) . From the beginning of his public career , Sallust operated as a decided partisan of Julius Caesar , to whom he owed such political advancement as he attained . In 50 BC , the censor Appius Claudius Pulcher removed him from the Senate on the grounds of gross immorality ( probably really because of his opposition to Milo and Cicero ) . In the following year , perhaps through Caesar ' s influence , he was reinstated . During the Civil War of 49 – 45 BC Sallust acted as Caesar ' s partisan , but his role wasn ' t significant , so his name isn ' t mentioned in dictator ' s " Commentarii de Bello Civili " . It was reported that Sallust dined with Caesar , Hirtius , Oppius , Balbus and Sulpicus Rufus on the night after his famous crossing over the Rubicon river into Italy January 10 . In 49 BC Sallust was moved to Illyricum and probably commanded at least one legion there against Publius Dolabella and Gaius Antonius . This campaign was unsuccessful , and . In the late summer 47 BC a group of soldiers rebelled near Rome , demanding for previously promised rewards and discharging . Sallust as " praetor designatus " was sent to persuade soldiers with several other senators , but the rebels killed two senators , while Sallust narrowly escaped death . In 46 BC , he served as a praetor and accompanied Caesar in his African campaign , which ended in the decisive defeat of the remains of the Pompeian war party at Thapsus . Sallust didn ' t participate in military operations directly , but he commanded several ships and organized supply through Kerkennah islands . As a reward for his services , Sallust gained appointment as governor of the province of Africa Nova . The reason of his designation is unclear : Sallust wasn ' t a skilled general , while the province was military significant with three legions deployed there . Moreover , governors after him were experienced military . However , Sallust successfully managed with organizing of supply and transportation , and these qualities could determine Caesar ' s choice . In the capacity of governor he committed such oppression and extortion that only the influence of Caesar enabled him to escape condemnation . On his return to Rome he purchased and began laying out in great splendour the famous gardens on the Quirinal known as the " Horti Sallustiani " or Gardens of Sallust . These gardens would later belong to the emperors . Sallust then retired from public life and devoted himself to historical literature , and further developing his Gardens of Sallust , upon which he spent much of his accumulated wealth . According to Anthony Everitt , Sallust later became the second husband of Cicero ' s ex - wife Terentia . Works . Sallust ' s account of the Catiline conspiracy ( " De coniuratione Catilinae " or " Bellum Catilinae " ) and of the Jugurthine War ( " Bellum Iugurthinum " ) have come down to us complete , together with fragments of his larger and most important work ( " Historiae " ) , a history of Rome from 78 to 67 BC , intended as a continuation of Cornelius Sisenna ' s work . " The Conspiracy of Catiline " . " The Conspiracy of Catiline " ( Sallust ' s first published work ) contains the history of the memorable year 63 . Sallust adopts the usually accepted view of Catiline , and describes him as the deliberate foe of law , order and morality , and does not give a comprehensive explanation of his views and intentions . ( Note that Catiline had supported the party of Sulla , which Sallust had opposed . ) Mommsen ' s suggestion — that Sallust particularly wished to clear his patron ( Caesar ) of all complicity in the conspiracy — may have contained some truth . In writing about the conspiracy of Catiline , Sallust ' s tone , style , and descriptions of aristocratic behavior show that he was deeply troubled by the moral decline of Rome . While he inveighs against Catiline ' s depraved character and vicious actions , he does not fail to state that the man had many noble traits , indeed all that a Roman man needed to succeed . In particular , Sallust shows Catiline as deeply courageous in his final battle . This subject gave Sallust the opportunity to show off his rhetoric at the expense of the old Roman aristocracy , whose degeneracy he delighted to paint in the blackest colours . The work probably was written between 44 and 40 BC , or between 42 and 41 BC according to Der Kleine Pauly . However , Louis MacKay proposed a different dating . According to him , " The Conspiracy " was prepared by Sallust in 50 BC as a political pamphlet , but wasn ' t published ; after the civil war Sallust reviewed it and finally published . The work doesn ' t have any traces of personal experience , and the most common explanation is Sallust ' s military service during this period . The main source for this work is " De Consulatu Suo " by Cicero . " Jugurthine War " . Sallust ' s " Jugurthine War " is a brief monograph recording the war against Jugurtha in Numidia from c . 112 BC to 105 BC . Its true value lies in the introduction of Marius and Sulla to the Roman political scene and the beginning of their rivalry . Sallust ' s time as governor of Africa Nova ought to have let the author develop a solid geographical and ethnographical background to the war ; however , this is not evident in the monograph despite a diversion on the subject because Sallust ' s priority in the " Jugurthine War " , as with the " Catiline Conspiracy " , is to use history as a vehicle for his judgement on the slow destruction of Roman morality and politics . Other works . The extant fragments of the " Histories " ( some discovered in 1886 ) show sufficiently well the political partisan , who took a keen pleasure in describing the reaction against Sulla ' s policy and legislation after the dictator ' s death . Historians regret the loss of the work , as it must have thrown much light on a very eventful period , embracing the war against Sertorius ( died 72 BC ) , the campaigns of Lucullus against Mithradates VI of Pontus ( 75 - 66 BC ) , and the victories of Pompey in the East ( 66 - 62 BC ) . Two letters ( " Duae epistolae de republica ordinanda " ) , letters of political counsel and advice addressed to Caesar , and an attack upon Cicero ( " Invectiva " or " Declamatio in Ciceronem " ) , frequently attributed to Sallust , are thought by modern scholars to have come from the pen of a rhetorician of the first century C . E . , along with a counter - invective attributed to Cicero . At one time Marcus Porcius Latro was considered a candidate for the authorship of the pseudo - Sallustian corpus , but this is no longer commonly held . Style . The style of works written by Sallust was well known in Rome . His style differs from the writings of his contemporaries — Caesar and especially Cicero . It is characterized by brevity and by the use of rare words and turns of phrase . As a result , his works are very far from the conversational Latin of his time . The most famous feature of his style is the use of archaic words . According to Suetonius , Lucius Ateius Praetextatus ( Philologus ) helped Sallust to collect them . R . Syme suggests that Sallust ' s choice of style and even particular words was influenced by his antipathy to Cicero , his rival , but also one of the trendsetters in Latin literature in the 1st century BC . " The Conspiracy of Catiline " reflects many features of style that were developed in his later works . Sallust avoids common words from public speeches of contemporary Roman political orators , such as " honestas " , " humanitas " , " consensus " . In several cases he uses rare forms of well - known words : for example , " lubido " instead of " libido " , " maxumum " instead of " maximum " , the conjunction " quo " in place of more common " ut " . He also uses rare endings " - ere " instead of common " - erunt " in the third - person plural in perfectum ( for example , " coepere " « [ they ] have started » instead of " coeperunt " ) and " - is " instead of " - es " in the third declension in accusative case for adjectives and nouns ( for example , " montis " « mountains » instead of " montes " ) . Some words used by Sallust ( for example , " antecapere " , " portatio " , " incruentus " , " incelebratus " , " incuriousus " ) , are not known in other writings before him . They are believed to be either neologism s or intentional revival of archaic words . Sallust also often uses antithesis , alliteration s and chiasmus . Significance . On the whole , antiquity looked favourably on Sallust as an historian . Tacitus speaks highly of him ( " Annals " , iii . 30 ) ; and Quintilian does not hesitate to put him on a level with Thucydides ( x . 1 ) , and declares that he is a greater historian than Livy ( ii . 5 ) . Sallust struck out for himself practically a new line in literature , his predecessors having functioned as little better than mere dry - as - dust chronicle rs , whereas he endeavoured to explain the connection and meaning of events and successfully delineated character . The contrast between his early life and the high moral tone adopted by him in his writings has frequently made him a subject of reproach , but history gives no reason why he should not have reformed . In any case , his knowledge of his own former weaknesses may have led him to take a pessimistic view of the morality of his fellow - men , and to judge them severely . He took as his model Thucydides , whom he imitated in his truthfulness and impartiality , in the introduction of philosophizing reflections and speeches , and in the brevity of his style , sometimes bordering upon obscurity . Some readers have ridiculed his fondness for old words and phrases ( in which he imitated Cato the Elder ) as an affectation , but this very affectation and his rhetorical exaggerations made Sallust a favourite author in the 2nd century and later . Nietzsche credits Sallust in " Twilight of the Idols " for his epigrammatic style : " My sense of style , for the epigram as a style , was awakened almost instantly when I came into contact with Sallust " and praises him for being " compact , severe , with as much substance as possible , a cold sarcasm against ' beautiful words ' and ' beautiful sentiments ' . " Manuscripts . Several manuscripts of his works survived due to his popularity in Antiquity and Middle Ages . All manuscripts with his writings are usually divided into two groups — " mutili " ( mutilated ) and " integri " ( whole ; not wrecked ) . The classification is based on the existence of the lacuna between 103 . 2 и 112 . 3 of " Jugurthine War " . The lacuna exists in the " mutili " scrolls , while " integri " manuscripts have the text there . The most ancient scrolls survived are " Codex Parisinus 16024 " and " Codex Parisinus 16025 " , known as " P " and " A " respectively . They were created in the 9th century and both belong to the " mutili " group . Both these scrolls include only " Catiline " and " Jugurtha " , while some other " mutili " manuscripts also include " Invective " and Cicero ' s answer . The oldest " integri " scrolls were created in the 11th century . The probability that all these scrolls came from one more ancient manuscript is discussed . There is also a unique scroll " Codex Vaticanus 3864 " , known as " V " . It includes only speeches and letters from " Catiline " , " Jugurtha " and " Histories " . The creator of this manuscript changed the original word order and replaced archaisms with more familiar words . The " V " scroll also includes two anonymous letters to Caesar probably from Sallust , but their authenticity is discussed ( see above ) . Several fragments of Sallust ' s works survived in papyri of 2nd — 4th centuries . Many ancient authors cited Sallust , and sometimes their citations of " Histories " are the only source for reconstruction of this work . But its significance for the reconstruction is uncertain , because occasionally the authors cited Sallust from memory , and some distortions were possible .