Catiline's War, the Jurgurthine War, Histories

Sallust is one of only two contemporary sources to have survived on the politics of the late Roman Republic (the other one is Cicero). All the rest was written later, sometimes much later. Another reason to read Sallust is that he was highly held in his own time for his style and clarity of expression - indeed, that is partly why this has survived. Sallust is believed to have lived 86-34BC, he achieved senatorial rank, and he was a Caesarean (unlike Cicero, who was an optimate). His works include a history of the Jugurthine war (a late second-century BC African conflict that punctuated Rome's own internal struggles), an account of the Catilinarian conspiracy, and fragments of a history that once described the 70s and 60s BC. A lot of this is almost certainly made up. Stock descriptions of sieges and battles in the war against Jugurtha, which took place before Sallust was born, are unlikely to fit any close reality. The books contain the inevitable set speeches, all of course the author's interpretation of what might have been said. Even the Catilinarian account may well have been drawn from Cicero: Sallust was too young to have been in the senate in 63BC. Yet Sallust's books are invaluable. At least he would have been in Rome, and since Cicero was judge and party on Catiline, this second, corroborative account is priceless. And even the speeches and the fragmentary histories are of value, providing a strong flavour of the ideological conflicts that divided the Roman Republic, how they were expressed, and what the public response may have been. Sallust is essential reading for students of the period. It also is a good alternative or complement to the host of trashy novels and movies that have recently come out about Rome.

The historical value of Sallust's monographs is best left to the judgement of professional historians; but for students of the Republican period, Sallust is most enjoyable. Like Thucydides, Sallust the man shows through his writing, and this translation by Woodman is the best I have encountered. One can't read Syme's study of Sallust without reading Sallust himself, and this translation is the best available to the 21st century English reader.

Although this book is an ancient source of information, there's little information to be found in it. The titles really say it all. The Jugurthine War is about the war between Rome under Metellus and Marius against Numidia under Jugurtha roughly 110 BCE. Catiline's War isn't much of a war at all, it's just the case of an upset patrician revolting against the Roman senate during a chaotic period of Roman history (80s BCE). The speeches included at the end are even less informative, so all in all, you're much better off reading Appian's and Plutarch's account of this time period than Sallust's because he writes as though you already know what he's talking about, leaving out the general procession of events entirely.

Here I am, re-reading books I still have from college, with faint hope that anyone would ever read a review of it, but here goes: The two tales in this were hugely influential historical essays more or less up to the early 20C; they served as models of moralistic writing as well as clear exposition in Latin. In the Jugurthine War, you get wonderful details on the rise of the great generals, Marius and Sulla, who were friends and then deadly rivals in a struggle that essentially sowed the seeds of the end of the Roman Republic in the next generation. While the plot covers a war in Northern Africa on a ruthless rebel King, Jugurtha, the most important aspects of the work are on the transformation of the Roman army from amateur farmer landowners to a professional corps that admitted anyone. While a necessity to maintain the expansion of the Roman empire as the population of traditional army recruits dwindled, this led directly to rise of powerful generals, who could rely on the personal loyalty of their troops to grab power in civil war, which had been avoided for centuries. First, there was Sulla's dictatorship, then Julius Caesar. But the story takes place before that, when the military genius Marius was transforming the army and mentoring the ambitious Sulla. The reader can study the organization of the army as well as the changing mores of Roman society that this reflected. It is a great masterpiece and fun read, with wonderfully quirky details. In many ways, it is about the end of the aristocratic oligarchy that ruled the Republic for so long, as exemplified by the failure of Metellus and how Marius, who was not a aristocrat and knew no Greek, took over from him and triumphed. The story on Cataline's conspiracy is more about Rome's civil society and governance. It is a far more openly moralistic tale of an attempted coup by a disgraced aristocrat, who was opposed by Cicero; in the background Julius Caesar and Pompey are also present, as are a number of lesser known Senators such as Scaurus. While this adds crucial detail to the historical picture, its preachiness and one-sided portrait - and many sloppy mistakes - make it a fairly boring read, i.e. for scholars. It is a tale of decadence and ruffians who are tempted by power in the promises of a fool, Cataline. So, while rather recondite, this is a truly great volume of one of antiquity's most influential writers. Recommended.