Gaius Sallustius CrispusRecensioni

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Interesantisimo libro con dos historias que Sallust vivio en su epoca.

La conspiracion de Cataline y la rebelion de Jugurthine.

Es interesante como de diferente seria la historia si cualquiera de estos eventos hubiera ocurrido de otra manera. Cataline no estuvo tan lejos de ganar sus batallas, otros lo hicieron antes y otros lo harian despues.

De la misma manera, Roma podia haber decidido evitar la guerra con Jugurthine o el podia no haberla forzado, con lo que quiza hoy toda esa zona (Argelia) seria bastante distinta.

KG-6

Sallust is surely one of the most fascinating fellows of the ancient world. Here's a taste of his biography: he attacked Cicero in 52 (failed), was kicked out of the senate in 50. He backed Caesar (smart), but when Caesar sent him to help Antonius, he, well, failed. Two years later he was sent to deal with a mutiny and, as you can probably guess, failed. His punishment for repeated failure was being made a governor in 46. One year later, enormously rich, he quit. In 44 he was tried for extortion (acquitted). Having failed so egregiously at literally everything (but consistently failing up) he thought he'd take up history writing, and became one of the most influential historians and stylists of the ancient world. We all know someone like Sallust, the type of person who could beat their bosses with a lead pipe and be given a promotion the next day.

Luckily, Sallust really was a pretty good writer. Batstone's translation smooths off the extreme difficulty of Sallust's style, but keeps the pithiness (compare: every other historian before Sallust, all of whom wrote eighteen thousand volume monsters; Tacitus apparently learned from Sallust). The two major histories (I exclude The Histories, since they're in here for completeness and scholarly respectability; I can't imagine too many people reading those fragments with pleasure) each include fascinating philosophical prologues and a wonderful old-man odor of crankiness. The people are always far more interesting in Sallust's depiction than they are in, e.g., Cicero; Catiline seems like a pretty reasonable guy gone wrong, as does Jugurtha. And in general it's nice to read a Roman who doesn't have time for the pretensions of the aristocrats of the senate. The comparison with today casts an interesting light on all the neoclassical buildings that dot America's administrative districts.

Also, this is a very good edition if, like me, you don't know that much about the events Sallust is writing about. Batstone has encouraged me to read more about the late Republic, which is the best thing one can say about an editor/translator.

Pretty much a slanted, and not terribly accurate, view of the titular war and conspiracy. The translator does a good job of putting things in context, and alerting the reader to the fact that Sallust, a piece of work in and of himself, may not be giving you the whole story. The accounts are readable, but flawed. (Curiously, I read this right after the Alexiad, where the author was doing similar things.)½

This volume contains two different Essays, a biography of a king of Numidia, and a political polemic against a foe of Pompey's. The biography is valuable, covering an example of anti-Roman nationalism, and a good source for North Africa in the Roman era. The other essay is an example of the kind of effort a Roman attorney would put forth in the law courts, trying to gain a conviction. Both are interesting to the historian.

"your Latin & Greek should be kept up assiduously by reading at spare hours: and, discontinuing the desultory reading of the schools. I would advise you to undertake a regular course of history & poetry in both languages, in Greek, go first thro’ the Cyropaedia ... in Latin read Livy, Caesar, Sallust Tacitus, Cicero’s Philosophies, and some of his Orations, in prose ..." - Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 6 Oct. 1820

"we have now such excellent elementary books in every branch of science as to make , Start insertion,every, End, subject as plain as a teacher can make it. ... in Antient history the first 20. vols of the Universal history. / Gillies’s history of the world, / Gillies’s history of Greece. / Livy, Sallust, Caesar, Taeches, Suadonurs." - Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Echols, 23 May 1822

"your Latin & Greek should be kept up assiduously by reading at spare hours: and, discontinuing the desultory reading of the schools. I would advise you to undertake a regular course of history & poetry in both languages, in Greek, go first thro’ the Cyropaedia ... in Latin read Livy, Caesar, Sallust Tacitus, Cicero’s Philosophies, and some of his Orations, in prose ..." - Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 6 Oct. 1820

"we have now such excellent elementary books in every branch of science as to make , Start insertion,every, End, subject as plain as a teacher can make it. ... in Antient history the first 20. vols of the Universal history. / Gillies’s history of the world, / Gillies’s history of Greece. / Livy, Sallust, Caesar, Taeches, Suadonurs." - Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Echols, 23 May 1822

"your Latin & Greek should be kept up assiduously by reading at spare hours: and, discontinuing the desultory reading of the schools. I would advise you to undertake a regular course of history & poetry in both languages, in Greek, go first thro’ the Cyropaedia ... in Latin read Livy, Caesar, Sallust Tacitus, Cicero’s Philosophies, and some of his Orations, in prose ..." - Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 6 Oct. 1820

"we have now such excellent elementary books in every branch of science as to make , Start insertion,every, End, subject as plain as a teacher can make it. ... in Antient history the first 20. vols of the Universal history. / Gillies’s history of the world, / Gillies’s history of Greece. / Livy, Sallust, Caesar, Taeches, Suadonurs." - Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Echols, 23 May 1822

"your Latin & Greek should be kept up assiduously by reading at spare hours: and, discontinuing the desultory reading of the schools. I would advise you to undertake a regular course of history & poetry in both languages, in Greek, go first thro’ the Cyropaedia ... in Latin read Livy, Caesar, Sallust Tacitus, Cicero’s Philosophies, and some of his Orations, in prose ..." - Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 6 Oct. 1820

"we have now such excellent elementary books in every branch of science as to make , Start insertion,every, End, subject as plain as a teacher can make it. ... in Antient history the first 20. vols of the Universal history. / Gillies’s history of the world, / Gillies’s history of Greece. / Livy, Sallust, Caesar, Taeches, Suadonurs." - Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Echols, 23 May 1822

A conspiracy to overthrow the Roman Republic is exposed by the prosecutor Cicero. It made Cicero's career. You must know quite a bit of how Roman government had been run in order to follow the tortuous path of discovering the culprits and bringing them to justice. Our system is far more efficient.

Account of politics and aristocratic conflict in the late Roman Republic.

With a few changes in names, the whole story of "The Jugurthine War" can perhaps be transplanted from 110 BC Rome to the 20th century, or any other period in history, when there are global/central super powers, local tyrants/warlords and puppet governments.

"The Conspiracy of Catiline" is a tale of political intrigue and class struggle instigated by lust-crazed individuals. It complements Cicero's account of the event in his orations "Against Cataline".

Sallust explains, from a rather cynical perspective, the cause and effect of historical events, and the motives of the individuals involved. He also makes interesting contrasts between political foes of the period: Gaius Marius and Sulla, the former an equestrian, known more for his military achievements than statesmanship, the latter a patrician who excels in both generalship and statesmanship, a forerunner of Julius Caesar, who in turn is contrasted with Cato the Younger, one generous and lenient and the other righteous and unrelenting.

This book presents Sallust's well written accounts of two lesser known but interesting events in Republican Rome- the war with Jugurtha and the Catilinian conspiracy. Sallust's description of the former is the most important source material known. As to the latter, only Cicero's account is as important.

Jugurtha, rebel king of Numidia in North Africa, was the grandson of Massinissa- an important Roman ally during the 2nd Punic War with Carthage. Sallust describes in readable fashion the general themes of the war. First, Roman victory in battle but inability to strike a complete blow against Jugurtha's cavalry and guerilla style tactics. Second, sharp negotiations and diplomacy (sometimes bribery) by which Rome ultimately secured the assistance of Mauritanian king Bocchus (Jugurtha's father-in-law) to betray Jugurtha. Perhaps most interesting is the involvement by Marius and Sulla, both of whom were destined for greatness at a later date.

Catiline was a colorful politician who, after several failed attempts at the consulship, conspired with various disaffected Roman elements in an unsuccessful attempt to gain power (he even went so far as to contact a tribe of Gauls in Northen Italy). After his plot was discovered, Sallust describes fascinating orations for clemency (by a young Julius Caesar) and against (by Cicero). Ultimately, Cicero's camp prevailed, and many conspirators were executed. Catiline was destroyed along with his army by a Roman legion shortly thereafter. To this day historians dispute the extent of the conspiracy (some even claim Caesar's involvement or at least knowledge) and Catiline's true motivations.

In my opinion, Sallust is one of most interesting of the ancient historians. Recommended reading.

Dentro del estilo del historiador clásico, que construye su obra enlazando discursos, Salustio va al grano. Uno no acaba de orientarse del todo con estas obras; se añade, en este caso, que el anotador insiste en darnos las fechas por la datación romana, y no sabe uno con precisión por dónde se anda. Pero, como digo, se lee bien. "Catilina" es mucho mejor que "Yugurta", y Salustio ilustra estupendamente cómo el "dolce far niente" acaba trayendo malas consecuencias. Lo cierto es que, si hacemos caso a esto, no se explica uno cómo pudo Roma durar tanto tiempo, entre conjuras, molicie y corrupción por doquier. No sería para tanto.

Oorlog tegen Jugurtha (Numidië), periode 113-105 vC, veel strijdtaferelen, enkele beschrijvingen, vooral aandacht voor de persoonlijkheden (realistische portretten).

Sallust had a long political career, siding with the populists, who would eventually become the triumvirate of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. In many ways, Sallust's history resembles Caesar's memoirs twenty years later, but Caesar's biases are much more difficult to ferret out. If Sallust had been a more clever man, we might have taken his word for it and entered his works as pure history, but his bias is so evident that we can almost fill out the rest of the story by it's absence.

There are fairly self-evident motivations for the men Sallust presents as incorrigible villains, and we may also compare his view of history to Cicero's; for even though they were of like opinion, Cicero tends to be more equitable in his explanations.

This difference between the two authors rather perfectly encapsulates the difference between them as men, and the central point of their disagreement. Cicero was a pacifier, a placator, but one of enough skill and vigor to change his opponent's course in the midst of deference. We might expect him to be in perfect agreement with Ben Franklin who, when once asked for advice by Thomas Jefferson, is supposed to have said "never disagree with anyone".

Sallust, on the other hand, was an incurable idealist. We are treated to long passages on the particular moral qualities a man ought to have and how Sallust's opponents lack them and how Sallust's friends all have them. There is a constant sense of injustice being perpetrated throughout the politic sphere, but it is always by Sallust's political and ideological enemies.

Though the reader rarely doubts such depravity and greed went on, Sallust's self righteous displays of humble innocence strike as false. His history is not informed enough to serve us--indeed, it is filled with errors in dates, places, and people. But neither is his rhetoric so impressive that it saves his tract from being more than the lamentations of a man who retired to complain for posterity's sake.

As a historical view, he is useful, but moreso within the context of other writers.

Bof

I studied Latin for four years in high school. Additionally, I was always terribly interested in history. So it came a complete shock to me when I read this book - a fairly significant uprising, a minor war Rome fought, that I had never heard mentioned. Fifteen years later, perhaps I understand why this is so. I can hardly recall anything of the details though I remember finding it pleasant enough to read at the time. For anyone interested in Roman history, this is worth reading.

Interesting as giving the only major account of Cataline independent of Cicero

2 stories w. notes & lexicon

Edition: // Descr: v, 282 p. : maps 19 cm. // Series: Call No. { 878 L76.08 1 } Edited with Notes by Robert M. Scoon, Charles H. Jones and Charles Christopher Mierow. // //