23 Facts About Sallust

Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became a partisan of Julius Caesar, circa 50s BC.

Sallust is the earliest known Latin-language Roman historian with surviving works to his name, of which Conspiracy of Catiline, The Jugurthine War, and the Histories remain extant.

Sallust was probably born in Amiternum in Central Italy, though Eduard Schwartz takes the view that Sallust's birthplace was Rome.

Sallust organised "ferocious street demonstrations" to exert public pressure on Cicero, intimidating him into "giving a substandard performance", seeing Milo leave the city into exile.

Sallust was removed on grounds of immorality, but this was likely a pretext for his opposition to Milo during his tribunate.

In 49 BC, Sallust was moved to Illyricum and probably commanded at least one legion there after the failure of Publius Cornelius Dolabella and Gaius Antonius.

Sallust did not participate in military operations directly, but he commanded several ships and organized supply through the Kerkennah Islands.

However, Sallust successfully managed the organization of supply and transportation, and these qualities could have determined Caesar's choice.

On his return to Rome he purchased and began laying out in great splendour the famous gardens on the Quirinal known as the Gardens of Sallust, which were later inherited by the emperors.

Sallust further developed his gardens, upon which he spent much of his accumulated wealth.

Theodor Mommsen suggested that Sallust particularly wished to clear his patron of all complicity in the conspiracy.

Sallust likely relied on a general annalistic history of the time, as well as the autobiographies of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Publius Rutilius Rufus, and Sulla.

Two letters, letters of political counsel and advice addressed to Caesar, and an attack upon Cicero, frequently attributed to Sallust, are thought by modern scholars to have come from the pen of a rhetorician of the first century AD, along with a counter-invective attributed to Cicero.

The style of works written by Sallust was well known in Rome.

Sallust employed archaic words: according to Suetonius, Lucius Ateius Praetextatus helped Sallust to collect them.

Sallust avoids common words from public speeches of contemporary Roman political orators, such as honestas, humanitas, consensus.

Sallust uses the less common endings -ere instead of common -erunt in the third person plural in the perfect indicative, and -is instead of -es in the accusative plural for third declension adjectives and nouns.

Some words used by Sallust, are not known in other writings before him.

Martial joins the praise: "Sallust, according to the judgment of the learned, will rank as the prince of Roman historiographers".

The core narrative of moral decline prevalent in Sallust's works, is criticised as crowding out the his own examination of the structural and socio-economic factors that brought about the crisis of the republic while manipulating historical facts to make them fit his moralistic thesis; he is credited as "a clear-sighted and impartial interpreter of his own age".

Sallust's focus on moralising misrepresents and over-simplifies the state of Roman politics.

Sallust has great interest in moralising, and for this reason, he tends to paint an exaggerated picture of the senate's faults.

Fronto used ancient words collected by Sallust to provide "archaic coloring" for his works.