the title of historian. This celebrated writer was born at Amiternum, in
the territory of the Sabines, in the year 668. He received his education
at Rome, and, in his early youth, appears to have been desirous to devote
himself to literary pursuits. But it was not easy for one residing in the
capital to escape the contagious desire of military or political
distinction. At the age of twenty-seven, he obtained the situation of
Quæstor, which entitled him to a seat in the Senate, and about six years
afterwards he was elected Tribune of the people. While in this office, he
attached himself to the fortunes of Cæsar, and along with one of his
colleagues in the tribunate, conducted the prosecution against Milo for
the murder of Clodius. In the year 704, he was excluded from the Senate,
on pretext of immoral conduct, but more probably from the violence of the
patrician party, to which he was opposed. Aulus Gellius, on the authority
of Varro’s treatise, _Pius aut de Pace_, informs us that he incurred this
disgrace in consequence of being surprised in an intrigue with Fausta, the
wife of Milo, by the husband, who made him be scourged by his slaves(185).
It has been doubted, however, by modern critics, whether it was the
historian Sallust who was thus detected and punished, or his nephew,
Crispus Sallustius, to whom Horace has addressed the second ode of the
second book. It seems, indeed, unlikely, that in such a corrupt age, an
amour with a woman of Fausta’s abandoned character, should have been the
real cause of his expulsion from the Senate. After undergoing this
ignominy, which, for the present, baffled all his hopes of preferment, he
quitted Rome, and joined his patron, Cæsar, in Gaul. He continued to
follow the fortunes of that commander, and, in particular bore a share in
the expedition to Africa, where the scattered remains of Pompey’s party
had united. That region being finally subdued, Sallust was left by Cæsar
as Prætor of Numidia; and about the same time he married Terentia, the
divorced wife of Cicero. He remained only a year in his government, but
during that period he enriched himself by despoiling the province. On his
return to Rome, he was accused by the Numidians, whom he had plundered,
but escaped with impunity, by means of the protection of Cæsar, and was
quietly permitted to betake himself to a luxurious retirement with his
ill-gotten wealth. He chose for his favourite retreat a villa at Tibur,
which had belonged to Cæsar; and he also built a magnificent palace in the
suburbs of Rome, surrounded by delightful pleasure-grounds, which were
afterwards well known and celebrated by the name of the Gardens of
Sallust. One front of this splendid mansion faced the street, where he
constructed a spacious market-place, in which every article of luxury was
sold in abundance. The other front looked to the gardens, which were
contiguous to those of Lucullus, and occupied the valley between the
extremities of the Quirinal and Pincian Hills(186). They lay, in the time
of Sallust, immediately beyond the walls of Rome, but were included within
the new wall of Aurelian. In them every beauty of nature, and every
embellishment of art, that could delight or gratify the senses, seem to
have been assembled. Umbrageous walks, open parterres, and cool porticos,
displayed their various attractions. Amidst shrubs and flowers of every
hue and odour, interspersed with statues of the most exquisite
workmanship, pure streams of water preserved the verdure of the earth and
the temperature of the air; and while, on the one hand, the distant
prospect caught the eye, on the other, the close retreat invited to repose
or meditation(187). These gardens included within their precincts the most
magnificent baths, a temple to Venus, and a circus, which Sallust repaired
and ornamented. Possessed of such attractions, the Sallustian palace and
gardens became, after the death of their original proprietor, the
residence of successive emperors. Augustus chose them as the scene of his
most sumptuous entertainments. The taste of Vespasian preferred them to
the palace of the Cæsars. Even the virtuous Nerva, and stern Aurelian,
were so attracted by their beauty, that, while at Rome, they were their
constant abode. “The palace,” says Eustace, “was consumed by fire on the
fatal night when Alaric entered the city. The temple, of singular beauty,
sacred to Venus, was discovered about the middle of the sixteenth century,
in opening the grounds of a garden, and was destroyed for the sale of the
materials: Of the circus little remains, but masses of walls that merely
indicate its site; while statues and marbles, found occasionally, continue
to furnish proofs of its former magnificence(188).” Many statues of
exquisite workmanship have been found on the same spot; but these may have
been placed there by the magnificence of the imperial occupiers, and not
of the original proprietor.
In his urban gardens, or villa at Tibur, Sallust passed the close of his
life, dividing his time between literary avocations and the society of his
friends—among whom he numbered Lucullus, Messala, and Cornelius Nepos.
Such having been his friends and studies, it seems highly improbable that
he indulged in that excessive libertinism which has been attributed to
him, on the erroneous supposition that he was the Sallust mentioned by
Horace, in the first book of his Satires(189). The subject of Sallust’s
character is one which has excited some investigation and interest, and on
which very different opinions have been formed. That he was a man of loose
morals is evident; and it cannot be denied that he rapaciously plundered
his province, like other Roman governors of the day. But it seems doubtful
if he was that monster of iniquity he has been sometimes represented. He
was extremely unfortunate in the first permanent notice taken of his
character by his contemporaries. The decided enemy of Pompey and his
faction, he had said of that celebrated chief, in his general history,
that he was a man “oris probi, animo inverecundo.” Lenæus, the freedman of
Pompey, avenged his master, by the most virulent abuse of his enemy(190),
in a work, which should rather be regarded as a frantic satire than an
historical document. Of the injustice which he had done to the life of the
historian we may, in some degree, judge, from what he said of him as an
author. He called him, as we learn from Suetonius, “Nebulonem, vitâ
scriptisque monstrosum: præterea, priscorum Catonisque ineruditissimum
furem.” The life of Sallust, by Asconius Pedianus, which was written in
the age of Augustus, and might have acted, in the present day, as a
corrective, or palliative, of the unfavourable impression produced by this
injurious libel, has unfortunately perished; and the next work on the
subject now extant, is a professed rhetorical declamation against the
character of Sallust, which was given to the world in the name of Cicero,
but was not written till long after the death of that orator, and is now
generally assigned by critics, to a rhetorician, in the reign of Claudius,
called Porcius Latro. The calumnies invented or exaggerated by Lenæus, and
propagated in the scholiastic theme of Porcius Latro, have been adopted by
Le Clerc, professor of Hebrew at Amsterdam, and by Professor Meisner, of
Prague(191), in their respective accounts of the Life of Sallust. His
character has received more justice from the prefatory Memoir and Notes of
De Brosses, his French translator, and from the researches of Wieland in
Germany.
From what has been above said of Fabius Pictor, and his immediate
successors, it must be apparent, that the art of historic composition at
Rome was in the lowest state, and that Sallust had no model to imitate
among the writers of his own country. He therefore naturally recurred to
the productions of the Greek historians. The native exuberance, and
loquacious familiarity of Herodotus, were not adapted to his taste; and
simplicity, such as that of Xenophon, is, of all things, the most
difficult to attain: He therefore chiefly emulated Thucydides, and
attempted to transplant into his own language the vigour and conciseness
of the Greek historian; but the strict imitation, with which he has
followed him, has gone far to lessen the effect of his own original
genius.
The first book of Sallust was the _Conspiracy of Catiline_. There exists,
however, some doubt as to the precise period of its composition. The
general opinion is, that it was written immediately after the author went
out of office as Tribune of the People, that is, in the year 703: And the
composition of the _Jugurthine War_, as well as of his general history,
are fixed by Le Clerc between that period and his appointment to the
Prætorship of Numidia. But others have supposed that they were all written
during the space which intervened between his return from Numidia, in 708,
and his death, which happened in 718, four years previous to the battle of
Actium. It is maintained by the supporters of this last idea, that he was
too much engaged in political tumults previous to his administration of
Numidia, to have leisure for such important compositions—that, in the
introduction to Catiline’s Conspiracy, he talks of himself as withdrawn
from public affairs, and refutes accusations of his voluptuous life, which
were only applicable to this period; and that, while instituting the
comparison between Cæsar and Cato, he speaks of the existence and
competition of these celebrated opponents as things that had passed
over—“Sed mea memoria, ingenti virtute, diversis moribus, fuere viri duo,
Marcus Cato et Caius Cæsar.” On this passage, too, Gibbon in particular
argues, that such a flatterer and party tool as Sallust would not, during
the life of Cæsar, have put Cato so much on a level with him in the
comparison instituted between them. De Brosses agrees with Le Clerc in
thinking that the Conspiracy of Catiline at least must have been written
immediately after 703, as Sallust would not, subsequently to his marriage
with Terentia, have commemorated the disgrace of her sister, for she, it
seems, was the vestal virgin whose intrigue with Catiline is recorded by
our historian. But whatever may be the fact as to Catiline’s Conspiracy,
it is quite clear that the Jugurthine War was written subsequent to the
author’s residence in Numidia, which evidently suggested to him this
theme, and afforded him the means of collecting the information necessary
for completing his work.
The subjects chosen by Sallust form two of the most important and
prominent topics in the history of Rome. The periods, indeed, which he
describes, were painful, but they were interesting. Full of conspiracies,
usurpations, and civil wars, they chiefly exhibit the mutual rage and
iniquity of embittered factions, furious struggles between the patricians
and plebeians, open corruption in the senate, venality in the courts of
justice, and rapine in the provinces. This state of things, so forcibly
painted by Sallust, produced the Conspiracy, and even in some degree
formed the character of Catiline: But it was the oppressive debts of
individuals, the temper of Sylla’s soldiers, and the absence of Pompey
with his army, which gave a possibility, and even prospect of success to a
plot which affected the vital existence of the commonwealth, and which,
although arrested in its commencement, was one of those violent shocks
which hasten the fall of a state. The History of the Jugurthine War, if
not so important or menacing to the vital interests and immediate safety
of Rome, exhibits a more extensive field of action, and a greater theatre
of war. No prince, except Mithridates, gave so much employment to the arms
of the Romans. In the course of no war in which they had ever been
engaged, not even the second Carthaginian, were the people more
desponding, and in none were they more elated with ultimate success.
Nothing can be more interesting than the account of the vicissitudes of
this contest. The endless resources, and hair-breadth escapes of
Jugurtha—his levity, his fickle faithless disposition, contrasted with the
perseverance and prudence of the Roman commander, Metellus, are all
described in a manner the most vivid and picturesque.
Sallust had attained the age of twenty-two when the conspiracy of Catiline
broke out, and was an eyewitness of the whole proceedings. He had
therefore, sufficient opportunity of recording with accuracy and truth the
progress and termination of the conspiracy. Sallust has certainly acquired
the praise of a veracious historian, and I do not know that he has been
detected in falsifying any fact within the sphere of his knowledge. Indeed
there are few historical compositions of which the truth can be proved on
such evidence as the Conspiracy of Catiline. The facts detailed in the
orations of Cicero, though differing in some minute particulars, coincide
in everything of importance, and highly contribute to illustrate and
verify the work of the historian. But Sallust lived too near the period of
which he treated, and was too much engaged in the political tumults of the
day, to give a faithful account, unvarnished by animosity or predilection;
he could not have raised himself above all hopes, fears, and prejudices,
and therefore could not in all their extent have fulfilled the duties of
an impartial writer. A contemporary historian of such turbulent times
would be apt to exaggerate through adulation, or conceal through fear, to
instil the precepts not of the philosopher but partizan, and colour facts
into harmony with his own system of patriotism or friendship. An
obsequious follower of Cæsar, he has been accused of a want of candour in
varnishing over the views of his patron; yet I have never been able to
persuade myself that Cæsar was deeply engaged in the conspiracy of
Catiline, or that a person of his prudence should have leagued with such
rash associates, or followed so desperate an adventurer. But the chief
objection urged against Sallust’s impartiality, is the feeble and
apparently reluctant commendation which he bestows on Cicero, who is now
acknowledged to have been the principal actor in detecting and frustrating
the conspiracy. Though fond of displaying his talent for drawing
characters, he exercises none of it on Cicero, whom he merely terms “homo
egregius et optumus Consul,” which was but cold applause for one who had
saved the commonwealth. It is true, that, in the early part of the
history, praise, though sparingly bestowed, is not absolutely withheld.
The election of Cicero to the Consulship is fairly attributed to the high
opinion entertained of his capacity, which overcame the disadvantage of
his obscure birth. The mode adopted for gaining over one of Catiline’s
accomplices, and fixing his own wavering and disaffected colleague,—the
dexterity manifested in seizing the Allobrogian deputies with the letters,
and the irresistible effect produced, by confronting them with the
conspirators, are attributed exclusively to Cicero. It is in the
conclusion of these great transactions that the historian withholds from
him his due share of applause, and contrives to eclipse him by always
interposing the character of Cato, though it could not be unknown to any
witness of the proceedings that Cato himself, and other senators, publicly
hailed the Consul as the Father of his country, and that a public
thanksgiving to the gods was decreed in his name, for having preserved the
city from conflagration, and the citizens from massacre(192). This
omission, which may have originated partly in enmity, and partly in
disgust at the ill-disguised vanity of the Consul, has in all times been
regarded as the chief defect, and even stain, in the history of the
Catilinarian conspiracy.
Although not an eye-witness of the war with Jugurtha Sallust’s situation
as Prætor of Numidia, which suggested the composition, was favourable to
the authority of the work, by affording opportunity of collecting
materials and procuring information. He examined into the different
accounts, written as well as traditionary, concerning the history of
Africa(193), particularly the documents preserved in the archives of King
Hiempsal, which he caused to be translated for his own use, and which
proved peculiarly serviceable for his detailed description of the
continent and inhabitants of Africa. He has been accused of showing, in
this history, an undue partiality towards the character of Marius, and
giving, for the sake of his favourite leader, an unfair account of the
massacre at Vacca. But he appears to me to do even more than ample justice
to Metellus, as he represents the war as almost finished by him previous
to the arrival of Marius, though it was, in fact, far from being
concluded.
Veracity and fidelity are the chief, and, indeed, the indispensable duties
of an historian. Of all the _ornaments_ of historic composition, it
derives its chief embellishment from a graceful and perspicuous style.
That of the early annalists, as we have already seen, was inelegant and
jejune; but style came to be considered, in the progress of history, as a
matter of primary importance. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that so much
value was at length attached to it, since the ancient historians seldom
gave their authorities, and considered the excellence of history as
consisting in fine writing, more than in an accurate detail of facts.
Sallust evidently regarded an elegant style as one of the chief merits of
an historical work. His own style, on which he took so much pains, was
carefully formed on that of Thucydides, whose manner of writing was in a
great measure original, and, till the time of Sallust, peculiar to
himself. The Roman has wonderfully succeeded in imitating the vigour and
conciseness of the Greek historian, and infusing into his composition
something of that dignified austerity, which distinguishes the works of
his great model; but when I say that Sallust has imitated the conciseness
of Thucydides, I mean the rapid and compressed manner in which his
narrative is conducted,—in short, brevity of idea, rather than language.
For Thucydides, although he brings forward only the principal idea, and
discards what is collateral, yet frequently employs long and involved
periods. Sallust, on the other hand, is abrupt and sententious, and is
generally considered as having carried this sort of brevity to a vicious
excess. The use of copulatives, either for the purpose of connecting his
sentences with each other, or uniting the clauses of the same sentence, is
in a great measure rejected. This omission produces a monotonous effect,
and a total want of that flow and that variety, which are the principal
charms of the historic period. Seneca accordingly talks of the “Amputatæ
sententiæ, et verba ante expectatum cadentia(194),” which the practice of
Sallust had rendered fashionable. Lord Monboddo calls his style
incoherent, and declares that there is not one of his short and uniform
sentences which deserves the name of a period; so that supposing each
sentence were in itself beautiful, there is not variety enough to
constitute fine writing.
It was, perhaps, partly in imitation of Thucydides, that Sallust
introduced into his history a number of words almost considered as
obsolete, and which were selected from the works of the older authors of
Rome, particularly Cato the Censor. It is on this point he has been
chiefly attacked by Pollio, in his letters to Plancus. He has also been
taxed with the opposite vice, of coining new words, and introducing Greek
idioms; but the severity of judgment which led him to imitate the ancient
and austere dignity of style, made him reject those sparkling ornaments of
composition, which were beginning to infect the Roman taste, in
consequence of the increasing popularity of the rhetoric schools of
declamation, and the more frequent intercourse with Asia. On the whole, in
the style of Sallust, there is too much appearance of study, and a want of
that graceful ease, which is generally the effect of art, but in which art
is nowhere discovered. The opinion of Sir J. Checke, as reported by Ascham
in his _Schoolmaster_, contains a pretty accurate estimate of the merits
of the style of Sallust. “Sir J. Checke said, that he could not recommend
Sallust as a good pattern of style for young men, because in his writings
there was more art than nature, and more labour than art; and in his
labour, also, too much toil, as it were, with an uncontented care to write
better than he could—a fault common to very many men. And, therefore, he
doth not express the matter lively and naturally with common speech, as ye
see Xenophon doth in Greek, but it is carried and driven forth
artificially, after too learned a sort, as Thucydides doth in his
orations. ‘And how cometh it to pass,’ said I, ‘that Cæsar’s and Cicero’s
talk is so natural and plain, and Sallust’s writing so artificial and
dark, when all the three lived in one time?’—‘I will freely tell you my
fancy herein,’ said he; ‘Cæsar and Cicero, beside a singular prerogative
of natural eloquence given unto them by God, were both, by use of life,
daily orators among the common people, and greatest councillors in the
Senate-house; and therefore gave themselves to use such speech as the
meanest should well understand, and the wisest best allow, following
carefully that good council of Aristotle, _Loquendum ut multi; sapiendum
ut pauci_. But Sallust was no such man.’ ”
Of all departments of history, the delineation of character is that which
is most trying to the temper and impartiality of the writer, more
especially when he has been contemporary with the individuals he portrays,
and in some degree engaged in the transactions he records. Five or six of
the characters drawn by Sallust have in all ages been regarded as
masterpieces: He has seized the delicate shades, as well as the prominent
features, and thrown over them the most lively and appropriate colouring.
Those of the two principal actors in his tragic histories are forcibly
given, and prepare us for the incidents which follow. The portrait drawn
of Catiline conveys a vivid idea of his mind and person,—his profligate
untameable spirit, infinite resources, unwearied application, and
prevailing address. We behold, as it were, before us the deadly paleness
of his countenance, his ghastly eye, his unequal troubled step, and the
distraction of his whole appearance, strongly indicating the restless
horror of a guilty conscience. I think, however, it might have been
instructive and interesting had we seen something more of the atrocities
perpetrated in early life by this chief conspirator. The historian might
have shown him commencing his career as the chosen favourite of Sylla, and
the instrument of his monstrous cruelties. The notice of the other
conspirators is too brief, and there is too little discrimination of their
characters. Perhaps the outline was the same in all, but each might have
been individuated by distinctive features. The parallel drawn between Cato
and Cæsar is one of the most celebrated passages in the history of the
conspiracy. Of both these famed opponents we are presented with favourable
likenesses. Their defects are thrown into shade; and the bright qualities
of each different species which distinguished them, are contrasted for the
purpose of showing the various merits by which men arrive at eminence.
The introductory sketch of the genius and manners of Jugurtha is no less
able and spirited than the character of Catiline. We behold him, while
serving under Scipio, as brave, accomplished, and enterprizing; but imbued
with an ambition, which, being under no control of principle, hurried him
into its worst excesses, and rendered him ultimately perfidious and cruel.
The most singular part of his character was the mixture of boldness and
irresolution which it combined; but the lesson we receive from it, lies in
the miseries of that suspicion and that remorse which he had created in
his own mind by his atrocities, and which rendered him as wretched on the
throne, or at the head of his army, as in the dungeon where he terminated
his existence. The portraits of the other principal characters, who
figured in the Jugurthine War, are also well brought out. That of Marius,
in particular, is happily touched. His insatiable ambition is artfully
disguised under the mask of patriotism,—his cupidity and avarice are
concealed under that of martial simplicity and hardihood; but, though we
know from his subsequent career the hypocrisy of his pretensions, the
character of Marius is presented to us in a more favourable light than
that in which it can be viewed on a survey of his whole life. We see the
blunt and gallant soldier, and not that savage whose innate cruelty of
soul was just about to burst forth for the destruction of his countrymen.
In drawing the portrait of Sylla, the memorable rival of Marius, the
historian represents him also such as he appeared at that period, not such
as he afterwards proved himself to be. We behold him with pleasure as an
accomplished and subtle commander, eloquent in speech, and versatile in
resources; but there is no trace of the cold-blooded assassin, the tyrant,
buffoon, and usurper.
In general, Sallust’s painting of character is so strong, that we almost
foresee how each individual will conduct himself in the situation in which
he is placed. Tacitus attributes all the actions of men to policy,—to
refined, and sometimes imaginary views; but Sallust, more correctly,
discovers their chief springs in the passions and dispositions of
individuals. “Salluste,” says St Evremond, “donne autant au naturel, que
Tacite à la politique. Le plus grand soin du premier est de bien connoitre
le génie des hommes; les affaires viennent après naturellement, par des
actions peu recherchées de ces mêmes personnes qu’il a depeintes.”