INTRODUCTION
In fact, the orations in all of Sallust's works were greatly admired in antiquity, and collections of them were made for use in the schools of rhetoric; yet he is not mentioned by Cicero among the great speakers of the day, and Quintilian[1] expressly warns orators against taking him as a model. It was probably Sallust's own speeches, and not those which he puts into the mouths of his characters, to which Cassius Severus referred when he said "orationes Sallustii in honorem historiarum leguntur."[2] The addresses in Sallust's works are introduced by such phrases as "hoc modo disseruit," "huiuscemodi orationem habuit," and the like, and hence do not purport to give the exact words of the speakers. They are carefully composed and their sentiments are adapted to those who are represented as delivering them, but the language is that of Sallust himself.
Sallust's second work was an account of the war with Jugurtha, entitled Bellum Iugurthinum.[3] The contest with the Numidian prince doubtless attracted Sallust's attention because of his acquaintance with the scene of the conflict. He himself says that he selected it "because of its perilous nature and shifting fortunes, and because it marked the beginning
- ↑ 4. 2. 45.
- ↑ Sen. Rhet. Contr. 3. pr. 8, p. 243 k.
- ↑ Quint. 3. 8. 9. The title De Bello Iugurthino is also found. The Catiline and the Jugurtha are collectively referred to as Bella, and the title of the latter work probably had an influence on that of the former, which would more naturally have been called De Catilinae Coniuratione; cf. Cat. iv. 3.
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