Sallust, Gaius Sallustius Crispus, 86-35 BC. AD, Roman politician, soldier and historian.
His life
Sallust was born in Amiterne, in Sabine country, of a plebeian family.
Quaestor in -55, tribune of the plebs in 52, he supported the party of the populares, supported by Julius Caesar and Pompey, against the optimates of Titus Annius Milo and Cicero. During the trial of the murderers of Clodius Pulcher, leader of the populares, Sallust was expelled from the Roman Senate for immorality in 50.
Friend of Julius Caesar, he was responsible for leading the Roman fleet in Illyria. He is beaten by the Pompeians (-49).
Once again quaestor, Sallust can return to the Senate. Caesar entrusts him with a command in Campania, whose legions have mutinied. He is beaten there.
The political domain suits him better:elected praetor in 47, he accompanies Caesar in Africa and, by his talents, is entrusted with the government of the new Roman province of Numidia in (-46 - -45). He enriched himself considerably there at the expense of the people of that province.
Upon his return to Rome, he was charged with extortion, but not convicted. He buys very beautiful gardens, the horti sallustiani. Upon Caesar's death (15 March -44), Sallust retired from political life. His career as a historian begins.
His work
Sallust is the author of three great works, only two of which have come down to us in full.
* The Conjuration of Catiline is the story of Catiline's plot to seize power, denounced by Cicero (-63).
* Jugurtha's War reports a colonial episode of Rome in North Africa.
* The Stories are very incomplete. They deal with the history of Rome between the death of Sylla (-78) and Pompey's victory against the pirates (-67). However, they were the subject of a very important reconstruction work by Charles de Brosses, First President of the Parliament of Burgundy, published in 1777 by Frantin in Dijon under the title Histoire de la République Romaine dans le cours du VIIe century, by Sallust, partly translated from the Latin on the original, partly restored &composed on the fragments which have remained of his lost books, put back in order in their true or most probable place.