Sallust

Of Wasmuth's thirty-two examples, Wolfling recognizes twenty as surely and directly taken from Valerius Maximus, and he adds to the list one eleven, eleven to thirteen, not mentioned by Wasmuth.

He considers the relation of the real and the pseudo-Frontinus to other authors from whom they drew their material, and finds a difference in their attitude toward Sallust, Caesar, and Vegetius.

And in general, he discerns in the true Frontinus a truthfulness toward the facts given in his sources, whereas the pseudo-Frontinus, while exhibiting at times a slavish dependence on form, has no conscience about changing the facts.

He believes that it was not by accident, but by design, that the fourth book was united to the other three, that the author of this book wished to be considered Frontinus, and took certain definite measures to achieve that end, attempting to imitate the style of Frontinus in the use of certain phrases, keeping all his stories within the period which would be known to Frontinus, and, in the preface to book four, virtually claiming the authorship of the first three books.

In this can be seen one of the ways, among others, in which republics disintegrate.

how men rise from one ambition to another, and the truth of the remark Sallust put into Caesar's mouth, that all examples of evil doing arise from good beginnings.

So what he's saying here is that some people just don't know where to stop.

They really don't.

Rome was proud of its early military victories over neighboring peoples and the expansion of its rule.

Choosing one such war of expansion against Rome's mother city, as Augustine terms it, Alba, Augustine cites evidence from Sallust that this conflict was waged on trumped-up charges in order to exercise Rome's idle army.

Imagining again a courtroom setting with justice hanging in the balance, Augustine's rhetoric presses charges against the distorting speech employed by the opposing legal counsel.

And Augustine writes, why do our adversaries plead the words praise and victory to me take off the cloak of vain opinion and let such evil deeds be examined naked let them be weighed naked and judged naked let the cause against alba be stated no such just cause is to be found however And praising her own crime, Rome called it glory.

He begs the tutor, please give my children some readings that will help them grow, appreciate modesty and humility, as well as having great spirit, and that will teach them charity, piety.

modesty.

And so he suggests, please have them read some St. Jerome and some Augustine, as well as Sallust.

So again, I think, yes, in terms of the two cities, that's something I haven't thought as explicitly about as Pride and Humility and some later writers.

Like Xenophon, I have maintained the utmost impartiality and the strictest adherence to truth throughout my history.

I have enriched it after the manner of Sallust, with various characters of ancient worthies, drawn at full length and faithfully colored.

I have seasoned it with profound political speculations like Thucydides; sweetened it with the graces of sentiment like Tacitus; and infused into the whole the dignity, the grandeur, and magnificence of Livy.

I am aware that I shall incur the censure of numerous very learned and judicious critics for indulging too frequently in the bold, excursive manner of my favorite Herodotus And to be candid, I have found it impossible always to arrest the allurements of those pleasing episodes, which like flowery banks and fragrant bowers beset the dusty road of the historian, and entice him to turn aside and refresh himself from his wayfaring.

Arms, not fine trappings, bring glory.

From the War Against Jugurtha by Sallust.

All translations are adapted from the Loeb Classical Library.

Here was a model of manliness forged on the battlefield.

The word virtus, a term cognate with the Roman vir, meaning man as opposed to woman, clearly means courage in war when it is first recorded in the mid-5th century BCE.

Courage in battle could be taken as the foremost manifestation of Roman masculinity.

The historian Sallust, writing in the 40s BCE, praises earlier generations of Romans for their preeminent manliness in war.

Whenever their virtues repelled dangers, they rendered aid to their allies and friends.

Of Wasmuth's thirty-two examples, Wolfling recognizes twenty as surely and directly taken from Valerius Maximus, and he adds to the list one eleven, eleven to thirteen, not mentioned by Wasmuth.

He considers the relation of the real and the pseudo Frontinus to other authors from whom they drew their material, and finds a difference in their attitude toward Sallust, Caesar, and Vegetius.

And in general, he discerns in the true Frontinus a truthfulness toward the facts given in his sources, whereas the pseudo Frontinus, while exhibiting at times a slavish dependence on form, has no conscience about changing the facts.

He believes that it was not by accident but by design that the fourth book was united to the other three, that the author of this book wished to be considered Frontinus, and took certain definite measures to achieve that end, attempting to imitate the style of Frontinus in the use of certain phrases, keeping all his stories within the period which would be known to Frontinus, and, in the preface to book four, virtually claiming the authorship of the first three books.

Um, so Europe choices, they need an external enemy.

Now, there's a Roman historian, Sallust, who, um, commented on his observation as to why the Roman Republic fell.

And he ...

And I think it's applicable today.

For these wise fools and very arch-dotes thought the wealth of the whole country herein to consist if there were ever in a readiness a strong and a sure garrison, specially of old practiced soldiers, for they put no trust at all in men unexercised.

And therefore they must be forced to seek for war, to the end they may ever have practiced soldiers and cunning manslayers, lest that, as it is prettily said of Sallust, their hands and their minds through idleness or lack of exercise should wax dull.

But how pernicious and pestilent a thing it is to maintain such beasts the Frenchmen by their own harms have learned, and the examples of the Romans, Carthaginians, Syrians, and of many other countries do manifestly declare.

For not only the empire, but also the fields and cities of all these, by divers occasions, have been overrun and destroyed of their own armies beforehand had in a readiness.

upon my acquaintance

with Sallust.

I have not forgotten the astonishment of my respected teacher,

Corsen, when he was forced to give his worst Latin pupil the highest marks.