C. Sallusti Crispi De Bello Catilinario Et Jugurthino
C. Sallusti Crispi De Bello Catilinario Et Jugurthino gathers the two surviving monographs of the Roman historian Sallust in a carefully edited Latin text, here presented with C. G. Zumpt's critical apparatus and explanatory notes. The first work recounts the conspiracy of Catiline, a ruined aristocrat who plotted to seize power by violence and was exposed and crushed during Cicero's consulship. The second narrates the war against Jugurtha, the cunning Numidian king whose bribery and treachery laid bare the corruption of the Roman nobility. Drawn from his own turbulent career in a republic torn between optimates and populares, Sallust writes with terse, pointed brevity.
Beyond the events themselves, the book is a moral and political diagnosis of Rome's decline, tracing how ambition, greed, and factional strife eroded civic virtue. Its compressed style, vivid portraits, and reflective prefaces made it a model of Latin historiography studied for centuries.
How it begins
The text of Sallust, notwithstanding the many and excellent editions which have been published, has not yet acquired a form that can be regarded as generally adopted and established; for the number of manuscripts is great, and their differences have led critical editors to form different opinions as to which, in each case, is the correct reading, or at least the one most worthy of acceptation. This difference of opinion manifested itself especially after the edition of Gottleib Corte (Leipzig, 1724, 4to.), who in many passages abandoned the vulgate as constituted by Gruter and Wasse, and on the authority of a few manuscripts, altered the text of Sallust, on the mere supposition that his style was abrupt. Corte’s recension was adopted by many, and often reprinted; while others, especially Haverkamp, in his valuable and very complete edition (Hague, 1742, 2 vols. 4to.), returned to the vulgate. The latest critical editors of Sallust — Gerlach (Basel, 1823, &c. 3 vols. 4to., and a revised text, Basel, 1832, 8vo.) and Kritz (Leipzig, 1828, &c. 2 vols. 8vo.) — though declaring against the arbitrary proceedings of Corte, yet very often differ in their texts from each other. Between these two stands the edition of the learned critic, J. C. Orelli (Zürich, 1840), whose text forms the basis of the present edition.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain.