The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Sallust (Author), S. A. Handford (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 1964

"The Conspiracy of Catiline" (his first published work) contains the history of the memorable year 63. Sallust adopts the usually accepted view of Catiline, and describes him as the deliberate foe of law, order and morality, and does not give a comprehensive explanation of his views and intentions. Catiline had supported the party of Sulla, to which Sallust was opposed. Sallust's "Jugurthine War" is a valuable and interesting monograph. We may assume that Sallust collected materials and put together notes for it during his governorship of Numidia. Here, too, he dwells upon the feebleness of the senate and aristocracy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; 1st Pub 1963 edition (February 28, 1964)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140441328
• ISBN-13: 978-0140441321
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enemies of the State, January 20, 2001

By 

Captain Cook (Leeward to the Sandwich Islands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

It is suggested by historians that Sallust was a hypocrite. In his writings he always claims to be writing from the highest motives and says such things as:
"Wealth and Beauty can only give us a fleeting and perishable fame, but intellectual excellence is a glorious and everlasting possession." This stance sits nicely alongside the fact that he was expelled from the Senate for alleged immorality in 50 B.C.! The solution to this problem seems to be that human nature is a complex phenomenon, and that man is capable of both brute carnality and intellectual honesty, depending on the chemical swings of the moment without totally compromising his integrity.

Only a part of Sallust's work has survived, most notably his history of the war against Jugurthine, an able North African monarch, and the Conspiracy of Catiline, a debauched but charismatic member of the aristocracy who aimed at a populist coup. This volume is composed of these two histories.

The war against the ruthless but talented Jugurthine was more about politics than tactics. Jugurthine took advantage of the growing material greed of senators and tribunes in the late Roman Republic to bribe them to connive at his usurpation of the Numidian Kingdom. This policy was only successful in the short term, however, as the aggravated greed of the Romans led to a war of conquest, plunder, and annexation of his kingdom.

Sallust's account is particularly effective at showing the rise of Marius, a common soldier from a plebian family, who succeeded in overcoming prejudice to rise to the top of the Roman State as Consul. Although he later became a bloodthirsty revolutionary, his toughness, honesty, and energy contrast with the corruption and decadence that was already infecting Rome's higher orders.

The second part of this history focuses on one of these corrupt aristocrats, the much vilified Catiline, who tried to seize supreme power. Connected to many of the great men of his day, like the young Julius Caesar and the extremely wealthy Crassus, he hatched a plot to cause fires, assassinations, and riots in Rome while his private army conscripted from veterans with bad debts marched on the city. Catiline as a profligate nobleman had vast debts of his own and this was perhaps one of the main motives behind the plot.

Ably opposed by the Consul Cicero, the plot fell apart until Catiline's private army was forced to retreat and then annihilated by the Roman legions in North Italy. Although Catiline was depicted by Cicero as a depraved monster who had even sacrificed and eaten human flesh, Sallust seems more objective. He records Caesar's fine speech calling for clemency for some of the conspirators, and he also records the bravery of Catiline's little army, every man of which fell facing the enemy in a stubborn battle. This leaves the reader feeling that Catiline was perhaps more than just a power-crazed thug.

Dealing honestly with two of the most unpopular 'villains' from the late Republic, Sallust's history successfully aspires to the writer's own notion of intellectual excellence. It is for this reason that his name is still with us today.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Politics, Corruption, and Warfare, January 16, 1999

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Sallust is credited as the father of the historical monograph, and this volume contains his two surviving examples in this genre. I first read this edition of the "Jugurthine War" back in the late 60's at the height of the Vietnam War. I found the similarities between Vietnam and the Jugurthine War to be striking. The U.S. military could well have studied the lessons of this book. Aside from that, Sallust's story of Jugurtha is a rollicking good yarn with intrigue, corruption, hairbreadth escapes, betrayal, remarkable battles, and central characters (Jugurtha and the Romans opposing him) who, each in their own way, are all remarkable men. The other half of the book, "Cataline" deals, not with a guerilla war, but with an abortive coup. It deals with some of the same human values and has some characters who are almost as interesting as the characters in "The Jugurthine War".

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Readable, perhaps a little bit too much., November 12, 2000

By 

C. E. R. Mendonça "Carlos Eduardo Rebello de ... (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

As all Penguin Classics, this translation is intended to be enjoyable by a modern reader with no knowledge of the Classical languages who wants to introduce him/herself to the Classical authors. Therefore the colorful cover and the emminently readable translation. However, the cover - a mythological mosaic of the Later Roman epoch - has nothing to do with the subject-matter, and the translation falls sometimes into unduly modernizing. There is a place where one speaks of the Roman "proletariat"?! Personally, I should prefer a translation that was readable but which made no attempt to give the impression of Ancient-Roman-society-very-much-alike-to-ours. But I must admit that, compared to, say, the Portuguese translation by Barreto Feio (a fine speciment of XIXth century prose, and enormously cumbersome to a modern reader) this trans. fares better.