Customer Reviews

Sallust's Bellum Catilinae

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Sallust's Bellum Catilinae contains the Latin text of Sallust's work on the conspiracy of Catiline along with a concise introduction and commentary by J.T. Ramsey.

The introduction begins with a brief overview of the life and works of Sallust, discusses Sallust's contribution to Roman historiography, introduces his general style of writing and has a few words on the textual tradition of the Bellum Catilinae. Ramsey then gives a short account of the conspiracy of Catiline, followed by a timeline of events. Finally, the introduction concludes with an analysis Sallust's narrative.

The Latin text is based on the text in Ernout's 1958 Bude edition with a few modifications.

The commentary mostly has notes on the grammar and syntax of the text, but also on style and sometimes even discusses questions of textual criticism, it often explains important concepts and, where needed, gives the reader further information on historical matters. The commentary, however, is not at all historical or philological in nature, but rather designed to be of aid to readers who's main concern is to be able to read and understand the Latin text. In my opinion, Ramseys notes do a fine job of this and are generally very helpful.

I recommend this book to those who wish to experience the pleasure of reading Sallust in Latin. Ramseys commentary will almost certainly make it an easier task as well as enrich the experience.

This is a wonderful Latin text--the text is presented uninterrupted and then over half the book is commentary--vocabulary and commentary on why a certain Latin word was used over another one and what certain Latin words meant at the time of composition. This is a wonderful book to add to my collection of Latin texts and one that I can return to for reference time and time again