The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Cataline by Sallust, translated with an introduction by S.A. Handford
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1963 (read copy a 1983 printing) ISBN 0140441328
I really enjoyed this book - I had of course read some of Cicero's speeches against Cataline, when struggling with my Latin studies many years ago, but I have until now never read Sallust, and, in this translation by S.A. Handford he gives the reader a very vibrant and opinionated account of both the war against Jugurtha (112-106 BC), and the Cataline conspiracy.
Gaius Sallustius Crispus was a supporter of the plebian parties against the nobility and the Senate in Rome, and this bias comes across in both works (it seems that despite his championing of the lower classes, Sallust was not above enriching himself when he had the chance - as governor of Numidia his oppression and greed gave him not only enough money to build the Gardens of Sallust, but, very nearly a condemnation from the Senate, only avoided through the patronage of Caesar). At the end of his career in public life, Sallust retired to become an author. The two works under review are the only ones we have of his in their entirety, as well as fragments of his history of Rome.
As Governor of Numidia, Sallust would have been in a good position to discover details of the war between Rome and Jugurtha, and he provides the reader with a rollicking story of battles, intrigue, and betrayal. While Jugurtha is clearly the enemy in this book, Sallust has little good to say about the Roman elite and senatorial class. In fact the first section of this work is an extended harangue against the Roman governing class, their cupidity and corruption, and how the hard-won peace that they had gained after the defeat of Carthage was wasted.
Sallust writes the Jugurthine War as a kind of morality tale: when Jugurtha, the illegitimate son of King Micipsa, arranged to have his two co-heirs of the kingdom killed, he aroused the enmity of Rome (who was an ally of Micipsa while he was alive). Jugurtha had been led to believe that the Senate was infinitely corruptible, so he endeavoured to bribe his way to exoneration. Here Sallust again, through the Thucidian trope of placing this thoughts in the mouths of historical actors (in this case Metellus), describes the descent of Rome from probity to corruption - in the speech Metellus shames the Senate, and stirs the plebs, so that an army is sent from Rome to Numidia to defeat Jugurtha.
Jugurtha however, is a wily opponent. By the use of his considerable wealth, and clever guerrilla-style tactics, he leads Metellus a merry dance across the deserts of North Africa. Meanwhile, in the Roman camp, Marius - Metellus' second-in-command - desired the top job, and stirred up Rome against Metellus' failure to win the war.
The war, however, was being won. Marius gains control of the armies just as the tide was turning against Jugurtha, who, in his paranoia, had started turning against his friends and allies until finally he was betrayed.
Sallust is fast-paced yet pithy in his writing, and had interesting things to say about leadership and warfare - he put the following into the mouth of Metellus "You [Jugurtha] have now a splendid opportunity... of concluding a friendly alliance, which will be preferable to war. In spite of your confidence in your strength you should not throw away a certainty for an uncertainty. It is always easy to begin fighting, but the man who starts may find it exceedingly hard to stop; for while anyone - even a coward - can open hostilities, only the victor can decide when they shall cease." Quite.
The Cataline Conspiracy tells the story of the second Catilinarian Conspiracy, and is a story of a lust for power gone bad. Cataline had once been a servant of the Roman republic, fighting alongside Pompey and Cicero in the Social War, although his personal character was under a cloud, thought to have murdered his first wife, and to have committed adultery with a Vestal Virgin (he was acquitted in court of the adultery charge, although there is a belief he bribed the court to achieve that outcome).
When he was passed over for election to Consul, he determined to gather together like-minded souls and overthrow the Republic. Sallust's version of the story shows Cataline bringing the lowest types under his umbrella, with promises of debts forgiven, booty, plunder, positions and power. Unfortunately for Cataline and his fellow conspirators, he is found out, and while Cataline escapes Rome to meet up with his troops, his fellow conspirators led by Lentulus are captured and imprisoned. The centrepiece of Sallust's work are the speeches in the Senate of Caesar and Cato, where Caesar puts the case for the banishment of the prisoners, and Cato for their execution. It is interesting to read that Sallust had good things to say about both of these men, who were to become deadly enemies not too many years after the events here described.
Before I picked up this text, I knew nothing of the Jugurthine War, and only the outline of the Catalinarian Conspiracy. Not only do I now know more, I have been highly entertained on the way. Recommended.
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