Book Summary and Quotes: Sallust translated by J.C.Rolfe

ISBN: 0-674-99128-1 or 0 434 99116 3

My rating: 76/100

See Book Notes for other books I have read. If you like my notes, go buy it!

Important Quotes and Principles

It is clear that Sallust espouses virtue ethics, and believes that virtuous qualities cannot be gained but instead must be earned.
fortune can neither give to any man honesty, diligence, and other good qualities, nor can she take them away.
It seems like a common theme of Sallust to point out the advantages of adversity, and warns against letting down ones guard after the adversity is overcome. For example, “Thus the peace for which they had longed in time of adversity, after they had gained it proved to be more cruel and bitter than adversity itself.”
The speech by Marius in section LXXXV of The War with Jugurtha is particularly excellent. I recommend reading the speech in its entirety.
… virtue they have not left them, nor could they have done so; that alone is neither bestowed nor received as a gift…. Well then, let them continue to do what pleases them and what they hold dear; let them make love and drink; let them pass their old age where they have spent their youth, in banquets, slaves to their belly and the most shameful parts of their body. Sweat, dust, and all such things let them leave to us, to whom they are sweeter than feasts.

Introduction

Gaius Sallustius Crispus born in 86 B.C.

Sallust – The War with Catiline

In the beginning kings … training their minds and other their bodies. Even at the time men’s lives were still free from covetousness; each was quite content with his own possessions.

Now if the mental excellence with which kings and rulers are endowed were as potent in peace as in war, human affairs would run an evener and steadier course, and you would not see power passing from hand to hand and everything in turmoil and confusion; for empire is easily retained by the qualities by which it was first won. But when sloth has usurped the place of industry, and lawlessness and insolence have superseded self-restraint and justice, the fortune of princes changes with their character. Thus the sway is always passing to the best man from the hands of his inferior.

Success in agriculture, navigation, and architecture depends invariably upon mental excellence. Yet many men, being slaves to appetite and sleep, have passed through life untaught and untrained, like mere wayfarers; in these men we see, contrary to Nature’s intent, the body a source of pleasure, the soul a burden. For my own part, I consider the lives and deaths of such men as about alike, since no record is made of either. In very truth that man alone lives and makes the most of life, as it seems to me, who devotes himself to some occupation, courting the fame of a glorious deed or a noble career.

VII

For kings hold the good in greater suspicion than the wicked.

To begin with, as soon as the young men could endure the hardships of war, they were taught a soldier’s duties in camp under a vigorous discipline, and they took more pleasure in handsome arms and war horses than in harlots and revelry. To such men consequently no labour was unfamiliar, no region too rough or too steep, no armed foeman was terrible; valour was all in all. Nay, their hardest struggle for glory was with one another; each man strove to be first to strike down the foe, to scale a wall, to be seen of all while doing such a deed. This they considered riches, this fair fame and high nobility. It was praise they coveted, but they were lavish of money; their aim was unbounded renown, but only such riches as could be gained honourably.

VIII

the best citizen preferred action to words, and thought that his own brave deeds should be lauded by others rather than that theirs should be recounted by him.

In time of war punishment was more often inflicted for attacking the enemy contrary to orders, or for withdrawing too tardily when recalled from the field, than for venturing to abandon the standards or to give ground under stress; and secondly, in time of peace they ruled by kindness rather than fear, and when wronged preferred forgiveness to vengeance.

Quaestor – elected Roman official who was responsible for treasury activities and audits.

Standards (“signa” in latin) – banners and emblems used within the Roman army to signify the different units in a large, complex army.

In the highest position there is the least freedom of action. There neither partiality nor dislike is in place, and anger least of all; for what in others is called wrath, this in a ruler is termed insolence and cruelty.

The Lacedaemonians, after they had conquered the Athenians, set over them thirty men to carry on the government. These men began at first by putting to death without a trial the most wicked and generally hated citizens, whereat the people rejoiced greatly and declared that it was well done. But afterwards their license gradually increased, and the tyrants slew good and bad alike at pleasure and intimidated the rest.

LIII

But within my own memory there have appeared two men of towering merit, though of diverse character, Marcus Cato and Gaius Caesar.

LVIII

In battle the greatest danger always threatens those who show the greatest fear; boldness is a bulwark.

The War With Jugurtha

Without reason do mankind complain of their nature, on the ground that it is weak and of short duration and ruled rather by chance than by virtue.

But the leader and ruler of man’s life is the mind, and when this advances to glory by the path of virtue, it has power and potency in abundance, as well as fame; and it need not fortune, since fortune can neither give to any man honesty, diligence, and other good qualities, nor can she take them away. But if through the lure of base desires the mind has sunk into sloth and the pleasures of the body, when it has enjoyed ruinous indulgence for a season, when strength, time, and talents have been wasted through indolence, the weakness of human nature is accused, and the guilty shift their own blame to circumstances. PP But if men had as great regard for honourable enterprises as they have ardour in pursuing what is foreign to their interests, and bound to be unprofitable and often even dangerous, they would control fate rather than be controlled by it, and would attain to that height of greatness where from mortals their glory would make them immortal.

For just as mankind is made up of body and soul, so all our acts and pursuits partake of the nature either of the body or of the mind. Therefore notable beauty and great riches, as well as bodily strength and all other gifts of that kind, soon pass away, but the splendid achievements of the intellect, like the soul, are everlasting.

In short, the goods of the body and of fortune have an end as well as a beginning, and they all rise and fall, wax and wane; but the mind, incorruptible, eternal, ruler of mankind, animates and controls all things, yet is itself not controlled. Therefore we can but marvel the more at the perversity of those who pass their life in riotous living and idleness, given over to the pleasures of the body, but allow the mind, which is better and greater than anything else in man’s nature, to grow dull from neglect and inaction; especially when there are so many and so varied intellectual pursuits by which the highest distinction may be won.

III

#politics

But among these pursuits, in my opinion, magistracies and military commands, in short all public offices, are least desirable in these times, since honor is not bestowed upon merit, while those who have gained it wrongfully are neither safe nor the more honorable because of it.

(Sallust was writing in the troublous times which followed the assassination of Caesar.)

Hannibal, leader of the Carthaginians.

Masinissa, king of Numidia.

Micipsa brought up a son of his brother Mastanabal called Jugurtha.

VII

[Jugurtha] was both valiant in war and wise in counsel, a thing most difficult to achieve, for most often wisdom through caution leads to timorousness and valour through boldness to rashness.

VIII

At that time there were a great many in our [the Roman] army who cared more for riches than for virtue and self-respect.

XLI

Now the institution of parties and factions, with all their attendant evils, originated at Rome a few years before this as the result of peace and of an abundance of everything that mortals prize most highly. For before the destruction of Carthage the people and senate of Rome together governed the republic peacefully and with moderations. There was not strife among the citizens either for glory or for power; fear of the enemy preserved the good morals of the state. But when the minds of the people were relieved of that dread, wantonness and arrogance naturally arose, vices which hare fostered by prosperity. Thus the peace for which they had longed in time of adversity, after they had gained it proved to be more cruel and bitter than adversity itself.

XLII

It is this spirit which has commonly ruined great nations, when one party desires to triumph over another by any and every means and to avenge itself on the vanquished with excessive cruelty.

XLV

But in dealing with these difficulties, as well as in waging war, I find that Metellus showed himself a great and prudent man so skilful a course did he steer between indulgence and severity. For in the first place he is said to have removed the incentives to indolence by an edict that no one should sell bread or any other cooked food within the camp, that sutlers should not attend the army, and that no private soldier should have a slave or a pack animal in camp or on the march; and he set a strict limit on other practices of the kind. Moreover he broke camp every day for cross-country marches, fortified it with a palisade and moat just as if the enemy were near, and set guards at short intervals and inspected them in person attended by his lieutenants. On the march too he was now with those in the van, now in the rear, often in the middle of the line, to see that no one left the ranks, that they advanced in a body about the standards, and that the soldiers carried food and arms.

LIII

For it is with human affairs; in time of victory the very cowards may brag, while defeat discredits even the brave.

LXXXIII

Anyone, even a coward, could commence a war, but it could be brought to an end only with the consent of the victors.

LXXXV

This section contains an excellent speech by Marius to the Senate. It’s a great example of what to say when you are required to speak to superiors of your own merit and deeds.

My hopes are all vested in myself and must be maintained by my own worth and integrity; for all other supports are weak.

#selfsufficiency

From childhood, to my present time of life I have so lived that I am familiar with every kind of hardship and danger.

for me, who have spent my entire life in exemplary conduct, habit has made right living a second nature.

I personally know of men, citizens, who after being elected consuls began for the first time to read the history of our forefathers and the military treatises of the Greeks, preposterous creatures! for though in order of time administration follows election, yet in actual practice it comes first.

What they know from hearsay and reading, I have either seen with my own eyes or done with my own hands.

Surely to be [nobility’s] creator is better than to have inherited and disgraced it.

I am confident that I can be injured by no speech; for if they tell the truth, they cannot but speak well of me, and falsehood my life and character refutes.

I have learned by far the most important lesson for my country’s good – to strike down the foe, to keep watch and ward, to fear nothing save ill repute, to endure heat and cold alike, to sleep on the ground, to bear privation and fatigue at the same time.

Their ancestors have left them all that they could – riches, portrait busts, their own illustrious memory; virtue they have not left them, nor could they have done so; that alone is neither bestowed nor received as a gift.

Well then, let them continue to do what pleases them and what they hold dear; let them make love and drink; let them pass their old age where they have spent their youth, in banquets, slaves to their belly and the most shameful parts of their body. Sweat, dust, and all such things let them leave to us, to whom they are sweeter than feasts.

No one ever became immortal through cowardice, and no parent would wish for his children that they might live forever, but rather that their lives might be noble and honoured.

Speech of Gaius Cotta to the Roman People

In your own name, fellow-citizens, and by the glory of your ancestors, I conjure you to endure adversity and take thought for your country. The price of supreme power is great anxiety, many heavy burdens. It is vain for you to attempt to avoid them and to look for peace and prosperity, when all the provinces and realms, all lands and seas, are devastated or exhausted by wars.

The Speech of Macer, Tribune of the Commons to the Commons

Defeat in a struggle for liberty is for a brave man better than never to have struggled at all.

munificent – very liberal in giving; generous

Doubtful Works: Letter to Caesar

our commonwealth is divided into two bodies, the patricians and the plebeians.

In those days the reason why the commons enjoyed freedom was because no man’s power was superior to the laws, and because the noble surpassed the commoner, not in riches or ostentation, but in good repute and valiant deeds.

It is my firm conviction that he commits a crime who tries to win popular favour at the cost of his country’s welfare.

It behooves you the more carefully to surround yourself with loyal friends and with many defences.

VII

An enemy in front can be overthrown without difficulty by a stout-hearted man, but hidden snares are not commonly laid or readily avoided by the honourable.

But by far the greatest blessing which you can confer upon your country and fellow citizens, upon yourself and your children, in short, upon all mankind, will be either to do away with the pursuit of wealth or to reduce it so far as circumstances permit. Otherwise, neither public nor private affairs can be regulated at home or abroad. For wherever the desire for riches has penetrated, neither education, nor good qualities, nor talents, can prevent the mind from at last yilding to it sooner or later. Oten before this I have heard how kings, how cities and nations have ost mighty empires through opulence, which they had won through valour when i pverty; and such a loss is not at all surprising. For when the good sees the baser by riches made more renowned and more beloved, at first he boils with anger and feels much perplexed; but when more and more each day vainglory prevails over honour, opulence over metit, his mind turns to pleasure and forsakes the truth. In fact, endeavour feeds upon glory; take that away, and virtue by itself is better and harsh. Finally, wherever riches are regarded as a distinction, there honour, uprightness, moderation, chastity and all the virtues are lightly rated. For the only path to virtue is steep; to riches one may mount wherever one chooses, and they may be won by means either honourable or dishonourable. First of all then, deprive money of its importance. Let no one be given greater or less opportunity according to his wealth to serve as a juror in cases involving life and honour; just as no consul or praetor should be chosen because of his riches, but because of his worth.

Wickedness is practised for gain; take that away, and no one at all is wicked for nothing. But the avarice is a wild beast, monstrous and irresistible; wherever it goes, it devastates town and country, shrines and homes, and lays low everything human and divine; no army and no walls can withstand it; it robs all men of their repute, their chastity, their children, country and parents.

It is because sloth and indolence, dullness and torpor, have taken possession of their minds, that they resort to abuse and slander and consider the glory of others a disgrace to themselves.

XIII

For the living are sometimes harried by fortune, often by envy; but when the debt of nature has been paid, detraction is silent and merit lifts its head higher and higher.