FLORUS, whose work has come down to us entire, is ren- What remains of VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, with whom time Two EPISTLES TO JULIUS CESAR, ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE 211 216 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF SALLUST SALLUST was born at Amiternum, a town in the Sabine territory, on the first of October', in the year six hundred and sixty-six2 from the foundation of Rome, eighty-seven years before Christ, and in the seventh consulship of Marius. The name of his father was Caius Sallustius3; that of his mother is unknown. His family was thought by Crinitus, and some others, to have been patrician, but by Gerlach, and most of the later critics, is pronounced to have been plebeian, because he held the office of tribune of the people, because he makes observations unfavourate to the nobility in his writings, and because his grandson, according to Tacitus1, was only of equestrian rank. The ingenuity of criticism has been exercised in determining whether his name should be written with a double or single l. Jerome Wolfius, and Gerlach, are in favour of the single letter, depending chiefly on inscriptions, and on the presumption that the name is derived from salus or sal. But inscriptions vary; the etymology of the word is uncertain; and to derive it from sal would authorise either mode of spelling. All the Latin authors, both in prose and poetry, have the name with the double letter, and it seems better, as Vossius remarks, to adhere to their practice. Among the Greeks, Dion and Eusebius have the single letter; in some other writers it is found doubled. Another question raised respecting his name, is whether he should be called Sallustius Crispus, or Crispus Sallustius. The latter mode is adopted by Le Clerc, Cortius, Havercamp, and some other critics; but De Brosses' argues conclusively in favour of the former method; as Sallustius, from its termination, is evidently the name of the family or gens; and Crispus, which denotes quelque habitude du corps, only a surname to distinguish one of its branches. Crispus Sallustius is found, indeed, in manuscripts; and, according to Cortius, in the best; but on what reasonable grounds can it be justified? It was perhaps adopted by some copyist from the ode of Horace1 addressed to Sallust's nephew, and inconsiderately continued by his successors. He was removed early in life to Rome, that he might be educated under Atteius Prætextatus, a celebrated grammarian of that age, who styled himself Philologus, and who was afterwards tutor to Asinius Pollio2. Atteius treated Sallust with very great distinction3. He may be supposed to have soon grown conscious of his powers1; and appears at an early period of his life to have devoted himself to study, with an intention to distinguish himself in history". His devotion to literature, however, was not so great as to detain him from indulgence in pleasure; for he became, if we allow any credit to the old declaimer, infamous, ætatis tirocinio, for debauchery and extravagance. He took possession of his father's house in his father's lifetime, and sold it; an act by which he brought his father to the grave; and he was twice, for some misconduct, arraigned before the magistrates, and escaped on both occasions only through the perjury of his judges. When we cite this rhetorician, we must not forget that we cite an anonymous reviler, yet we must suppose with Gerlach, and with Meisner, the German translator of Sallust, that we quote a writer who grounded his invectives on reports and opinions current at the time in which he lived. Sallust next thought of aspiring to political distinction"; but "the usual method of attaining notice," says De Brosses, "which was to secure friends and clients by pleading the causes of individuals at the bar, he seems not to have adopted;" since, as is known, no orations spoken by him are in existence, and, as is thought, no mention is made of such crations in any other author. Mention, however, is made of orations of Sallust, at whatever time delivered, in the well-known passage of Seneca the rhetorician'. When Seneca inquired of Cassius Severus, why he, who was so eminent in pleading important causes, displayed so little talent in pronouncing fictitious declamations, the orator replied, Quod in me miraris, pene omnibus evenit, &c. Orationes Sallustii in honorem historiarum leguntur. "What you think extraordinary in me, is common to all men of ability. The greatest geniuses, to whom I am conscious of my great inferiority, have generally excelled only in one species of composition. The felicity of Virgil in poetry deserted him in prose; the eloquence of Cicero's orations is not to be found in his verses; and the speeches of Sallust are read only as a foil to his histories." The speeches which are here 1 Od.. ii., 2, 3. 2 Suet. de Ill. Gramm., c. 10. 7 Cat., c. 3. meant, are not, as has been generally imagined, those inserted in the histories, but others, which Sallust had spoken. This view of the pas sage was first taken by Antonius Augustinus, and communicated by him to Schottus, who mentioned it in his annotations on Seneca1. But by whatever means he secured support, he had at length sufficient interest to obtain a quæstorship2; the tenure of which gave him admission into the senate. It would appear that he was about thirty-. one years of age when he attained this honour3. It must have been about this period that his adventure with Fausta, the daughter of Sylla and wife of Milo, occurred, of which a short account is given by Aulus Gellius in an extract from Varro. The English reader may take it in the version of Beloe: "Marcus Varro, a man of great authority and weight in his writings and life, in his publication entitled 'Pius,' or 'De Pace,' records that Caius Sallust, the author of that grave and serious composition, (seriæ illius et severæ orationis,) in which he has exercised the severity of the censorial office, in taking cognisance of crimes, being taken by Annæus Milo in adultery, was well scourged, and, after paying a sum of money, dismissed." The same story is told, on the authority of Asconius Pedianus the biographer of Sallust, by Acro and Porphyrio, the scholiasts on Horace, who, they think, had it in his mind when he wrote the words, Ille flagellis ad mortem cæsus5. Servius, also, in his note on Quique ob adulterium casi, in the sixth book of the Eneid, tells a like tale, adding that Sallust entered the house in the habit of a slave, and was caught in that disguise by Milo. Such being the case, it is not wonderful that when Sallust entered on his tribuneship of the people, to which he was elected in the year of the city seven hundred, he seized an opportunity which occurred of being revenged on Milo, who had shortly before killed Clodius. He joined with his colleagues, Pompeius Rufus and Plancus, in inflaming the populace, and charging Milo with premeditated hostility'. They intimidated Cicero, Milo's advocate, insinuating that he had planned the assassination; and the matter ended in Milo's banishment. During the progress of the trial, however, it is said that Sallust abated his hostility to Milo and Cicero, and even became friendly with them1o. How this reconciliation was effected, does not appear; but it seems certain that Cicero, when he attacked Plancus, Sallust's colleague, for exciting the populace to turbulence, left Sallust himself unmolested". 1 P. 234, ed. Par. 1607. 2 Pseudo-Cic., in Sall., c. 5. 3 Adam's Rom. Antiquities, p. 4. 5 Sat., i., 2, 41. 4 xvii., 18. 6 Ver. 612. 7 Ascon. Pedian. in Cic. Orat. pro Milo., c. 17; Cic. Mil., c. 5. • Ascon. Pedian. in Cic. Mil., c. 18. 10 Ascon. Ped., ubi supra. 9 Dion. Cap., lib. xl. 11 Ascon. Ped. in Cic. Mil., c. 35 Unmolested, however, he did not long remain; for in the year of the city seven hundred and four, in the censorship of Appius Claudius Pulcher and Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Appius, actuated by two motives, one of which was to serve Pompey, by excluding from the senate such as were hostile to him1, and the other to throw into the shade his own private irregularities by an ostentatious discharge of his public duties2, expelled Sallust from the senate on pretence that he was a flagrantly immoral character3. But Appius, by this proceeding, instead of serving Pompey, served Cæsar; for many who had previously been favourable to Pompey, or had continued neutral, betook themselves immediately to Cæsar's camp; in the number of whom was Sallust1. His attendance on Cæsar did not go unrewarded; for when Cæsar returned from Spain, after his victory over Afranius and Petreius, he restored Sallust, with others under similar circumstances, to his seat in the senate; and as it was not usual for a senator, who had been degraded from his rank, to be reinstated in it without being at the same time elected to an office, he was again made quæstors, or, as Dion thinks, prætor. He was then intrusted with some military command, and sent into Illyria, where, as Orosius states, he was one of those that were defeated by the Pompeian leaders Octavius and Libo. Afterwards, when the war in Egypt and Asia was finished, but while the remains of Pompey's army, headed by Scipio and Cato, were still menacing hostilities in Africa, Sallust, with the title of prætor, was dircted to conduct against them a body of troops from Campania3. But Sallust was intrusted with more than he was able to perform. The soldiers mutinied on the coast, compelled him to flee, and hurried away to Rome, putting to death two senators in their way. It was on this occasion that Cæsar humbled them by addressing them as Quirites instead of commilitones9. Sallust was then reinstated in command, and was sent, during the African war, to the island of Cercina, to bring off a quantity of corn that had been deposited there by the enemy; a commission which he successfully executed1o. Whether he performed any other service for Cæsar in this war, we have no account; but Cæsar, when it was ended, thought him a person of such consequence, that he gave him the government of Nu 1 Dion. Cap., xl., 63. 3 Dion., ib. 5 Suet. J. Cæs., c. 41. 2 Cic. Ep. ad Fam., viii., 14. 4 Pseudo-Cic. in Sall., c. 6. Gerlach, Vit. Sall., p. 7. 6 Pseudo-Cic., c. 6, 8. 7 Lib. vi. 15. Gerlach, Vit. Sall., p. 7. 8 Dion. Cass., xlii., 52 9 Dion., ib. Appian. B. C., ii., 92. Plut. Cæs. Suet. J. Cæs., c. 10. 10 Hirt. B. A., c. 8, 24. |