Sallust's Bellum Catilinae

by Ramsey, J. T.

• ISBN13: 9780195320855
• ISBN10: 0195320859
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In his Bellum Catilinae, C. Sallustius Crispus or Sallust (86-35/34 B.C.) recounts the dramatic events of 63 B.C., when a disgruntled and impoverished nobleman, L. Sergius Catilina, turned to armed revolution after two electoral defeats. Among his followers were a group of heavily indebted young aristocrats, the Roman poor, and a military force in the north of Italy. With his trademark archaizing style, Sallust skillfully captures the drama of the times, including an early morning attempt to assassinate the consul Cicero and two emotionally charged speeches, by Julius Caesar and Cato the Younger, in a senatorial debate over the fate of the arrested conspirators. Sallust wrote while the Roman Republic was being transformed into an empire during the turbulent first century B.C. The Bellum Catilinae is well-suited for second-year or advanced Latin study and provides a fitting introduction to the richness of Latin literature, while also pointing the way to a critical investigation of late-Republican government and historiography. Ramsey's introduction and commentary bring the text to life for Latin students. This new edition includes two maps and two city plans, an updated and now annotated bibliography, a list of divergences from the 1991 Oxford Classical Text of Sallust, and revisions in the introduction and commentary.

Author Biography

J.T. Ramsey is Professor of Classics, University of Chicago

Table of Contents

Maps and PlansList of Divergences from OCT Edition

Introduction

Life of Sallust

Date of Birth

Family and Boyhood

Political Career

Service under Caesar

Retirement from Public Life

The Writings of Sallust

The Genuine Works

Time of Writing

Sallust's Contribution to Roman Histiography

State of Roman Historiography before Sallust

Choice of TopicSources of the Bellum Catilinae

Sallust's Style

Influence of Thucydides

Debt of Cato

Sallustian Traits: Brevity, Vocabulary, Grammar and Syntax, Inconcinnitas

The Textual Tradition

Summary of the Catilinarian Conspiracy

Structure of the Bellum Catilinae

Variations from the Texts of Ernout and Kurfess

Siglatext

Commentary

Appendices

Catilinae's Birth Date and Early Career

Evidence for the "First Catilinarian Conspiracy"

Selected Biography

Texts and Commentaries

Books and Articles

Index Nominum

Index Rerum

Index Verborum

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