The Politics of Sallustian Style
Ellen O’Gorman
The existence of two monographs and only the fragments his five-book history might suggest to us that Sallust's work barely clung survival from antiquity. On contrary, a glance at commentaries manuscript traditions late antiquity onwards shows this historian republic was never out fashion, influenced our views Roman imperialism perhaps more than any other. stylistic comments Seneca, Fronto, Quintilian Asconius attest high status in first second centuries ce. extensive Sallustian quotations St. Augustine's City God show he continued favor through His up fourth- fifth-century manuscripts, seventh- eighth-century palimpsests, copies circulated among Carolingian libraries. By end ninth century Sallust occupies an undisputed place those classical authors “so well entrenched literary educational tradition, so thick on shelves libraries their no longer question”. This remains case for next millennium: is, now always, classic.