Page:Sallust - tr. Rolfe (Loeb 116).djvu/18

 of successful resistance to the dominant power of the nobles." Besides the information which he himself had gathered in Numidia, Sallust had the benefit of a number of literary sources, such as the History of Sisenna, and the Memoirs of Sulla, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, and Publius Rutilius Rufus. He also made use of Punic sources, which he had caused to be translated for his benefit. Nevertheless, judged by modern standards, the Jugurtha is rather like an historical novel of the better class than like sober history. Chronology is to a great extent disregarded, and in place of exact dates we have such vague expressions as "interea," "iisdem temporibus," "paucos post annos," and the like. Sallust even ventures upon shifts in the sequence of events, in order to make a better rounded tale. As a literary masterpiece the work takes high rank.

The Jugurtha was written after the Catiline and published in 41, if the earlier date assigned to the Catiline is the correct one; in any event, not far from that time. It was followed by Sallust's most extensive work, the Historiae, which in five books recounted the events of about twelve years, from 78 to 67 The work formed a continuation of Sisenna's History, which ended with the death of Sulla. If, like Sallust's other works, the Historiae had a secondary motive, it was still further to discredit the party of the nobles and to show Pompey's

xv