Was Sallust Fair to Cicero?
Author(s): T. R. S. Broughton
Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 67, (1936), pp. 34-46
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/283225
Abstract:
After bringing forward some additional arguments to refute the older
view that Sallust was belittling Cicero and whitewashing Caesar in his
monograph on the Cartilinarian conspiracy I suggest that he was
influenced by the growth of the Cato legend in his account of the
debate on the nones of December and that elsewhere his covert way of
giving the consul his due indicates that he wrote his monograph after
the second triumvirate was formed and chose to be discreet.
In Defense of Catiline
Author(s): Walter Allen, Jr.
Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Nov., 1938), pp. 70-85
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3291446
In spite of the fact that the cause of a revolution is usually rated as a very important historical circumstance, and in spite of the fact that so much has been written about the Catilinarian Conspiracy, practically no attention has been paid to the problem of motivation. We have no right to suppose that any man, without reasonable cause, ever said to himself quite simply, "I shall begin a conspiracy tomorrow." And ancient authorities are very sure that Catiline was not a madman and that he had some redeeming qualities. Nor did any man ever induce people to join his conspiracy just because they were of a generally revolutionary character. Accounts of Catiline have tended too much to treat of him as if he were the villain of a melodrama. He was not. He was a politician and at least believed he knew what could and could not be accomplished. Consequently he approached all his difficulties from a rational point of view, and we have every reason to suppose that he did not begin his conspiracy until he had decided that there was not only the opportunity for revolution but also a considerable prospect of success.
OTOH:
Cicero, Sallust and Catiline
K. H. Waters
Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1970), pp. 195-215
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4435130
[...] I shall endeavour to show, first, that the aims and procedures of the alleged conspiracy, especially as recorded in the earliest connected and most detailed narrative, that of Sallust, are highly implausible or even self-contradictory; and that the amount of support allegedly obtained by Catiline evaporates under scrutiny until it is almost negligible: secondly, as an inference from the above, that the whole affair was largely invented by Cicero for his own Machiavellian purposes, and that he had ample motives for the elaborate piece of stage-management which allowed him to appear as the saviour of the state.
