SOURCE: Allen, Walter, Jr. “Sallust's Political Career.” Studies in Philology 51, no. 1 (January 1954): 1-14.

In the following essay, Allen discusses Sallust's remarks (in the prologues to his historical monographs) concerning his lack of political ambition after retirement from public life.

Although some reaction has justifiably been voiced against the notion, principally German, of perceiving in Sallust a profound philosophical historian,¹ our limited knowledge of his political career, in addition to the unfavorable reports of his private life, renders difficult the usual biographical method of studying an author's attitude and possible bias. The only aspect which concerns me here is his retirement from public life with the intention of occupying himself with literary pursuits, the item which he emphasizes in the prefaces to both his monographs.²

We can justly be curious about Sallust's autobiographical remarks, since they are less sensational and more striking than most of the other facts we...