Roman historian Sallust.

Sallust

(c. 86 BC - c. 34 BC)

Born in the mountains of Abruzzo about a decade full Roman citizenship was granted to all free residents of Italy, Gaius Sallustius Crispus was, like Cicero, a “new man”—the first in his family to embark on a political career in the Roman capital. He was elected tribune of the plebs in 52 BC and two years later expelled from the Senate, likely because of his allegiance to Julius Caesar; after Caesar’s 48 BC victory over Pompey’s forces at Pharsalus he returned to civic life and went on to serve as provincial governor of Numidia. Returning to Rome, Sallust retired from politics around the time of Caesar’s assassination and devoted himself to writing. His Catiline War and Jugurthine War were among the earliest historical monographs written in Latin; Saint Augustine later praised Sallust as “a historian of ennobled truthfulness.”

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I prefer liberty with unquiet to slavery with quiet.

—Sallust, c. 35 BC

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