Sallust
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust, was a Roman historian, politician, and novus homo from a provincial plebeian family. Sallust was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines and was a popularis, an opponent of the old Roman aristocracy, throughout his career, and later a partisan of Julius Caesar. Sallust is the earliest known Roman historian with surviving works to his name, of which Catiline's War, The Jugurthine War, and the Historiesare still extant. Sallust was primarily...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionHistorian
balance-and-harmony decay harmony-in-music
Harmony makes small things grow; lack of it makes great things decay.
intellectual fleeting wealth
The fame that goes with wealth and beauty is fleeting and fragile; intellectual superiority is a possession glorious and eternal.
likes-and-dislikes identity likes
The firmest friendship is based on an identity of likes and dislikes.
rewards great-reward
Just to stir things up seemed a great reward in itself.
likes-and-dislikes likes bonds-of-friendship
To have the same likes and dislikes, therein consists the firmest bond of friendship.
wicked
By the wicked the good conduct of others is always dreaded.
excellence fleeting riches
The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.
extravagance greedy extravagant
Greedy for the property of others, extravagant with his own
fleeting wealth virtue
The glory of wealth and of beauty is fleeting and frail; virtue is illustrious and everlasting.
brave victory boast
In victory even the cowardly like to boast, while in adverse times even the brave are discredited.
himself proper seeks seems serious sets task work
He only seems to me to live, and to make proper use of life, who sets himself some serious work to do, and seeks the credit of a task well and skillfully performed.
glorious glory goes possession
The glory that goes with wealth is fleeting and fragile; virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.