Sallust's Bellum Catilinae / Edition 2

by J. T. Ramsey

Overview

In his Bellum Catilinae, C. Sallustius Crispus or Sallust (86-35/34 B.C.) recounts the dramatic events of 63 B.C., when a disgruntled and impoverished nobleman, L. Sergius Catilina, turned to armed revolution after two electoral defeats. Among his followers were a group of heavily indebted young aristocrats, the Roman poor, and a military force in the north of Italy. With his trademark archaizing style, Sallust skillfully captures the drama of the times, including an early morning attempt to assassinate the consul Cicero and two emotionally charged speeches, by Julius Caesar and Cato the Younger, in a senatorial debate over the fate of the arrested conspirators. Sallust wrote while the Roman Republic was being transformed into an empire during the turbulent first century B.C.

The Bellum Catilinae is well-suited for second-year or advanced Latin study and provides a fitting introduction to the richness of Latin literature, while also pointing the way to a critical investigation of late-Republican government and historiography. Ramsey's introduction and commentary bring the text to life for Latin students. This new edition (updated since the 2007 printing) includes two maps and two city plans, an updated and now annotated bibliography, a list of divergences from the 1991 Oxford Classical Text of Sallust, and revisions in the introduction and commentary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195320855
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/27/2007
Series:	Society for Classical Studies Texts & Commentaries
Edition description:	2ND
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	9.12(w) x 6.28(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

J.T. Ramsey is Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Table of Contents

Maps & PlansList of Divergences from OCT EditionINTRODUCTIONI.. Life of SallustDate of BirthFamily and BoyhoodPolitical CareerService under CaesarRetirement from Public LifeII.. The Writings of SallustThe Genuine WorksTime of WritingIII.. Sallust's Contribution to Roman HistiographyState of Roman Historiography before SallustChoice of TopicSources of the iBELLUM CATILINAE/iIV.. Sallust's StyleInfluence of ThucydidesDebt of CatoSallustian Traits: Brevity, Vocabulary, Grammar and Syntax, InconcinnitasV.. The Textual TraditionVI.. Summary of the Catilinarian ConspiracyVII.. Structure of the iBELLUM CATILINAE/iVariations from the Texts of Ernout and KurfessSIGLATEXTCOMMENTARYAPPENDICESI.. Catilinae's Birth Date and Early CareerII.. Evidence for the "First Catilinarian Conspiracy"SELECTED BIOGRAPHYI.. Texts and CommentariesII.. Books and ArticlesINDEX NOMINUMINDEX RERUMINDEX VERBORUM

Editorial Reviews

"In his commentary [Ramsey] dutifully illuminates every obscure construction, explains every figure of speech, comments on each dark point of grammar; and this reviewer is not above admitting that he wishes that he had had this commentary when he was hauled through the Bellum Catilinae in school."—Victor Parker, The Classical Review

From the Publisher