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The pessimism of Sallust's moral and historical outlook
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Mumper, Brian Matthew. The pessimism of Sallust's moral and historical outlook. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T39P34K6

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TitleThe pessimism of Sallust's moral and historical outlook
NameMumper, Brian Matthew (author); Brennan, Corey (chair); Connolly, Serena (internal member); Kronenberg, Leah (internal member); Levene, David (outside member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - New Brunswick
Date Created2017
Other Date2017-05 (degree)
SubjectClassics, Rome--History, Historiography--Rome, Sallust, 86 B.C.-34 B.C.--History and criticism
Extent1 online resource (vii, 370 p.)
DescriptionThis study examines each of the three works of Sallust – the Bellum Catilinae, the Bellum Iugurthinum, and the Histories – and attempts to reevaluate the prevailing views on Sallust’s outlook on Roman history and Roman morality. Although many scholars have seen a degree of optimism in Sallust’s earliest work, the Bellum Catilinae, and an evolution toward deeper pessimism in his last work, the Histories, this study presents a thorough case for seeing a consistent pessimism about Roman history and Roman morality pervading all three of his texts. By considering factors ranging from the key role given to the concept of metus hostilis (fear of the enemy) in his scheme of moral and historical causation, to the various manipulations of chronology, narrative order, and historical detail that his texts present to us, we may gain an enhanced recognition of the careful techniques by which Sallust constantly crafts his own unique (and pessimistic) view of Roman history and morality. Along the way, this study addresses some lingering misconceptions about Sallust’s alleged political biases and philosophical sympathies in order to clear the way for an unclouded interpretation of the evidence of Sallust’s texts. We shall conclude by asking what insights we might gain into the nature of Sallust’s historical and moral orientation by taking into account the tumultuous socio-political context of the Triumviral Period in which Sallust was writing, and how some of his contemporaries responded to the same tensions, concerns, and conflicts of that era. Overall our investigation will show that, while Sallust’s pessimism about Roman history and Roman morality was certainly influenced by the social and political developments of his own age, the unabating consistency and unmatched profundity of Sallustian pessimism demands that we understand Sallust on his own terms and that we recognize the many thoughtful techniques by which he gives voice to his unique perspective on Roman history.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Brian Matthew Mumper
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T39P34K6
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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