[Latin Reading] Sallust - Jugarthine Wars

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• published: 08 Jan 2015
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Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (86 – c. 35 BC), 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, opposer 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 we have Catiline's War (about the conspiracy in 63 BC of L. Sergius Catilina), The Jugurthine War (about Rome's war against the Numidians from 111 to 105 BC), and the Histories (of which only fragments survive). Sallust was primarily influenced by the Greek historian Thucydides and amassed great (and ill-gotten) wealth from his governorship of Africa. The Jugurthine War took place in 112–106 BC, between Rome and Jugurtha of Numidia, a kingdom on the north African coast approximating to modern Algeria. The Romans defeated Jugurtha. The war takes its name from the Berber king Jugurtha (Berber: Yugerten, ⵢⵓⴳⴻⵔⵜⴻⵏ), nephew and later adopted son of Micipsa, King of Numidia. The war constituted an important phase in the Roman subjugation of Northern Africa, but Numidia did not become a Roman province till 46 BC. Following Jugurtha's usurpation of the throne of Numidia, a loyal ally of Rome since the Punic Wars, Rome felt compelled to intervene.