Plato’s Republic in the Monographs of Sallust by Bruce D. MacQueen (review)

364 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS his evidence: in some sections he cites the Latin under discussion, but often he gives only the references, so that his discussion is difficult to follow unless one has ready access to those references. It would seem reasonable to provide an additional appendix of phrases cited, by author, since this book will be used primarily as a reference text. Some of the terminology will be confusing. What is a "calque"? Professor Adams uses it repeatedly, apparently to mean the literal translation of a euphemism from one language to another. If jargon must be used, it should at least be explained, particularly in a text intended to clarify formerly inaccessible terminology. Finally, there is a tendency here dogmatically to reject opposing interpretations, often without even a countervailing argument (e.g., p. 100, n.1). Clearly this book should not be used before the reader is relatively advanced, and then with the caveat that some of the material in it is uneven. In spite of these reservations, however, it is a good beginning in a field that has been too long unattended. It should therefore prove beneficial to teachers and advanced students of Latin. BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PATRICIA A. JOHNSTON ~~i~;:O,D.B~f~~~~:~~rd~~ctl~'s 1~8~~bl iCp~~ t~~,MOl00r.rap~~po:r,sal ~.sJ: $12.95. ISBN 0-85616-012-0. This volume (to all intents and purposes, MacQueenls doctoral dissertation) is intended as a foray into Sallustiana (" not. .. my final word", p. vii) and claims to herald "a new, though not unprecedented direction in Sallustian scholarship" (p.5). It comes with an apology for having devoted more than one-fourth of the text to a survey of the secondary literature (pp. 8-36), a topic which ought to have been more economically discussed, as (~.) in Earl1s introduction to his Political Thought of Sallust. It is MacQueen's contention that BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 365 previous analyses have been deficient because the three major issues of (1) the intent and (2) source of the monographs, and (3) the relationship between the prefaces and the narratives have not been treated as a comprehensive unit. Why did Sallust pursue historical studies? MacQueen denies that the Catiline and Jugurtha (~. and ~. henceforth) are proCaesarian (or anti-optimate) pamphlets, or a screen for Sallust's own political disgrace, or a vehicle for mere rhetorical display; instead, they are attempts to " elucidate his conception of history" (p. 3), especially as it related to the devastation and chaos of the Late Republic. The framework for his view of Roman moral, and therefore political, degeneration was the Republic of Plato, with Posidonius as probable intermediary, and it is only by returning to Plato that we can perceive that the prologues with all their moral ising are both intentional and vital to the texts as a whole. MacQueen is undoubtedly correct in claiming that the whole ought not to be interpreted by a criticism of only odd parts, and that the literary product must be accountable to itself without appeal to external evidence. With these guiding principles, he proceeds to judge previous explanations of Sallust ineffectual because they skirt the issue of unity; in particular, they do not offer " a compelling connection in thought between either prologue and the historical narrative to which it is attached II (p. 27). Of the interpretations discussed (rhetorical, philosophical, political), the most abiding has been the last-named. MacQueen argues (1) that Sallust asserts freedom from partisanship (~. 4.2); (2) that any notion that he wrote to exonerate Caesar from complicity in the conspiracy must contend with the fact that Cato, not Caesar, embodies Sallustian virtus (esp. ~. 53); (3) but that this does not render Sallust a supporter of optimate causes, as his treatment of Sulla makes clear (~., passim); (4) and therefore, that "Sa:lust1 s partisan political affiliations ... are not the stuff of which his history is made" (p. 19). Agreed. But what was it that Sallust abhorred in Sulla? Surely, excess and uncharacteristic Roman behaviour: neque modum neque modestiam victores habere, foeda crudeliaque in civis facinora facere 366 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS (~. 11.4); exercitum ... contra morem maiorum luxuriose nimisque liberaliter habuerat (~. 11.5...