Virtus in Sallust

Chapter 2 argues that through his historical works, Sallust emerges both as the advocate of an understanding of virtus that expanded the sense he had inherited of what it meant to be a good Roman and as the promoter of the idea of the contestability of virtus in the ideological struggles of the late republic. It also gives an assessment of Sallust’s profound influence on the moral language of Roman historiography and his analysis of political decline in relation to virtus. The section deals with virtus in both the prologues and discusses how the thematic variations between the two relate to the different historical narratives. Finally, through a close analysis of the corruption of logos in the text, it explores how Sallust’s creation of a ‘vocabulary of decline’ and the devaluation of language illustrate the moving boundaries of the moral and political behaviour of the main historical characters.